The Empty Planet (TV story)

The Empty Planet
Main character(s):	Clyde, Rani
Featuring:	Sarah Jane Smith, Mr Smith, Gavin
Main enemy:	Automatons, Red Robot, Yellow Robot
Main setting:	Ealing, 2010
Key crew
Writer:	Gareth Roberts
Director:	Ashley Way
Producer:	Brian Minchin
Release details
Story number:	22
Premiere broadcast:	1 November 2010 (Part One) 2 November 2010 (Part Two)
Format:	2 30-minute episodes
SJA television stories
← Previous	Death of the Doctor
Next →	Lost in Time

The Empty Planet was the fourth story in series four of The Sarah Jane Adventures. It featured Rani Chandra, Clyde Langer and Gavin as the main characters.

Synopsis

Part 1

Clyde and Rani wake one day to discover that they are the only survivors of the human race! The whole of Earth is empty – even Sarah Jane has vanished. A deserted London holds terrors of its own. Strange forces lurk in the shadows as mysterious visitors approach!

Part 2

Clyde and Rani meet their enemy as the Robots arrive on Earth. What do they want, and where has the human race gone? It’s a race against time, but without Sarah Jane’s expertise, Clyde and Rani must trust each other like never before if they’re to save the whole world.

Plot

Part 1

Sarah Jane tells Mr Smith to do a maximum scan. Clyde asks what is going on. Rani tells him that Mr Smith picked up an alien energy trace for a second, then it vanished into the signals of every energy source on Earth. When they leave Sarah Jane's house, Rani reminds Clyde of their school assignment. Clyde sees no point in doing the reading considering they might be invaded. Rani's dad comes to see her in her room, but she asks him to leave so she can finish the assignment. Clyde's mum also comes to see him. She compliments him on his latest cartoon drawings.

As they sleep, the mix of signals and sounds transmitted across Earth is suddenly cut out. Rani wakes to find her parents missing. She sees no-one on the street. Sarah Jane is also gone and Mr Smith does not seem to be in the computer that houses him. Rani searches for another person. She finds nothing has a signal any more. She prays she is not alone. She hears a knock at the door and opens it to find Clyde. They head into town to look for someone besides them.

They can't find anyone and realise that if everyone suddenly disappeared, there should be crashed vehicles everywhere. There are not, which means that whatever took the humans didn't want to do any damage. They go to a cafe for breakfast and try to figure out why they have not been taken. They decide to return to the attic, but notice crates being knocked over. They spot another person, who runs away. Giving chase, they follow him to an apartment block. He is a schoolboy called Gavin. Rather than being relieved to see other people, Gavin is afraid of Rani and Clyde. They try to convince him they mean no harm and Rani tells him about aliens to try to gain his trust. Gavin is sceptical. As they try to persuade him to help, a strange noise is heard. Gavin slips away while Rani and Clyde try to work out what it was.

They go back to the cafe and see a strange image on all the screens, even the mobile phones. They hear a noise getting closer and investigate. Rani notices Gavin and goes down an alley; Clyde looks around the corner and sees a yellow robot. It corners him whilst Rani is cornered by a red robot. The robots both lift their arms and point them directly at Rani and Clyde...

Part 2

Gavin pushes the robot facing Rani against the wall so they can escape. Clyde runs away from the yellow robot and hides in a store. He evades it and meets up with Rani and Gavin. They look at the images on the screens and go in search of the robots, then decide to return to the cafe. Rani and Clyde talk about what makes them different, mentioning time fissures, space travel and the TARDIS, much to Gavin's confusion. All of these things pertain to Sarah Jan as well, however. Clyde realises the Judoon grounded only Rani and him on Earth. That must be why the robots left them behind. This doesn't explain why Gavin is still there; he knows nothing about aliens.

File:Green Planet.png

The home planet of Gavin.

The robots burst into the cafe. The three children escape out the back door. Rani and Clyde tell Gavin to get away, thinking the robots must be after only them. The two split up to distract the robots. They are each cornered again. The robots scan them, but do not kill them.

In the cafe, Clyde shows the robots a newspaper so they can learn the language quickly. The robots reveal that the strange image is a countdown. They demand the "sun and air", saying that if it is not given to them by the end of the countdown, the human race will not return. Clyde and Rani are confused by the robots' demand, but then Rani realises that they aren't saying "sun and air", but "son and heir". It turns out that Gavin's dad was an alien king. He has died. The robots have come to take Gavin to their planet. They sent the news in the energy trace form the previous night, but Gavin never received it.

Clyde and Rani celebrate everyone's return.

Clyde and Rani search for Gavin, finally locating him at the Ealing Circle Nature Reserve. The robots cannot see him. They determine that Gavin is wearing a bio-damper ring to shield his alien half; when this is removed, the robots send him the information again, showing him the planet he is meant to rule. Gavin agrees to go. He orders the robots to return everyone to Earth. He bestows upon his new friends the titles Lord Clyde and Lady Rani before he leaves.

Everyone returns to their rightful places. Mr Smith fixes the records to indicate that Gavin has moved to Australia. Clyde and Rani think about the fact that if they had never met Sarah Jane, they would have been in big trouble.

Cast

• Sarah Jane Smith - Elizabeth Sladen
• Clyde Langer - Daniel Anthony
• Rani Chandra - Anjli Mohindra
• Mr Smith - Alexander Armstrong
• Haresh Chandra - Ace Bhatti
• Carla Langer - Jocelyn Jee Esien
• Gavin - Joe Mason
• Red Robot - Paul Kasey
• Yellow Robot - Ruari Mears
• Voice of Robots - Jon Glover

Crew

Created by Russell T Davies

Executive Producers   Russell T Davies and Nikki Wilson

Written by Gareth Roberts	Produced by Brian Minchin	Directed by Ashley Way	Director of Photography Mark Waters	Production Designer Keith Dunne	Visual Effects BBC Wales VFX
Make-up Designer Emma Bailey	Casting Director Andy Brierley	Music Sam Watts	Costume Designer Stewart Meachem	Edited by Ceres Doyle	Special Effects Real SFX
Original theme music by Murray Gold

General production staff Production Executive - Julie Scott Co-producer - Phil Ford Production Manager - Steffan Morris Location Manager - Gareth Skelding Production Co-ordinator - Hannah Simpson Production Accountant - Mark Strainge Script department Script Editor - Gary Russell Camera and lighting department 1st Assistant Director - Richard Harris 2nd Assistant Director - Sarah Davies 3rd Assistant Director - Delmi Thomas Script Supervisor - Nicki Coles Camera Operator - Martin Stephens Focus Pullers - Steve Rees, Mani Blaxter Paliwala Grip - John Robinson Boom Operator - Jeff Welch Gaffer - Dave Fowler	Art department Standby Props - Phill Shellard Standby Art Director - Jackson Pope Graphics - BBC Wales Graphics Costume department Costume Supervisor - Barbara Harrington	Make-up and prosthetics Prosthetics - Millennium FX General post-production staff Post-production Supervisor - Nerys Davies Post-production Co-ordinator - Marie Brown Assistant Editor - Carmen Sanchez Roberts On-line Editor - Matt Mullins Special and visual effects Colourist - Jon Everett Sound Sound Recordist - Bryn Thomas Dubbing Mixer - Owen Thomas Sound Editors - Matthew Cox, Howard Eaves

Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.

References

Planets

• Gavin leaves to become the ruler of an unnamed planet.

Culture

• Pondering that they may be the only two humans left alive, Clyde and Rani make comparisons to Adam and Eve.

Books from the real world

• Rani and Clyde are reading Great Expectations as a school assignment.

Story notes

• The robots are very similar to the Roboidz from Mission: 2110, who are of a similar shape and also come in red and yellow.
• Tommy Knight (Luke Smith) does not appear in this story.
• Jon Glover (Voice of Robots) previously played Creodont in AUDIO: False Gods and Dr. Verryman in AUDIO: Order of Simplicity.
• After TV: The Eternity Trap, this is the second and final Sarah Jane Adventures story not to feature Mr Smith.
• The story takes place over the course of an hour and a half.
• According to the Doctor Who locations guide website, a scene of Clyde and Rani arriving home after leaving Sarah Jane's house was planned to be in the story, but wasn't shot due to bad weather.

Ratings

to be added

Filming locations

to be added

Production errors

to be added

Continuity

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

• Clyde draws a comic strip featuring the Shansheeth. (TV: Death of the Doctor)
• Clyde refers to meeting the Pied Piper of Hamelin. (TV: The Day of the Clown)
• Clyde refers to the Judoon grounding him and Rani on Earth the previous year. (TV: Prisoner of the Judoon)
• Gavin is hidden by a bio damper. (TV: The Runaway Bride, TV: Secrets of the Stars)
• Clyde and Rani mention travelling in the TARDIS (TV: Death of the Doctor) and going through a time fissure. (TV: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith)
• After hearing the sounds of the Earth, Clyde remarks, "Bit noisy, aren't we?" The Tenth Doctor said of Earth, "This planet's so noisy!" (TV: The Christmas Invasion)
• The Automatons remove everyone from Earth with a warp shunt. The Nestene Consciousness used similar technology to send itself to Earth. (TV: Rose)

Home video releases

DVD releases

to be added

Blu-ray releases

to be added

Footnotes