The Last Sontaran (TV story)

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The Last Sontaran was the first serial of series 2 of The Sarah Jane Adventures. It was written by Phil Ford and directed by Joss Agnew.

It was the final regular appearance of Yasmin Paige as Maria Jackson, who left the regular cast, along with her father Alan, after he received a job offer in America. He left the decision of moving away up to Maria, who supported him to take the new job. It also featured the last appearance of Chrissie Jackson, who would become directly involved in the alien dealings of Sarah Jane's life. Now that her family was leaving for America, she stopped paying visits to Bannerman Road. Notably, it acted as a sequel to the Doctor Who episode, The Poison Sky, dealing with the consequences of the Tenth Doctor's battle with the Tenth Sontaran Battle Fleet.

Synopsis

Reports of strange lights around the Tycho Project's radio telescope lead Sarah Jane, Luke, Clyde and Maria into a terrifying forest encounter. Sarah comes face-to-face with her oldest enemy. Meanwhile, Maria wrestles with a huge decision when her dad is offered a new job in America.

Plot

Part 1

Sarah and Maria discuss the experiences they have shared since Maria's arrival in Bannerman Road. They watch the night sky as they look forward to many more discoveries.

In rural Goblin's Copse, at a radio telescope used in the Tycho Project's search for alien life, Lucy Skinner and her astronomer dad, Professor Nicholas Skinner, also watch the night sky. They spot strange lights floating about. Professor Skinner investigates, but goes missing. Lucy investigates, and is promptly captured.

The next day, Luke and Clyde play a strategy game with Mr Smith to learn about battle strategies. Sarah interrupts. She had heard reports of the strange lights the previous night. Despite Mr Smith's assurances that strange lights rarely herald alien activity, she pursues the story.

Maria and Alan have received an important letter, but have found that the implications are far larger than they imagined and will cause an imminent major change in their lives. Alan tells Maria the decision is not just his to make.

Sarah, Clyde, Luke and Maria head to the countryside to investigate. They arrive at Goblin's Copse and discuss the size of space. They are watched by something. Inside, the find the building empty and are investigating when Lucy enters. She tells them that her dad is still missing. Luke and Clyde look outside for the professor after Sarah warns them to stay away from the woods. Ignoring Sarah's instructions to stay away from the woods, the boys search the woods and the creature watching them becomes invisible.

While Lucy sleeps, Sarah decides to ask Maria what is troubling her after noticing some unusual behaviour, and Maria reveals that Alan has been offered a job in America at the head office of his firm. Maria is ambivalent about the news; she is happy for her dad but sad that she must leave her friends behind. Sarah closes herself off from Maria, telling her she's happy for her, but is clearly upset.

At his house, Alan discusses the job with Chrissie and how it will change Maria's life more than his.

In the woods, Clyde and Luke hear a noise. A Sontaran, armed with a gun, reveals himself and chases them. The boys lose him, but come across a cloaked object.

Kaagh chasing Luke and Clyde

When Lucy wakes up, Sarah persuades her to recall the events of the previous night. Professor Skinner appears, though he seems strangely detached and unemotional. He orders Sarah and Maria to leave immediately, which they do. Lucy makes him some coffee and he approaches her strangely.

Luke calls Sarah and when she and Maria arrive, he and Clyde show them the object. When the cloaking field is disabled, Sarah Jane immediately recognises the Sontaran ship after her previous meetings with Linx and Styre. Its Sontaran occupant, Commander Kaagh, appears behind them, armed.

Maria tricks Kaagh and the group escape, splitting up, with Kaagh chasing them. Sarah Jane and Clyde attempt to reason with Professor Skinner. They find his mind is controlled by the Sontaran. Outside the observatory, Luke and Maria crawl into a vent that leads into the building.

Maria and Luke watch from the vent while Kaagh and Sarah talk. He says he was badly wounded when the Tenth Doctor defeated the Sontaran army. As the only survivor of the botched invasion, he has vowed revenge on Earth for his peoples' humiliation. He reveals his plan to use the Tycho radio telescope to take control of Earth's satellites, and steer them to crash into nuclear reactors on Earth, triggering nuclear annihilation.

Clyde protests, so Kaagh says he will experiment on him. Sarah steps in front of Clyde, defying Kaagh. He pulls out his gun and shoots her.

Part 2

Kaagh shoots Sarah. She sprawls unconscious on the floor. He boasts to Clyde that she will be taken to Sontar as a prize and he will be hailed as a hero instead of a laughingstock. Perhaps he will be given a more honourable epithet, like "Kaagh the Avenger".

Luke and Maria, hidden in a nearby vent, watch the scene unfold. They catch Clyde's attention and motion for him to join them.

Sarah awakens to find she is in a store room with Lucy Skinner. Kaagh has taken her sonic lipstick. Undeterred, Lucy and she start to build a device to jam the signal to the satellites. Aware that Kaagh will detect it, they plan to escape when he comes to investigate.

Luke, Maria and Clyde provoke Kaagh into chasing them through the observatory's corridors and service tunnels. The teens escape into the forest and block Kaagh's exit. They run to his shuttle, where Luke uses the chemicals stored there to synthesise a knockout gas to incapacitate the Sontaran. He sets off the intruder alarm. Knowing it will bring Kaagh, Clyde goes to distract him. As Luke works, Maria tells him about the upcoming move which leaves him upset, but Maria reminds him it won't matter if Kaagh succeeds.

Maria tells Luke she's moving to America.

Sarah activates her new invention and just as she expected, Skinner comes to find it. Sarah and Lucy sneak out, locking Skinner in the room, and they try to figure out how to disarm the satellites. They let Clyde in by the same door Luke, Maria and Clyde escaped through earlier, just in time to save him from Kaagh, whom they lock out. Kaagh enters through the main door, breaks down the door to the room Skinner was locked in and rages at him.

Maria, uncertain Luke will synthesise the gas in time, decides to ask Mr Smith for more information on defeating Sontarans. As Mr Smith is still in Ealing, she calls her dad and asks him to contact the computer. Alan does so, unaware he has been followed into Sarah's attic by his ex-wife, Chrissie. She demands to know what is going on; Alan quickly brings her up to speed on Sarah Jane's alien hunting and Maria's role as her assistant. Chrissie realises he is telling the truth because his lip twitches when he is lying. Maria's parents, fearful for her safety, decide to join their daughter at Goblin's Copse.

Sarah, Maria, Clyde, Luke and Lucy all meet up. Sarah takes Luke and Lucy with her to try to deactivate the transmitter, while Maria and Clyde search for the switch that will move the transmitter away from the satellites. However, Kaagh and Skinner get there first and capture them.

Luke tries to break into the observatory's main computers, succeeding when he realises that Sontarans, who have three fingers on each hand, use base six mathematics. Kaagh appears and reveals Lucy is a sleeper agent. He activates the mind-control chip implanted in her. He orders her to re-activate the transmitter. He threatened Maria's life if Sarah tries to stop him. All appears lost, but Chrissie, who has been watching from the shadows, bellows "Try my size fives, Humpty", and swings her high-heeled shoe into his probic vent, knocking him unconscious but electrocuting Chrissie as a side effect. The transmitter is deactivated, this time for good.

Chrissie tells Sarah that she remembers everything

Kaagh is escorted back to his ship and ordered to return to Sontar, which he is only too glad to do; he is humiliated that he was defeated by "half-forms" (children) and a woman. Sarah is relieved, even if she is not entirely convinced that the Sontaran is gone for good.

Six weeks later, Maria and Alan say their goodbyes to Sarah, Luke and Clyde as they leave for their new life in America. As father and daughter pull away, Chrissie whispers to Sarah Jane that she was not entirely ignorant of her daughter's alien-hunting hobby. The group smiles and waves good-bye to Maria and Alan as they wave back, watching their cab leave Bannerman Road and send the Jacksons on their journey to America.

Later that night, Sarah, Luke, and Clyde are looking out at the stars through one of her telescopes. Luke and Clyde tell Sarah Jane they will miss Maria, but Sarah gives them a piece of advice:

I learned a long time ago that if you're missing somebody, just... look up at the night sky. Whoever it is, wherever they are, chances are they're looking at the stars just like you. Sometimes, for all its size, the universe isn't such a big place after all.Sarah Jane Smith [The Last Sontaran (TV story) [src]]

The trio turn their attention skyward, hoping the best for their friend.

Cast

Crew

General production staff

Script department

Camera and lighting department

Art department

Costume department

Make-up and prosthetics

Movement

General post-production staff

Special and visual effects

Sound



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

Individuals

Locations

Organisations

Objects

Species

Cultural references to the real world

  • Chrissie calls Kaagh "Humpty".
  • Sarah Jane mentions the Mary Celeste.
  • Clyde and Luke are doing a history project for school about Napoleon and the Battle of Waterloo.
  • Clyde mentions The Land That Time Forgot.
  • Chrissie mentions she and Alan going treasure hunting for a "golden rabbit", this is in reference to the book 'Masquerade' by Kit Williams, which contained cryptic clues to locate a buried golden hare.

Music

Other

  • Chrissie refers to Sarah Jane as "Calamity Jane" and "Mary Jane".
  • Skinner mentions ball lightning to explain the sighting of Sontaran drones.

Story notes

  • This story replaced a proposed story entitled "The Trial of Sarah-Jane Smith", it would have seen Sarah Jane was put on trial by the Judoon.[1]
  • This was the first episode to air after the crossover episodes The Stolen Earth and Journey's End, and this story appears to take place following those events; the episode contains dialogue references to alien life being widely known on Earth. Although she didn't appear, Maria and Alan were also referenced as still being in England at that point.
  • Mr Smith's display now shows him in a fluid like state, instead of the crystalline shape that had been depicted in Season 1.
  • This is Maria Jackson's last story as a main character. Actress Yasmin Paige was in her GCSE year and chose to concentrate on her studies. She made a guest appearance in part 2 of The Mark of the Berserker and Maria is referenced either visually (through photos, art and flashbacks) or in dialogue in all other Season 2 stories.
  • This story marks the final appearance of Chrissie Jackson on the series. Her appearance and attire has changed considerably from what she looked like in series one. Her hair is now longer, curly, and a shade of auburn rather than dark red, and she is wearing a fur-lined coat with pink stiletto heels.

Ratings

  • Part 1 - 0.7 million (BBC 1)
  • Part 2 - 477,000 (CBBC channel)
    • 0.6 million (BBC 1)

Filming locations

  • In series one, Alan Jackson's house was filmed in a real house on a normal suburban street instead of in a studio. From the second series, the house was set in a studio and was redecorated by the production crew.

Production errors

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.
  • When Kaagh's ship opens after it crashes, Kaagh's scars are visible underneath his blood.
  • About thirteen minutes into part two, a shot of the countdown is shown as a video playing in VLC Media Player.

Continuity

Home video releases

  • This story, along with the rest of Series 2, was released on DVD on 9th November 2009 (UK) and 10th November 2009 (North America).
  • It was also released in the Complete Collection Series 1-5 boxset release (Region 2 release: 6th February 2012).

Footnotes

  1. ↑ http://www.shannonsullivan.com/doctorwho/sarahjane/2008ab.html

External links

v • e
SJA television stories
Series 1
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Series 3
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Stories listed here are only those that have been officially licensed by the BBC.
v • e
Sontaran stories
For the purposes of this list, a "Sontaran story" is one in which one living, authentic Sontaran plays a part within the confines of the story, outside of flashbacks to previous stories and cliffhangers that lead into the following story. For this reason, stories such as The Halloween Apocalypse and Survivors of the Flux are not counted due to the Sontarans' appearance being defined by their importance to following stories. Stories like The End of Time and The Time of the Doctor are also not included due to the Sontarans' appearance being no consequence to the plot of the story. Stories featuring Strax of the Paternoster Gang are only included on the Paternoster Gang story template.
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