Luke Smith
An artificial Human, the Archetype was the creation of the Bane. On the day of his "birth" he met Maria Jackson, helped to defeat the invasion plan of his creators and received a name, "Luke Smith", and an adopted mother, Sarah Jane Smith. Though he was created rather than born, he had the physical form of a teenager despite his literal age being much younger.
Biography
Creation
The Bane's invasion of Earth depended on getting as many people as possible under their control. Their strategy was to use a Bane secretion as an ingredient in an extremely popular soft drink... but approximately 2% of the Human population was immune to the effect. In order to get the last remaining 2% to accept Bubble Shock!'s "special ingredient", they created the Archetype from thousands of samples of various entrants to the Bubble Shock! tour, including Maria Jackson and Kelsey Harper. However, when Kelsey inadvertently sets off an alarm by using her mobile phone, the ensuing events cause the Archetype to awaken and escape, joining Maria and Sarah Jane and instantly befriending them. Later he effortlessly memorises a very long string of numbers that he uses to defeat the Bane, and destroy the Bubble Shock! factory. (SJA: Invasion of the Bane)
Adoption
After Sarah Jane suggested several names, including "Alistair" (after the Brigadier) and "Harry" (after Harry Sullivan), Sarah Jane suggested "Luke" (she said it's what she would have called her son, but she never had any). Sarah Jane had Mr Smith create adoption papers for Luke and took him in as her son. (SJA: Invasion of the Bane)
Adventures with Clyde and Maria
Over the next few months Luke slowly learned about the world around him, and successfully aided Sarah Jane, Maria and Clyde Langer in combating alien threats on several occasions. He demonstrated exceptional intelligence and eidetic memory along with almost complete naiveté about human nature which, while being a great asset to the team, has also been a problem, such as when he inadvertently aided the Slitheen in their plan to harvest the energy of the sun. (SJA: Revenge of the Slitheen)
He was given an ancient talisman by an elderly woman and told to keep it a secret, but was exposed by Mr Smith. Knowing the importance of secrets, he expressed guilt at not keeping his, but was ultimately pleased with the outcome as the talisman was actually a key to a portal that allowed evil Gorgons to enter the world; his exposure also lead to their defeat. (SJA: Eye of the Gorgon)
When he was captured by the Uvodni General Uvlavad Kudlak along with Clyde, and several other teenagers from around England ,he successfully escaped from imprisonment on the alien ship and ultimately exposed a plot by the Mistress, thereby freeing the captives. He earned his first kiss from one of the captives, Jen, which bewildered and confused him. (SJA: Warriors of Kudlak)
Mysterious TV reports were later seen by the team implying that Luke was actually Ashley, the child of Jay and Heidi Stafford, who has been missing for three months. While Mr. Smith initially confirmed that he is a genetic match with the missing boy, and he was returned to his supposed parents. Mr. Smith was actually working with the parents, who are Slitheen, to capture Luke and, using the MITRE headset from the Pharos Institute to amplify his latent telekinetic powers to make the Moon crash into the Earth. (SJA: The Lost Boy)
- See powers and abilities.
Luke was later introduced to Jack Harkness, Martha, Rose, Donna , Harriet Jones, Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones via subwave network when the Daleks transported Earth into the Medusa Cascade. He aided their efforts to contact the Doctor with the idea of using Mr. Smith to link telephone exchanges and boost the signal. He then "met" the Doctor via the subwave communications network. (DW: The Stolen Earth) After the Daleks had been defeated, the Doctor contacted Luke, Mr Smith and K9 Mark IV to use the Cardiff Rift as a tow rope to return Earth back to it's original location in space. (DW: Journey's End)
Luke saw off the Sontaran Kaagh (the last survivor of the Sontaran invasion of Earth) who wanted to destroy the earth by dropping satellites. Maria's father had a job offer to move to Washington, D.C. and she decided to let him take it. Six weeks later, she moved out. (SJA: The Last Sontaran) They still kept in touch using e-mail (SJA: The Day of the Clown) and via alien technology (SJA: The Mark of the Berserker). Luke was sad that Maria had left and didn't think it would be the same without her. But luckily he and Rani saw her again when Maria and her Dad helped out when Clyde's dad went mad. Luke was upset when Maria couldn't come to Sarah Jane's wedding with her exams coming up.
Adventures with Rani and Clyde
Rani Chandra, a teenage aspiring journalist, moved into Maria's old address (36 Bannerman Road) and joined Sarah Jane, Luke and Clyde in defeating the Pied Piper. Sarah Jane ordered Luke to look after Rani so she won't find out about what they do. Luke failed and Rani joined the team permanently. (SJA: The Day of the Clown)
Luke's lack of a birthday proved invaluable in defeating Martin Trueman, who used the powers of the Ancient Lights to control people by their star signs. Sarah Jane suggested that they make the anniversary Luke's default birthday. (SJA: Secrets of the Stars) Together, the team defeated several more aliens. Together, they also defeated the Berserker (SJA: The Mark of the Berserker) and even the Trickster when he attempted to manifest corporeally in Foxgrove in 1951 (SJA: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith).
Later, Luke began having dreams of Mrs Wormwood, who returned claiming herself to be Luke's "real mother", so to speak. Luke extended some sympathy towards her, but it later transpired that she returned to Earth alongside the Sontaran Kaagh in an attempt to summon Horath, the immortal tyrant of the Dark Empire. With help from Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, and due to infighting between Kaagh and Mrs Wormwood, they were able to stop this potential apocalypse (SJA: Enemy of the Bane)
Luke later helped defeat Androvax and stop him from destroying Earth with Nanoforms. It was implied that he might fancy Rani when he later hands his mother away at her wedding with Peter Dalton but it was a trap by the Trickster. He is teleported along with Clyde, Rani and the Doctor who crashed the wedding to nowhere in a time trap. Thanks to the TARDIS' power and Clyde manipulating it as well as Peter withdrawing the Trickster's agreement, they are able to escape and the Trickster explodes into nothing. He gets a look inside the TARDIS when the Doctor comes to Bannerman Road. (SJA: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith) He then defeated Mona Lisa. (SJA: Mona Lisa's Revenge)
During one mission with Sarah Jane and the gang in tracking down a Slitheen, he encounters a different family from the same planet - the Blathereen . The group befriend them and accept a gift, some Rakweed. However, Luke falls ill for the first time when he inhales some of the released spores, and his life hangs in the balance while Sarah Jane tries to find a cure. He pulls through at the last moment when Mr Smith figures out how to destroy the Rakweed and its spores. (SJA: The Gift)
Following the disappearance of the destroyed planet Gallifrey, Luke walked home whilst speaking to Clyde on the phone. Based on dialouge, It is unclear whether or not he was affected by the Master turning the entire human race into a copy of himself. He told Clyde that Sarah Jane had Mr Smith create a cover story to explain why "everyone had a different face," an alleged hallucination brought about by wi-fi encountering severe technical difficulties. As he crossed the road, he was almost run over by a car when the Doctor, who was slowly dying at the time and preparing for his tenth regeneration, pushed him aside at the last moment. Luke recognised him and quickly ran to tell Sarah Jane. The two watched as he entered the TARDIS and waved goodbye. (DW: The End of Time)
Time at Oxford
Having completed his A levels the previous school year, Luke learned that he had been accepted by the University of Oxford. Although pleased, Luke began to feel apprehensive, as it would mean being away from his friends and his mother. He began suffering from nightmares (something he did not believe was possible) and was soon faced with the Nightmare Man, a creature from another dimension who was using Luke's powerful mind to break into his dimension. The Nightmare Man was successful, and placed Luke in a sleep he could not awake from. Determined to plunge the whole world into endless nightmares, he started with Clyde and Rani. However, Luke was able to contact his friends in the nightmare world, and together they managed to defeat him by overcoming their fear, making him powerless. The next day, Luke bade farewell to his friends and departed for University, driving an old car of Sarah Jane's she had given as a present, with K9 in tow. (SJA: The Nightmare Man) He would later contact his mother and friends via webcam. The students he befriended at Oxford lived of baked beans and curry. (SJA: The Vault of Secrets) He returned home at least once to do some laundry; K9 remained in Oxford, which he quite enjoyed. Luke also visited Mr Smith and updated the Alien Files on the Sontarans, Mrs Wormwood, and the Bane. Luke commented on the lack of alien activity in Oxford. (SJAF: Sarah Jane's Alien Files episode 3)
Luke returned to Bannerman Road after receiving a message from Clyde, telling him of Sarah Jane leaving. With the help of K9 (who had remained at Oxford and communicated via webcam), they discovered that Ruby was a Qetesh. While Rani distracted Ruby, K9 used her mobile to reprogram her computer, Mr White. After finding Sarah Jane, Luke used Mr White to project holograms of meteors, causing enough excitement in the human population to overload the emotion-devouring Qetesh. (SJA: Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith)
Future
In an unspecified point of his life, Luke graduates from University with distinction. (SJA: The Mad Woman in the Attic)
Alternate realities
Donna's World
If Donna Noble had turned right for a job interview instead of turning left, Luke would have investigated the Royal Hope Hospital with Sarah Jane, Maria and Clyde. Since, as it was moved to the moon and the Doctor was absent due to his death earlier, the oxygen ran out and caused every one in the hospital, including Luke, to die of suffocation. (DW: Turn Left)
The Trickster's World
In The Trickster's World, as Sarah Jane Smith died in 1964, Luke never existed. (SJA: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?)
Personality
Even in his first hours of life, Luke knew how to speak, but he knew nothing of the world. He tended to respond to anything happening around him with a naïve response, such as "Is that good or bad?". Kelsey Hooper had a crush on him but he seemed entirely oblivious to this development.
He quickly built a strong friendship with Clyde, who, being far more socially adept than Luke, taught him the 'proper' way to be a teenager. However, his logical, analytical personality means he is too literal; he cannot tell good jokes because he is lousy at using metaphors, and he has a terrible sense of balance meaning he is not good at skateboarding. As he spent more time with his new family, he gradually becomes accustomed to morals and gains a strong sense of right and wrong.
Powers and abilities
As the composite of thousands of Humans, Luke had genius-level intelligence, eidetic memory and enhanced learning ability (SJA: Invasion of the Bane). Though he could not utilize telekinesis normally, he had, in theory, the latent telekinetic powers of thousands (SJA: The Lost Boy). Anticipating her re-emergence, Luke began to experience precognitive dreams about Mrs Wormwood. (SJA: Enemy of the Bane), even though it was previously stated that Luke doesn't have dreams.
There were also physical aspects to Luke's genetic perfection; Sarah Jane commented that his immune system was so powerful he had never gotten sick, prior to his attack from Rakweed spores. (SJA: The Gift) The extent of Luke's physical prowess and potential has been largely unexplored in the series. However, Luke demonstrated excellent combat skill and reflexes in the game Combat 3000 and was as such selected to be a warrior for the Uvodni in the Ghost Wars. (SJA: Warriors of Kudlak)
Footnotes
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