Warriors of Kudlak (TV story)

It was comprised of the fifth and sixth episodes of the regular series. It was during this story that Luke Smith and Clyde Langer went into space for the first time and Luke was given his first kiss from a girl.

Synopsis

Children have been going missing, but how? Will Luke and Clyde win Combat 3000? And who is the mysterious Mr Kudlak?

Plot

Part 1

Combat 3000 is a new laser tag centre that has opened in London. Lance Metcalf, a teenage boy from Clyde and Luke Smith's school, is playing and walks down a corridor into a small room when a door shuts behind him. Lance then disappears in what appears to be a transportation beam. At Lance's house, Sarah is asking Lance's mother, Carrie Metcalf, about the disappearance. Back at 13 Bannerman Road, Mr Smith tells Sarah and Maria that twenty-four children have gone missing from all across England in places where other branches of Combat 3000 have opened.

Luke tries in vain to master the art of telling jokes. He also does not understand games. Sarah asks the children if they knew Lance and Clyde refers to Lance by his nickname, Corporal. Sarah tells them that this nickname probably upset Lance because his father was a soldier that was killed in battle. Luke is upset by this because he thought he finally said something humorous and he leaves the house upset. Clyde follows after him to try to cheer him up. Sarah learns there have been mysterious storms at the time of all the disappearances connected with Combat 3000. Sarah and Maria make a machine to try to trace energy that might be left by alien activity during the sudden storms.

Clyde takes Luke under his wing, and they go to Combat 3000 in order to teach Luke how fun fun is. Luke and Clyde have survived Round One of Combat 3000 and are the top two players, with Luke edging ahead of Clyde; Clyde puts this down to beginner's luck on Luke's part. Mark Grantham appears and challenges them to Round Two where they will be facing other accomplished players. The winners of Round Two will advance to the championships by making it through the arena and through a door at the end of the arena. They enter into the second round, where should they lose their allotted ten lives they lose the game. Working together, they manage to make it near the door, with Luke on six lives and Clyde on four. When Luke and Clyde approach the door, they are attacked by unknown attackers. They successfully push through the assault, but are locked in a room.

Sarah and Maria arrive at Combat 3000 and start investigating. They sneak into the office area and break into an office. Grantham catches Sarah and Maria in his office and points an alien gun at them. While talking with Grantham, they find out that he is working with a humanoid, insectoid alien called Kudlak and are abducting the children for an unseen "Mistress". Sarah uses her sonic lipstick to disrupt Grantham's earpiece, which shocks him and allows them to escape. Maria and Sarah arrive in a different room where they are confronted by Kudlak. They see a screen and see Clyde and Luke transported away by a transmat beam.

Part 2

Sarah and Maria create a diversion and escape Kudlak. Back at Bannerman Road, Mr. Smith informs them Kudlak is a member of the Uvodni race, who were part of a planetary alliance fighting against the Malakh. The Malakh won the war, but the Uvodni continued fighting. Kudlak was injured on the front line and forced to leave the fighting. He was sent as part of an Imperial Fleet to recruit "warriors" from other worlds. His ship was led by a Mistress, who kept the patriotism and bloodlust in Kudlak alive. After decades of recruiting (mostly human) children via Combat 3000, Kudlak and Mr. Grantham have abducted Clyde and Luke.

Luke and Clyde are still in the small locked room when a door opens and the guards grab them and shove them in a wooden crate. The guards then push the crate into a large room where there are other crates. Luke works to open the crate and when they get out, they rescue other children from holding crates, including Lance and a girl called Jen. While they are all talking, Luke uses Clyde's phone to hack into the computer system of the spaceship and he finds a map. On the map he sees a shuttlecraft that they can use to escape. They all hear a door starting to open and hide. A guard enters and Jen sneaks up and grabs the guard and shoves him into a crate. They then run through the door as the guard blows open the crate with a weapon. Luke, Clyde and the others find a window and discover that they are indeed in space.

On Earth, Grantham breaks into Sarah's home, but, while cornering Sarah, Maria overpowers him by using parts of the machine that they made to electrocute Grantham. Back on the Uvodni ship, the children make their way to a shuttlecraft, but are recaptured. Sarah and Maria blackmail Grantham into transmatting them to the Uvodni ship, where they talk to the Mistress. When Kudlak brings the children to the Mistress, everyone is reunited. Luke tells Kudlak that the war is over. They discover the Mistress's true identity, which is a face on a computer screen with no real person behind it. Kudlak doesn't believe this and threatens to kill all of them.

Kudlak is stopped by Luke before he kills anyone. Luke tells Kudlak about a video that he discovered. It is a ten-year-old message from the Uvodni Emperor, stating that an armistice had been reached with the Malakh. Having no programming to understand the concept of peace, the Mistress buried the message and continued to command Kudlak to recruit warriors, even though her missions no longer had any real point. With the truth revealed, Kudlak destroys the Mistress, releases the children and swears to do what he can to reunite the surviving recruits with their families.

Back on Earth, Grantham has escaped, but Sarah decides not to have him arrested. After chatting with her friends, Jen decides to thank Luke for saving her with a kiss. This kiss, being his first, leaves him quite confused, since he's never experienced romantic inklings before. Luke asks Clyde if he has any knowledge to share about dealing with girls, but it's the one mystery even he can't figure out.

Cast

Crew

Created by Russell T Davies

Executive Producers Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner and Phil Collinson


Written by Phil Gladwin	Produced by Matthew Bouch	Directed by Charles Martin	Director of Photography Rory Taylor	Production Designer Tim Dickel Edward Thomas	Visual Effects The Mill

Make-up Designer Emma Bailey	Casting Director Andy Pryor CDG	Music Sam Watts	Costume Designer Stewart Meacham	Edited by Matthew Tabern	Special Effects Any Effects
Title music by Murray Gold

General production staff

Script department

Script Editor - Lindsey Alford

Camera and lighting department

Art department

Costume department

Make-up and prosthetics

Prosthetics - Millennium FX

Movement

Stunt Co-ordinator - Abbi Collins

General post-production staff

Post-production Supervisor - Nerys Davies

Special and visual effects

Colourist - Jon Everett

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

The Uvodni-Malakh War is mentioned.

Individuals

Next to Clyde, Luke, Lance and Jen, a boy from Manchester, a girl from Leeds and a girl from Inverness were on the Uvodni warship.

Locations

Sarah says that Lance could be the first human man on Mars.
A Combat 3000 game store is located in Manchester, Brighton and Inverness.
Simon Metcalf was a soldier at the Iraq War.
The Ghost Wars took place at the Horsehead Nebula.
Sarah and Maria visit Haven Green.
Maria mentions the Planet of the Apes.

Organisations

As Mr Smith notes while accessing his database, Kudlak is one of the Uvodni Signus Brigade's most decorated warriors. He also mentions the Uvodni Imperial Fleet.

Objects

Sarah uses two fuse rods, made from Cibrianite Flux, to create an energy web machine.
Entanglement shells are used in terraforming.

Species

A picture of a Cyberman appears in Sarah Jane's attic.
While Mr Smith searches for Kudlak's race, Krillitane wings and the Beast's horns are seen.
Mr Smith's last data registration of General Kudlak came from a cybergon download with a Zantoxian trade vessel that passed through the Solar system two months ago.
Slabs are working at the Uvodni warship.

Food

Luke tries to make a joke about cornflakes.

Expressions

Luke is confused by Clyde's use of the word "gaffe".
Brandon describes Lance as "the nuts".

Cultural references to the real world

Clyde mentions Captain Kirk.
Mr Grantham and Clyde Langer make a reference to Star Wars.

Films

Lance Metcalf has filmposters of Acid Burn, City Justice and Space Station Zero inside his room.

Story notes

Both episodes aired on the CBBC Channel, and were broadcast a week later on BBC1.
The BBC Ninth Doctor novel Winner Takes All has a plot similar to this episode.
The game that Lance Metcalf, alias Halo, and Brandon Butler played could be played on the BBC website. It was called Interstella Z-Wingers.
In Part 2, the sound effect used for the closing crate appears to be the sound used for the doors to the Tenth Doctor's TARDIS exterior

Ratings

Part 1

425,000 (CBBC)
1 million (BBC1)

Part 2

397,000 (CBBC)
1.2 million (BBC1)

Location filming

Trident Park (formerly Nippon Electric Glass UK), Cardiff Bay
Womanby street, Cardiff
Wood Street, Penarth
Mamhilad Park Industrial Estate, Pontypool
St David's Crescent Park, Penarth
Red Dragon Centre, Cardiff Bay
Larkwood Avenue, Penarth
Clinton Road, Penarth
Black and White Cafe, Cardiff
Grangemoor Park, Cardiff

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.

Near the beginning of episode 1, in the background you can see a sign on the side of the building next to Combat 3000 that clearly has the words "South Wales". This same sign appears for a split second near the end of episode 2.
If you look behind Luke as he puts on his suit, you can see the scores from after the game when it hasn't even started yet.

Continuity

Clyde has started tutoring Luke on how to "be cool" so he can get the hang of acting and interacting like a normal human boy. (TV: Revenge of the Slitheen)
An adventure extremely similar to this was experienced by Bernice Summerfield. (PROSE: Toy Soldiers)
Clyde later mentions Kudlak when facing another alien which kidnaps children. (TV: The Day of the Clown)

Home video releases

This story was included in the Series 1 DVD box set, which was released in North America on 7 October 2008 and released in the UK on 10 November 2008.

External links