Clyde Langer was a classmate of Maria Jackson, Luke Smith and Rani Chandra at Park Vale Comprehensive School who joined them on adventures with Sarah Jane Smith involving aliens.
Biography
Clyde's father, Paul had walked out on him and his mother at an early age, and went off with his mother's sister. (SJA: Warriors of Kudlak, The Mark of the Berserker)
At around age 14, Clyde first met Maria and Luke on his first day at Park Vale School. He considered himself one of the "cool kids". Clyde had a rebellious streak and disliked the school dinners as the food was rotten due to a Slitheen machine in the school. The next day he brought a home-made chip sandwich to school where the science teacher, a Slitheen in disguise, had a negative reaction to the vinegar in the sandwich as vinegar was the Raxacoricofallapatorian's weakness. After school his science teacher unmasked and chased Maria and Clyde. Clyde sprayed deodorant to confuse the advanced sense of smell of the Raxacoricofallapatorian. After meeting Sarah Jane Smith, he helped defeat the Slitheen. In the aftermath of this, Clyde decided to join the others in fighting evil aliens and to tutor Luke in the ways of "coolness". In contrast to the others (and to previous casts), Clyde showed no moral qualms about the Slitheen being killed - "They were going to kill billions of people, I dunno what the big dilemma was". (SJA: Revenge of the Slitheen)
His grandmother, who knew Mrs. Randall, who lived at Lavender Lawns, tipped him off that there was something strange happening there. The claims she made were in fact true as the manager, Mrs. Gribbins, was in league with a Gorgon. (SJA: Eye of the Gorgon)
He and Luke went to laser tag centre, where he and Luke were teleported to General Kudlak's battle station. There, he met others kids who had gone missing due to winning a Combat 3000 game. He was helped to get home safely with the help of Sarah Jane. (SJA: Warriors of Kudlak)
He was with his mother during the events of Earth's transportation to the Medusa Cascade and its subsequent invasion by the Daleks. (DW: The Stolen Earth). After this threat was pasted the world was returned to normal (DW: Journey's End).
He helped Sarah Jane in subsequent adventures such as against the Sontaran Commander Kaagh. Shortly afterwards, Rani Chandra, an aspiring teenage journalist, and her parents Gita and Haresh moved in to Maria's former address and joined Luke and Clyde in defeating a child-stealing energy entity which had inspired the Pied Piper myth. Reluctantly, she took Rani into the team. The entity thrived off of Sarah's fears of clowns which started one night in childhood. Clyde was able to weaken the entity through the telling of jokes, allowing Sarah Jane to imprison it in a piece of the meteor it came to Earth in. (SJA: The Day of the Clown)
Afterwards, Rani joined the team permanently. Together, they defeated the Ancient Lights (SJA: Secrets of the Stars), 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, Mrs Wormwood 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).
He later helped defeat Androvax and stop him from destroying Earth with Nanoforms. (SJA: Prisoner of the Judoon).
When Sarah Jane announced her wedding to Peter Dalton, Clyde thought she was rushing and was determined to find a flaw in Peter. He was teleported along with Luke, Rani and the Doctor who crashed the wedding into a time trap. Thanks to the TARDIS' power he was able to hurt the Trickster to the point of exhaustion, before collapsing himself. His weakened condition helped Sarah Jane to convince Peter into withdrawing the Trickster's agreement, causing the Trickster to explode into nothing. Clyde later got to take a look inside the TARDIS when the Doctor comes to Bannerman Road. (SJA: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith) Clyde also assisted in defeating Erasmus Darkening. (SJA: The Eternity Trap).
After Luke secretly entered one of Clyde's paintings in an art contest, the painting won first prize, earning their class a trip to the International Gallery to see the Mona Lisa, for which Mr. Chandra treated Clyde much more warmly for. Though initially embarrassed by the adulation, Clyde came to realise that he had a real talent for art, a talent that would help defeat the Mona Lisa when she came to life. (SJA: Mona Lisa's Revenge)
Clyde was present when the Slitheen-Blathereen arrived, posing as benevolent Blathereen, and helped stop two members of the Slitheen. Clyde was suspicious of the two despite their help, and a gift of Rakweed. Before leaving Sarah Jane's house that night, he 'borrowed' K9 to help him cheat in an exam. By then, the Rakweed had spread across London, threatening the lives of all the residents. Clyde and Rani discovered that the sound of a school bell could destroy the Rakweed, and had K9 send Mr. Smith the frequency. Upon their return to the attic, the group were confronted by the Slitheen-Blathereen, who revealed their true identities, and prepared to attack. Sarah Jane had Mr. Smith replicate the sound of the school bell, destroying the Rakweed in the Slitheen-Blathereen's stomachs, creating a lethal build-up of methane, causing them to, as Clyde put it: "fart themselves to death", through which the entire attic was covered with their slimey remains. Sarah Jane had Clyde clean up the mess, as punishment for using K9 to cheat. (SJA: The Gift)
Skills and Talents
Though he kept the talent secret, Clyde had a talent for drawing and cooking. (SJA: The Mark of the Berserker) He is good at throwing an object to a target, which may indicate an aptitude for sports. (SJA: From Raxacoricofallapatorius With Love). He briefly obtained the power of the TARDIS that he was able to use to hurt the Trickster The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith.
Habits and Quirks
Clyde apparently likes the Star Wars series, as he referred to them a number of times. (SJA: Warriors of Kudlak) When asked to recreate a famous historical battle at school, he suggested to do one on the Battle of Hoth. (SJA: The Last Sontaran)
Of all of Sarah Jane's young friends, Clyde wisecracked by far the most, as he has acknowledged, and put to good use. (SJA: The Day of the Clown)
He has frequently made fun of aliens such as with Commander Kaagh and his head, calling it a baked spud. (SJA: The Last Sontaran) or the Bane, describing them as 'one-eyed squidy things', referencing the sea-creature, squid. (SJA: Enemy of the Bane)
Key Life Events
- Meets Sarah Jane, Maria Jackson and Luke Smith as well as the Slitheen. (SJA: Revenge of the Slitheen)
- Leaves Earth for the first time (strongly implied). (SJA: Warriors of Kudlak)
- Trapped inside an evil Mr Smith. (SJA: The Lost Boy)
- Meets K-9. (SJA: The Lost Boy)
- Meets Commander Kaagh. (SJA: The Last Sontaran)
- Meets Rani Chandra. (SJA: The Day of the Clown)
- Defeats the Pied Piper by telling jokes. (SJA: The Day of the Clown)
- Controlled by Martin Trueman. (SJA: Secrets of the Stars)
- Reunited with his father Paul Langer. (SJA: The Mark of the Berserker)
- Controlled by his father Paul Langer when he was using the Berserker Pendant. (SJA: The Mark of the Berserker)
- Travelled to an alternate universe organised by The Trickster. (SJA: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith)
- Meets Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and UNIT. (SJA: Enemy of the Bane)
- Meets the Bane and Mrs Wormwood. (SJA:Enemy of the Bane)
- Gets grounded on earth by Judoon. (SJA: Prisoner of the Judoon)
- Meets the Doctor and proves key in defeating the Trickster through the Artron energy provided by TARDIS (SJA: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith)
- Temporarily turned into The Master along with the rest of the human race. (DW: The End of Time)