Warriors of Kudlak (TV story)

Warriors of Kudlak was the fourth story in the first series of The Sarah Jane Adventures. It was comprised of the fifth and sixth episodes of the regular series and it marked the first appearance of the Uvodni race.

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

A new laser tag centre called Combat 3000, has opened in London. Lance Metcalf, a teenage boy from Clyde and Luke Smith's school has been reported missing after going to Combat 3000. Mr Smith tells Sarah Jane that twenty-four children have previously gone missing from all across England in places where other branches of Combat 3000 have opened.

Meanwhile, Luke tries in vain to master the art of telling jokes. He also does not understand games. Taking him under his wing, Clyde takes Luke to Combat 3000. Sarah Jane soon discovers that there have been mysterious storms at the time of all the disappearances connected with Combat 3000. Investigating, she and Maria further find that Mr. Mark Grantham and a humanoid, insectoid alien called Kudlak are abducting the children for an unseen "Mistress". Luke and Clyde have meanwhile managed to survive Round One of Combat 3000 and are challenged to make it to the door to the championships, facing other accomplished Combat 3000 players. When Luke and Clyde are very close to the door, they are attacked. Clyde and Luke manage to escape, but are locked in a room where they mysteriously disappear. Mr. Grantham points an alien gun at Sarah and Maria, but Sarah uses her sonic lipstick to allow them to escape. Maria and Sarah arrive in a different room where they are then confronted by Kudlak...

They have arrived too late to save Luke and Clyde. On a screen they see them transported to space by a transmat beam.

Part 2

Sarah Jane and Maria create a diversion, allowing them to escape Kudlak. Returning to Bannerman Road, Mr. Smith informs them that Kudlak is a member of the Uvodni race, who were part of a planetary alliance fighting against the Malakh. The Malakh won the ensuing battle, but the Uvodni continued fighting. Eventually, Kudlak was injured on the front line and forced to leave the fighting to others. He was thus sent out 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 rather Mr. Grantham have abducted Clyde and Luke.

Meanwhile, Luke and Clyde find themselves on a spaceship. They manage to rescue other children from the holding crates in which they are imprisoned, including Lance and a girl called Jen. On Earth, Mr. Grantham breaks into Sarah Jane's home, but is overpowered by an electric shock. Back on the Uvodni ship, the children make their way to a shuttlecraft, but are again captured. Sarah Jane and Maria blackmail Grantham into transmatting them to the Uvodni ship, where they find and talk to the Mistress. When Kudlak brings the children to the Mistress, everyone is reunited. They discover the Mistress's true identity as a face appearing on a computer screen, with no real person behind it.

Kudlak is stopped by Luke before he kills anyone. Luke has discovered a message by the Uvodni Emperor from ten years ago, which reveals an armistice had been reached with the Malakh. As a computer, the Mistress has no programming to understand the concept of peace, so the Mistress buried the message and continued to command Kudlak as before, even though her missions no longer had any real point to them. With the truth revealed, Kudlak destroys The Mistress, releases the children and swears to do what he can to reunite all the surviving recruits with their families. Back on Earth, Grantham has escaped, but Sarah Jane decides not to have him arrested.

Cast

Production 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
Original theme 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

Sound - Brian Milliken

Audio Post-production - Doug Sinclair


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 way Uvlavad Kudlak teleported children is similar to the H2O scoop, used by the Judoon.
The events of this story appear to take place during a half term holiday as Lance, the boy who is kidnapped, goes missing on a Saturday. The events in the story occur three days later, which must be a Tuesday, yet Maria, Luke and Clyde are seen, along with other school children, to spend the whole day out of school. Only the first half term of the school year is possible as the events in SJA: The Lost Boy must occur, at most, five months after SJA: Invasion of the Bane. Or, it could also be a local holiday.
A picture of a Cyberman appears in Sarah Jane's attic.
While Mr. Smith searches for what race Kudlak is of, Krillitane wings and The Beast's horns are seen.
Maria mentions Planet of the Apes.
Clyde mentions Captain Kirk, a reference to Star Trek.
Sarah Jane says that Lance Metcalf could be the first man on Mars. She then adds, the first human man on Mars. This could be a reference to DW: Pyramids of Mars.

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.
In Part 1, Paul Kasey is credited as playing Kudlak, Mistress and Emperor when only Kudlak appears and the Emperor is never even mentioned.

Ratings

Part 1

425,000 (CBBC)
1 million (BBC1)

Part 2

397,000 (CBBC)
1.2 million (BBC1)

Myths

To be added

Location Filming

To be added

Production errors

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

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.

Timeline

This story occurs after: SJA: Eye of the Gorgon
This story occurs before: SJAA: The Glittering Storm

Home video releases

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

Novelisation

Main article: Warriors of Kudlak (novelisation)

A novelisation was released on 1 November 2007, written by Gary Russell.

External links

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