Sky (TV story)

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Sky was the first serial of series 5 of The Sarah Jane Adventures. It was written by Phil Ford and directed by Ashley Way. It featured Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, Daniel Anthony as Clyde Langer, Anjli Mohindra as Rani Chandra, Sinead Michael as Sky Smith and Alexander Armstrong as Mr Smith.

It introduced Sky Smith, who would later become the adoptive daughter of Sarah. Like all of series 5, it was actually filmed as a part of series 4, roughly a year before its broadcast. This production scheduling allowed for the episode to be completed and broadcast after the death of Elisabeth Sladen.

Although the story introduced a new regular character, it also contained the last appearances of Gita Chandra, Professor Celeste Rivers and the Shopkeeper. Due to the unexpected end of production, none of these characters were given a narrative conclusion; Sky is merely their final story.

Synopsis

Sarah, Clyde and Rani try to figure out why a baby abandoned on Sarah's doorstep is undergoing rapid maturation, and how she's connected to a war between the Metalkind and the Fleshkind.

Plot

Part 1

In the attic, Sarah Jane Smith watches the star-filled sky with her telescope, narrating the wonderful things she has seen. A seeming meteor approaches Earth and crashes in a junkyard. A homeless person witnesses this and sees a metalloid figure emerge, scan the area and then make itself invisible. Back in the attic, Sarah speaks via the computer to her son, Luke Smith, with her friends Clyde Langer and Rani Chandra. Sarah misses her son but Rani comforts her, saying Luke will be back soon and that Sarah should make the most of her peace and quiet.

Very early next morning, Sarah is awoken by the doorbell. She finds a baby girl on her doorstep. When the baby cries, every light bulb on Bannerman Road bursts. Rani is woken later by a text from Sarah saying to come right away. Rani reports to Sarah that all of the light bulbs on Bannerman Road have gone out. Sarah reveals to Rani and Clyde, who appears later, that the child is an alien. Clyde feeds the baby milk, calming her down.

Meanwhile at a power plant, an orb of energy appears and an attractive woman walks out. She confronts a fallen worker, introducing herself as Miss Myers. She is looking for her child. She hypnotises the fallen worker, putting the rest of the power plant personnel into an unconscious state. Miss Myers learns that her daughter is at Bannerman Road and heads there.

Gita Chandra encounters Sarah and the others with the baby. She assumes that Sarah has begun taking in foster children, an idea which the others go along with, calling the baby Sky (as she essentially "fell out of the sky"). Gita then tells them about the meteor which that fell the previous night. Sarah and Rani go to investigate. With Professor River's help and the eyewitness account of the homeless man, they discover that the metalloid alien is headed for Bannerman Road.

Clyde is babysitting Sky when the alien attacks them. Clyde and Sky are rescued by Miss Myers and taken to the power plant. Miss Myers tells Clyde a little of "Sky's" purpose. Clyde is suspicious of Miss Myers, and runs away with Sky. He evades Miss Myers and her henchmen while Sarah and Rani break into the plant. They reunite with Clyde and Sky. The metal alien arrives and corners them. It reveals that the baby is a weapon. The child begins a metamorphosis. Myers is delighted that the weapon is "priming" itself; an energy aura surrounds Sky and she becomes a pre-teen...

Part 2

Sky, having just transformed, launches a powerful jolt of electricity at the metal alien, sending it crashing into the wall. Miss Myers encourages Sky to finish off the Metalkind but Sky is scared and confused until she is comforted by Sarah. Miss Myers reveals that she created Sky. The Bannerman Road gang escape with Sky to Sarah's house, where Mr Smith can scan her. He determines that Sky was created to be a bomb to destroy the whole Metalkind species across the entire universe, killing Sky in the process.

Rani tells Sky of Sarah adopting Luke and about what it is to be a girl. Sky learns of her purpose and with the Bannerman Road gang returns to the power plant, as Miss Myers is the only person who can "defuse" Sky. They break in again and Sarah confronts Miss Myers alone, leaving Sky at the car with Rani and Clyde. Myers is a member of the the Fleshkind species, who have been locked in war with the Metalkind for centuries. The Metalkind that was injured has been hooked up to the power plant. Myers plans to have it summon the entire Metalkind species, so Sky can destroy them all. Miss Myers tells Sarah that she will be forced to hand over Sky to save Earth from the cruelty of the Metalkind, who have vowed to destroy all Fleshkind. The injured Metalkind tells Sarah that the Fleshkind invaded his home planet and mined the ore, which was actually the Metalkind children. Myers is determined that Sky fulfil her destiny. Sky believes that she should fulfil her purpose to save Earth from the oncoming Metalkind army, even if it means dying, and runs from the others to confront the Metalkind. Sarah Jane goes after her, tasking Clyde and Rani to shut down the power, thus closing the portal which the Metalkind will use to come to Earth.

Rani and Clyde find a room in the power plant where they begin to manually shut down the power. Sarah finds Sky and tries to convince her that she doesn't have to sacrifice herself and destroy the Metalkind. Sky is fully primed and ready to "fulfil her purpose" when Clyde and Rani succeed in deactivating the power in the plant (and Bannerman Road as well). Sky absorbs the energy of the portal and collapses. She revives, and reports that she feels different. Myers confirms that Sky is different, and her genetic programming has been altered. She is no longer a weapon. Miss Myers says that she has lost her daughter. The Metalkind breaks free, grabs Myers and uses her own pendant to teleport them both away from Earth.

Sky is adopted.

The gang return to Bannerman Road. Gita is confused, seeing Sky now much older than the baby she saw Sarah with earlier, but Sarah explains that there was a mix-up at the foster agency with the "other Sky". This girl — now called Sky Smith — will be staying for a while. Sarah and Sky go to the attic and are surprised to see Captain and the Shopkeeper. They were the ones who left Sky on Sarah's doorstep; the young girl would be safe with the former time-traveller. It is the Shopkeeper's task to put things in the right place as a "servant of the Universe". Sky expresses her desire to stay with Sarah, and the Shopkeeper agrees. He tells Sarah she will find out who he is in good time, then teleports away with Captain, leaving Sarah confused just like last time. Sarah offers Sky pizza but the young girl is unaware of what it is.

Cast

Crew

General production staff

Script department

Camera and lighting department

Art department

Costume department

Make-up and prosthetics


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 and institutions

Cultural references from the real world

  • Clyde calls the attic the Batcave and mentions Jedward.
  • Rani describes shutting down a nuclear reactor as "James Bond meets Mario".
  • The homeless man in the episode got his idea of what robots are like from the movie series Star Wars.
  • Rani likens herself to Wikipedia by calling herself "Ranipedia".

Elements

  • Boron is a metalloid element.

Objects

  • Professor Rivers uses her own lipstick to imitate Sarah's sonic lipstick.

Foods and beverages

Other

  • Clyde doesn't know much chemistry because he used to watch the school netball team during chemistry class.

Story notes

  • There are a few nods to the Terminator franchise. The Metalkind's hunt for Sky, a child that will be used against them in a war, is reminiscent of Skynet hunting John Connor. The way Miss Myers initially appears is very similar to the method of time travel used in The Terminator. She also tells Clyde to go into the van, saying, "Get in if you want the child to live", similar to "come with me if you want to live", a famous line used in Terminator.
  • This story was intended to be the beginning of a story arc involving the characters of the Shopkeeper and the Captain. Unfortunately, the cancellation of the series left their story unfinished. According to DWMSE 32, the character was added to the story at the last minute as a replacement for Matt Smith, who was originally to have appeared as the Eleventh Doctor and reveal he was responsible for leaving Sky on Sarah's doorstep; Smith's commitments to filming A Christmas Carol prevented this from happening and so the ending was rewritten to feature the Shopkeeper and the Captain. However, the original narrative is alluded to when the Doctor is mentioned as someone who could have left Sky on Sarah's doorstep.
  • Despite being set in 2011, no reference is ever made in this nor the remaining stories to the seemingly contemporaneous events of Miracle Day. (TV: The New World, et al)

Ratings

to be added

Rumours

  • The Eleventh Doctor was originally going to appear. Confirmed in REF: The Sarah Jane Companion Volume Three.

Filming locations

  • Substation, Tonteg road, Trefforest Estate

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.

to be added

Continuity

Home video releases

DVD releases

  • This story was included in the 5th Series DVD release (Region 2 release: 6th February 2012).
  • It was also released in the Complete Collection Series 1-5 boxset release (Region 2 release: 6th February 2012).

Blu-ray releases

to be added

External links

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SJA television stories
Series 1
Series 2
Regular episodes
Mini-episodes
Series 3
Series 4
Series 5
Stories listed here are only those that have been officially licensed by the BBC.
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