Clyde Langer
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
Early Life
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)
Meeting Sarah Jane
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)
Adventures with Sarah Jane, Luke and Maria
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. (SJA: The Last Sontaran)
Adventures with Sarah Jane, Luke and Rani
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)
Luke's departure and further adventures
When it was established that Luke would be leaving for University one year early, Clyde was initially distant to his best friend but threw him a party at Park Vale to show that they were still best friends. After defeating the Nightmare Man, Luke parted ways with Clyde when he went to the University of Oxford a year early. (SJA: The Nightmare Man)
Clyde also assisted Sarah Jane and Rani in helping Androvax save his species, and, with the help of Mister Dread, stop the Earth from being destroyed. (SJA: The Vault of Secrets)
When Sarah Jane was given news of the Doctor's death by UNIT, Clyde thought she was in denial and could not accept his death. However, he soon discovered that the Doctor was in fact still alive when he overheard the Shansheeth formulating their plan, and later switched places with the Doctor himself through residual artron energy from their first encounter. Clyde was returned to Earth and later helped remind Sarah Jane of all of their adventures causing the Shansheeth's Memory Weave to explode. (SJA: Death of the Doctor)
Clyde and Rani were the only two humans left on Earth by the Automatons (as the were grounded by the Judoon). They found Gavin, whom they discovered was an alien unknowingly. He was protected by a Bio damper which, when removed, allowed him to be found by the Automatons who returned him home, but not before he pronounced the duo Lord Clyde and Lady Rani as well as ordering the return of the human race. (SJA: The Empty Planet)
The Shopkeeper sent Clyde back to 7th June 1941 in search for an item called Chronosteel to repair the tapestry of time. Assisted by a boy called George Woods he escaped capture by a group of Nazis. He was able to gain the object, a Nazi device; he then reappeared in his home time after bidding George farewell, and his Chronosteel along with Rani and Sarah Jane's saved the world. Clyde later did some research on George learning he was 83 years old and very recently knighted by Elizabeth II. (SJA: Lost in Time)
Reuniting the Team
Sarah Jane, Clyde and Rani went to a meteor that had crashed on Earth and was about release alien germs, however before they could use a bio-coolant spray on it, a woman called Ruby White beat them to it. They investigated Ruby who had moved in on Bannerman Road. She was rude to them and told them to leave. Sarah Jane began losing her touch on things even whilst fighting hostile aliens The Dark Horde. Ruby saved the gang with her AI, Mr White and apologised to the gang and they became friends. Sarah Jane continued losing her touch even forgetting the Doctor's name momentarily. She decided she is too old and tired to defend Earth any more and gives everything to Ruby, including voice recognition to Mr Smith. Ruby revealed herself to be a Katesh, aliens who feed off excitement, Sarah Jane's life contains an enormous amount of that so Ruby's stomach (separate from her body) in her seller has been feeding of it and her life force. Mr White using his special effects maker made a video of Sarah Jane saying goodbye seemingly leaving without even telling Luke. Initially Clyde was furious thinking it was Rani's fault and told her to leave him be and she ran home crying. Clyde contacted Luke but was captured by Ruby and teleported to her spaceship prison, where he was quickly losing air. Luke returned to Bannerman Road and with K9 and Rani's help, was able to hack into Mr White and reactivate Mr Smith to normal. Clyde was teleported back to Earth reconciling with Rani and joining with her and Luke to find Sarah Jane in the seller and but Ruby followed them. The meteor and Dark Horde were just special effects made by Mr White so Luke instructed the now under control Mr White to project his meteor special effect across the entire planet so the whole human race experiences fear and thrill which is all projected into Ruby causing her stomach to be destroyed and Sarah Jane to return to normal. Sarah Jane used her sonic lipstick to teleport Ruby to her prison and disable her teleport device even after Ruby asked for help. Ruby was furious as she was returned to her prison. Sarah Jane dumped Mr White into her safe and had Mr Smith send out a cover story that the meteors were a special 3D game. Sarah Jane, Luke, Clyde and Rani then went out to have a night off, with Sarah Jane talking in her head to aliens that Earth is under their protection. (SJA: Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith)
Alternate realities
Donna's World
If Donna Noble had turned right for a job interview instead of turning left, Clyde would have investigated the Royal Hope Hospital with Sarah Jane, Maria and Luke. 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 Clyde, to die of suffocation. (DW: Turn Left)
The Trickster's World
In The Trickster's World, as Sarah Jane Smith died in 1964, Clyde never knew her and barely knew Maria. (SJA: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?)
Abilities
Though he kept the talent secret, Clyde had a talent for drawing and cooking. (SJA: The Mark of the Berserker) He was good at throwing an object to a target. (SJA: From Raxacoricofallapatorius With Love) He briefly obtained the power of the TARDIS that he was able to use to hurt the Trickster. (SJA: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith)
Personality
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)
Clyde also showed an interest in girls of his age group. (SJA: Warriors of Kudlak, The Last Sontaran) He has also shown a particular interest in Rani. (SJA: Day of the Clown, The Nightmare Man, The Vault of Secrets, The Empty Planet, Sarah Jane's Alien Files episode 5)
Clyde was also quite kind. He was rarely unkind to people and was often helpful, trying to make others he knew feel better. Clyde was very understanding with Luke, despite his strange behaviour, especially when he did not understand many social aspects of life. [additional sources needed]
At first, Clyde was unsympathetic to the fates of the enemies the team encountered. (SJA: Revenge of the Slitheen) This opinion would change somewhat over time, as evidenced when he attempted to help the wounded Kaagh. (SJA: Enemy of the Bane)
Unlike Sarah Jane and the Doctor, Clyde believed in fate; the idea that most things happened for a reason, and that events in the universe were connected. (SJA: The Vault of Secrets)
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