Episode 1 Sarah Jane's Alien Files

I'm Sarah Jane Smith. I defend the world from aliens.

These are my Alien Files.

The collected information gathered by me and the rest of the Bannerman Road gang,

about extra-terrestrials that have threatened our planet...

The universe is amazing and don't be fooled by what

some people might tell you - it's full of strange and wonderful life.

I've met so much of it out there among the stars and here on Earth.

But not all of it is friendly.

Pay attention because one day Earth

might be depending on you.

Entering the alien files this time are Sarah Jane's nemesis,

the Trickster and Krislok - the time-travelling Graske.

Mr Smith...? I need you.

Hello, Sarah Jane.

-How can I help you?

-Mr Smith, I think I've made a terrible mistake.

Earth could be in terrible danger and it's all my fault.

Forgive me, Sarah Jane... But my current scans detect only three Ossetian trading vessels passing

through immediate solar space and they present no threat to Earth.

I'm not sure that I understand your concern.

We've saved the planet so many times but what happens if one day we're not there?

Might I inquire in what circumstances you foresee your absence?

I can't go on doing this forever.

And the others have lives to live. Luke's studies are important.

I can't expect him to be popping back to deal with an alien threat.

-If you'll allow me, Sarah Jane, I do have a suggestion...

-What if we...

Create a comprehensive database of all the extra-terrestrial life that you have encountered...

Pooling our knowledge for future generations.

Itemising the strengths and weaknesses of alien beings, hostile or otherwise...

If we're not there and the world needs saving, there will be someone else who knows what to do.

An excellent plan, Sarah Jane.

Let's get started.

Alien Files preparing to upload.

Information gathering commences in 3, 2, 1...

Sarah Jane, which life form would you like me to process first?

Let's start with one of the worst one, the Trickster.

A worthy entry to the files.

The more that is known about his malevolent practices, the better.

the Trickster is a member the semi-mythical extra

dimensional coalition of beings, known as the Pantheon of Discord.

If the Trickster is anything to go by, you wouldn't want the Pantheon moving in next door.

The thought of that creature makes me shudder.

More facts about the Trickster, please.

Like the ancient lights, the Trickster is a transcendental being.

He leads the Trickster's Brigade,

members of which include the Time Beetle and the Fortune Teller,

who famously targeted the Doctor's companion, Donna Noble.

Behind his long cowled cloak and hood,

the Trickster has an almost featureless face.

Whether this is his natural state or adopted to cause fear is unknown.

He possesses the ability to gain absolute power over humans

and extra-terrestrials by preying on the weakness of those about to die

at the moment of their death.

His objective is to create chaos, but his extra dimensional form

means he struggles to enter physical reality.

To sum up...

the Trickster is formidable and ingenious.

Be vigilant - this alien is ruthless in pursuing his underhand schemes.

I remember the first time the Trickster came into my life.

Luke had only been with me a little while and it was before Maria went to Washington.

There was a meteor on a collision course with Earth.

But we had it under control...

or so we thought.

We were relying on you, Mr Smith

to deal with the threat from the potentially deadly meteor, K67.

It was approaching Earth in a radar blind-spot,

so the authorities knew nothing about it.

The plan was for you to bounce the meteor back into space

with a massive magnetic pulse.

Mr Smith, how long do we have?

The meteor will be in range of the magnetic pulse at 2:45pm tomorrow.

All systems are prepared.

You see? No worries.

I know, but you can't help thinking if it wasn't for Sarah Jane, we'd all be dead.

Enter the Trickster.

He knew that we were protecting Earth from the meteor so his devious plan was to get rid of me altogether.

That night while we all slept, the Trickster used trans-dimensional

energy to remove Luke and I from the face of the Earth.

So there was a shock for Maria when she came to visit us next morning.

Sorry, is Sarah Jane there?

-Say again?

-Sarah Jane?

One of your mates from school, is that?

No, Sarah Jane. This is her house.

Maria, love, I like a laugh but it's only half nine in the morning.

-Is Luke there?

-Who?

I can't imagine what it must have been like for Maria...

Waking up one morning to find everything had changed

and only she knew that something had gone very wrong.

Maria still remembered me because

she'd been holding an alien puzzle box I'd given her and that preserved her memory.

But for everyone else, it was as if I had never existed.

I knocked on the door and there's this woman stood there.

-Hold on, what door?

-Sarah Jane's house, number 13?

-Andrea's?

-What?

-Who's Sarah Jane?

What the Trickster had done was change history

-by targeting my childhood.

-Come away to the seaside!

When I was a girl in the 1960s, I had a very good friend, Andrea Yates.

Andrea! But Andrea had died in a tragic accident.

-Grab my hand, Andrea!

-Agh!

-NO!

The Trickster had managed to change all that using trans-dimensional

powers to rewrite history so that Andrea had lived on and I had died.

-Ha, ha, ha!

-'He had done this by travelling back

'in time to 1964 to tempt Andrea at the moment she was about to die.'

TRICKSTER: It doesn't have to be you.

You only have to agree.

-Help! Help!

-I need your answer or I can't help.

Let her die in your place!

Yes! Yes!

Andrea! Help me.

What happened?!

Sarah Jane! Sarah...

'So our places were swapped.'

Take my hand! Sarah!

-Take my hand!

-Agh!

Maria was left trying to make sense of this altered time line

where I had died at 13 and the grown-up Andrea was now living on Bannerman Road.

Meddling with time lines like this is a typical Trickster tactic

and it's vital that it gets recorded in the Alien Files, otherwise anyone would be as baffled as Maria was.

In the new reality that the Trickster had created, with no me and no you,

Mr Smith, there was no-one to stop the meteor that was on its way.

Mr Smith? I need you!

And only Maria knew this.

Mr Smith?

She kept a clear head though, Working out that Andrea must be at the heart of all this.

This isn't your house!

This is some kind of time gone wrong because in my world the way things should have been, you died!

Get out!

It was an awful situation for a young girl to have to cope with alone.

And for poor Maria, things were about to get even worse.

Because now that the terrible truth about her childhood was out in the open, Andrea was desperate.

Why are you calling me now?

Maria Jackson over the road,

all of a sudden she keeps going on about Sarah Jane.

She knows what I did that day.

Make her forget.

I can't. But I can remove her.

Remove her? Where?

This need not concern you.

But I need your agreement.

Do I have your agreement?

-Yes!

-Charged to carry out Maria's removal was a mean little pest.

His name was Krislok and he was a Graske.

You could say he was a pretty typical example of the Graske species -

Aggressive, mean and not much in the way of manners.

Uploading data on the Graske now, Sarah Jane...

The Graske come from the planet Griffoth - one of 27 planets

once stolen by the DALEKS and removed to the Medusa Cascade.

The similarity in appearance of all Graskes have encountered so far

makes it possible that like the Sontarans, they are a cloned race.

Graskes are less than one metre tall with brown scaly skin and three tentacles on their heads.

Not much of a looker, you'd have to say!

The Graske's diminutive stature means they are not renowned for physical strength.

But making up for that are snare cables and both

the ability to take on human form and to travel through time.

Krislock was enslaved by the Trickster in the same way Andrea had been.

-Do I have your agreement?!

-Agreed! Agreed!

To sum up, the Graske is brutish and unscrupulous.

Despite his size, he is extremely dangerous.

Especially the super accuracy of his snare gun.

Nasty little man.

But somehow you have to feel sorry for him.

Imagine being enslaved to the Trickster for eternity?

A most unenviable fate, Sarah Jane.

Not that Krislok was showing Maria any sympathy.

He was under orders from the Trickster to capture her and remove her from history too.

Help!

Using his snare gun and teleporter, he transported her away to limbo.

A terrifying experience, but I sincerely hope knowledge of

these alien files will prevent anyone else having to suffer.

-Where is this?

-You tell me.

-Oh!

I was so pleased to see Maria...

I wasn't sure if I would ever see anybody again but now she was trapped in limbo with me,

who was there back on Earth to stop the Trickster's plan?

While Maria and I were marooned in limbo, back on Earth, the meteor,

big enough to destroy the planet, was in sight and getting closer.

That's real though, I mean that's real. There's no way of stopping it.

Time for an unlikely hero to foil the Trickster and Krislok's plan

to wipe out the Earth in the shape of Alan Jackson, Maria's dad.

-Set me free!

-Then show me how to get my daughter back here. Now!

He'd been holding the puzzle box at the moment

Maria had been removed from history, so he could still remember her and was desperate to get her back.

The snare will retrieve her.

Maria!

Maria!

Maria!

-Dad, you genius!

-No, listen, the meteor, you were right, it's heading straight for us.

We can stop it but we need Sarah Jane.

She's the only person who can save us.

Using Krislok's snare gun, Alan got me back to the attic from limbo, kind of...

No! Not you.

Because I still inhabited a parallel reality, I could only be seen as a reflection in the mirror.

But as the meteor got ever closer, the only person who could really put things right was Andrea herself.

Sarah Jane!

Sadly in situations like this, there's any one way to beat the Trickster. And it comes at a cost.

Andrea Yates.

They want to kill you all over again.

Remember your bargain with me.

You tricked me.

You used a child.

And now you're destroying the Earth.

Chaos is good.

Well I say no.

If there's one thing I can do with my life, I can put a stop to you for good.

I've changed my mind.

I'm taking the deal back.

Then you will die!

Andrea! Grab my hand!

Grab my hand. Grab my hand, Andrea!

Remember me.

-Agh!

-No!

Andrea did the right thing in the end. I'm back.

And the changes to history were corrected.

And so, Mr Smith, we were able to activate your magnetic pulse in the nick of time.

And the planet was saved from total annihilation once more.

Not that that was the last we'd hear from the Trickster.

Far from it.

If you ever have to face the Trickster, you need to know as much as possible about how he operates.

Remember, he will stop at nothing.

He knows I am there to prevent him and his efforts to get rid of me have brought turmoil into my life.

Be warned, he will try to do the same to anyone who stands in his way.

It's crucial that you remain vigilant in opposing the Trickster's attempts to plunge the planet into chaos.

Go ahead, Sarah Jane.

Additional memory space allocated for further alien files upload on the Trickster's methods.

Thank you, Mr Smith. Whoa!

Got to stop doing that!

Believe me, a life dealing with aliens means you have to be ready for anything.

I thought nothing could surprise me.

-I don't know how to say this...

-Until I met the wonderful Peter Dalton and fell in love.

-That was something I had not been expecting.

-Sarah Jane...

I love you.

Good. Because the funny thing is... I love you too.

Usually as a journalist, it's me asking the big questions.

But not on this occasion.

Will you marry me?

Oh, it's beautiful. Peter, I love you...

Which means?

Yes, of course. Yes, yes, yes!

How could I have imagined falling in love could be

part of a Trickster plot to get rid of me?

I recall that Clyde, Luke and Rani did think that you'd been behaving oddly.

You weren't acting like the Sarah Jane we all know.

But how could I expect you to understand, Mr Smith?

That was love.

I had no idea they were spying on me, though.

Oh no, they're not going to?

Oh, people are eating!

Wow. Just wow!

Nobody over 22 should be doing that in public. Actually at all.

They say that love is blind but there was something else even more powerful going on here.

It was as if the beautiful ring Peter had given me was somehow controlling me

and blinding me to the truth that Peter was not all he seemed.

Clyde and Rani of course were as inquisitive as ever...

Looking up Peter's gaffe.

120 Christchurch Walk, W4.

Nice place.

That's weird. There's a "For Sale" sign...

and newspapers in the windows.

-It looks empty.

-I'll ask Sarah Jane.

But Luke told me that she'd never been to his place.

-Let's go round there.

-Are you joking?

Sarah Jane's happy, isn't that important?

Yes.

-And I want her to stay happy.

-Good old Clyde and Rani, always looking out for me.

Not that I approve of house-breaking, mind.

What?!

This place is creepy.

-It's freezing.

-We got the right address, didn't we?

Of course we did.

Look at his place. I knew it.

The lair of the living dead.

There could be a million reasons for this. I don't know.

-He's got everything storage?

-Oh yes?

Sarah Jane... we went round to Peter's house.

-What? What do you mean?

-There's nothing there. It's empty.

'But the ring glowed on my finger and I was deaf to their warnings.'

I know it's empty.

He doesn't really live there.

His firm got him a flat in London, near the office.

And you've been there?

Plenty of times.

'That wasn't true.

'But unlike my usual self, I wasn't interested in asking questions.

'I'd only just met Peter and there was so much I didn't know about him.

'But we arranged to get married as soon as we could.

'I would have loved to have the Doctor to gave me away

'but there was no chance of tracking him down, so it was my son Luke walking me up the aisle.'

We are here today to witness the marriage of Sarah Jane Smith and Peter Anthony Dalton.

If any person can show just cause or impediment why they may not be

joined together, let them speak now or for ever hold their peace.

TARDIS WHIRRING SOUND

Stop this wedding now!

What?! What's going on?

-Who the hell is that?

-I don't believe it.

Who's he?

So the Doctor did make it after all, but not in the way I'd hoped.

He was there with a warning.

-Get away from him!

-No!

-Peter!

-Don't be afraid, Sarah Jane.

-It's the angel.

-The angel?

-I had no idea what Peter meant, until another unexpected guest arrived, all in white.

-Trickster, let her go!

Too late, Time Lord!

You're mine, Sarah Jane Smith.

-No!

-Mine forever.

Sarah!

It was supposed to be the happiest day of my life.

Ruined by the Trickster. No!

The Trickster had vanished, taking Peter and I with him,

while the others were left behind but transported to some kind of void.

-What about Sarah Jane?

-Orders, Master...

Shush!

Here's the answer to all your questions - yes, that was the Trickster. Yes, we're trapped.

Yes, I'm the only one who can get us out of the trap.

Yes, I'm going to bring Sarah Jane

and all the others back safe, but I can't do any of it without you.

I'd always hoped Luke, Clyde and Rani might meet the Doctor one day,

but not like this.

Wait, wait!

TARDIS WHIRRS

That noise.

-I've heard it before.

-That was me trying to break through, I got knocked back by the Trickster.

Temporal schism is preventing TARDIS materialisation.

Wait a minute. That's the TARDIS?

It's just a wooden box.

Come on!

You can do it. More power, come on!

OK, got no TARDIS.

Can't materialise here until time moves forward.

Where is this? What's happened to the rest of the world?

Our present location, nowhere.

-No when.

-No when?

Look at the clocks.

-Time's stopped.

-What?

You're joking.

No... time hasn't stopped. This second's on a loop.

23 seconds and 23 minutes past three o'clock.

And we're caught inside it. In this one second.

But again, where is Sarah Jane?

I think she's right here.

-He was right, of course.

-She's here. She's here! Sarah!

Doctor!

-Mum!

-That was her!

-Peter and I were in the same place, but separated from the others by

a time shift set up by the Trickster, which had stranded us in the very next second. Time trap.

And weirder still, why on earth was the Trickster interested in me getting married?

I want you to be happy.

Here is the life you will lead...

Mr and Mrs Dalton!

'Since when has he wanted anyone to lead a nice, peaceful life?

'Least of all me.'

It is true the Trickster has always shown an intense interest in you personally, Sarah Jane.

But generally in a harmful way.

He's brought more havoc into my life than any other alien

I've encountered and I've had to sacrifice so much to defeat him.

Once more, the Trickster was toying with my emotions.

But to what possible purpose?

-Yes, that's it!

-That's what?

She promises to love her husband.

The ring goes on, then she's totally under the Trickster's power.

She forgets all about this. She starts living a new life.

Forgetting about her old life?

Protecting of the Earth?

And the planet's wide open, so aliens can just barge in?

Without Sarah, without you lot saving the world from your attic in Ealing,

there'd be chaos and destruction. Meat and drink to the Trickster.

'Meanwhile, I had to put Peter right about the so-called angel.'

The angel, that's what you call him.

But he... It, it's a creature, an alien being.

-I'll tell you everything.

-'Peter had some explaining to do.'

A few months ago I was working from home.

I had a stupid accident. Fell down the stairs.

I knew what was coming next.

I thought I was going to die and then... He appeared.

Peter... I can give you life.

And the true love that you always longed for.

Do I have your agreement?

Yes...

The awful truth was although Peter and I loved each other dearly, the Trickster had used him to get to me.

And if I had married him, I too would've fallen under the Trickster's

command, leaving the way open for him to create chaos on Earth.

That plan had been thwarted.

But he still had stranded us all in this time trap, leaving Earth unprotected.

There was only one person who had the power to put things right... Peter.

But I'll lose you.

I'll die.

I don't want you to be alone.

You said you'd do anything to save me.

If you love me, you know what you have to do.

< No!

You got one thing exactly right.

Sarah Jane and I, we were made for each other.

We're a perfect match and I know what she would do.

But I... I chose you because you didn't have the strength.

You really don't know my Sarah Jane, do you?

She gave me the strength.

-And I withdraw my agreement!

-No!

So... Here I go.

I wish I'd always known you.

I love you, Peter.

And I love you... Sarah Jane Dalton.

He was a good man, Peter Dalton and strong.

Stronger than he'd ever realised.

When the time came, he did the right thing.

He didn't just sacrifice himself to save me, he saved the whole world.

And as for the Trickster?

I hope that's the last time we ever see him.

But somehow, I doubt it.

Recent scans of immediate solar space have detected no sign of him.

But his existence outside physical reality

makes the Trickster's movements notoriously difficult to follow.

If he ever does come back, it's crucial not to be fooled by his promises.

Remember this, if ever a deal seems too good to be true, then it probably is.

And some deals, they're never worth the cost.

To conclude, Sarah Jane...

Uploading two new entries into the Alien Files.

As a permanent record for all to learn about these deadly threats to Earth's safety.

The Graske...

A brutish and unscrupulous little fellow.

More dangerous than his lack of stature would indicate.

Beware of his super accurate snare gun.

It could whisk you away to limbo.

The Trickster -

a formidable and ingenious enemy.

He is ruthless in preying on human weakness.

Never agree to his underhand deals.

He is not to be trusted under any circumstances.

This is Sarah Jane Smith, logging off after Alien Files update.

I sincerely hope you never have to use this information, but if you do,

I wish you all the good fortune in the Universe.