The Eternity Trap

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16 The Eternity Trap
The Sarah Jane Adventures story
Cast
Starring
Guest
Production
Directed by Alice Troughton
Written by Phil Ford
Script editor Gary Russell
Produced by Nikki Wilson
Phil Ford (co-producer)
Executive producer(s) Russell T Davies
Julie Gardner
Piers Wenger [1]
Music bySam Watts
Production code3.7 and 3.8
Series Series 3
Running time2 episodes, 25 minutes each
First broadcast5 November 2009 (2009-11-05)
Last broadcast6 November 2009 (2009-11-06)
Chronology
 Preceded by
The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith
Followed by 
Mona Lisa's Revenge
List of serials

The Eternity Trap is a two-part story of The Sarah Jane Adventures which was first broadcast on CBBC on 5 and 6 November 2009. It is the fourth serial in the third series. The story involves the scientific investigation of a haunted house.

Contents

Plot

In the 17th century, Lord Marchwood employed Erasmus Darkening, an alien trapped on Earth, to make gold out of base metals. Erasmus was secretly working on a transdimensional accelerator to create a portal to his own galaxy. While Marchwood's children spied on Erasmus, he used the accelerator to trap them between dimensions. Lord Marchwood confronted Erasmus and attacked the machine, causing it to malfunction. To maintain immortality, Erasmus used the energy from people he had trapped over the centuries with his technology.

In the present, Professor Rivers and her assistant Toby perform a scientific investigation of ghost sightings at Lord Marchwood's manor. They are joined by Sarah Jane, Clyde, and Rani. A mysterious poltergeist-like entity begins manipulating objects, including writing the message "get out" on a mirror; this is Lord Marchwood trying to scare everyone off to avoid a similar fate. Erasmus uses the accelerator to take Professor Rivers, though she is yet to be fully absorbed by the manor.

Lord Marchwood slays a creature that came to the manor during one of Erasmus' unsuccessful experiments. Aided by Lord Marchwood's sword as a conductor, Sarah Jane comes up with a plan to stop Erasmus by turning him into electricity. Erasmus is destroyed and Professor Rivers is returned. Sarah Jane destroys Erasmus' machine with the sonic lipstick. While Erasmus' victims were assumed to have been destroyed as well, Lord Marchwood and his children appear in the window of the manor.

Continuity

Novelisation

The Haunted House
Author Trevor Baxendale
Series Doctor Who novelisations
Publisher Pearson Education
Publication date
September 2010
ISBN 978-0-435-91473-8

Pearson Education published a simplified novelisation of this episode by Trevor Baxendale under the title The Haunted House for school literacy programs in September 2010. [2]

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References

  1. Pixley, Andrew; Spilsbury, Tom (13 July 2011). "Credits". Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition: The Sarah Jane Companion, Volume Two (Special Edition #28): 114.
  2. "BC White B/2A Sarah Jane Adventures: Haunted House". pearsonschoolsandfecolleges.co.uk. Retrieved 8 February 2018.