The Lost Boy (The Sarah Jane Adventures)

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06 The Lost Boy
The Sarah Jane Adventures story
SJA the lost boy.jpg
The Slitheen reveal themselves from their new slimline skin-suits
Cast
Starring
Others
Production
Directed by Charles Martin
Written by Phil Ford
Script editor Lindsey Alford
Produced by Matthew Bouch
Executive producer(s) Phil Collinson
Russell T Davies
Julie Gardner
Music bySam Watts
Production code1.9 and 1.10
Series Series 1
Running time2 episodes, 25 minutes each
First broadcast12 November 2007 (2007-11-12)
Last broadcast19 November 2007 (2007-11-19)
Chronology
 Preceded by
Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?
Followed by 
The Last Sontaran
List of The Sarah Jane Adventures serials

The Lost Boy is the fifth serial of the first series of the British science fiction television series The Sarah Jane Adventures . It first aired on the CBBC channel in two weekly parts on 12 and 19 November 2007. This episode was intentionally named after Dave Pelzer's The Lost Boy .

Contents

In the story, Luke Smith, Sarah Jane Smith's adopted son, is allegedly reunited with his biological human parents, despite prior assumptions that he had been created by the Bane. However, the family is actually a disguised alien family of criminals called the Slitheen, who are attempting to get revenge on Luke for past encounters.

Plot

Alan agrees with his daughter Maria that they will not move away from Sarah Jane's neighbourhood on the condition that Alan is kept up to date with Maria's battles against aliens.

Mr Smith, an alien supercomputer called a Xylok that was freed from under the Earth's surface, concocts a story where Luke is the son of two humans, Jay and Heidi (who are actually Slitheen in disguise), and not created by the Bane. He also fakes a DNA match between the profiles of Luke and the fictional son, Ashley Stafford, as well as a photograph of Luke with Jay and Heidi. Luke is put in the Slitheen's custody. Mr Smith suggests that Sarah Jane visits the Pharos Institute, a research centre where alien technology, whose plans were scavenged by the Slitheen, is being used to harness telekinetic energy. He later asks Sarah Jane to steal one of the telekinetic energiser headsets there, supposedly for analysis.

The Slitheen intend to "bottle" the energy and sell it off, which would kill Luke, whom they blame for killing Slitheen members at his school. [N 1] The Slitheen test Luke's abilities with another of the institute's headsets, before he escapes. Alan adapts a computer virus that could destroy Mr Smith. Predicting Luke would return to the attic, while double-crossing the Slitheen, Mr Smith holds Clyde hostage, forcing Luke to use his mind and the headset to pull the Moon towards the Earth, to serve Mr Smith's purpose of releasing other Xylok from within the Earth at the cost of the planet. With Mr Smith momentarily distracted by K9, Sarah Jane inserts the virus, which makes Mr Smith forget his purpose. As the Moon gets closer to the Earth, Sarah Jane tells Mr Smith he has a new purpose: to safeguard planet Earth. The Moon returns to its original position, K9 goes back to guarding the black hole, and the Slitheen leave Earth.

Continuity

Outside references

Reception

Firefox News commented upon the episode positively, particularly in comparison with Torchwood's first finale episode, "End of Days". [4] [ unreliable source? ] Digital Spy commented that the tone of the episode was strangely dark, having expected more jovial adventures following the Slitheen adventure which kick-started the series, commenting "dark emotions have been regularly encountered, often to do with human loss, and a fascinating morbid tone has descended". The Cult Editor for the website, Ben Rawson-Jones, noted a similarity with some Doctor Who stories wherein "the formula of an old enemy from earlier in the series returning has been closely adhered to. Such a shame it had to be the Slitheen then, rather than any evil nuns or General Kudlak's brethren". [5]

Novelisation

The Lost Boy
Author Phil Ford
Series The Sarah Jane Adventures #6
Published6 November 2008
Penguin Books
Pages128
ISBN 1-405-90506-9
Preceded by Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?  
Followed by The Last Sontaran  

This was the sixth of eleven Sarah Jane Adventures serials to be adapted as a novel. Written by Phil Ford, the book was first published in Paperback on 6 November 2008. [6]

Notes

  1. Several Slitheen are killed in the 2007 serial Revenge of the Slitheen .

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Jane Smith</span> Fictional character in various TV series including Doctor Who

Sarah Jane Smith is a fictional character played by Elisabeth Sladen in the long-running BBC Television science fiction series Doctor Who and two of its spin-offs. Sarah Jane is a dogged investigative journalist who first encounters alien time traveller the Doctor while trying to break a story on a top secret research facility, and subsequently becomes his travelling companion on a series of adventures spanning the breadth of space and time. After travelling with The Doctor in four seasons of the show they suddenly part ways, and after this she continues to investigate strange goings-on back on Earth. Over time, Sarah Jane establishes herself as a committed defender of Earth from alien invasions and other threats, occasionally reuniting with The Doctor in the course of her own adventures, all the while continuing to work as a freelance investigative journalist.

K9 (<i>Doctor Who</i>) British sci-fi character, created 1977

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slitheen</span> Alien species from the Doctor Who franchise

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<i>The Sarah Jane Adventures</i> British science-fiction television series

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References

  1. "BBC Program Information, week 48". BBC Press Office. Retrieved 2 November 2007.
  2. Dialogue by the Third Doctor in Inferno
  3. Photograph of the Ninth Doctor at Krakatoa shown in "Rose".
  4. Review:Sarah Jane Adventures-The Lost Boy Archived 6 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  5. Sarah Jane Adventures - Review - S01E09: 'The Lost Boy' Part One - Digital Spy
  6. Sarah Jane Adventures: The Lost Boy [Paperback]. ASIN   1405905069.

Novelisation