Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith

Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith is a two-part story of The Sarah Jane Adventures which was broadcast on CBBC on 15 and 16 November 2010.^[2] It is the sixth and final story of the fourth series and is also the last to feature K9.

Plot[]

Part 1[]

The story starts off with Mr Smith telling Sarah Jane that a meteor is heading towards Earth. Sarah Jane, Rani and Clyde travel to the meteor landing site to stop germs from escaping. Just as Rani is about to deactivate it, another woman destroys the germs with similar equipment. The mysterious woman exclaims that she is "saving the world", and runs off. The team chase after her but she escapes, after which Clyde says to Sarah Jane, "She's exactly like you."

The team returns to Sarah Jane's house but spot the strange woman at a house down the road, into which she has recently moved. They go round to investigate and discover that the woman's name is Ruby White. Ruby rudely orders them to leave and they return to the attic, where Sarah Jane begins to act strangely, forgetting such basic facts as K9's name.

Mr Smith alerts the team that an alien invasion fleet—identified by Sarah Jane as the "Dark Horde"—is approaching earth and has locked onto the location of Sarah Jane's house. Sarah Jane tells Mr Smith to redirect them to the nearest uninhabited area. She seems unusually excited about confronting the aliens and gives Clyde a blaster gun, which astounds Rani.

When they arrive at a junk yard, Sarah Jane scans for aliens and finds that there are three, an advance party. The Dark Horde members emerge from a building, firing laser blasts from their spears at the team, which hides behind a broken van. Sarah Jane asks Clyde to pass her the sonic lipstick so they can use a "scanblind" device, but Clyde only brought the blaster, which is uncharged. He asks her what Plan B is, but Sarah Jane tells him that there is no Plan B. The Dark Horde approach the team and threaten them. But then Ruby White appears, holding two small "scanblind"-like spheres. She shouts to the Dark Horde, "Wait till you see what I've got for you!"

Ruby throws the two spheres to Rani and Clyde and pulls a larger object from her pocket. They make a triangular force-field, which teleports the Dark Horde warriors away. Ruby expresses her admiration for Sarah Jane's work, and the team names Ruby's hand-held AI device "Mr White". They all return to the attic and introduce Ruby to Mr. Smith. She explains that she dredged Mr White out of a swamp when she was on an archeological dig in New Zealand.

Clyde and Rani leave the house, and Sarah Jane and Ruby continue talking. Sarah Jane mentions The Doctor but almost forgets his name. Later on, fearing that she is ill, Sarah Jane asks Mr Smith to perform a "medi-scan" on her. Mr Smith tells her that she is very ill and there is no treatment. Believing herself no longer capable of doing her work, she offers her life and lifestyle to Ruby, who accepts the offer. Sarah Jane removes her voice commands from Mr Smith's system.

Ruby now reveals her true nature, speaking sarcastically about Rani, Clyde and Luke, and openly mocking Sarah Jane. Confused, Sarah Jane tries to call Luke, but Ruby refuses to ask Mr Smith to place the call. Sarah Jane nearly faints and is grabbed by Ruby, who presses a button on her bracelet, transporting both of them to Ruby's "secret cellar". In the cellar is a large red pulsating mass, which Ruby says is her stomach, hungry for Sarah Jane's soul. She reveals that she is responsible for draining Sarah Jane's life force and chains Sarah Jane to a wall. Ruby reveals that she is a Qetesh, a race that survives by devouring the souls of others. She sought Sarah Jane's soul because hef life is "the most exciting one on the planet".

As Ruby drains energy from Sarah Jane's body, she exclaims that she will feast on the Earth.

Part 2[]

Ruby tells Sarah Jane that she will track aliens, just as Sarah Jane did, but that instead of fighting against them, she will help them, even if they are hostile.

The next day, Rani and Clyde go to Sarah Jane's house. Finding the door ajar, they go up to the attic and are confronted by Ruby, who plays Rani and Clyde a clip of Sarah Jane handing over her life to Ruby. Watching this in Ruby's cellar, Sarah Jane shouts that it is not her. Unwilling to believe this, Clyde gets angry and storms out of the house, telling Rani to stay away from him. Rani runs home in tears, and Gita, comforting Rani, tells her that Sarah Jane would never run off, especially since she didn't tell Luke she was leaving.

Clyde returns to the attic and asks Mr Smith where Sarah Jane is. Mr Smith is unable to answer but manages to tell Clyde "beware". As Ruby enters, Mr Smith indicates the letter "R", implying that the culprit's name starts with "R". Clyde attempts to flee but is grabbed by Ruby. Mr White shuts Mr Smith down, and then Ruby transports Clyde and herself to a round room in space. She explains that her people trapped her there because her hunger was "too strong." But she reprogrammed the game console they gave her—Mr. White—allowing her to turn her prison into a ship. Before abandoning him Ruby informs Clyde that the only air in the room is the air that they brought with them and he will soon suffocate.

Meanwhile, Rani attempts to phone Clyde, but can't get through. The doorbell rings, and she is surprised to find Luke. Communicating with K2 via Luke's phone, Luke and Rani find that Clyde is somewhere in space. Rani realizes that Ruby is behind everything, and K9 determines that Ruby and Mr White are both of Qetesh origin; Mr White is a "modified and corrupted 5-D" holographic entertainment system". The realisation of Mr White's origins reveals that the meteor and the Dark Horde invasion were holographic visual effects.

Rani goes up to the attic and finds Ruby scanning the sonic lipstick. She hugs Ruby, surreptitiously placing her phone on the table next to Mr White so that K9 can shut the alien AI down. Rani pretends to cry to distract Ruby, but Ruby sees through her ploy. Rani grabs the sonic lipstick, starts to run away, but stops when she sees Ruby pick up and crush the phone. However, it is too late; K9 had managed to reset Mr White and restart Mr Smith.

Suddenly, Clyde reappears (having been rescued by Luke) and points the blaster at Ruby. However, he has no intention of firing it. Instead, he asks Mr Smith to place Ruby in a containment vortex. Ruby attempts to flee using her bracelet, but is unable to. Luke then asks Mr White where Sarah Jane is and finds that she is in the basement of Ruby's house with Ruby's stomach. The force field starts failing, and Ruby warns the teenagers that they had better flee. She goes to grab Mr White, but receives a shock in the process, forcing her to abandon Mr White.

Clyde and Rani find Sarah Jane almost dead. Rani uses the sonic lipstick to destroy the chains holding Sarah Jane, and they lift her to her feet. Ruby comes down the stairs and approaches the trio. Her stomach grows teeth and snaps at Sarah Jane, Rani, and Clyde. Luke runs in and offers Ruby one chance to leave the planet. When Ruby doesn't listen, he uses his phone to instruct Mr White to activate the hologram.

Outside, Haresh is telling Gita that Sarah Jane would not run off and that Rani is probably with her right now. A rumbling noise makes them look up, and they see large meteors falling through the sky. Meteors appear to be falling all over the world, and Ruby screams as the widespread terror overloads her capacity to absorb emotions. All of Sarah Jane's strength returns to her as the stomach shrivels. The meteors disappear, much to the relief of Gita and Haresh. Sarah Jane sends Ruby back to her prison in space, where she vows to make the Earth suffer. However, the prison's gravity lock disengages, and the prison is sent hurtling into the sun, resulting in Ruby's demise.

Back on Bannerman Road, Sarah Jane puts Mr White into her safe. A horn beeps outside, and Sarah Jane tells the teenagers that it is "our ride". The three go downstairs, to find Luke in his yellow VW. As they drive off, Sarah Jane says to herself, "Yes, there are amazing things in the universe, but they've got some stiff competition down here on Earth!"

Continuity[]

• Ruby describes the so-called "Ealing triangle", referring to astrologer Martin Trueman in Secrets of the Stars, the Bubble Shock! factory in "Invasion of the Bane", "rhinos" (Judoon Captain Tybo) in a police car in Prisoner of the Judoon, and the alien plant life of The Gift.
• Sarah Jane tells Ruby about when she met the Third Doctor while chasing a news story in The Time Warrior.
• The episode continues the tradition of one serial in each of the first four series bearing Sarah Jane's name in the title; it is the first such serial not to feature The Trickster as the guest villain.^[3]

Production[]

This story, given its title, was ironically the last to air before the death of Elisabeth Sladen.

Writers Gareth Roberts and Clayton Hickman wrote Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith as a replacement for their earlier attempt at a sequel to the Doctor Who story Planet of the Spiders (1974), which featured Sarah Jane Smith. Roberts and Hickman were assigned to the Spiders sequel after the previously assigned writer, script editor Gary Russell, could not make it work. When Roberts and Hickman could not make the Spiders sequel work either, they then replaced it with Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith. Roberts and Hickman just used one element from the Spiders sequel outlines on Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith, namely Sarah Jane's tiredness and forgetfulness.^[4]

References[]

External links[]

• Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith on Tardis Data Core, an external wiki

• "Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith" at IMDb