'The Gift' (Part 2) by Rupert Laight

As the deadly Rakweed spores close in on Sarah and Luke, Mr Smith turns his venting system to full power and swiftly extracts the alien threat outside. After Sarah has sealed the Rakweed plant inside her safe, Mr Smith informs her that it will take him days to make an antidote to the infection – but with Luke’s infection now at sixty-three percent, they only have half an hour left. Receiving news reports of other cases of Rakweed infection, the Xylok computer determines that the alien plant is spreading throughout the local boroughs: in a matter of hours it will have overrun all of London, and in three days the whole planet will be consumed! Meanwhile, at Park Vale Comprehensive School, K-9 refuses to help Clyde cheat in his exam; while Clyde uses logic to outwit the robot dog, he fails to notice as a cloud of Rakweed spores flies in through the window and settles on some nearby plant trays. When a screeching noise suddenly rings out the sound is amplified in Clyde’s earpiece; Clyde tears out the device, but this only serves to alert his teacher, Miss Jerome, to the fact that he has a robot dog hidden under his desk. When K-9 detects the presence of Rakweed in the room Clyde tries to warn Miss Jerome, but the teacher is immediately infected by the spores, and falls unconscious to the floor. Chaos immediately breaks out in the school, as the terrified pupils flee in panic from their classrooms. At Bannerman Road, Sarah and Mr Smith track the Blathereens’ teleport telemetry and locate the alien’s ship, parked in the snowy wastes of Antarctica. Inside their vessel, Leef and Tree tuck into a meal and gloat over their victory, celebrating how they tricked Sarah into helping them destroy the world. Sarah prepares to fight back, and having remotely activated the Blathereens’ teleport system, she arrives in the aliens’ space ship and confronts them down the business end of a giant water gun filled with vinegar. Meanwhile, Rani and Clyde try phoning Sarah to warn her of the Rakweed, but get through to Luke instead; learning of their friend’s infection Rani, Clyde and K-9 rush off to help him. Back in Antarctica, Sarah ignores Leef and Tree’s protests of innocence and orders them to reverse the Rakweed’s progress; the aliens comply, and their computer confirms the destruction of the deadly plant. However, this is just a ruse to trick Sarah, and the Blathereen quickly disarm their enemy and clamp her into a chair. Clyde, Rani and K-9 discover that the Rakweed has now infested the entire school, blocking all its exits and leaving several victims comatose; finding even more plants and spores outside, the trio head for the school’s computer room, where they learn from the news that over three-hundred cases have been reported – the deadly plant and its spores are everywhere… Subjected to the unpleasant sight of Leef and Tree devouring their meal, Sarah realises that the Blathereen are addicted to Rakweed – they want to seed the entire planet with the plant so that they can make a fortune on the galactic market. Leef and Tree explain that they are “simple farming folk” who want to create a farm that will span the entire galaxy; Tree genetically modified the Rakweed to spread fast, and its dreadful noise is its way of communicating. Leef and Tree also reveal that their family name is actually Slitheen-Blathereen: they are the descendants of an inter-clan marriage, and are just as unscrupulous as their relations! Trapped inside Park Vale, Clyde and Rani are surprised when the sound of the school bell causes the Rakweed and its spores to shrivel and die; K-9 boosts the frequency of all the bells, and the amplified sound kills all the plants inside the school – but there are still millions of Rakweed plants outside, and they are all screaming… Sarah manages to get herself free and uses the Slitheen-Blathereens’ teleport to return to Bannerman Road, breaking the aliens’ transport system in the process. Taking a call from Clyde, Sarah learns how her friends have found a way to kill the Rakweed. Realising that the sound of the bell breaks the plants’ communications, Sarah gets K-9 to give Mr Smith the frequency required; the Xylok computer then links himself to every electrical device in the area, using them to emit a powerful sound wave across London that destroys the Rakweed and frees its victims from its infection. Overjoyed to find Luke well again, Sarah is pleased when Clyde, Rani and K-9 arrive on the scene; the robot dog immediately drops Clyde in it, by informing Sarah how he helped with the boy’s exam. Elsewhere, Leef and Tree are furious at finding their entire crop now dead; having repaired their teleport system they materialise inside Sarah’s attic and prepare to kill everyone inside. Undaunted, Sarah gives the Raxacoricofallapatorians a final warning, attempting to appeal to their nicer Blathereen nature. But the two aliens ignore her and close in for the kill, forcing Sarah to use Mr Smith to replay the anti-Rakweed sound; this causes the undigested plants inside Leef and Tree’s stomachs to die, and the resulting build up of methane has an impressive effect: the two Blathereen literally fart themselves to death – their bodies explode and cover Sarah and the gang in a horrible, gloopy mess! The threat over, Sarah and her friends get cleaned up and then prepare a celebratory barbeque – apart from Clyde, whose punishment is to mop up the entire attic first…

Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Thomas Knight (Luke), Daniel Anthony (Clyde Langer), Anjli Mohindra (Rani Chandra), Alexander Armstrong (Mr Smith [Voice]), John Leeson (Voice of K-9), Miriam Margolyes (Voice of Leef Blathereen), Simon Callow (Voice of Tree Blathereen), Paul Kasey (Leef Blathereen), Ruari Mears (Tree Blathereen), Sarah Paul (Miss Jerome), Nick Williams (Reporter Cameron Marsh)

Directed by Alice Troughton
Produced by Nikki Wilson
Executive Producers Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner and Piers Wenger
A BBC Wales production

TX (BBC 1 & BBC HD):
20th November 2009 @ 4.35 pm

Notes:
*Featuring Sarah Jane Smith, Luke, Clyde, Rani, K-9 Mk IV and Mr Smith