'Sky' (Part 1) by Phil Ford

One Saturday night, while enjoying some stargazing with the aid of her telescope, Sarah Jane fails to spot a meteor heading towards the Earth. Falling from the sky in a blazing trail of fire, the meteor smashes down in the middle of a car wrecker’s yard; its explosive arrival is witnessed by a tramp, who watches in terror as a tall, robotic creature steps from the smoking crater, renders itself invisible and then stomps off into the night… Back at No.13, Bannerman Road, Sarah, Rani and Clyde finish a video chat with Luke, who is busy with his studies at university. After Clyde and Rani have left to get on with their homework, Sarah retires to bed, feeling all alone and missing her son; however, Sarah’s sleep is interrupted in the early hours of Sunday morning by the insistent sound of her doorbell ringing. Stepping outside to see who is calling on her, Sarah finds her driveway empty – apart from a carrycot containing an abandoned baby! Taking the child indoors, Sarah makes another startling discovery: the baby can make light-bulbs explode... In the morning, Rani awakes to a text message from Sarah, urgently asking for help; Rani rushes downstairs, where she finds her parents busy dealing with all the inexplicably-broken light-bulbs in their house. Bursting into Sarah’s attic, Rani is astonished to find her friend holding a baby; as Clyde arrives bearing bulging bags of nappies, Sarah explains that she cannot go to the police for help: the baby’s electrical power obviously marks her out as an alien. The baby was deliberately left with Sarah, meaning that someone wants her to protect the child – but from what? With Mr Smith refusing to come out for fear of having his circuits fried, Sarah and her friends must resort to investigating on their own; luckily Clyde is able to put his experience in caring for his younger cousin to good use, and he quickly ensures that ‘Sparky’ gets a nice bottle of milk… Meanwhile, at the Summerwell Nuclear Power Planet, a technician named Caleb is surprised to see a globe of glowing blue energy suddenly manifest itself in the middle of the complex; from it steps an attractive, imposing woman named Miss Myers, who immediately takes over Caleb’s mind and orders him to aid her in her mission… As Sarah, Clyde and Rani leave No.13 with the baby, they are intercepted by the ever-nosy Gita; seeing the child, Rani’s mum instantly assumes that Sarah is now fostering children, and is delighted to learn that her neighbour’s new charge is called “Sky” (an inspired choice of fast-thinking by Sarah!). When Gita mentions the meteor that crashed in the wrecker’s yard, Sarah immediately makes a connection; leaving Clyde to look after Sky, she and Rani drive off to investigate the crash site. Back at the nuclear power plant, Miss Myers takes over the control room technicians and then instructs Caleb to use the complex’s systems to locate any recent power surges; when Caleb pulls up a report of exploding light-bulbs on Bannerman Road, Miss Myers knows where she can find her missing baby… Arriving at the wrecker’s yard, Sarah and Rani are stopped by a police cordon; luckily they then meet their old friend, Professor Rivers from Pharos Institute, who escorts them past the barricade and over to the impact site. Learning that there aren’t any traces of wreckage, Sarah scans the area with her wrist device and picks up alien life readings. When Rani then finds a set of deep footprints, she and Sarah follow the trail and find the tramp cowering behind one of the old cars; as the man flees in fright, Sarah and Rani give chase, eventually cornering him in the old van in which he has made his ‘home’. The tramp, Hector, knows all about Sarah’s reports of strange events, and he refuses to talk; however, when Sarah repairs his broken radio with her sonic lipstick, Hector becomes more conducive: he reveals that after the meteor crashed in the yard, an “iron man” appeared, before turning itself invisible. Interpreting this as evidence of a biomechanical life-form, Sarah leads Rani back to the yard to re-join the professor. Meanwhile, back at Bannerman Road, Clyde has been busy keeping Sky amused: but after entertaining her with stories, jokes, mime and puppetry, he has run out of ideas, so he takes her out into Sarah’s garden. Across the road, Haresh and Gita receive a visit from Miss Myers and her lackey, now posing as representatives from West London Power, investigating reports of freak power surges; as Gita makes her guests tea, she innocently mentions Sarah’s new foster baby… Back at the wrecker’s yard, Professor Rivers uses her portable equipment to track the alien’s energy trail – and discovers that the creature is now on Bannerman Road! As Sarah and Rani speed back home, Clyde suddenly sees the garden gate open and close, apparently of its own accord; but when he then sees huge footprints appear in a flowerbed, he knows he is not alone – and when the biomechanoid de-cloaks in front of him and then opens fire with its weapon, Clyde grabs Sky’s cot and runs for it! Rushing out onto the street, Clyde comes face-to-face with Miss Myers, who urges him into a nearby van; as the vehicle speeds off driven by Caleb, the iron man follows in pursuit… Moments later, Sarah pulls up in her car, only to discover that she and Rani are too late. Sarah immediately orders Mr Smith to run a check on all CCTV feeds in the city, and in a matter of seconds the Xylok computer locates Clyde and Sky at the nuclear power station. At the Summerwell power plant, Clyde demands answers from his kidnappers; Miss Myers explains that her child has a destiny to change worlds, a power that her enemies, the Metalkind, want to destroy – but Clyde is not convinced, and to Miss Myers’s fury, he runs off with Sky. Following his mistress’ orders, Caleb gives chase, and it isn’t long before Clyde and Sky find themselves cornered by their pursuers. Meanwhile, at the back entrance to the complex, Sarah uses her sonic lipstick to deal with the locks; she and Rani rush into the base, arriving just as the Metalkind closes in on Clyde, Sky, Miss Myers and Caleb. In the confusion, Sky’s powers trigger, and she primes herself for activation in a ball of glowing energy. However, instead of exploding, Sky transforms herself into a young girl...

Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Thomas Knight (Luke Smith), Daniel Anthony (Clyde Langer), Anjli Mohindra (Rani Chandra), Mina Anwar (Gita Chandra), Ace Bhatti (Haresh Chandra), Alexander Armstrong (Mr Smith [Voice]), Christine Stephen-Daly (Miss Myers), Gavin Brocker (Caleb),Paul Kasey (The Metalkind), Chloe Savage (Baby Sky), Ella Savage (Baby Sky), Amber Donaldson (Baby Sky), Scarlet Donaldson (Baby Sky), Sinead Michael (Sky), Floella Benjamin (Professor Celeste Rivers), Hugo Daly (Hector), Will McLeod (Voice of the Metalkind)

Directed by Ashley Way
Produced by Brian Minchin
Executive Producers Russell T Davies and Nikki Wilson
A BBC Wales production

TX (CBBC):
3rd October 2011 @ 5.15 pm

Notes:
*Featuring Sarah Jane Smith, Luke, Clyde, Rani and Mr Smith, and introducing Sky