'Warriors of Kudlak' (Part 2) by Phil Gladwin

Sarah deftly knock’s Kudlak’s gun aside with her handbag, allowing her and Maria to escape the Combat 3000 building while the alien takes out his anger at his colleague, Mr Grantham; as the insectoid prepares to kill the quaking manager, he is interrupted by the appearance of his Mistress on a monitor, who demands that more children be sent to her. Returning home, Sarah uses Mr Smith’s identikit software to identify Kudlak’s species as the Uvodni; accessing records gleaned from a passing alien ship, Mr Smith explains that twenty years ago, General Kudlak was injured in battle with his race’s enemies, the Malak, and was forced to come to Earth; Sarah grimly realises the alien is recruiting soldiers to fight in the Uvodni’s war… Elsewhere, Clyde and Lance are bundled into a wooden crate by leather-clad Slabs and left in a storeroom; breaking free, the two boys find crates containing other children, including a girl named Jen, and the missing Lance Metcalf. Leaving Mr Smith to track the transmat beam trails centred around Combat 3000, Sarah investigates a noise downstairs and comes face to face with a gun-wielding Grantham; but before the murderous manager can shoot Sarah, Maria sneaks up behind him and zaps him with a component of the rain-making machine. Jen and Clyde trap a Slab inside one of the crates; the kids race for the exit, just as the Slab blows apart the crate and sets off an alarm that brings its comrades running. Luke, Clyde and the others run for it, but stop when they come to an observation window, astonished to learn they are aboard a spaceship in orbit around the Earth. Kudlak and his guards recapture the escaped children and take them to meet the Mistress; from her monitor, the alien creature addresses her brave, heroic recruits, who will fight for her people – or die at the claws of Kudlak. Threatening to take Grantham to the police, Sarah and Maria force the manager to use the Combat 3000 teleport to send them to Kudlak’s ship. Kudlak confesses to his Mistress that he grows tired of war, and dreams of peace, but she merely ignores him and orders the transfer of her new troops to the front line. Wiring Clyde’s mobile phone to the ship’s computer, Luke accesses a plan of the spacecraft and locates the shuttle bay; unlocking their cell door, Luke leads his comrades through the ship’s corridors, avoiding the armed Slabs searching for them –unaware that Sarah and Maria are going the opposite way. Kudlak and his Slab guards recapture the kids just as they are about to reach the shuttle; the alien takes his prisoners back to his control room, where he finds Sarah and Maria in conversation with his Mistress. Sarah and Maria attempt to convince the aliens that kids adept at playing games do not necessarily make good warriors, but their pleas fall on deaf ears; then Luke uses Clyde’s phone to display a file from the ship’s computer: a message dating back ten years from the Uvodni Emperor, recalling his warriors home following a declaration of armistice with the Malak. Kudlak learns that his Mistress is a simulation created by the ship’s computer, so that it could continue to fulfil its purpose to recruit troops for the war. Realising that the computer is his true enemy, Kudlak destroys his ‘Mistress’; he then frees the children and hands over his life to Sarah for his crimes against Earth. When Sarah refuses to kill him, Kudlak vows to find those kidnapped children still alive and bring them back home. Sarah, Maria, Clyde, Luke and the other kids teleport back to Earth, where they find that Grantham has bolted. Lance returns to his ecstatic mother, while Luke, perplexed by the kisses he just got from Jen, turns to Clyde for advice on girls…

Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Yasmin Page (Maria Jackson), Thomas Knight (Luke Smith), Daniel Anthony (Clyde Langer), Alexander Armstrong (Mr Smith [Voice]), Chook Siblam (Mark Grantham), Sarah Haynes (Carrie Metcalf), Pamela Merrick (Wendy), Sonny Muslim (Lance Metcalf), James Bellamy (Brandon Butler), Nadiyah Davis (Jen), Chrissie Furness (Cashier), Paul Kasey (Kudlak / Emperor / Mistress), Silas Carson (Voice of Kudlak / Emperor), Tina Greatex (Voice of Mistress)

Directed by Charles Martin
Produced by Matthew Bouch
Executive Producers Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner
A BBC Wales production

TX:
22nd October 2007 @ 5.30 pm CBBC
29th October 2007 @ 5.00 pm BBC 1

Notes:
*Featuring Sarah Jane Smith, Maria, Luke, Clyde and Mr Smith

*Writer Phil Gladwin has a rather entertaining 'Screenwriting Goldmine Blog' on script writing, so be sure to visit!