Warriors of Kudlak

Warriors of Kudlak is the fourth story of the British science fiction television series The Sarah Jane Adventures. It forms the fifth and sixth episodes of the show's first series. The first episode aired on the CBBC Channel on 15 October, and the second on 22 October 2007.

Plot

Part 1

When 'Combat 3000', the new laser-tag centre, arrives near Sarah Jane, a young teenager called Lance Metcalf visits it, where he mysteriously disappears. When Sarah Jane starts investigating, she discovers twenty-four children have previously gone missing. Meanwhile, Luke tries to master being funny but can't quite do it. He also doesn't understand games. Therefore, Clyde takes Luke to 'Combat 3000'. Sarah soon discovers that there have been mysterious storms at the time of the disappearances and that Mr Grantham and Kudlak are working for the Mistress, leader of 'Combat 3000'. Luke and Clyde manage to survive Round One and are challenged to make it to the door to the championships, facing other expert 'Combat 3000' players. When Luke and Clyde are very close to the door, they are attacked. Soon, Clyde and Luke manage to escape and are locked in a room where they mysteriously disappear. Meanwhile, Mr Grantham points a gun at Sarah and Maria but Sarah uses her Sonic Lipstick to help her escape. Maria and Sarah arrive in a different room where they are then confronted by Kudlak.

Part 2

They successfully escape Kudlak after creating a diversion, and return to Mr Smith, who informs them of who Kudlak is and the background to his race. He is a member of the Uvodni race, and they were part of a planetary alliance fighting against the Malakh. The Malakh won the ensuing battle, but the Uvodni would not quit, and continued fighting. Eventually, Kudlak was injured on the front line and forced to leave fighting to others. He was thus sent out as part of an Imperial Fleet to recruit "warriors" from other worlds. His ship [and, likely, all the others] were led by a Mistress, who kept the War-adrenaline in Kudlak alive. After decades of recruiting (mostly Terran) children via war-games – called 'Combat 3000' – Kudlak – or rather Mr Grantham – abducted Clyde and Luke. Meanwhile, Luke and Clyde rescue other children from their crates, including Lance and a girl called Jen.

Mr Grantham breaks into Sarah Jane's home, but is overpowered by electrocution. Back on the Uvodni ship, the children make their way to a shuttlecraft, but are again captured. Sarah Jane and Maria blackmail Grantham into transmatting them to the Uvodni ship, where they find and talk to The Mistress. When Kudlak brings the children to The Mistress, everyone is reunited. Preparing to kill them, Kudlak is stopped by Luke, who has discovered a message made by the Uvodni Emperor ten years ago, revealing an armistice has been made with the Malakh. Not programmed to recognise "peace" as a concept, the computer Mistress had buried the message and kept leading Kudlak in recruitments. With the truth revealed, Kudlak destroys The Mistress, releases the children and swears to do what he can to reunite all the surviving past-recruits with their families.

Continuity

• This serial was the first of The Sarah Jane Adventures not to feature Alan Jackson and Chrissie Jackson, although Alan is mentioned.
• Although it appears the teleportation is the same as the Judoon, Mr Smith does explain that this rain is a by-product of teleportation. It also uses the Doctor Who term transmat.
• Lance has posters from the DVDs featured in the Doctor Who episode "Blink" in his room, as seen when Sarah Jane meets Lance's mother.
• Sarah Jane mentions her UNIT training in this serial.
• In the book adaptation of this episode, one of the Combat 3000 warriors is from Deffry Vale High School, also featured in the Doctor Who episode, "School Reunion", which reintroduced Sarah Jane and K-9.
• While Mr Smith is searching for missing children, there is a poster in the background of Sarah Jane's attic depicting the design of John Lumic's Cybermen.
• One of the aliens briefly depicted by Mr Smith is the Beast from the Doctor Who episodes "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit."
• Slabs are used to capture Luke and Clyde as seen before in the Doctor Who episode "Smith and Jones".
• Sarah Jane's business card shows her address as 21 Bannerman Road, as does the number plate on her door in Eye of the Gorgon, rather than 13 Bannerman Road which is stated throughout the second and third series.
• Sarah Jane makes a remark commenting on how many times she's had guns pointed at her and says that she's lost count
• Sarah Jane speculates that Lance might become the first man to walk on Mars, before adding "first human man," alluding to the Martian race of Ice Warriors whom she met with the Third Doctor in The Monster of Peladon.
• One of Kudlaks race appears briefly in the Doctor Who episode "The Pandorica Opens"

Outside references

• Lance Metcalf's father was in the army and was killed in Iraq. His death was implied to have taken place during the Iraq War.
• Clyde references Obi-Wan Kenobi, saying that he is Luke's mentor. He also references Captain Kirk, after Jen earlier says, "Beam me up, Scotty!". Mr Grantham says "a Galaxy far, far away".
• The popular series of video games Halo is also mentioned in this serial.
• The recruitment of children in this episode is similar to the movie The Last Starfighter. In that movie, an arcade game of the same name is used to test the qualifications of warriors. This leads to a teenager being recruited to fight in an interstellar war.
• The kidnapping of children to be used in an alien war is also the premise of the Virgin New Adventures novel Toy Soldiers. The novel Winner Takes All also has a very similar plot involving the kidnapping of people to fight an alien war using games as a recruitment tool.

Novelisation

This was the fourth of eleven Sarah Jane Adventures serials to be adapted as a novel. Written by Gary Russell, the book was first published in Paperback on 1 November 2007.^[1]

References

External links

• Warriors of Kudlak on TARDIS Data Core, an external wiki

Wikiquote has quotations related to: The Sarah Jane Adventures

• Sarah Jane Adventures homepage
• Warriors of Kudlak at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• Warriors of Kudlak at Doctor Who: A Brief History of Time (Travel)
• Writing Kudlak – The writer Phil Gladwin describes the origins of this episode.
• "Warriors of Kudlak" at the Internet Movie Database