Invasion of the Bane

01 - Invasion of the Bane
Production
Directed by	Colin Teague
Written by	Gareth Roberts Russell T. Davies
Script editor	Simon Winstone
Produced by	Susie Liggat
Executive producer(s)	Phil Collinson Russell T. Davies Julie Gardner
Production code	To be announced
Series	Series 1
Running time	60 minutes
First broadcast	1 January 2007
Chronology
← Preceded by — Followed by → Revenge of the Slitheen

"Invasion of the Bane" is the first episode of the British science fiction television series The Sarah Jane Adventures. It was originally broadcast on 1 January 2007. Since the series was commissioned before the script for Bane was written, it is notable for being an example of an initial episode which was not a pilot, but a holiday special. Nevertheless, because it was broadcast before the series to which it is attached, it serves many of the introductory functions of a pilot.

Synopsis

Investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith teams up with her 13-year-old neighbour, Maria Jackson, to face up against the scheming Mrs Wormwood, the head of a company producing a popular and addictive soft drink called Bubble Shock!

Plot

File:Invasion of the Bane.jpg

"Drink deep!"

Maria Jackson and her recently divorced father move into a house opposite Sarah Jane Smith on Bannerman Road. As her father sorts boxes, Maria watches a television commercial for the popular new soft drink called Bubble Shock! Maria's mother helps out and pesters her former husband for more money before leaving. Later that night, Maria is awakened by a bright light which she follows to Sarah Jane's house. The light turns out to be an alien that Sarah Jane is communicating with. As it disappears into the night sky, a terrified Maria runs home and locks the front door. The next morning local girl Kelsey Harper arrives to welcome the new family and offers to take Maria into town. When Maria replies that she has no money, Kelsey tells her about the free 'Bubble Shock! Bus', which takes visitors to the Bubble Shock! factory for a guided tour. Mr Jackson attempts to introduce himself to Sarah Jane but she overhears the girl's plans and gives chase in her car.

On the bus, Maria questions Kelsey about the secret ingredient in Bubble Shock! known only as Bane. Kelsey roughly repeats the claims made by the television adverts that Bane is organic and that makes it good. Maria is still not convinced enough to drink. Kelsey informs her she must be part of the official 2% statistic of the population that doesn't like the drink. After the bus reaches the factory, all the guests go through a security scanner and have to turn off their mobile phones. Unknown to them the scanner collects their DNA. A teenage boy, "the Archetype", lying in a mysterious medical chamber has a breathing mask over his mouth. A worker informs his supervisor Mrs Wormwood that the DNA of the children has been transmitted. Mrs Wormwood is delighted and believes 'Bane Mother' will be equally pleased.

The guests are led by PR agent Davey who offers everyone numerous free samples of the drink whilst boredly providing a pre-written PR statement on the virtues of the drink. He notices that Maria has not taken any samples and insists she does. She responds that she doesn't care for it, saying she is in the 2% of the population who feel likewise. Davey cryptically replies that the factory is heavily working on a way to make sure 100% of the population consume the drink.

Sarah Jane is sneaking around the factory, when she notices a door. Using her sonic lipstick to unlock it, she opens it, before being captured by some guards. She is taken up to Mrs Wormwood's office, where upon seeing the name plaque on her desk comments that Wormwood is mentioned in the Bible as a star that would fall to Earth and taint the world's water supply. Wormwood recognises Sarah Jane's name from a number of e-mails and phone calls the company received, all of which went unanswered. Wormwood agrees to grant Sarah Jane an interview. Sarah Jane asks how they obtained a license to make food and drink in two weeks. Mrs Wormwood replies that they are only satisfying the Western world's need for food, stating how humans love to gorge themselves. (She also refers to the human race as "they", hinting that she may be from another planet.) Sarah Jane presses her to reveal the nature of the mysterious Bane ingredient as every test she has had run on the drink has been unable to reveal anything -- almost as if the drink had a form of intelligence and was hiding its contents. Mrs Wormwood insists that she drinks some Bubble Shock!, but Sarah Jane refuses and continues her attempts to find out the origin of the Bane ingredient, suggesting coyly it may be alien in nature. Mrs Wormwood mocks such an idea as crazy talk and has her secretary Lesley escort Sarah Jane out of the factory. Once in the lift, Wormwood orders her secretary to kill Sarah Jane but she intercepts the attack and escapes further into the factory.

Kelsey attempts to phone her friend Suki and wanders into a restricted area. Her mobile phone disturbs an unknown beast and sets off an emergency alarm causing the factory to be evacuated. Davey finds her huddled in a corner, screaming for someone to get 'that thing' away from her. Davey angrily responds that the creature is not 'a thing', Kelsey is; the creature is his mother. Mrs Wormwood dispatches guards to locate and kill Sarah Jane, as well as demanding the alarms be switched off for the sake of the Bane Mother. Maria attempts to find Kelsey using her mobile phone but she sets off the alarm again and prompts the Archetype to escape. Mrs Wormwood and Davey lead teams in an attempt to find the source of the alarm.

Soon after Maria bumps into the Archetype, who has the appearance of a normal teenage boy. She tries to introduce herself, while the Archetype just copies her. They hide in a cubicle in the women's toilets and are soon joined by Sarah Jane, with both parties surprised to see one another. Just outside, Davey reports they have searched everywhere and have found no sign of the intruders. Mrs Wormwood asks him if he has checked inside the women's toilets. Somewhat shocked, he replies that his training on human culture had stated it was strictly forbidden for males to enter. Frustrated at his stupidity, Wormwood storms into the toilets and slams open all the cubicles but finds no one there. Davey points out the window has been opened and Wormwood realizes Sarah Jane and the children have escaped. Outside they flee to Sarah Jane's car. Maria protests that they left Kelsey behind. Just as the gate is closing, Sarah Jane uses her sonic lipstick to get out of the factory.

In Mrs Wormwood's office, Kelsey furiously rants about the treatment she has received. Unable to make sense of her tirade, Wormwood decides to use the abilities of her true form to scan the girl's mind. She deactivates her disguise off-screen, causing Kelsey to scream. Sometime later, Kelsey lies unconscious in the office. Davey notes Wormwood held back, to which she replies that children have parents who would cause them trouble by asking questions. She attempts to make sense of Kelsey's thoughts and finds most of them to be no use, focusing on boys and pop culture. She eventually discovers Kelsey knows of Sarah Jane and lives on the same street. She dispatches Davey to take Kelsey home with his true objective being to kill Sarah Jane and retrieve the Archetype.

Upon arriving back at Bannerman Road, Sarah Jane tells Maria to go home and not get involved. Maria replies that it is too late for that and reveals she saw the alien from the previous night which shocks Sarah Jane. However, she puts her foot down and tells Maria her life is dangerous; she doesn't want anyone else getting hurt for the decisions she has made. A furious Maria runs home and her father attempts to comfort her. Sarah Jane questions the Archetype on his origins. She finds that despite his appearance he lacks a navel and seems to lack common knowledge. Most surprisingly, Sarah Jane's alien watch reveals him to be only hours old. When she asks him who he is he only replies "I am everyone". Suddenly, a male voice calls out to Sarah Jane. The Archetype asks what it is but Sarah Jane quickly responds that it is nothing and that he is not allowed to go upstairs.

Soon after, Davey's car pulls up on the street. Kelsey attempts to flirt with him but he just tells her to get out. Kelsey enters the Jacksons' house and a relieved Maria asks her what happened. The mindwiped Kelsey remembers nothing, instead believing Maria abandoned her for no reason and that she had to get a lift home from Davey. Realising this means he is on their street, an alarmed Maria runs to Sarah Jane's house to warn her. Sarah Jane initially mistakes her intent and shuts the door on her but quickly opens it when Kelsey screams -- Davey has revealed his true Bane form and is crawling along the side of the house. Sarah Jane quickly rushes both girls inside but Davey easily knocks the front door off its hinges and chases them up the stairs.

Sarah Jane tells the children to wait as she dashes into a room she declares off limits and returns with a mysterious spray with which she attacks Davey. The spray noticeably weakens him and he limps away with his disguise reactivated, leaving a puddle of black goo on the area where he landed. As Maria thanks Sarah Jane for saving their lives, Kelsey slips away into the mysterious room and loudly declares her amazement. Sarah Jane and the others follow, revealing a room filled with various pieces of alien technology and mementos of past adventures. Sarah Jane explains that years ago she met a man unlike any other, who took her on adventures in time and space. Then suddenly it all ended. They recently met again by chance and though both had changed they still recognised that which they had enjoyed in one another.

With the aid of her wristwatch computer, Sarah Jane soon discovers that the ingredient in Bubble Shock she’s been trying to analyze is the secretion of a Bane Mother, and makes contact with Mrs Wormwood, politely asking her to leave Earth or face the consequences She refuses and summons the Bane Mother to take control of all the Humans who have ingested Bubble Shock!, (including Kelsey and Mr Jackson), using them as zombies to force others to drink it as well. Sarah Jane, Maria, and the Archetype take her car to the factory, but she is unable to get in using her sonic lipstick. Instead, she uses a Bubble Shock! Bus to crash through the wall of the factory, where Mrs Wormwood reveals the Bane Mother to them and explains that the Archetype was a conglomerate of human DNA from the scans taken of the factory guests, created to determine how to modify their product so that the two per cent of humans who were unaffected by it could be. Mrs Wormwood tells the Bane Mother to destroy them, but Maria uses her cell phone to irritate the Bane Mother, distracting it. This gives the Archetype the idea to use a communicator given to Sarah Jane by the Star Poet, which should be powerful enough to kill it. The factory explodes as they make their escape. TV reports indicate a recall of all Bubble Shock! stock and blame the zombie-like behaviour of people across the planet on a chemical imbalance. Sarah Jane later uses her computer, Mr Smith, to forge papers making the Archetype her adopted son, Luke Smith.

Cast

• Sarah Jane Smith — Elisabeth Sladen
• Mrs Wormwood — Samantha Bond
• Maria Jackson — Yasmin Paige
• Luke — Tommy Knight
• Kelsey — Porsha Lawrence Mavour
• Davey — Jamie Davis
• Alan Jackson — Joseph Millson
• Chrissie Jackson — Juliet Cowan
• Secretary — Rungano Nyoni
• Technician — Philip North
• Voice of K-9 — John Leeson
• Mr Smith — Alexander Armstrong
• Bubbleshock Girl — Sydney White
• TV Reporter — Olivia Hill
• Konnie Huq — Herself
• Gethin Jones — Himself

Cast notes

• Gethin Jones previously appeared as a Cyberman in the Doctor Who episode "The Age of Steel" in 2006. Gethin Jones and Konnie Huq are both Blue Peter presenters, and the segment used in this episode was filmed on the Blue Peter set.
• Olivia Hill later played a BBC Newsreader in the Doctor Who episode "The Sound of Drums" (2007).

Continuity

• Mrs Wormwood states that Sarah Jane has "residual artron energy" – the result of travelling through the spacetime vortex. Artron energy was established in the classic Doctor Who series as a form of temporal energy generated by Time Lord minds that is also said to power their TARDISes (The Deadly Assassin and Four to Doomsday). This episode's description of artron energy links it with the previously unnamed background radiation that Rose Tyler says a time traveller soaks up while travelling through the vortex ("Doomsday") also appearing in "Dalek".
• The alien whom Sarah Jane helps to send home is of the same race as "Mary", previously seen in the Torchwood episode "Greeks Bearing Gifts", whose home planet had not been named before.
• A book by H.G. Wells is among those arranged on Sarah Jane's bookshelf. The Doctor shared an adventure with Wells in the 1985 Sixth Doctor serial Timelash. In 1973's Frontier in Space, the Master is seen reading Wells's The War of the Worlds. At the beginning and end of the Doctor Who television movie, the Doctor is seen to read The Time Machine, also by Wells.
• Photographs of K-9 Mark III, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Harry Sullivan and the Doctor and an old woodcut print of the TARDIS landing, and diagrams showing Daleks, Cybermen, and a Jagaroth spaceship can be seen in Sarah Jane's attic. These appear to come from the The Doctor Who Technical Manual.
• Sarah Jane alludes to the Torchwood Institute and the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce when explaining that alien life is known to both the government and certain secret organisations. She mentions that these secret organisations have a tendency to "go in all guns blazing" while she prefers more subtle methods.
• Sarah Jane suggests the names 'Alistair' and 'Harry' before preferring 'Luke' for her new adopted son, apparent allusions to the Brigadier and Harry Sullivan.
• The Bane are able to disguise themselves as humans by use of 'image translator' technology. Other alien races encountered in the Doctor Who universe with the ability to disguise themselves as humans include the Zygons, Jagaroth, Krillitanes, Raxacoricofallapatorians, the Abzorbaloff, Carrionites, the Family of Blood and 'Mary' from Torchwood.
• Sarah Jane's plan to drive through the wall of the Bubble Shock! factory with a bus parallels a moment in "School Reunion" (2006) where Mickey Smith drives Sarah Jane's car through the doors of a school.
• The deadlock seal previously appeared in "Bad Wolf" and "School Reunion".
• The depiction of a black hole in this episode is the same fictionalised design used in "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit" (2006).
• Gareth Roberts' Doctor Who novel The Highest Science includes references to 'Bubbleshake', a dangerous and highly addictive narcotic that causes neurological damage.
• Sarah Jane's address of Bannerman Road may be a reference to the 1987 Seventh Doctor Doctor Who story, Delta and the Bannermen.
• K-9 Mark IV's reply to Sarah Jane, "Misunderstanding of the functional nature of this unit, mistress. I do not 'feel'. However, all circuits are functioning at full capacity." is almost identical to a comment made by K-9 Mark II to Romana in Warriors' Gate: "Misconception of the functional nature of this unit. I neither feel nor find it necessary to express states of efficiency or disfunction."

Outside references

• As Sarah Jane mentions, Mrs Wormwood's name echoes the star Wormwood from the Book of Revelation in the Bible.
• Wormwood Scrubs is the prison closest to BBC Television Centre, and near to East Acton tube station. Other villains named Wormwood include Miss Wormwood, the teacher in the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes; she, in turn, was named after Wormwood, the junior devil in C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters. The abusive family in the Roald Dahl book Matilda also carried the name "Wormwood".
• The mother Bane bears a striking resemblance to the Marvel Comics demon Shuma-Gorath.
• A disbelieving Kelsey references The Jeremy Kyle Show when the alien-in-human-form Davey tells her that the Bane is his mother.
• Mind-reading Mrs Wormwood claims Kelsey "worships the holy oaks" before correcting herself when she realises Kelsey really worships the TV programme Hollyoaks.
• Kelsey mentions the Pope and singer James Blunt and speculates them to be aliens, admitting it would make sense in the latter's case.
• The story bears some similarity to the Futurama episode "Fry and the Slurm Factory", where an addictive soft drink is discovered to have a terrible alien secret. The earlier B movie The Stuff had used a similar idea.
• A map of the Milky Way Galaxy is seen in the attic. This is actually a map created for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Conspiracy" that was reused in many more episodes of the series.

Broadcast and DVD release

• A 1-minute clip was featured on the BBC's Doctor Who Advent Calendar 2006. This clip was posted behind door 9. It features Sarah interviewing Mrs Wormwood in an office, and noting that her company gained a license in two weeks. Wormwood replies that all the Western world lives for is to eat, and then asks Sarah Jane "who are we to deny them".
• Sarah Jane lives in Ealing, West London.
• Blue Peter went behind the scenes on this episode. Presenters Gethin Jones and Konnie Huq also appeared in the episode, advertising 'Bubble Shock!'.
• A preview of this episode was featured on CBBC Extra, BBCi's magazine programme for children, in a piece about forthcoming 2007 CBBC programmes.
• The episode will be released DVD on 29 October 2007.

Novelisation

A novelisation of Invasion of the Bane is to be published in the UK by Penguin Character Books in November 2007. This marks the first time an episode connected to the 2005-present revival of Doctor Who has been so adapted.

External links

• Sarah Jane Adventures homepage