Day: January 1, 1960

Ten-year-old Maria Jackson moves into a new house on Bannerman Road, where she and her dad are beginning a new life together following his divorce. It doesn’t take long for Maria to make a new friend, a girl named Kesley who lives down the street, though she’s even more fascinated by the woman who lives across the street from her – a reclusive journalist named Sarah Jane Smith. Kelsey persuades Maria to join her for a free tour of the bottling company where Bubbleshock, a new organic drink sweeping the country, is produced. Free buses makes several stops a day, transporting children to the Bubbleshock factory, where they get a strictly guided, closely guarded tour and, of course, endless free samples. Maria is one of only 2% of children in Britain who haven’t gotten hooked on Bubbleshock, though the company is said to be “working on that.”

Sarah follows the tour bus and slips into the factory herself, though she isn’t there to take the tour – she’s trying to go straight to the top for an interview with the elusive Mrs. Wormwood, who runs the Bubbleshock operation. She gets her interview, though she and Mrs. Wormwood engage in icy verbal fencing the whole time. Mrs. Wormwood decides that Sarah knows too much and issues secret orders to prevent Sarah from escaping the factory alive, but she does just that, giving the Bubbleshock guards the slip and hiding out. When Kelsey slips away from the guided tour to call a friend on her cell phone (something which the tour guides specifically said should be turned off), the phone causes an alarm to sound – and awakens a hideous creature with a single eye, hanging from the ceiling of the factory. Maria hears Kelsey’s screams and rushes to find her new friend, but instead finds a boy on the run who wasn’t part of the tour. They go into hiding, where they bump into Sarah, who helps them escape the factory. Sarah warns Maria to go home – her life is far too dangerous to involve anyone else, which is why she has no children of her own.

Kelsey returns to Maria’s house, unaware that she’s been questioned about where Sarah lives and has had her memory erased. Maria takes Kelsey to Sarah’s house, where Maria warns Sarah that she’s in danger – just in time to see that danger arrive in the form of an enormous, bug-like creature that chases them all into Sarah’s home. Sarah turns the tables on her attacker, revealing that the insectoid is the true form of the young man leading the tour at the Bubble Shock factory. He flees, and in that moment of confusion, Kelsey runs to the top floor of Sarah’s house, discovering a treasure trove of alien artifacts from Sarah’s travels through time and space. When Mrs. Wormwood activates the secret ingredient in Bubbleshock, it gives her instant control of much of the population – including Maria’s dad and Kesley. Sarah, Kelsey, and the mysterious nameless boy from the factory go on the run, and with the Doctor nowhere nearby, Sarah is all that stands between the human race and the invasion of the Bane.

written by Russell T. Davies and Gareth Roberts
directed by Colin Teague
music by Sam Watts / title music by Murray Gold

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

LogBook entry and additional notes by Earl Green