A/N: Back on Sarah Jane again 😅 Love these episodes but it's a bit stressful when finding the episode to watch to give myself a visual but found one for this.
—
Kathy travels with the Doctor for a little longer, believing someone should be with him as it is nearing the end of this regeneration. There's a trip to the Yorkshire Moors in the 18th century where there were vanishing livestock and strange lights. Then a harmless trip to the Chelsea Flower Show that had Chelsea 426, a city-sized future colony floating on the clouds of Saturn and a confrontation with Sontarans. Soon the TARDIS picks up a disruption in the universe. After some digging and Kathy explaining, it is discovered that the Trickster is once again trying to use Sarah Jane Smith to break through into this reality and create chaos by using her falling in love. They try to break through, to stop it but they get knocked back by the Trickster and are unable to break through until finally, they do.
They burst out of the TARDIS and into a reception room in a hotel and Kathy hears the sound of the register talking. Kathy and the Doctor bolt into the wedding room, drawing the attention of the congregation. Sarah Jane and Peter stand in front of the register.
"Stop this wedding now!" The Doctor yells.
"What?" Sarah Jane gasps in surprise.
"What's going on?" Gita exclaims.
"Who the hell is that?" Her husband mutters.
"I don't believe it," Luke says.
"Who's they? What is she wearing?" Rani questions. Kathy gives her an offended look though she can't blame her because what would you say if two unknown people barge into a wedding ceremony and one is wearing a dress from the 16th century?
K9 appears from under a table. "Master! Mistress Kathrine!" Kathy spares him a quick, but excited, look but diverts her attention back to the front.
"He said, stop this wedding." Kathy declares. She knows that they'll not be able to stop this until Peter understood what he had agreed to and they needed time to do so but they could try. A strong wind blows through the room causing Kathy and the Doctor to stumble. Kathy tries not to get her legs tangled up in her dress.
"Alert! Alert! Danger, Mistress!" K9 cries as he spins in circles.
"Stop! Get away from him!" The Doctor yells.
Sarah Jane tries to but Peter holds onto her. "No! Peter, no!"
"Don't be afraid, Sarah Jane. It's the Angel." Peter calmly replies. A faceless figure in white appears in the corner of the room. The Trickster.
"The Trickster!" Rani exclaims in shock.
"Mum! Mum!" Luke cries in panic.
"Sarah! Trickster, let her go!" The Doctor yells. He and Kathy struggle to walk forward due to the wind.
"Too late, Time Lord and halfling." The Trickster replies as he walks over to Sarah Jane and Peter. "You're mine, Sarah Jane Smith. Mine forever."
"Sarah Jane!" Kathy yells desperately.
"Doctor! Kathy!" Sarah Jane cries. The Trickster, Peter and Sarah Jane vanish.
"Sarah!" The Doctor is yelling. The Doctor and Kathy are now able to bolt forward towards the altar. "Sarah, no!"
Then the shaking picks up again and the congregation begins screaming and panicking before they disappear.
"Mom! Dad!" Rani exclaims. The rumbling continues.
"Hold on! Hold on!" Kathy yells as she and the Doctor cling to the furniture in the room. There's a flash of light.
—
Kathy wakes in the same room she was in before but knows that is not entirely true.
Kathy sees the Doctor crouching over Luke, who's lying on the floor, and the damaged furniture around her.
"Luke? Luke Smith."
Luke wakes up. "Doctor?"
"That's me. Good to meet you in the flesh." The Doctor grins.
"And nice to meet you for the first time," Kathy says as she gets on her feet to walk over to them.
Luke begins to panic and sits up. "What, what happened? Mum and the Trickster."
"Luke, Luke, Luke, Luke, listen to me." The Doctor interrupts. "Everything's going to be all right. We can find Sarah. We can bring her back. I promise. But we need you to be strong for us, just like you were before. I know you can do it." Kathy notices Clyde and Rani wake up.
"Who are you two?" Clyde asks abruptly.
"Hello, Clyde." The Doctor cries cheerfully, pulling Clyde up by the hand and then doing the same with Rani. "And that will be Rani. Kathy has told me all about you."
"Yes, it's great to see you two again!" Kathy says.
"What? How'd you know my name?" Clyde demands. The Doctor starts analysing the room.
The dots connect quicker for Rani. "Wait a moment. You must be— It's you, isn't it? And you're…"
"That's me." The Doctor says absentmindedly.
"Affirmative," Kathy adds.
Rani gapes at them in shock. "The Doctor. And Kathy."
"That's them." Luke answers. "Wait if Kathy has met Clyde and Rani, where was I?"
"Ah, can't tell you that!" Kathy replies. "Spoilers!"
"I hope you two are as good as Sarah Jane says you are." Clyde remarks.
The Doctor has an ear to the floor. "Well, you know journalists, always exaggerating." He stands. "But yeah, we're pretty amazing on a good day."
K9 emerges. "Master, Mistress Katherine, query. Where is Mistress Sarah Jane?"
"K9!" The Doctor exclaims joyfully.
"Oh my god! It's K9!" Kathy cries.
The Doctor is crouching in front of K9. "Did you miss me? Did you miss me, eh?"
"Repeat. Whereabouts of Sarah Jane? Where is she?"
"Where are we?" Clyde asks and Kathy looks up to see that the kids had taken notice of what's outside the window. The Doctor and Kathy walk over.
"There's been a dimensional shift. Time's moved on but us, and this entire building, we've been left behind." The Doctor explains.
"There's nothing out there," Rani utters. She's right as the hotel they're in, and the bit of ground it stands on, are floating in white limbo.
"I said all along, I knew there was something wrong about all of this," Clyde says smugly before turning to Kathy and the Doctor. "And what exactly is going on?"
"I'll explain later." The Doctor says dismissively as he looks about the room. The three of them start speaking at once. The Doctor silences them with a football rattle.
"Shush." Kathy hisses. "Here's the answer to all your questions."
"Yes, that was the Trickster. Yes, we're trapped. Yes, we're the only ones who can get us out of the trap. Yes, we're going to bring Sarah Jane, and your mum and dad, and all the others back safe." The Doctor explains.
"But we can't do any of it without you." Kathy finishes.
"You, you need us?" Clyde asks in wide eyed surprise but also a little bit of smugness.
"Just like Sarah Jane needs you." The Doctor says.
"My mum and dad, where are they?" Rani questions.
"Just go along with them, Rani. I saw them save the world." Luke tells her. It feels weird for Kathy to have someone with so much faith in her and she's only just met them.
"You helped us save the world, Lukey boy." The Doctor exclaims, patting Luke's cheeks.
"Though technically that hasn't happened for me yet," Kathy adds.
"Right. Come on, we can use the TARDIS." The Doctor declares before abruptly stopping. "I assume everybody knows what the TARDIS is, unless you've really not been paying attention. And, allons-y!"
—
They run out into the hotel reception to find the TARDIS no longer there.
"Oh, no, no, no, no. It was there. It was right there." The Doctor cries out in frustration but then you can hear the sputtering of the TARDIS's engine. "Wait, wait, wait." The TARDIS starts to materialise but struggles.
"That noise. I've heard it before." Rani realises.
"That was us, trying to break through. Got knocked back by the Trickster." The Doctor explains.
"Temporal schism is preventing TARDIS materialisation." K9 analyses.
"Wait a minute. That's the TARDIS? It's just a wooden box." Clyde wines.
"Don't diss the TARDIS." Kathy reprimands.
"Come on, you can do it. More power. Come on!" The Doctor urges but the TARDIS fades away. "Okay, got no TARDIS. It can't materialise here until time moves forward."
"What, so we're trapped here, wherever this is?" Rani asks.
"No, look on the bright side, because look at what we've got," Kathy argues. "We have K9."
"Affirmative."
"And you three."
"And any friend of Sarah Jane Smith is a friend of ours." The Doctor finishes.
"But where is this? What's happened to the rest of the world?" Clyde questions.
"Our present location nowhere, no when." K9 answers.
"No when?" Luke repeats.
"Look at the clocks," Kathy tells them. There is little she can do currently until Clyde gets the artron energy from the TARDIS, which is crucial for when they next see her and the Doctor.
"Time's stopped," Luke concludes as he takes in how the clocks are struggling to move forward.
"What? You're joking." Clyde mutters as he looks at his watch.
"No. Time hasn't stopped. This second's on a loop." Luke corrects. "Twenty three seconds and twenty three minutes past three o'clock." The horses on a small screen repeats the one second of the race.
"And we're caught inside it. In this one second." The Doctor adds.
"But again, where is Sarah Jane?" Clyde asks.
"She's right here," Kathy tells them.
—
"So, we've been kept behind in this second." Rani thinks out loud.
"Affirmative Mistress Rani." K9 agrees.
"But the rest of the world, Mum and Dad and everyone else, they've moved on from here, forwards in time. Why has the Trickster trapped us here?"
"Oh, come on, Rani. You know the answer to that." The Doctor replies.
"We're Sarah Jane's friends, all of us. Her best friends…" Rani trails off.
"Yeah. Which means?" Kathy prompts. The Doctor runs up the stairs.
"Hostages!" Rani exclaims. "He can use us to get at her."
"We've met the Trickster before, but we've never found out who he is," Clyde says.
The Doctor walks down the stairs as he talks. "The Trickster is a creature from beyond the universe. Forever trying to break into our reality, and manifest himself. He's one of the Pantheon of Discord."
"That's a good name for a band."
"Yeah, not bad," Kathy says.
"He's an eternal exile, who exists to wreak havoc. But we can fight him, the six of us. And we can win." His sonic screwdriver starts beeping and he pulls it out to have look. Kathy fiddles with hers that sits in a discreet pocket of her dress. "Oh! Ha, that's it. A time trace. Just a hint of Sarah Jane. Oooh, she's close."
The Doctor continues fiddling and analysing with his sonic when Rani suddenly shivers. "What was that? Felt like someone just walked over my grave."
The sonic then goes haywire. "Oh, oh, oh, she's here. She's here! Sarah!" The Doctor yells.
"Sarah Jane. She doesn't like being called Sarah." Rani corrects.
"She does by me."
"K9?!" Kathy yells when suddenly Sarah Jane appears for a brief moment when passing a window.
"Scanning, Mistress Katherine."
"Doctor! Doctor!" Comes Sarah Jane's voice, echoing.
"Mum!" Luke exclaims.
"That was her," Clyde says.
"The temporal schism has been divided in two," Kathy tells them. No harm in hurrying them along a bit.
"Mistress Katherine is correct," K9 says.
"Yes, of course. We're trapped here in 3:23:23. and Sarah Jane's trapped too, just in another second." The Doctor realises.
"Hold on. You said you'd explain later. Well, it's later. Please explain." Clyde demands. Kathy finds it funny how all three straighten up and two cross their arms.
"The Trickster doesn't want us helping Sarah Jane, so he's separated us, trapped us in two different seconds," Kathy explains.
"Doctor!" Comes Sarah Jane's voice again.
"Oh, oh, she's upstairs. Come on. Luke, K9, watch for the TARDIS, you see it coming back, shout the place down." The Doctor orders.
"Orders accepted, Master." K9 replies.
"You two with us," Kathy says to Clyde and Rani.
"Spit spot!" The Doctor yells and the four of them run up the stairs.
—
The Doctor, Kathy, Clyde and Rani run back into the room where the wedding was instead of another room upstairs.
"How did we end up here again?" Rani questions.
"It's a spatial loop mixed up with a temporal loop," Clyde replies.
"Spot on, Clyde," Kathy says. Clyde smiles.
"How did you work that one out?" Rani asks.
"Well, we've been doing this for a while now. I have taken notes." Clyde says smugly.
"Come on, come on, come on, Sarah. Let me find you." The Doctor mutters.
"Hang on, though. This is mad." Rani says. "The Trickster, he's this all-powerful immortal who wants to cause chaos throughout the stars, and he wants Sarah Jane to get married. What does he get out of that?"
"She's here. If I can narrow the link ratio." The Doctor pulls out his sonic.
"Doctor. Ms Davis." They turn to see the Trickster back in its black robe.
"Ah. You look better in black. Or is white the new black?" The Doctor remarks cheekily.
"At last. Doctor. Ms Davis. I could feel this moment reverberating back through the ages. The meeting of the Pantheon of Discord and the last of the Time Lords and the abomination." The Trickster says.
"Hey!"
"I've known the legends of the Pantheon since I was a little boy. I've fought your shadows and your changelings. I never thought we'd actually meet." The Doctor says.
"I definitely didn't think I'd ever meet him either," Kathy mutters.
"And I know the legends of the Doctor and Katherine Davis. The man of ice and fire, who walked among gods, who once held the Key to Time in his hands. And the woman of many lives that will live on and on until the end. Now they are surrounded by children." Kathy frowns at his words. Until the end of what?
"They're our friends." The Doctor argues. "Which reminds me, you're looking a bit lonely for a Pantheon."
"I embody multitudes. And who are you, the man who has lost everybody, to talk to me of loneliness, when the Gate is waiting for you?" The Trickster counters.
"What do you mean?"
"Sarah Jane Smith is my prize. Even you, Doctor, Ms Davis, didn't realise how wonderful she is."
"What do you want with her?" The Doctor asks.
"What he always wants from any of those he visits. Her agreement." Kathy explains.
"Exactly. Goodbye, Doctor, Katherine." The Trickster vanishes.
"Her agreement. The power of words. She says I do, and…" The Doctor mutters as he realises. "Yes, that's it!"
"That's what?" Clyde questions.
"She promises to love and honour her husband, the wedding ring goes on and then she's agreed to it. She's totally under the Trickster's power." The Doctor explains. "Marital bliss, but she forgets all about this. She starts living a new life."
"Forgetting about her old life, protecting the Earth." Rani realises.
"And the planet's wide open, so aliens can just barge in?" Clyde questions, aghast.
Kathy nods. "Exactly. Without Sarah Jane, without you lot saving the world from your attic in Ealing, there'll be chaos and destruction."
"Meat and drink to the Trickster." The Doctor concludes.
"As if she's gonna say yes," Clyde says.
"But she will, won't she? Because we're here."
The TARDIS engines sound and the TARDIS fades in. "TARDIS! Beautiful. Yes!" The Doctor cries cheerfully. "It's homing in on me. Emergency program, protecting the pilot. Of course. Partial materialisation."
"What's happening?" Luke comes into the room. The room shakes and the wind picks up.
"Look, that's pure artron energy. TARDIS power. Equal and opposite to the Trickster's power. That's how we can fight him." The Doctor unlocks the TARDIS door.
"Wait, Doctor!" Kathy yells. A strong wind is pushing them back.
"Doctor!" Rani yells.
"Come on, all of you, get in. Come on now." The Doctor manages to grab Clyde's hand, but he can't pull him in. The door slams shut and Clyde is held against it with artron energy playing all over him before he falls to the floor.
"Clyde!" Luke cries. The three of them pull him up. The TARDIS dematerialises.
"Right okay then." Kathy mumbles.
"You alright?" Luke asks Clyde.
"Yeah. I think. He'll come back for us, won't he?"
"What if he can't?
"He will. Luke, wait here for him. We'll check with K9." Kathy orders. Luke nods and the other two follow her out of the room.
—
The three of them run into the Hotel reception and Rani starts talking, "The Doctor said the power of the TARDIS could fight the Trickster. Something energy."
"Artron energy." K9 corrects. "Residue of TARDIS engines. Known to be highly inimical to certain time-sensitive life forms."
"There is no TARDIS." Rani snaps.
"No, but we have Clyde." Kathy interrupts.
"What do you mean?"
Kathy points at Clyde, who has a ball of energy in the palm of his hand.
"Whoa." He mutters in wonder and confusion.
"What's that?" Rani asks.
"Artron energy, Mistress Rani." K9 explains.
"And I got a shot of it," Clyde adds.
"Then we can fight him?" Rani says.
"No. I can fight him." Clyde argues.
Kathy chews her lip anxiously. "Clyde, I know what you're going to do and I must warn you that it's dangerous."
"But this'll stop him, won't it?"
Kathy sighs and hesitates before nodding. "Yes, you'll end up where Sarah Jane is and it encourages Peter to withdraw his agreement, which defeats the Trickster and you'll be back where you were."
"So, all I have to do is get close to the Trickster with this," Clyde says.
"Clyde, you can't." Rani pleads.
"When has that ever stopped us?" Clyde argues. "It's what Sarah Jane would do. It's what the Doctor taught her. Kathy says it'll defeat the Trickster. I've got no choice."
"Please, don't do this." Rani blocks the door but Clyde pushes past.
Clyde opens the front doors of the hotel. "Trickster!"
The Trickster appears in the white mist of limbo. "Clyde Langer. Why do you call me?"
"I wish to serve you. I wish to join the Pantheon." Clyde replies and steps out.
"Clyde, no!" Rani cries and the doors slam shut.
—
Things begin shaking. Luke runs out into the Hotel reception room as well as the Doctor from his TARDIS. The clocks now being in a different second makes Kathy realise that Peter had withdrawn his agreement with the Trickster. The Doctor, Kathy Luke and Rani run into the wedding room, followed at a distance by K9. Sarah Jane sits on the floor with an unconscious Clyde on her lap on the verge of tears.
"Mum!" Luke cries. They all crouch around Sarah Jane.
"Luke. Doctor." Sarah Jane sobs. "Oh, Doctor."
"My Sarah Jane. You did it. The trap's broken. Time's moving forward again." The Doctor says as the room begins to shake. "We're going home."
"Hold on!" Luke says.
"We're all going home."
There's a flash of light and the Doctor and Kathy find themselves in the Hotel reception room standing by the TARDIS.
—
"Sudden disappearing acts. That's him all over." Kathy hears Sarah Jane say as the TARDIS begins to land in the attic.
The TARDIS finds a place to park herself and the Doctor and Kathy open the door to see the attic. Sarah Jane, the kids, Mr Smith and K9 are in front of them.
"Doctor." Sarah Jane gasps.
"What do you take me for, Sarah? Just thought I'd go the quick way. Oooh, I like it in here." The Doctor remarks.
"Can we have a look?" Rani asks excitedly.
The Doctor's face forms into a very serious expression. "What, in the TARDIS?" The kids' expressions drop as his voice rises. "My TARDIS!"
Kathy rolls her eyes: "Ignore him. Come on in." She receives bright smiles then the kids dart past.
"Oh, wow. It really is, isn't it? It's bigger on the inside." Clyde gasps.
"It's beautiful," Rani says in equal wonderment, darting around the corals.
"Transcendental dimensions," Luke observes excitedly.
"Wow, what does this do?" Clyde reaches toward the console.
"Hey, don't touch." Sarah Jane scolds, she turns to the Doctor and Kathy. "You came all that way for me."
"You're so important," Kathy says.
"And not just to us." The Doctor adds. "The Trickster wanted to end your story, but it goes on. The things you've done, Sarah, they're pretty impressive, but, oh, the things you're going to do."
"The future. How about we could go for a ride?" Luke pipes up.
"Or back. To the dinosaurs, yeah?" Clyde supplies.
"Another planet?" Rani says this time.
"No way." Sarah Jane denies. "For one thing, you were grounded by the Judoon. And your parents would never forgive me. Go on." Luke, Rani and Clyde pout but leave. "Is this the last time I'm ever going to see you? I know Kathy will see me again as there is much she hasn't done yet."
"I look forward to it," Kathy says.
"I don't know if this is the last time." The Doctor answers her. "I hope not."
"Goodbye, Doctor, Kathy, until the next time."
"Don't forget me, Sarah Jane." The Doctor warns her.
"No one's ever going to forget you." Sarah Jane replies then leaves. Kathy winces as she knows that this is Ten after Donna. His face looks sombre for a moment before turning to Kathy with a cheerful face.
"So where next then?" The Doctor asks cheerfully.
Kathy looks at him sombrely. "You know where. The place you have been avoiding."
It was time for him to face his fate.
