Secrets of the Stars

• Elisabeth Sladen – Sarah Jane Smith
• Tommy Knight – Luke Smith
• Daniel Anthony – Clyde Langer
• Anjli Mohindra – Rani Chandra
• Alexander Armstrong – Mr Smith
• Russ Abbot – Martin Trueman
• Mina Anwar – Gita Chandra
• Ace Bhatti – Haresh Chandra
• Carryl Thomas – Cheryl Farley
• Nicky Ladanowski – Lisa Trotter
• Ed Hughes – Stuart Farley

Plot Outline by Wikipedia

The scene opens up on a woman, Cheryl visiting an astrologer to see her future in the stars. The man is a con artist, deceiving his customers to get money out of them, to which he finally admits this to the woman who has been visiting him frequently. He walks to the window where a shooting star is heading exactly for his house, and he is possessed by an unknown being in front of the woman. Later, Luke, Clyde and Rani are visiting an exhibition with the astrologer, Martin Trueman, as the event is free. Rani's Parents and Sarah Jane also show up and each person fills in a card with their birthday and star signs on it and hand it to Cheryl who is now working with the astrologer. Luke is slightly upset given that he does not have a star sign as he was never born, but activated.

The show starts and Trueman begins to ask random dates and three people including Clyde stand up, as this is their birthday, although Clyde is unsure why he stood up. Sarah Jane tells him it’s a trick of persuasion and she is sceptical about the entire show. Next he asks for a person and begins to tell truths about her life, as the woman herself is shocked but enjoying the show. Sarah Jane then tells Luke, Clyde and Rani that the woman was a plant and that Martin Trueman already knew her. Next Martin calls on Rani, and starts detailing that she has recently moved house and gives few details about her family. Rani is slightly amazed but not suspicious. Next he calls on Sarah Jane Smith, and begins detailing her travels with the Doctor in front of the audience, no-one but Sarah Jane, Luke and Clyde (and possibly Rani) could know of these stories and Sarah Jane is instantly suspicious. Martin Trueman then predicts her downfall.

Clyde threatens Sarah but they manage to talk him out of it, which leads Sarah Jane to believe that Trueman's control on people can be repressed by persuading them to do something that they do not normally want to do. Meanwhile, using in his broadcast to the world, Martin Trueman takes over each star sign one by one, starting with Gemini - including Rani's mother. The world is in confusion as people are accepting the 'Ancient Lights'. Sarah Jane and the gang head to the New Theatre in East Acton to stop the broadcast, but the possessed Children of Gemini threaten to stop them. Clyde bluffs his way through by making up horoscopes.

The Ancient Lights create a portal through to the theatre. Martin reveals that Luke's theory on the Ancient Lights is true. Martin insinuates that in the old universe, they used to control all life forms. The Ancient Lights survived the Big Bang and needed Martin Trueman to rule the world because; he was the 'Chosen One'. Sarah Jane tries to talk him out of it but to no avail. Rani and Luke try to shut down the broadcast by flicking the mains switch off, but it is protected by the Ancient Lights' energy. Rani is an Aries and eventually becomes possessed, leaving only people with the star-sign of Taurus, which includes Sarah Jane, not under Trueman's control. However Luke, who was not born and so does not have a star-sign, realises he can stop the power of the Ancient Lights by breaking Trueman's circle. Realising that he has been beaten, Trueman cannot bare to return to his former life and instead chooses to become one with the stars. In the aftermath, the unaware Earth authorities begin a search for Trueman and Sarah Jane declares the date will Luke's equivalent to a birthday.

Analysis by Leather_Tuscadero

Star Signs, some people believe in them some people don’t, personally I’m a Taurus and I think it’s all bull! [Geddit!]

So this episode was all about the power that the stars have over us featuring a pretty decent performance from comedian Russ Abbott as the unfortunate Martin Trueman, there must be a generation gap here because all my older friends got all excited when they heard that Russ Abbott was gonna be in an episode of Sarah Jane, honestly I didn’t even know who he was, I just get excited about the name Elisabeth Sladen! She’s the only one I care about! They could cast Jesus himself and it wouldn’t be as exciting as Elisabeth. Still he was pretty good, a sympathetic character even when he’s being nasty, I even felt a bit sorry for him when he died in the end, I didn’t think he was gonna die actually I thought he would get saved, character don’t usually die on Sarah Jane, except Andrea Yates, and some of the Slitheen.

I really liked the scene in the theatre when Trueman was reading peoples star signs, especially when he got to Sarah’s, ooh that was cool! She so doesn’t like it when people intrude on her life with the doctor! I think it’s cool though that everyone assumes that they were “involved”.

In terms of the plot I have to say the storyline was quite obvious, everyone has a star sign because everyone was born under a certain date and time, except Luke, so obviously he was going to be the one to save the day! Honestly I figured that out during the first 10 minutes! Still it was a pretty cool idea that the one person who doesn’t have a star sign controlling them is the only person who could stop Martin Truemans scheme.

Also the whole hypnotism thing was almost an exact replica of what happened in Doctor Who’s “The Christmas invasion”, except this time it was people’s star sign and not their blood type, it’s good to know that me and Sarah Jane have the same star sign, we’d be safe! Some of the special effects in this episode seem familiar too, I think this series is used as a recycling machine for Doctor Who’s old effects, doesn’t matter though, it’s still awesome

Clyde was cool in this episode too, especially when he was hypnotised by Trueman, it must be nice for Sarah to see someone else get hypnotised for once!

He was really awesome when he was gonna destroy Sarah Jane, and how cool of Sarah Jane to try and talk him out of it instead of using violence, not that she would of course.

I like the fact that this season Sarah seems to be pairing up with Clyde on adventures, last year it was Maria, it’s nice too see the two of them bonding, I’m glad they didn’t immediately slip Rani into Marias role of Sarahs companion I don’t think it would have worked if they had too be honest, you cant just slip a new character into place that easily, it doesn’t work like that.

It’s also nice to know that Sarah actually socialises with adults as well as just the kids, it’s good to know she doesn’t live in the attic all the time.

Luke was great in this episode too, although he always is, that boy’s so adorable I wish they would make a plush doll out of him so I could cuddle him all day, although I wish he would find some other facial expressions, he seems to stick with a sort of dopey look all the time.

I cant help but feel sorry for him sometimes especially when he gets sad about not having a childhood or a birthday, it’s nice too know he’ll have one from now on, plus he was clever to figure out how he could stop Trueman, even though like I said before it was a pretty obvious plot device.

You know there’s one disadvantage to living in the same town as where they film a series, when you know where all the locations are and you see them every day it kinda takes the shine off, it’s better when it’s not so familiar, it makes it easier to believe in it.

That theatre is so not in East Acton, I walk past it practically every day! In fact I even saw them filming some scenes of this episode earlier in the year.

I think this was the weakest episode so far this season, good characters though and superb acting, but plot wise I think it was a bit dumb, I think it really depends whether you believe in star signs or not, then again it is supposed to be for kids so I guess I cant expect complex storylines all the time, but following on from scary clowns last time this just felt a bit weak, a big scary child snatching clown against an old comedian and star signs….there’s no contest really.