• Sarah Jane Smith — Elisabeth Sladen
• Maria Jackson — Yasmin Paige
• Luke Smith — Tommy Knight
• Clyde Langer — Daniel Anthony
• Mr Smith — Alexander Armstrong
• Mark Grantham — Chook Sibtain
• Carrie Metcalf — Sarah Haynes
• Wendy — Pamela Merrick
• Lance — Sonny Muslim
• Brandon Butler — James Bellamy
• Jen — Nadiyah Davis
• Cashier — Chrissie Furness
• Kudlak/Emperor/Mistress — Paul Kasey
• Voice of Kudlak/Emperor — Silas Carson
• Voice of Mistress — Tina Greatex

Plot Outline by Wikipedia

When Combat 3000, the new laser tag centre, arrives near Sarah Jane, a young teenager called Lance 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.

 

Analysis by Leather_Tuscadero

War games, people love em! Actual War, not so popular apparently.

First of all I have to say I think this story was the weakest one of the series so far, I did like the concept of it, choosing child soldiers from exceptional laser tag players, and the Aliens in it, but I think the moral message behind the story was hammered home too much.

So basically Kids have been going missing in towns where this new Combat 300 Laser Tag game has been appearing, the latest one to go missing is a boy called Lance and after meeting his mother Sarah Jane decides its time to investigate this, it’s nice to know she does do other stories in the papers other than aliens, although even this turn out to be aliens in the end didn’t it!

Meanwhile Clyde is still teaching Luke how to be cool even though Luke still seems to be clueless about the whole thing, seriously though shouldn’t he be starting to adapt to life now? It seems like it’s been a good few months surely he should be settling into things now.

Still it was nice to see the two boys getting in on some action since in the last episode they were less focused on, its good that they were the to who were playing the Laser Tag game, not that I'm saying it’s only for boys, there were clearly some girls there too, but I think the dynamic worked best with the two boys.

Luke definitely still needs to work on his slang; it’s good that he has Clyde to help him out.

I really liked the Alien in this story I thought it was cool how they made him out to be really evil in the beginning by kidnapping all the children, but then they gave him a chance to turn himself around at the end, I definitely felt sympathy for him in the end, all he wanted was peace and his crazy mistress had been lying to him for years, id be pretty pissed off too if that was me, I'm glad Sarah didn’t kill him in the end, not that she ever would of, and certainly not on children’s TV, instead she gave him a chance to better himself and to try and get the other children back to where they came from, that’s how it should be done, not one life for another.

The character of Mr Grantham though is a different matter, he should get everything that’s coming to him, he was nothing but a horrible evil man, I really couldn’t believe that Sarah just let him go, he should pay for what he’s done, kidnapping is not a nice subject and this guy clearly had no remorse for what he had done, I think the way they just let him get away with it all was badly done, I think there should have been some consequences there for him.

Still I think the scene with him in Sarahs house when Maria knocked him out was the best thing I’ve seen in ages, “No Mr Grantham, I think you’re the one who’s done with” is the best line so far in the series, I haven’t laughed so hard in ages.

My favourite bit out of this episode and possibly the series so far was when Sarah and Maria were up on the hill with her crazy machine, she was totally acting like the Doctor in that scene it was really cool, I think she’s turned into a mad scientist! That machine was a bit weird though, the whole thing reminded me of the old Skittles adverts where it would rain Skittles, still I thought it was cool to watch Sarah and Maria working together.

That’s another thing I like actually, I like the way Sarah and Maria get on together, if you ask me I think Sarah is bonding with Maria more than Luke, it’s totally like the whole Doctor/companion relationship, Sarah is the doctor and Maria is the companion, I think it works but I still would like her to spend more screen time with Luke.

Some of the scenes on the spaceship for me felt like they took to long especially when everyone stopped to admire the earth, oh yeah we’re being chased by aliens on a spaceship but hang on lets admire the view for a minute! Still I enjoyed the interaction between all the kids on the spaceship, especially when they overpowered the guards, where they the slabs from “Smith and Jones” Does anyone else think?

I’m glad Luke got to be the hero again, the way he worked out how to get of the ship was genius and how cute was he when he got his first kiss! Kinda embarrassing for him though having your mum there to watch though, ew!!!

But to get back to what I said at the beginning, the whole moral message of war being bad was too strong in this episode, I think it ruined the whole thing slightly, I really don’t think we needed the big speeches about it, yes I know there is war going on at the moment and many kids in the country will sympathise with Lance and how his dad was killed in the war, but really I don’t think it needed to be such a strong message.

Although, on the flip side when does Doctor Who or Torchwood ever mention things like that? Maybe it does need to be brought up sometimes, all I’m saying is I felt it was a bit too much that’s all.

There’s still one thing that bugs me about this episode, if the Kudlak war has been over for ten years then where have the rest of the kids that have been kidnapped been taken too?

This episode was enjoyable, it did have some good moments in it, but I still think it was the weakest one so far.

Review by Brandon Tempany/Leather Tuscadero