* Elisabeth Sladen – Sarah Jane Smith
* Tommy Knight – Luke Smith
* Daniel Anthony – Clyde Langer
* Anjli Mohindra – Rani Chandra
* Alexander Armstrong – Mr Smith
* Ace Bhatti – Haresh Chandra
* Mina Anwar – Gita Chandra
* Rosanna Lavelle - Barbara Smith
* Christopher Pizzey - Eddie Smith
* Paul Marc Davis - The Trickster
* Jimmy Vee - The Graske
* Georgie Glen - Mrs King
* Robert Madge – Oscar

Plot Outline by Wikipedia

A child, Oscar, from the 1950s walks into a time fissure and is transported to the current year. Unbeknown to Sarah Jane, who takes him back, he did it deliberately under the command of the Trickster. Having spotted a milestone, she later asks Mr Smith about the village she could see in the distance, discovering it was Foxgrove, the village where she was born. When Luke inquires about her odd behaviour, she shows him a photograph of her parents and tells him of how they abandoned her as a baby by the side of the road before being killed in a car accident, leaving her to be looked after by her aunt.

Though realising that the time fissure was a trap and initially refusing herself the opportunity to go back and meet her parents, that evening she does so, but accompanied by Luke who had anticipated her actions. Rani and Clyde ask Mr Smith where they have gone, and realise that she has gone back to when her parents were alive. Then the box from the episode whatever happened to Sarah Jane, the box that Maria had lights up. Sarah Jane and Luke spot her mother at the village fete carrying Sarah Jane as a baby. When they shake hands with Sarah's father, they introduce themselves as David and Victoria Beckham. Luke spots the child they 'helped' earlier and follows him. Sarah Jane has a conversation with her mother, who reveals her plan is for Sarah Jane to have siblings. Sarah Jane leaves before she is forced to hold herself in baby form, which would have created a paradox. On seeing a newspaper, Sarah Jane realizes that the day she has visited is the day her parents died. She ignores Luke's warning that changing time was a trap, and sabotages her father's car thereby preventing the accident. The child, Oscar, reveals that he is in fact a Graske. Sarah Jane and Luke go through the time fissure again and discover that present-day London has been destroyed. The Trickster then appears before Sarah Jane and mockingly thanks her for all she has done for him.

Sarah Jane demands to know how saving her parents could have altered time so drastically, to which the Trickster explains the village was built on a fault in time. Sarah Jane's tampering with a fixed point in time opened this fault, allowing the Trickster to physically enter their reality and ravage Earth for the last half a century. Sarah Jane and Luke go back through the fissure as the Trickster gloats he has already won. Meanwhile, Clyde and Rani explore the ruined London, reduced to rock formations and worked by the last surviving human slaves who are led by the Trickster's Graske. The slaves are being made to mine resources so that the Trickster may create a ship and extend his reach to the rest of the universe. Clyde and Rani implore the Graske to help them restore the original timeline but he explains that if he did the Trickster would punish him; years ago the Graske had nearly died in space, but had been saved by the Trickster in return for eternal servitude. Clyde promises the Graske that if he helps them, they will give him the puzzle box to free him from the Trickster. The Graske agrees and reopens the fissure so that Rani can tell Sarah Jane the new information. In the past, Sarah Jane's parents come to realise who she is and what she was trying to prevent. However, their touch now instantly withers any organic life they hold and they realise it is their destiny to drive off this day. After telling their daughter how proud they are of her, they both enter the new repaired car and drive off. The Trickster begins to fade, unable to see how the timeline could have been restored. Sarah Jane proudly states that the Trickster's plan never considered that her parents would willingly sacrifice themselves to save the world. The Trickster vanishes, howling in pain. Back in the modern day, the timeline is restored around the Graske and Clyde, who gives the alien the box. The Graske teleports away, beaming over its newly returned freedom. The fissure reopens as Sarah Jane, Luke and Rani return. Later at home, Sarah Jane reminisces over her parents. Although she could not save them, she finally knows why they left and is incredibly proud of them.

Analysis by Leather_Tuscadero

Two things I never thought I’d see on The Sarah Jane Adventures, The graske disguised as some kind of evil midget Harry Potter, and that idiot from The Basil Brush show actually convincing me he’s a good actor. (He played Sarah’s dad.)

First of all I have to say, this was an awesome episode! Definitely the best one so far, even if it was a complete rip off of Doctor Who’s “Fathers Day”

Obviously it was a kind of sequel to last seasons “Whatever happened to Sarah Jane” only this time Sarah’s parents died and we got to see her as a baby! Honestly how much tragedy can one person have in their life? She’s cursed I swear, but awwww she’s a cute baby! I have to point out though, the way her parents died is a bit freaky, crashing their car into a tractor in the middle of the road, especially since Sarah and Mike nearly met that same fate in Planet of the Spiders, how weird is that.

The plot to this story was awesome, although we have been building up to it all season first she mentioned her parents in Day of the clown then again last week in Mark of the berserker it was kinda obvious what she was going to do in this episode, everyone knew she was going to go through the fissure! Still it was cool seeing her go through the motions trying to decide what to do, I’m so glad Aunt Lavinia got another mention, I swear I squeed myself when she mentioned that she was never in one place long enough to lick a stamp, because of course that’s exactly what Lavinia said about Sarah in K9 and Company! I love references like that!

Sarah’s parents were awesome characters. I don’t know why but I always imagined them to be older than they were in this episode. Still they were great people and great parents, although I would have liked to have seen a bit more of them figuring out who Sarah really was and why they had to die, like Rose’s dad did in “Father’s day”, still this is a kids programme and that may be a bit too heavy for kids, and we only have 25 minutes, Doctor Who has 45.

Rani and Clyde were great too, especially Rani’s reactions to being in the 1950’s and how people reacted to her, that was funny, it’s a bit odd though when you think about it, the other choice would have been to send Clyde, how would they have reacted to him?? Or if they’d both gone, an Indian girl and a black lad in the 1950’s! There would have been a riot! I’m still not sure about the need for The Graske though, I said this last season in Whatever Happened To Sarah Jane, I think he was just there to show off a Doctor Who villain, at least this time we found out a bit more about him and why he was working for the Trickster, it was cool that he showed a softer side to himself in the bleak Planet of the apes type future for London, and it was nice to see him set free in the end too.

The Trickster is still creepy, he’s definitely one of the best monsters on the show, I do hope he is properly dead though, I think we’ve seen enough of him now, plus if we keep going using the same monsters it’ll get boring, we’ve already used Sontarans this season and the bane are coming back next week, you gotta keep it fresh people!

This episode is definitely one of Elisabeth Sladen’s best moments, although I could have done without the fake tardis bit I think that was unnecessary. Tommy Knight had some awesome bits too, I loved it when Luke commented on Sarah’s choice of clothes, Oh Luke, you have no idea do you! It’s things like that that give me hope that we’ll see Sarah’s Andy Pandy overalls again one day. I loved her choice of outfit for the 50’s; she finally wore something other than jeans and a waistcoat for once!

We fans over at the Sarah Jane wardrobe appreciation society have been waiting for that for a whole year! Although I don’t think even Sarah would have worn that in the 70’s.

I thought the ending to this episode was so sad, I seriously nearly cried when Eddie and Barbara said goodbye to baby Sarah Jane, although I am a bit confused about the whole thing, isn’t it some kind of time paradox that Sarah’s parents had to die that day? I mean think about it, they left in the car to save their baby, but they did this because of the Trickster, but! If Sarah had never gone through the fissure to see them then the Trickster would never had appeared in the first place, so basically it was always set in stone that her parents were going to die BECAUSE Sarah went through the time fissure, so there was nothing she could have done about it anyway because it was her fault it was going to happen anyway, right?

Another thing that confused me was the message on the back of the photo at the end? I’m assuming it’s one of Barbara’s messages to Eddie that she left, but! It wasn’t on the back of the picture when Sarah was holding it in her hands before she put it down, and then suddenly it was, was that a continuity mistake or was it some kind of wibbly wobbly timey wimey subliminal message?

Review by Brandon Tempany/Leather Tuscadero