A young girl breaks into a high-tech complex disguised as a crumbling building in London, and is chased out of the building by three suited men with guns mounted on their decidedly artificial arms. When the girl is outside, she collapses in exhaustion – and notorious intergalactic criminal Androvax the Destroyer is revealed as having commandeered her body. He gives his pursuers the slip and flees.
Androvax next appears on Bannerman Road, where he takes over Rani’s body and asks Sarah Jane for help. The men pursuing him have locked Androvax’s entire civilization, the Veils, into a hyperdimensional vault, fearing that all of his people will be capable of the same crimes as Androvax himself. Since the android men in black are expecting Androvax, he needs Sarah’s help to free the Veils. But it’s only once Sarah, Clyde and Rani have been noticed by the men in black that it becomes apparent that Androvax isn’t telling them everything.
written by Phil Ford
directed by Joss Agnew
music by Sam Watts & Dan Watts / title music by Murray GoldGuest Cast: Mina Anwar (Gita Chandra), Ace Bhatti (Haresh Chandra), Angus Wright (Mister Dread), Mark Goldthorp (Androvax), Cheryl Campbell (Ocean Waters), David Webber (Minty), Sophie Benjamin (Gill)
Notes: Androvax first appeared in the season 3 opener Prisoner Of The Judoon. Sarah gives MR. Smith the task of jamming transmission from NASA’s Mars Rover (presumably the Opportunity rover, since its identical twin, Spirit, has been marooned in Martian sand since April 2009); if Mr. Smith hadn’t accomplished this task, a large pyramid would’ve been visible in transmissions returned to Earth. Since Sarah says the pyramids was constructed by an ancient and “terrible” civilization, it’s presumably one of the Pyramids of Mars constructed by the Osirans, which Sarah herself visited with the fourth Doctor in the 1976 Doctor Who story of the same name. In this episode, Tommy Knight appears as Luke via webcam only.
LogBook entry by Earl Green