Tag: Androvax

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 Gold

Guest 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

After jumping from Clyde’s body to that of Rani’s mother, Androvax – now in possession of both of the keys to the vault imprisoning his people – has escaped from both the men in black and Sarah Jane. The men in black have no qualms about killing Rani’s mother to save the world from the Veils, but Rani certainly has a problem with it. And Sarah is now in the difficult position of having to entrust the entire future of the human race to suited androids who she isn’t entirely sure she trusts.

written by Phil Ford
directed by Joss Agnew
music by Sam Watts & Dan Watts / title music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Mina Anwar (Gita Chandra), Ace Bhatti (Haresh Chandra), Angus Wright (Mister Dread), Mark Goldthorp (Androvax), Cheryl Campbell (Ocean Waters), David Webber (Minty), Perry Blanks (Van Driver)

Notes: Clyde refers to Mulder & Scully, so apparently, as with Star Trek (see Doctor Who: The Empty Child), The X-Files is on the air in the Doctor Who universe. Tommy Knight is not credited in this episode, since Luke appears only in clips in the standard opening montage narrated by Clyde.

LogBook entry by Earl Green