The Nightmare Man (The Sarah Jane Adventures)
| 19 – The Nightmare Man | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| The Sarah Jane Adventures story | |||
| Cast | |||
Starring | |||
Others
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| Production | |||
| Directed by | Joss Agnew | ||
| Written by | Joseph Lidster | ||
| Executive producer(s) | Russell T Davies Nikki Wilson | ||
| Production code | 4.1 and 4.2 | ||
| Series | Series 4 | ||
| Running time | 2 episodes, 25 minutes each | ||
| First broadcast | 11 & 12 October 2010 | ||
| Chronology | |||
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The Nightmare Man is a two-part story of The Sarah Jane Adventures which broadcast on CBBC on 11 and 12 October 2010. It is the first story of the fourth series.
Plot
Part 1
The story starts with Luke Smith recording a message - he is frightened that somebody is coming. The story then flashes back a year, to show Luke telling Sarah Jane that he is planning to go the University a year early. It is then revealed that they are attached to a bomb set by a Slitheen - however Clyde Langer and Rani Chandra come in with K-9. K-9 deactivates the bomb, and Clyde throws some vinegar at the slitheen to kill it.
The story then goes back to 4 days before Luke goes to Oxford University, and shows him revealing that he got the right grades to get in. He starts planning his trip to oxford. However, he starts having nightmares of his friends saying nasty things. First, Sarah Jane and K-9 say how glad they will be to get rid of them, and then Rani and Clyde mock him for showing off by going a year early. Luke realises in the second one, that it is not just a nightmare - but something more - however he is unable to say anything about it.
With two days to go, Clyde throws a going away party with some of his school friends. Luke has a third nightmare there - finally seeing the nightmare man of the title, who tells Luke that he is unable to tell anyone else about him - and sure enough, when Rani asks him, he is unable to say the name of the person. He then tries to tell his former friend Maria Jackson via Facebook but falls asleep, and has another nightmare. The Nightmare man shows him a vision of Sarah Jane, Clyde and Rani replacing him with someone else, and burning all his photos. He tells Luke that he feeds off Nightmares, and that one more will allow him to come into his world. On his last night, Clyde and Rani stay over and he tries to keep them awake - however as he starts to feel tired, he realises that he cannot stop the Nightmare Man, and records the message seen at the beginning. He then falls asleep - and sure enough, the Nightmare Man materialises in the room - where he adjusts to being real. The final shot of the first part is of Luke stuck in a completely black place shouting for help.
Part 2
The story continues with the Nightmare Man sneaking about in the attic with Luke fast asleep. As Sarah Jane walks into the attic the Nightmare Man disappears. He sneaks into the rooms in which Clyde and Rani are sleeping and changes their dreams into nightmares. Meanwhile Sarah Jane finds the video camera that Luke recorded his message with and begins watching the recording. In Rani's dream a news reporter for BBC News starts talking to Rani through the T.V and eventually pulls Rani into the T.V. Back in the attic when Sarah Jane sees the Nightmare Man materialising into the attic she rushes to Luke trying to wake him to no success. She then calls for Mr Smith and K-9. Meanwhile, in Luke's dream he sees a red door and runs through it to find himself in a long corridor full of red doors. In Clyde's dream, he is working at a burger shop and an older version of Sarah Jane comes through in a wheelchair claiming that he is a stupid boy and that he was never as good as Luke.
In the attic, Sarah Jane finds some centrian concrete in order to talk to Luke in his dreams. She tells K-9 to use the concrete to communicate with Luke, bur cannot because K-9 doesn't have enough power. Sarah Jane then rushes to Clyde and Rani to find them both asleep as the Nightmare Man materialises out of the room. She tries to wake them but are in a deep sleep like Luke. Back in Rani's dream she is now in the BBC News Studio with the news reporter staring down at her. Rani then appears in a news reporter outfit. Rani asks what to say on the news report and then finds out she is going to be telling the world about Sarah Jane. In Luke's dream again, Luke is keep telling himself it isn't real over and over again while he can hear the Nightmare Man laughing menacingly. As he walks down the steps in Sarah Jane's house he walks outside and can hear Luke talking to him as Luke's mind is so strong and can talk across the dimensions. This means that the dream world is in a different dimension to the real world. Sarah Jane then plugs K-9 into Mr Smith so that K-9 is strong enough to talk to Luke in his dreams. K-9 tells Luke that it is just a dream and that he needs to wake up but Luke claims he can't. In Rani's dream the news reporter asks Rani how many times she has nearly died because of Sarah Jane and in Clyde's dream Sarah Jane tells Clyde he was never as good as Luke. Clyde then realises that it's a dream and tries to get out but the door is locked. Back in the real world the Nightmare Man is wandering the streets and putting everyone who lives on Bannerman Road to sleep.
Back in Rani's dream the news report is happening and she is struggling because Sarah Jane is her friend. Luke deduces that he, Clyde, and Rani are in the same reality so he tries calling them. They both hear him. Luke describes where he is and tells them to imagine a red door and to walk through it. The doors appear but the news reporter and Sarah Jane try to tempt them into staying but don't succeed. At this point they are all having the same dream. The Nightmare Man's powers stop and when Rani and Clyde shut their doors the Nightmare Man's head starts to ache so he appears in the attic and shouts, "bad dog!" and kicks K-9 out the way so K-9 disappears from the dream reality. He then zaps Mr Smith and his power turns off. The Nightmare Man gets excited when he is alone with Sarah Jane and talks about all the nightmares Sarah Jane has ever had including the ones when she thought the doctor was dead. Sarah Jane tries to trick the Nightmare Man into putting her to sleep so she can be with the others but fails. The Nightmare Man's head to starts to hurt again so he materialises into the dream reality. He opens Clyde and Rani's dream doors and is planning to separate them all by sending Clyde and Rani back into their nightmare's for all eternity. You can hear the news reporter from Rani's dream and old Sarah Jane from Clyde's dream. Luke gives an inspiring speech about himself, Clyde, and Rani, saying they're a team and that no one can stop them. The Nightmare Man questions Luke and asks how they can stop a creature like him. Luke, Clyde and Rani all join hands and the Nightmare Man's head hurts again. The Nightmare Man then gets put into Clyde's nightmare and is trapped there for all eternity.
Sarah Jane is trying to repair K-9 after the Nightmare Man kicked him. Luke, Clyde and Rani all wake up and Luke goes to check on Clyde and Rani. Sarah Jane says, "I will miss you," and K-9 claims Luke will be back for Christmas, but Sarah Jane says she wasn't talking about Luke but was talking about K-9. The next morning, Rani and Luke are walking up to Luke's new car while Sarah Jane is finishes polishing K-9. K-9 says his final goodbyes to Mr Smith and Mr Smith says he will miss K-9 after all. Luke says his final goodbyes to Sarah Jane, Clyde, and Rani, and drives off to Oxford University as they wave him goodbye.
Continutiy
- This is the second time that a main character leaves the show in the first serial of one its series, following Maria's departure in the first serial of series two, The Last Sontaran.
- It could be noted that the scene involving BBC News on television (in Rani's nightmare) is different to how BBC News is portrayed in other episodes of both The Sarah Jane Adventures and Doctor Who.
- The Doctor Who episode "Amy's Choice" features another villian who creates dreams for other people, in this case the villian being the Dream Lord.
- In The End of Time, it is noted that towards the end of the world, everyone "has bad dreams", another word for a nightmare, just as the Nightmare Man uses in this episode.
- This episode makes note of The Doctor, as with various other episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures. He himself has appeared in the show's serial The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith, and will feature in Death of the Doctor.
- Russell T Davies was the executive producer of the serial, marking the first time he has been involved in Doctor Who or any of its spin-offs since the second episode of 2009-2010's Doctor Who serial, The End of Time.
External links
- The Nightmare Man on Tardis Wiki, the Doctor Who Wiki
- Template:Brief
- "The Nightmare Man" at IMDb