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Sarah Jane’s arrival on Skaro goes something like this:
The transmat beam causes her to fall in a heap again, not in the space station Nerva as she would have thought, but on hard rock. The worst of it is when Harry falls on top of her and for a moment, the two share an awkward look before Sarah finally shoves him off. He apologises, calling her old girl yet again and she ignores him, grabbing his hand and pulling them in the direction of the Doctor’s voice.
It is easy enough to find the Doctor, standing in the middle of a battlefield. Everything looks human – the weapons look human, the people look human – but something tells Sarah that it’s not. And it’s not just the Doctor explaining that they’ve arrived on Skaro to prevent the development of the Daleks. It’s something more than that. Something about this never-ending war she’s seemed to have found herself in. The Doctor says from the looks of things (weapon regression mostly), it has probably gone on for centuries. It scares her to think he’s right.
Like always, the Doctor’s plan goes awry. They find a domed city and a bunker even closer by. Everything seems okay, well, okay until a grenade of gas is thrown in their direction and the Doctor shouts for her and Harry to grab gas masks quickly from the dead bodies. It’s only seconds later that they find themselves in the middle of a fight.
And things go black for Sarah Jane.
When she finally comes to, head pounding as she pulls off the mask and looks around. A wave of panic washes over her when she realises that she’s alone now: the Doctor and Harry aren’t anywhere to be seen. Sarah fidgets nervously, finally forcing herself to stand and walk over to the bunker door. There’s no way in. She’s trapped outside in a war zone on an alien planet years and years in the past alone.
Well, there’s only one thing to do in a case such as this, isn’t there? And waiting impatiently for someone to come certainly isn’t the answer. Taking a deep breath to steal her nerves, Sarah heads off to find another entrance inside.
It takes her a while, but eventually (oh, the Doctor owes her that trip to Florana for certain after a trek like this!) Sarah finds something. It’s not exactly an entrance to the bunker. In fact, it isn’t anything but an old and crumbling building. But it’s what’s inside of it that’s really captured the journalist’s curiosity.
There’s this man inside – man, Sarah Jane assumes is the proper word after all. He’s, well, he’s older than any living being Sarah’s ever met (except the Doctor). Or maybe it’s not so much that he is, but for the first time, she’s seen someone ancient that actually looks it. He’s crippled, she can confirm that just from his transport-contraption alone (oh, how awfully familiar that looks). There are wires attached to his head, and a strange glowing red eye in the centre of his forehead. And the only part of his body that seems to move is a trembling hand, reaching for certain buttons on his mobile chair to control the device.
There’s a man (a rather suspicious one, if you ask Sarah) standing beside him. This man does look normal, but he only manages to hold her attention for a few seconds. Because by this point, the crippled man has ordered for something to be brought into his laboratory and she looks up at the opening door.
There is Sarah can do from gasping and giving herself away, but somehow she succeeds in keeping her shock to herself. Because what enters isn’t anything unfamiliar to her. In fact, it’s as familiar as the mobile chair the crippled man has:
A Dalek.
And not just any Dalek, she presumes, but the first. In a mix of shock and awe and fear (yet there’s some sort of amazement in there too – after all, here she is, witnessing this), Sarah Jane watches as the crippled man’s assistant installs one of the, well she always called them arms – why stop now? – into the Dalek. And then, on the exterminate command, shots are fired at a wooden target and Sarah ducks.
A Dalek. The word still rings through her head, even if she knows that they were sent here to face those horrible beasts. For some reason that Sarah can’t quite place her finger on, it doesn’t surprise her that these murderers sprung from such a war-torn planet. After all, they only seem capable of hate and destruction. Sarah Jane’s never met a Dalek to act in the contrary. Did evil beget evil?
She watches until the room empties and then she gets up to go inside. It’s stupid and she can think of a dozen people who would probably scold her for doing such, but if there’s one way Sarah can think of to find the Doctor, it’s to stay with the Daleks’ creator. However, she doesn’t get far before she’s attacked by a band of wild men, and shortly after, soldiers.
Best laid plans of mice and men indeed!
Inside the Thal dome (as she discovers shortly), she and the surviving ‘Muto’, Severin, have just become the newest slave labourers for the Thal’s project. A Kaled (the other side of this flipping war) soldier explains everything to them in their cell. He says that the Thals are building a rocket to destroy the Kaled dome. It takes Sarah a little longer to understand why Kaled sounds familiar: it’s…oh, it’s Dalek backwards! But her success is short lived as the soldier explains that they’re there to fill the nose cone with distronic explosives – exposure of which will poison and kill them in a few hours.
She hugs her knees to her chest at this news. There’s no way the Doctor or Harry could possibly know where she is. For all intents and purposes, Sarah Jane finally feels like she might not live this adventure through to the end.
Her self-pity session is short lived as a guard comes in and forces them out of the cell to begin work. The grueling task only lasts a half hour, but it’s enough for Sarah to feel a pain in her chest, shortness of breath, and dizziness. The Kaled man is right: if they keep this up, they’re all going to die shortly.
And there’s still too much out there that she needs to see.
Sarah Jane is barely back in the cell – all of a minute in fact – before she gestures for Severin and the Kaled to come closer. They seem to be the most fit in this group, and the two she knows that will be the most willing to go along with her plan. Severin’s already decided to appoint himself her guardian, after all. So, putting on a brave face, she explains how there’s a possibility of escape: she’ll pretend to faint from exposure to the distronic explosives, and together, the three of them will overpower the guard. Then, they’ll climb up the scaffolding of the rocket, up the nose cone, and slide down the dome of the Thal city.
It’s simple enough in theory and her fellow captives agree to go along with the idea. After all, risking escape has got to be better than just sitting around here waiting to die. And she has to warn the Doctor! Because even if the Kaled claims their chief scientist, Devros, has some sort of substance coating the Kaled dome to protect them from the rocket, he’s still there. And right now, the only person Sarah really trusts is Severin. Plus, she can’t help but think just how proud the Doctor (and maybe even James) will be if she pulls this off.
Now she only has to get over her problem with heights.
In the end, it doesn’t matter. She nearly falls to her death, the Kaled man is shot helping her climb further, others are killed. And they don’t escape. When she and Severin reach the top of the scaffolding, she freezes. There’s this gap they need to jump to start to climb the rest of the way up the rocket’s nose, and after everything, she can’t do it. She simply can’t. When she finally does (eyes closed, hoping, wishing, and praying for the best), she’s accidentally delayed them long enough for the guards to catch up.
The worse part comes when she’s forced to cross back over the gap. Because that awful Thal soldier who pretends to be willing to help Sarah Jane back across instead knocks her off her feet and lets her dangle over the pit, with nothing to stop her from falling to her death but his grip on her wrist.
Tears fill her eyes as she struggles to grasp the ledge, his hand, something. He’s saying something, reprimanding her for escaping most likely, but Sarah doesn’t care. Because right now all she can think is how much she really doesn’t want to die.
The transmat beam causes her to fall in a heap again, not in the space station Nerva as she would have thought, but on hard rock. The worst of it is when Harry falls on top of her and for a moment, the two share an awkward look before Sarah finally shoves him off. He apologises, calling her old girl yet again and she ignores him, grabbing his hand and pulling them in the direction of the Doctor’s voice.
It is easy enough to find the Doctor, standing in the middle of a battlefield. Everything looks human – the weapons look human, the people look human – but something tells Sarah that it’s not. And it’s not just the Doctor explaining that they’ve arrived on Skaro to prevent the development of the Daleks. It’s something more than that. Something about this never-ending war she’s seemed to have found herself in. The Doctor says from the looks of things (weapon regression mostly), it has probably gone on for centuries. It scares her to think he’s right.
Like always, the Doctor’s plan goes awry. They find a domed city and a bunker even closer by. Everything seems okay, well, okay until a grenade of gas is thrown in their direction and the Doctor shouts for her and Harry to grab gas masks quickly from the dead bodies. It’s only seconds later that they find themselves in the middle of a fight.
And things go black for Sarah Jane.
When she finally comes to, head pounding as she pulls off the mask and looks around. A wave of panic washes over her when she realises that she’s alone now: the Doctor and Harry aren’t anywhere to be seen. Sarah fidgets nervously, finally forcing herself to stand and walk over to the bunker door. There’s no way in. She’s trapped outside in a war zone on an alien planet years and years in the past alone.
Well, there’s only one thing to do in a case such as this, isn’t there? And waiting impatiently for someone to come certainly isn’t the answer. Taking a deep breath to steal her nerves, Sarah heads off to find another entrance inside.
It takes her a while, but eventually (oh, the Doctor owes her that trip to Florana for certain after a trek like this!) Sarah finds something. It’s not exactly an entrance to the bunker. In fact, it isn’t anything but an old and crumbling building. But it’s what’s inside of it that’s really captured the journalist’s curiosity.
There’s this man inside – man, Sarah Jane assumes is the proper word after all. He’s, well, he’s older than any living being Sarah’s ever met (except the Doctor). Or maybe it’s not so much that he is, but for the first time, she’s seen someone ancient that actually looks it. He’s crippled, she can confirm that just from his transport-contraption alone (oh, how awfully familiar that looks). There are wires attached to his head, and a strange glowing red eye in the centre of his forehead. And the only part of his body that seems to move is a trembling hand, reaching for certain buttons on his mobile chair to control the device.
There’s a man (a rather suspicious one, if you ask Sarah) standing beside him. This man does look normal, but he only manages to hold her attention for a few seconds. Because by this point, the crippled man has ordered for something to be brought into his laboratory and she looks up at the opening door.
There is Sarah can do from gasping and giving herself away, but somehow she succeeds in keeping her shock to herself. Because what enters isn’t anything unfamiliar to her. In fact, it’s as familiar as the mobile chair the crippled man has:
A Dalek.
And not just any Dalek, she presumes, but the first. In a mix of shock and awe and fear (yet there’s some sort of amazement in there too – after all, here she is, witnessing this), Sarah Jane watches as the crippled man’s assistant installs one of the, well she always called them arms – why stop now? – into the Dalek. And then, on the exterminate command, shots are fired at a wooden target and Sarah ducks.
A Dalek. The word still rings through her head, even if she knows that they were sent here to face those horrible beasts. For some reason that Sarah can’t quite place her finger on, it doesn’t surprise her that these murderers sprung from such a war-torn planet. After all, they only seem capable of hate and destruction. Sarah Jane’s never met a Dalek to act in the contrary. Did evil beget evil?
She watches until the room empties and then she gets up to go inside. It’s stupid and she can think of a dozen people who would probably scold her for doing such, but if there’s one way Sarah can think of to find the Doctor, it’s to stay with the Daleks’ creator. However, she doesn’t get far before she’s attacked by a band of wild men, and shortly after, soldiers.
Best laid plans of mice and men indeed!
Inside the Thal dome (as she discovers shortly), she and the surviving ‘Muto’, Severin, have just become the newest slave labourers for the Thal’s project. A Kaled (the other side of this flipping war) soldier explains everything to them in their cell. He says that the Thals are building a rocket to destroy the Kaled dome. It takes Sarah a little longer to understand why Kaled sounds familiar: it’s…oh, it’s Dalek backwards! But her success is short lived as the soldier explains that they’re there to fill the nose cone with distronic explosives – exposure of which will poison and kill them in a few hours.
She hugs her knees to her chest at this news. There’s no way the Doctor or Harry could possibly know where she is. For all intents and purposes, Sarah Jane finally feels like she might not live this adventure through to the end.
Her self-pity session is short lived as a guard comes in and forces them out of the cell to begin work. The grueling task only lasts a half hour, but it’s enough for Sarah to feel a pain in her chest, shortness of breath, and dizziness. The Kaled man is right: if they keep this up, they’re all going to die shortly.
And there’s still too much out there that she needs to see.
Sarah Jane is barely back in the cell – all of a minute in fact – before she gestures for Severin and the Kaled to come closer. They seem to be the most fit in this group, and the two she knows that will be the most willing to go along with her plan. Severin’s already decided to appoint himself her guardian, after all. So, putting on a brave face, she explains how there’s a possibility of escape: she’ll pretend to faint from exposure to the distronic explosives, and together, the three of them will overpower the guard. Then, they’ll climb up the scaffolding of the rocket, up the nose cone, and slide down the dome of the Thal city.
It’s simple enough in theory and her fellow captives agree to go along with the idea. After all, risking escape has got to be better than just sitting around here waiting to die. And she has to warn the Doctor! Because even if the Kaled claims their chief scientist, Devros, has some sort of substance coating the Kaled dome to protect them from the rocket, he’s still there. And right now, the only person Sarah really trusts is Severin. Plus, she can’t help but think just how proud the Doctor (and maybe even James) will be if she pulls this off.
Now she only has to get over her problem with heights.
In the end, it doesn’t matter. She nearly falls to her death, the Kaled man is shot helping her climb further, others are killed. And they don’t escape. When she and Severin reach the top of the scaffolding, she freezes. There’s this gap they need to jump to start to climb the rest of the way up the rocket’s nose, and after everything, she can’t do it. She simply can’t. When she finally does (eyes closed, hoping, wishing, and praying for the best), she’s accidentally delayed them long enough for the guards to catch up.
The worse part comes when she’s forced to cross back over the gap. Because that awful Thal soldier who pretends to be willing to help Sarah Jane back across instead knocks her off her feet and lets her dangle over the pit, with nothing to stop her from falling to her death but his grip on her wrist.
Tears fill her eyes as she struggles to grasp the ledge, his hand, something. He’s saying something, reprimanding her for escaping most likely, but Sarah doesn’t care. Because right now all she can think is how much she really doesn’t want to die.
