- A little boy from the early 1950s wanders through a time gap into the present and Sarah Jane returns him, finding herself and Luke in Foxgrove the village where she was born. It is the day that her parents, who left her by the roadside as a baby,will be killed in a car crash. She meets them at a village fair and, to prevent their deaths, tampers with the car. When she and Luke return to the present, a ruined London is in the grip of the Trickster, who appears to thank her. the little boy was the Graske, sent to force her to change time. The village was built on a time fault and her tampering with it enabled him to come through a time fissure and take over the capital.—don @ minifie-1
- At an abandoned department store, a young boy dressed in vintage clothing runs out in a panic. Sarah Jane, Luke, Clyde, and Rani are already on the scene, having apparently tracked the disturbance before the boy's arrival. He bolts, and Clyde and Rani go after him, while Sarah Jane and Luke find where the child came from; a time fissure that opened in the store. Rani and Clyde catch the runaway boy and bring him back to the time fissure. He tells them his name is Oscar, and he was on a walk when he wandered through the time fissure by accident. Sarah Jane tells the gang that these things happen from time to time, ordinary people getting lost in time, and assures Oscar he can get home by stepping back through the glowing portal. He refuses out of fear, so Sarah Jane leads him back with her. The fissure leads to a patch of beautiful English countryside near a village, and Sarah Jane sees a mile marker that catches her eye. She asks Oscar, who informs her that the village is called Foxgrove, and the date is July, 1951. Sarah is shocked, but sends Oscar home. As she steps back through the portal, Oscar stops and talks to a shadowy figure that reveals himself to be the Trickster, and alien entity bent on creating chaos, and an old enemy of the Bannerman Road team. The Trickster is pleased with the boy's performance, luring Sarah Jane to the one time and place that she will not be able to resist returning to.
Sarah Jane makes it back to her friends, and they are all entranced by the idea of traveling in time. Sarah Jane declines their requests to go through, telling them time travel is extremely dangerous, and she at least had the Doctor's expertise when she traveled with him. She uses an energy converter to close the fissure, and they all head home. Back at Bannerman Road, Sarah Jane heads inside, her mind clearly somewhere else. The kids notice her odd behavior, and task Luke with finding out whats eating her. Upstairs, Sarah has Mr. Smith run a check on the location that the fissure leads to, and he confirms the area used to be Foxgrove. The alien supercomputer can see she is distracted, but she dismisses him back into his wall. She goes to find an old photograph, depicting a handsome couple standing in a village square. Luke finds her, and she tries to hide the photo and brush off his concerns, but he sees through her posturing, and she gives up the act. She shows him the picture, and tells him the couple are Eddie and Barbara Smith, Sarah Jane's mother and father. They sit and she tells her son that when she was an infant, her parents left her on the side of the road, got in their car, and drove away. They got into a terrible accident on the road, and were both killed, leaving Sarah an orphan at three months old. She was raised by her aunt Lavinia, who cared for her very much, but was also quite busy throughout Sarah Jane's life. Her aunt insisted that Eddie and Barbara were wonderful parents, but Sarah was never convinced, unable to understand why they left their baby alone, and left without a word to anyone, though Luke suggests that they must have had a good reason. Sarah Jane tells him that the time fissure leads to the village where she was born, a month before her parents died. Luke can tell she wants to go through and see them, and is supportive of her doing so, but Sarah insists it isn't worth the risk of possibly causing changes by her mere presence. She rationalizes that it's a little too perfect of a coincidence, and it may be a trap, but Luke thinks she is being paranoid. All the same, Sarah Jane tells him she won't give in to the temptation.
Later that night, Sarah Jane prepares to go back to the fissure, dressing in vintage clothing and makeup, and taking the converter. She goes downstairs to find Luke waiting for her, having already guessed that she would change her mind. He insists on going with her as far as the fissure to make sure she'll be okay, and Sarah Jane decides to make it a quick, secret trip. They make it to the department store, and Sarah Jane uses the converter to open the fissure again. She gives it to Luke to monitor, and steps through. As soon as she does, the fissure begins to collapse behind her. Panicking, Luke jumps in after her with the converter, as the portal shuts. Sarah Jane tells Luke that the fissure has only gone dormant, and she can use the converter to reopen it again. Luke is amazed at the new time they find themselves in, and it being day, instead of night. Since he is already through, Sarah Jane invites him to come with her to the village, reminding him he's a member of the family too. The next morning on Bannerman Road, Clyde goes to Sarah Jane's house, only to find it locked and empty. He collects Rani, and they go to the attic. Clyde is worried because he and Luke were supposed to meet up, but Luke never showed, which is highly unlike him. Neither he nor Sarah Jane are answering their phones, and Clyde worries they may have been abducted by one of their enemies. Rani calls out Mr. Smith, who hasn't detected any aliens, but tells them about Sarah Jane's research into the time fissure, and her connection to Foxgrove. Rani realizes she must have gone back to see her parents, as Mr. Smith detects an energy surge coming from the puzzle box Maria used to protect herself from the Trickster's reality meddling the previous year. The two teens take the box and head to the time fissure to try and find out what's going on.
Meanwhile, Sarah Jane and Luke arrive in Foxgrove to find the whole community in the village green for a festival. It doesn't take them long to spot Barbara, Sarah Jane's mother, cooing over her infant child. Luke notes that she looks like an adoring mum, and Sarah Jane wonders even harder why she would leave her baby in the near future. Determined to find answers, Sarah Jane approaches and speaks to Barbara, who is very friendly and welcomes the strangers. Eddie, Sarah's father, arrives soon after parking their car in the square, and he too seems like a doting new father. Sarah Jane and Luke introduce themselves as 'Victoria and David Beckham', and get to know the young couple. Barbara is called away to help at a refreshment stand, and Sarah Jane offers to help. Luke worries Sarah Jane is breaking her own rules and getting too involved, but Sarah is determined to spend some time with her unwitting mum. She tells him to meet her later, and Luke spots Oscar, who lures him behind one of the tents before vanishing, leaving only a newspaper behind for Luke to find. Sarah Jane enjoys time with Barbara helping out, and they chat about family. Barbara says she and Eddie plan to have more children in the future, so baby Sarah Jane won't grow up alone. Eddie comes in with the baby, and the two parents worry aloud if the future will be as tempestuous as the one they themselves grew up in, hoping their daughter will have a better life. Sarah Jane is moved by their affection towards her infant self, and leaves with a hasty goodbye. She meets Luke in the square, and he tells her they should go home. Sarah Jane is content to know that her parents loved her, even without knowing why they left. She sees the date on the newspaper Luke has, and realizes that it is August 1951, not July, and is in fact the very day her parents died. She sees the car parked by the memorial where her dad said he left it, and realizes she could disable the car with her sonic lipstick, preventing their deaths. Luke reminds her of the terrible danger in changing established events, especially her own personal timeline, but Sarah won't hear it. Luke worries that growing up with her parents might mean she never meets the Doctor, or him. Sarah Jane insists that things could be better with Eddie and Barbara having lived, and after all she has done and sacrificed for others, she deserves this. Luke argues that this could very well be a trap, but Sarah Jane ignores him, disables the car, and races back to the fissure to see what the future is like. As they do, the sky over Foxgrove begins to darken, to Oscar's delight.
Clyde and Rani make it to the department store, but are unable to open the fissure without the converter. They try opening it up with the puzzle box, which starts to blink red. The fissure opens, and Oscar steps out, revealing himself to be the Graske, the Trickster's minion. He chases the pair outside, and suddenly Clyde and Rani are swept away as the world changes around them. Sarah Jane and Luke step through the portal, and find themselves in an enormous wasteland, the ruins of what was once London. Clyde and Rani are protected by the puzzle box, but are stranded amid the carnage. The Trickster shows himself to Sarah and Luke, gloating over the success of their "experiment". He tells Sarah Jane that her actions have handed the earth over to him.
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