S1 Ep3 : Warriors of Kudlak

WARRIORS OF KULDAK

EPISODE: 3 ; Part 1 & 2
AIR DATE: October 15, 2007 & October 22, 2007
VILLIANS: Uvlavad Kudlak, Mark Grantham
MONSTERS/ALIENS: Kudlak
OTHER CHARACTERS: Carrie Metcalf, Lance, Brandon Butler, Jen
PLOT:

Combat 3000, a new laser tag centre, has opened in London. A teenaged boy, Lance Metcalf, from Clyde and Luke Smith's school vanished after going there. Mr Smith tells Sarah Jane that twenty-four children have previously gone missing from all across England in places where other branches of Combat 3000 have opened.

Meanwhile, Luke tries to master the art of telling jokes but can't quite do it, nor does he understand games. Takingn him under his wing, Clyde takes Luke to Combat 3000. Sarah soon discovers that there have been mysterious storms at the time of the disappearances and that Mr. Grantham and a humanoid insectoid alien, Kudlak, are working for an unseen "Mistress". Luke and Clyde manage to survive Round One and are challenged to make it to the door to the championships, facing other accomplished Combat 3000 players. When Luke and Clyde are very close to the door, they are attacked. Soon, Clyde and Luke manage to escape and are locked in a room where they mysteriously disappear. Mr. Grantham points an alien gun at Sarah and Maria but Sarah uses her sonic lipstick to help her escape. Maria and Sarah arrive in a different room where they are then confronted by Kudlak...
But they have arrived too late to save Luke and Clyde. On a screen they see them transported to space by a transmat beam.

Sarah Jane and Maria escape Kudlak after creating a diversion, and return to Mr. Smith, who informs them of who Kudlak is and the background to his race. He is a member of the Uvodni race, and they were part of a planetary alliance fighting against the Malakh. The Malakh won the ensuing battle, but the Uvodni would not quit, and continued fighting. Eventually, Kudlak was injured on the front line and forced to leave fighting to others. He was thus sent out as part of an Imperial Fleet to recruit "warriors" from other worlds. His ship was led by a Mistress, who kept the patriotism and bloodlust in Kudlak alive. After decades of recruiting (mostly Human) children via Combat 3000, Kudlak, or rather Mr. Grantham - abducted Clyde and Luke.

Meanwhile, Luke and Clyde rescue other children from their crates, including Lance and a girl called Jen. Mr. Grantham breaks into Sarah Jane's home, but is overpowered by electric shock. Back on the Uvodni ship, the children make their way to a shuttlecraft, but are again captured. Sarah Jane and Maria blackmail Grantham into transmatting them to the Uvodni ship, where they find and talk to the Mistress. When Kudlak brings the children to the Mistress, everyone is reunited. They discover the Mistress's true identity as a face appearing on a computer screen, with no real person behind it.

Kudlak is stopped by Luke before he kills anyone. Luke has discovered a message made by the Uvodni Emperor ten years ago which reveals an armistice has been made with the Malakh. As a computer, the Mistrss has no programming to understand the concept of peace, so the Mistress buried the message and continued to command Kudlak as before, even though her missions no longer had any real point to them. With the truth revealed, Kudlak destroys The Mistress, releases the children and swears to do what he can to reunite all the surviving recruits with their families. Back on Earth, Grantham has escaped, but Sarah Jane decides not to have him arrested.