In which Sarah Jane Smith goes to visit her old friend Professor Rivers, who is carrying out a series of experiments into the paranormal at Ashen Hill Manor. This old house is said to be haunted, and Prof. Rivers wishes to investigate the reported phenomena. Sarah brings Clyde and Rani along - Luke remaining at home with K9. Sarah is skeptical about the supernatural, believing that everything must have a rational, scientific explanation. Assisting Rivers is a young man named Toby, who is a firm believer in the paranormal. Rivers explains that the house belonged to a man named Lord Marchwood back in the 1660's. He employed an alchemist named Erasmus Darkening, whom he invited to stay at the Manor. Soon after, Marchwood's children - Elizabeth and Joseph - went missing, and it is said that the Lord's ghost haunts the building, forever searching for his missing offspring. Darkening was reputedly a master of the dark arts. Since this time, other people who have lived here have disappeared without trace, and the building now stands empty.
Sarah fails to see a book she was just looking at - a history of the house - move by itself, whilst out in the garden Clyde and Rani see the fountain suddenly stop, and wet footprints appear on the pavement. Entering an outhouse after hearing the sound of a girl crying, Clyde briefly catches a glimpse of a man's face in an old mirror.
In the house, the camera covering the children's nursery suddenly cuts out. Rivers goes to investigate, and is found to have vanished when the others go looking for her. The toys in the room all start to move on their own and a message appears on the mirror - "Get Out!". Clyde and Rani then find the entrance to a secret tunnel, which leads them down into an ancient laboratory, which they realise must have belonged to Darkening. Sarah has gone out into the garden, where she is menaced by a creature with red eyes which is lurking in the undergrowth. A man in 17th Century dress suddenly appears and chases it off with his sword - the ghost of Lord Marchwood. Clyde and Rani find that the laboratory is not quite as it seems, as they discover advanced technology. Darkening suddenly appears in the room with them...
They are rescued by the arrival of Marchwood. They discover that the house is full of the ghosts of those who have vanished here - including Elizabeth and Joseph. Prof. Rivers is also present, but she has not been absorbed into the house like the others. She appears to Sarah and warns her that Darkening is coming for them. Sarah realises that the ghosts are really people trapped between dimensions. Examining Darkening's equipment, she deduces that he is an alien, who had become trapped on Earth and was trying to get back to his own universe.
Toby explains to Sarah why he studies the paranormal, despite pressure from his scientist father to concentrate on more conventional science. As a child, he had been haunted by something which came into his bedroom every night. Clyde and Rani are chased outside, and find themselves locked out and at the mercy of the creature in the bushes. Lord Marchwood once again comes to the rescue. Back in the house, Sarah has worked out that the equipment in the laboratory has allowed the creature to cross over from Darkening's dimension, and it has also given him a prolonged lifespan. Darkening is lured into a trap - forced by Marchwood into stepping into a metal circle in the floor of the great hall. His powers are drained and he is destroyed. His death frees all of the trapped people - including Prof. Rivers.
The following morning Sarah, Clyde and Rani are about to leave when Sarah points out that there never were any real ghosts in the house - but then she sees Lord Marchwood and his children watching them from an upstairs window...
The Eternity Trap was written by Phil Ford, and was first broadcast on 5th and 6th November, 2009. It sees the return of Professor Rivers, played by Floella Benjamin, who had first appeared in the closing story of the first season - The Lost Boy - and who had then featured in Series 2's Day of the Clown.
It is a highly effective haunted house story - far scarier than the later attempt by the parent programme to cover this topic - 2013's Series 7 story Hide.
Being set within the confines of the manor, there is only a small guest cast. Other than Benjamin, we have Donald Sumpter as Darkening, and Callum Blue as Lord Marchwood, with Toby being played by Aiden Gillen, who is best known for the ITV comedy drama series Benidorm these days.
Sumpter had previously appeared in Doctor Who on two occasions - as technician Enrico Casali in The Wheel in Space, and as submarine commander Ridgeway in The Sea Devils. He would later portray the Time Lord Rassilon in Hell Bent, when Timothy Dalton proved unavailable to reprise the role.
The creature lurking in the bushes is never shown. We see things from its point of view most of the time, otherwise it is just a pair of red eyes hidden in the foliage and sound effects.
Things you might like to know:
- This is one of only two stories in the entire run of the series in which Tommy Knight (Luke) does not appear.
- And it's the only one where there are no sequences set in Bannerman Road.
- In 2010 a novelisation of this story was published (as Haunted House), written by Trevor Baxendale. It was aimed at people learning to read.
- Sarah identifies the thing which young Toby saw in his bedroom as being the Trickster.
- There is a fan theory that Darkening is actually a rogue Time Lord - extending his life as he has reached the end of his regenerations. This theory depends on some hindsight, as the Doctor at this time had made it plain that no other Time Lords existed. However, we later discover that Gallifrey was only ever hidden in a pocket universe, and this might be the dimension from which Darkening had come.
- Ford seems to have been inspired by Nigel Kneale's spooky drama The Stone Tape, which was first broadcast on Christmas Day, 1972. The Stone Tape theory holds that a building can absorb psychic energy from its inhabitants - especially traumatic events - and may be an explanation for hauntings.
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