SJA 5.1 - Sky

In which a meteor falls to Earth, crashing into a scrapyard in West London. From it emerges a huge man, made of metal. The following morning Sarah Jane Smith is shocked to discover a baby girl on her doorstep. Rani suggests that perhaps it was the Doctor who left her. Her parents Gita and Haresh see the child, and Sarah bluffs that she has adopted her, and her name is Sky. When Sky cries, it causes all the electrics in the house to go haywire. Clyde is left minding the baby, as she seems to respond to him, whilst Sarah and Rani go to the scrapyard to investigate the meteor fall. They find their old friend Professor Rivers is already there. They meet a tramp who sleeps in the yard, and he tells them of the metal man he saw - last seen heading in the direction of Bannerman Road. Sarah is convinced that the appearance of this creature and the arrival of the baby must be connected in some way.
Elsewhere, at a nearby nuclear power station, a blonde-haired woman named Miss Myers materialises and exerts mental control over one of the station's crew - a man named Caleb. From him she learns of a strange power surge centred on Bannerman Road earlier that morning. She goes there and finds Clyde and the baby in the garden, about to be attacked by the metal man.

She forces the metal man to withdraw, then takes Clyde and the baby to the power station. When Sarah and Rani return to the house, Mr Smith directs them to the station. There, they learn that Miss Myers is an alien, a member of the Fleshkind, who have been at war with the Metalkind for many years. Sky is her child, but has really been bred as a weapon, designed to wipe out the Metalkind. Sky absorbs a massive amount of electrical power, and transforms into a young girl, of around 12 years of age. Miss Myers explains that Sky is really a bomb. Sarah and her friends escape, taking Sky with them. Miss Myers captures the Metalkind and wires him up to the nuclear reactor, with Caleb's help. It will be used as a lure to bring others of its kind here, where Sky will destroy them. To prevent a nuclear catastrophe, Sarah must return to the station with Sky and the others. Clyde and Rani are sent to deactivate the reactor, whilst Sarah attempts to make Sky turn against her programming. There is a massive electrical discharge which should prime Sky, but it rewrites her DNA to make her safe. Miss Myers abandons Sky now that she is no longer a weapon, but the Metalkind uses some of the excess electrical discharge to open a portal and he seizes Miss Myers and departs with her as his captive.
Back on Bannerman Road, Sarah has to explain Sky's new appearance to Gita and Haresh as a mix-up at the adoption agency. Sarah is visited by the enigmatic Shopkeeper and his parrot, The Captain, who reveals that it was he who left the baby for Sarah to protect. Sky elects to remain with Sarah.

Sky was written by Phil Ford, and was first broadcast on 3rd and 4th October, 2011. It marks the opening of the fifth and final, truncated, season of The Sarah Jane Adventures - transmitted posthumously as Elisabeth Sladen has passed away in the Spring of 2011. All three of the stories which make up Series 5 were recorded in 2010 at the end of Series 4.
The story introduces a new series regular, to replace Tommy Knight's Luke Smith. Like Luke, this is another product of alien engineering, whom Sarah adopts as Sky Smith (Sinead Michael).
This is the last story to feature Mina Anwar (Gita Chandra), and marks the final appearance of Floella Benjamin as Prof. Celeste Rivers, who has featured occasionally since the first series.

There are elements of The Terminator (1984) in this story, with the appearance of the robotic Metalkind and his mode of arrival. Miss Myers also materialises in a pose similar to that of the Terminator - and the Metalkind has come in search of a child who will be used as a weapon against them, in the same way that young John Connor will one day lead a resistance against the machine intelligence of the future. The Metalkind also has a hint of a robotic version of Watchmen's Nite Owl about it.
Inside the Metalkind costume is regular monster artists Paul Kasey. Playing Miss Myers we have Christine Stephen-Daly, who had been a regular in medical soaps Casualty and Holby City, playing the same character in both series. She had also featured in a few episodes of the cult science fiction series Farscape. Power worker Caleb is played by Gavin Brocker, who had earlier featured in the Torchwood episode Captain Jack Harkness.

Overall, a story which does the job of introducing a new regular character very well, even if the plot isn't terribly original. At time of broadcast, the shadow of Lis' passing hung over all this series.
Things you might like to know:

• Originally, Rani was to have been proven correct in her guess that it was the Doctor who had left the baby on the doorstep. Matt Smith was to have appeared in a cameo at the conclusion of the story, but proved to be too busy on A Christmas Carol to take part. Cyril Nri stepped in late in the day as the Shopkeeper, and didn't take a credit on the episode. 
• Although supposed to be concurrent, there is no mention of the Miracle Day phenomenon (Torchwood).
• The Shopkeeper and The Captain were to have featured more, with their own story arc, had the series continued.