The Lost Boy (The Sarah Jane Adventures)

06 – The Lost Boy
The Sarah Jane Adventures story
The Slitheen reveal themselves from their new slimline skin-suits
Cast
Starring Elisabeth Sladen – Sarah Jane Smith Yasmin Paige – Maria Jackson Tommy Knight – Luke Smith Daniel Anthony – Clyde Langer Alexander Armstrong – Mr Smith John Leeson – K-9 Mark IV
Others Joseph Millson – Alan Jackson Juliet Cowan – Chrissie Jackson Jay Simpson – Jay Holly Atkins – Heidi Ryan Watson – Nathan Goss Floella Benjamin – Professor Rivers Paul Kasey – Jay Slitheen Jimmy Vee – Nathan Slitheen Ruari Mears – Heidi Slitheen
Production
Directed by	Charles Martin
Written by	Phil Ford
Script editor	Lindsey Alford
Produced by	Matthew Bouch
Executive producer(s)	Phil Collinson Russell T Davies Julie Gardner
Production code	1.9 and 1.10
Series	Series 1
Length	2 episodes, 25 minutes each
Originally broadcast	12 & 19 November 2007
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? The Last Sontaran
List of The Sarah Jane Adventures serials

The Lost Boy is the sixth story of the British science fiction television series The Sarah Jane Adventures. It forms the ninth and tenth episodes of the show's first series. The first episode was aired on the CBBC Channel on 12 November 2007, and the second on 19 November. This episode was intentionally named after Dave Pelzer's The Lost Boy.

Following on from Alan's discovery of what Sarah Jane and Maria do together in Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?, he threatens to move house again, only to have a change of heart when he sees how upset Maria is. His condition for not moving away, however, is that he is kept up to date with their battles against aliens.

The next day, the news report on a family searching for their son, Ashley, who has been missing for five months. However, when a picture of Ashley is shown, it brings a shock, since he looks exactly like Luke. Mr. Smith compares their DNA, and confirms that Luke and Ashley are the same person; apparently Luke was not 'grown' by the Bane, but was a kidnapped boy. Chrissie calls the police and reports Sarah Jane as a child abductor; Sarah Jane is arrested and the police release Luke into the custody of Ashley's parents, Jay and Heidi, and Sarah Jane kept by the police, only for UNIT to intervene and have her released. Depressed, Sarah Jane decides she was wrong to involve children and tells Maria to stay away from her. Mr. Smith suggests to her that she have a case to take her mind off things, and she visits a research centre where alien technology is being used to conduct experiments into telekinesis, where she meets an annoying child prodigy, Nathan. That night, when Luke's new parents watch television, they switch over to a channel that glows green and announce to somebody they call 'Xylok' that they 'have the boy'.

Luke's new parents are extremely rude towards him, keeping him locked up in his room at all times. Clyde and Maria play truant to visit him but Maria is caught by their French teacher, leaving only Clyde to visit Luke in his room. He arrives at the house but Heidi does not allow him to see Luke. Heidi claims that her son is a keen skateboarder, which worries Clyde as he knows Luke has a poor sense of balance and is a dreadful skateboarder. To prove her statements, Heidi gives Clyde a photo of her, Jay and Luke together before closing the door. Clyde decides to bring the photo to Mr Smith, so that he could analyze it. Luke goes frantic upon seeing his friend leaving the house, and desperately begins making attempts to escape. His 'parents' are meeting with Nathan just as he is breaking out of his room, with the result that he fails to escape, but succeeds in discovering that his parents are actually Slitheen using improved compression technology, and Nathan is the same child Slitheen Luke encountered previously, now in a new disguise, and he will have his revenge.