The Man Who Never Was (The Sarah Jane Adventures)

27 – The Man Who Never Was
The Sarah Jane Adventures story
Official Poster from the BBC Website.
Cast
Starring Elisabeth Sladen – Sarah Jane Smith Tommy Knight – Luke Smith Daniel Anthony – Clyde Langer Anjli Mohindra – Rani Chandra Sinead Michael – Sky Alexander Armstrong – Mr Smith
Others Mark Aiken – Joseph Serf James Dreyfus - Harrison Edyta Budnik - Adriana Peter Bowles - Lionel Carson Dan Starkey - Plark Jason Mohammad - Newsreader
Production
Directed by	Joss Agnew
Written by	Gareth Roberts
Script editor	Gary Russell
Produced by	Brian Minchin Phil Ford (co-producer)
Executive producer(s)	Russell T Davies Nikki Wilson
Production code	5.5 and 5.6
Series	Series 5
Length	2 episodes, 25 minutes each
Originally broadcast	17 & 18 October 2011
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → The Curse of Clyde Langer —

The Man Who Never Was is a two-part episode and final story of The Sarah Jane Adventures which was broadcast on CBBC on 17 and 18 October 2011. It is the third and final story of the fifth series, and the final appearance of all the main cast, including the final appearance of Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith before the actress' death from cancer earlier that year.

A woman who works as a cleaner watches the commercial for the SerfBoard at Serf Systems. Walking, she suddenly hears an odd noise coming from a lift. There, a mysterious figure snatches her.

Luke returns home from university and he meets Sky for the first time. Sarah Jane, Clyde and Rani are also happy to see him. Luke also realizes that his old room is now Sky's and as he mentions the fact that it is no longer his room, Sky feels guilty. Luke explains that K-9, along with having a dog whistle to call him, could not leave Oxford and as Mr Smith expresses his delight, Rani jokes that they could replace Mr Smith with the new SerfBoard. Sarah Jane reveals that she has been chosen to see a run through of the speech that Joseph Serf (the creator of the SerfBoard) will present. She takes Luke and Sky with her to the run through and she bumps into Lionel Carson, her old editor, who has a dislike of computers. As the run through gets under way and Joseph Serf is giving his speech, Luke and Sky notice Serf's face suddenly glitch. Once Sarah Jane and Lionel have received a Serf Board, Lionel takes an odd liking to the board, Luke and Sky tells Sarah Jane what they saw.

Sarah Jane and Sky return home while Luke stays to see if anything suspicious happens. They get Mr Smith to display the video of the speech and it is confirmed that Joseph Serf glitched. As they go through his past, they discover that Joseph Serf was involved in a skiing accident and then disappeared into seclusion. This leads Sarah Jane to believe that the real Joseph Serf died in the skiing accident and the one that was seen in the run through was a hologram. Sarah Jane organizes an interview with Joseph Serf by using cryptic wording which suggests she knows that Serf is a hologram. Sarah Jane, Luke, and Sky go to meet Serf. In the attic Clyde and Rani scan the Serfboard to uncover anything alien about it; it is just a cheap, ordinary laptop computer. Sarah Jane plans her interview with Joseph Serf and his bodyguard Harrison is adamant on staying with them. As Sarah Jane discovers the truth that Joseph Serf is a hologram, Luke and Sky go into a basement and discover that an alien race is controlling the Joseph Serf image. Sarah Jane, with no other options, finally wafts her arms through the hologram. Harrison then targets an alien weapon at her. Meanwhile, the aliens notice Luke and Sky and enclose around the two.