Trivia / The Sarah Jane Adventures S 3 E 11 E 12 The Gift

• Prop Recycling: The two Blathereen are repaints of the Slitheen costumes which were originally created for "Revenge of the Slitheen" and were most recently used for their (then unbroadcast) cameo in Doctor Who "The End of Time", explaining why no adult Slitheen appears appear in the flesh here. One of these costumes would be overzealously painted back to green for "The Nightmare Man"
  • The child Slitheen is the third individual using the costume created for "Revenge of the Slitheen".
• What Could Have Been:
  • Originally, Mickey Smith, (now working for UNIT) helped Sarah Jane and her friends track the Slitheen at the start of the story before becoming enmeshed in the struggle against the Blathereen, but Noel Clarke was unavailable.
  • In early versions, the titular “gift” — called Yorrum grass at this point, rather than Rakweed — was already being grown in the Sahara desert, from where it rapidly spread to infect various parts of the globe including England. Sarah Jane was able to track the Slitheen, who were being held captive by the Blathereen. The Slitheen agreed to help the humans, only to betray them to the Blathereen — but not before providing enough information about Yorrum grass to enable Mr Smith to synthesise a weedkiller. As the script evolved, the involvement of the Slitheen (who now included Janine Slitheen) was reduced, with the weedkiller being created with help from the work of Professor Cowly, whose research centre had become the starting point for the Yorrum grass infestation.
  • In another version, the Blathereen offer the Yorrum grass directly to Sarah Jane. The Yorrum grass was now susceptible to a solution made from daffodils, as Rani discovered when she and Clyde escaped to her mother's flower shop.
  • Earlier drafts had suggested that the Blathereen were genuinely trying to help humanity, but were unaware of what would happen when they unleashed their gift; that only one of the Blathereen was evil, unbeknownst to the other; or that the Blathereen were motivated by the dying ecosystem of Raxacoricofallapatorius and were planning to turn the Earth into a new homeworld. It was only at a late stage that the idea was adopted that Tree-lorn-acre and Leaf-apple-glyn were products of a Slitheen-Blathereen union.
• Working Title: Balthereen, Gift of the Blathereen, Whispering Grass.

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