Good Bye, Sarah Jane Smith 20110423

(4 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Most of you that read my posts know that I am an avid fan of Doctor Who.  I am not ashamed of that at all, and like the new ones very much, but they are not anything like the classic ones that ran from 1963 to around 1980 or so.  Those ones had the classic Doctors, Hartnell, Throughtan, Pertwee, and especially Baker.

They all had companions.  I liked lots of them, Jamie, Granddaughter (Susan, and they still have not explained that companion, his first, from 1963!).  But the most wonderful companion was Sarah Jane Smith, an investigative journalist.  She way played by the extremely attractive Elisabeth Sladen, who just departed from us this week.  Not only was she a companion for over three and one half years, she, unique of all others, returned many times to reprise the same character.  She was 65 years old, and had been married to the same man since 1968.

She was the first companion that I ever saw, on the very first Doctor Who video that I ever saw.  It was one of the ones in The Genesis of the Daleks, series with Tom Baker as The Doctor.  After seeing that one episode, 22 minutes, I was hooked onto that genre and universe, an attraction that still lives strongly after that evening looking at PBS (the Oklahoma one) in 1979.

Here is a nice tribute to her.

Those videos were with Tom Baker, in my opinion, the very best actor to play The Doctor.  Matt Smith is pretty good, these modern days, but I do not like the “reboot” that they did for the storyline, just as much as I dislike the reboot that was done for Star Trek.  That is just me.  I still think that there are more, and better, stories left if Gallifrey were extant, as if Vulcan were.  Notice the tribute at the end that says that she is now with Jon Pertwee and Ian Marter.  Pertwee was her Doctor at the time, and Marter played Harry, another companion.  Oh, those days were good for the series.

Now here is a DOCTOR!  Jon Pertwee was just great, and Sarah Jane was one his companions. This is a really good montage of his role, for over four years.  The blond is Jo Grant, the short haired brunette Sarah Jane.  Those are the role names, of course.

Sarah Jane was the first companion to see The Doctor regenerate.  That actually happened at the end of one season, and it had to be reshot for the beginning of the next one (Pertwee changing into Baker), because she grew out her hair over the break.

Here is the one from the former season.  I shall see if I can find the companion one from the next one.

I could not find the second regeneration sequence, but here she is with her hair grown out nicely.  She was an extremely attractive person.

Her character was the ONLY companion to be included over and over, and she even had a spinoff series (and almost another).  Her total run spanned DECADES, and no other companion EVER did that, nor did any Doctor except in a very few specials.  Please think kindly on Elisabeth Sladen tonight.  Even though I never met her, I almost think of her as a friend.  Is that weird?

One final shot of her, meeting the Pertwee character again in the episode The Five Doctors.  Gosh, she was a very attractive woman!

Please let us remember a wonderful actress who sort of made The Doctor more human.  Remember, the companions have always been the lenses that focus his little bit of humanity into something that we can be attracted to, emotionally.  Remember, most Time Lords are very detached, much like Vulcans.  Only a few Time Lords allowed their feelings to come out very much, and sometimes with very bad results, like The Master and The Roni.  But Romanadvoratrelundar and The Doctor more than made up for it.

By the way, the new season of Doctor Who airs tonight at 9:00 PM on BBC America.  Apparently the production team is focusing on taping in North America this season.

RIP, Elisabeth!  You will live forever as Sarah Jane.

Warmest regards,

Doc