I didn't watch Doctor Who back in the day. I didn't fall in love with him until the new series began. But I discovered Elisabeth Sladen in her wonderful role of Sarah Jane Smith through the New Who. David Tenant showed his love for her and through him and so many wonderful appearances, we all fell in love with her.

May she have the peace she deserves.


http://www.digitalspy.com/british-tv/s7/doctor-who/news/a315485/elisabeth-sladen-dies-aged-63.html

Whenever I think of giant spiders, Egyptian mummies, and strange blue crystals, I also think of Sarah Jane.

For longtime Doctor Who fans like me this is very sad news indeed. I was 10 years old when she first took on her role as Sarah Jane Smith in 1973. The tributes are rolling in via the internet and I can't think of any other SF actor to receive such unanimous approbation.

Of course, being selfish, I'm sorry that the excellent Sarah Jane Adventures series will be (presumably) cut short in an untimely manner. For a series funded by and produced for Children's BBC this was a mature and layered programme, offering much for adults to enjoy as well as hitting its target demographic. I understand that six episodes of the planned 12 episode fifth series were filmed before Liz Sladen became too ill to continue and will likely be completed and broadcast later in the year.

The fate of the remaining half series is intriguing. It's been budgeted for. Scrips are written. Pre production has been done. Even with insurance it's a major layout to write off. The series has always been an ensemble show with three younger actors and other supporting cast sharing equal screentime with the star. Naturally fan speculation will turn towards the possibility of continuing the series even without its titular star. Others wonder if another "old" companion might be inducted to extend the series' longevity - the Mickey Smith Adventures, for example, or the Jo Grant Adventures (given that Sarah Jane's immediate predecessor as a 70s companion recently returned to guest-star in an episode). Don't count on the Jack Harkness Adventures though - Captain Jack's strictly post-watershed and apparently fully booked for Torchwood's US debut.

What interests me though is whether the series could actually survive without Sladen's measured and authorative input. Sladen's experience as an actor allowed her to be the bedrock on which the younger actors based their own work. I'd be interested to see how they managed in a post-Sarah continuity and how well they can hold the spotlight in a post-Sladen production.

It's turning into a bad year for Who alumni. Nick Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart) died only a few weeks ago. "Old" Who fandom has lost its two main stalwarts. The remaining fan-active pre-cancellation cast is diminshing, although Davison, Colin Baker, and McCoy are still all regular convention turns. There seems to be a deliberate policy from the new production team not to encourage their current cast to do much convention and "fan-interactive" work (excluding massive US PR/sales appearances at Comicon) so one wonders if the great age of Doctor Who conventions is now drawing to a close.

IW

Here's what I've just written for SF Revolutions:

Liz Sladen's main contributions to the Doctor Who mythos are the qualities she infused her character with and her personal qualities as a gentle, kind, and gracious actor.

Sarah Jane was one of the first female companions envisaged as being "liberated"; but of course any "assistant" to the Doctor is going to end up as second fiddle, bumbler, and hostage at some point. Sladen's genius was in making Sarah Jane the ultimate point-of-view companion, winning our sympathy and support in the trials she endured, rather than our contempt and disappointment that she wasn't doing as good a job as we might in her place. Sarah was in turns michievous, adventurous, smart, worried, compassionate, moral, determined, and loyal. She wasn't fearless; her bravery came in facing things that very much scared her and still doing the right thing. Her relationships with Pertwee and Tom Baker's Doctors were slightly different, testimony to Sladen's nuanced and generous performance.

During the character's "wilderness years" outside the main series, Sladen continued to care about the character, appearing in some probably-not-canon audio plays that offered an older, wiser Sarah. Her return to "main continuity" in "School Reunion" clevery wrote her as someone who has suffered post-TARDIS trauma yet who continued to fight the good fight. She realises in this episode that the best parts of her time with the Doctor are still in her. This sets up The Sarah Jane Adventures series in which this pre-eminent companion graduates to be defender of the Earth with young assistants of her own. Again Sladen plays Sarah Jane as a flawed but likable - and watchable - character, in turns sentinel of our world, parent and mentor, reckless investigator, vulnerable older woman, and citizen of the universe. Sladen's always-generous performances offer a fine platform for the younger actors to develop their own characters and performance skills. Her ability to bring emotional resonance to domestic and fantastic scenes alike helps ground the series so that even the most bizarre concepts feel real.

The actress herself was by every account I've heard as gracious and ladylike as her fictional avatar. People who have met her at conventions speak of her with unreserved affection and admiration. Her on-set professionalism seems to have been matched by her off-screen integrity and kindness. Her enthusiasm for Doctor Who gave her common ground with the army of fans for whom she became an icon. Her benevolent influence on set has been a blessing to harassed production teams since her early role controlling Tom Baker's excesses. She has been a true companion to Doctors and to the actors who played them, to the crew and casts she has worked with, and to very many viewers who she took to strange worlds with her to stand beside the Doctor.

I'm in grade school.

I've fallen in love.

She's playful enough to enjoy teasing others, but still serious enough to be susceptible to some teasing herself.

After the Doctor told me that it was okay for a hero to be slightly strange and deeply silly and kind of crazy, Sarah Jane Smith showed me that a hero like that could find an amazing woman with whom he could explore the wonders of the universe, and who could equal any of them.

---

It's just shy of half a dozen years ago.

I realize that I never fell out of love.

She's the same age as my mom, but even after close to three decades since the last time she traveled in the TARDIS, she somehow radiates as much youth and life as she ever did.

After the Doctor's return from a nearly two-decade hiatus demonstrated that, sometimes, maybe you CAN go home again (even if he couldn't), Sarah Jane Smith AND Elisabeth Sladen proved that childlike adventure, excitement and joy don't have any age limits, even for non-Time Lords.

---

I'm in the middle of my work day when I get an email.

I immediately dismiss it as a tasteless prank.

She CAN'T be dead. I KNOW this, for a FACT.

But then, it starts to sink in that this has somehow actually happened, no matter how impossible it seems, and I feel myself deflating, PHYSICALLY, like a punctured balloon.

I still have half a dozen hours left to work, with two news stories to write and post on our paper's website, and an interview to conduct later that evening.

So, I suck it up, do the job, roll on home, and as soon as I'm alone in my bedroom, I suddenly find myself bursting into tears.

Almost a lifetime after I first saw her, Elisabeth Sladen's unexpected passing has brought home the bittersweet truth behind her character's words to the Doctor:



I know it's true, even as much as I want to say BUT YOUR TIME WAS TOO SOON, and I've started crying all over again, right now, as I'm typing these very words, because how can someone who looked at the world with such wide eyes and bright smiles for so long just be here one day and gone the next?

I see all these video clips of her being posted online as tributes, and it makes me want to scream BUT THAT PROVES SHE CAN'T BE DEAD, BECAUSE I CAN SEE HER, RIGHT HERE, even though I know that all I'm seeing now is her ghost.

... And yet, a part of my heart remains convinced that she can't be gone, because she doesn't feel gone.

---

When I was a child, I fell in love with an awe-inspiring woman.

As an adult, I learned that the real-life woman was just as impressive as the fictional character whom she played.

I never really got over her.

And now, I doubt I ever will.








Elisabeth Sladen: 1948-2011

Even though you are gone, you will still go on to inspire countless children who haven't even been born yet.

When actor Will Lee, who played kindly general store manager Mr. Hooper on the show, died of a heart attack, an episode was devoted to showing the characters' reactions to Mr. Hooper's death. It was honest and tender, and to this day, it's cited as a defining moment in the history of American television.

Whatever else happens, I want the Doctor to tell the kids in Sarah Jane's gang that things will ultimately be okay, but that at the same time, it's just as okay for them to grieve in the meantime.

... Jesus, I'm about to start crying again.

Certainly, Elisabeth Sladen was more than just an actress, or a character on TV. She wasn't Sarah Jane Smith. But in many ways, she was-- seemingly ageless, vibrant, indefatigable. This was a helluva shock, but much like her character, she'll always be out there, somewhere in time and space.

Can't add anything that hasn't been better said by the many fine tributes to Elisabeth Sladen. Through her warmth and skill she built an underwritten role into a much-loved and enduring character.