Previous Post 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.