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Sarah Jane Smith initially worked as a journalist, working for Metropolitan magazine. Posing as her aunt, Lavinia Smith, (a famous virologist), she managed to infiltrate into a UNIT controlled facility monitoring the whereabouts and status of a group of scientists.
Following a brief meeting with both Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and UNIT's scientific advisor the Doctor, she came to believe that the Doctor was responsible for the kidnapping of the scientists and followed him into his TARDIS where it travelled back to medievil England. (DW: The Time Warrior)
Whilst there apart from being confronted with the realisation of time travel she also saw her first alien Linx a member of the Sontarans. She then assisted the Doctor to stop Linx and help the kidnapped scientists back to the 20th century. (DW: The Time Warrior)
Travelling with the Third Doctor
When Sarah and the Doctor returned to Earth they returned to an evacuated London. Sarah took it upon herself to investiagte various people including Charles Grover in a conspiracy involving time travel and dinosaurs in central London. (DW: Invasion of the Dinosaurs)
Sarah then found herself working with the Doctor and UNIT on a number of occasions. Believing he must defeat the Great One at any cost, the Doctor left Sarah Jane on Earth. Lost in the Time Vortex and dying from radiation exposure, the Doctor did not return for several months, during which time Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart believed him dead and Sarah maintained he still lived. The TARDIS materialized, the Doctor began to change and Sarah was present when he regenerated into the Fourth Doctor.(DW: Planet of the Spiders)
- The exact placement of Sarah's adventures with the Doctor is part of the UNIT dating controversy. In Pyramids of Mars she stated (more than once) that she was "from 1980", which implies that her adventures with the Doctor took place in the near future from the time of broadcast. However, fans continue to argue whether she meant 1980 as the year she came from, the year she last returned to Earth, or the year she believed it was in her personal chronology.
Traveling with with the Doctor, Sarah would encounter Daleks, Cybermen, antimatter creatures at the edge of the universe, robotic mummies in 1911 England, ancient evils in 15th century Italy, and many other dangers, until the Doctor received a summons to his home planet Gallifrey and could not take her along.
- The Doctor later suggested he did not return for Sarah because he feared becoming too attached to any individual human, given that the differences in their life expectancies meant he would almost inevitably have to watch them grow old and die. There is also evidence that he believed Sarah was growing too detached from her terrestrial life and it was in her best interests that she return to it. (DW: School Reunion, The Face of Evil (Novelisation))
Sarah had a flat in South Croydon, where the Doctor tried to drop her off (DW:The Hand of Fear) Typically, he did not get the coordinates quite right. In fact, it was eventually revealed that she had not been dropped off in Croydon, but in Aberdeen, Scotland. When the Doctor did not return for her (despite having left K-9 Mark III, a robot dog, as a gift) she believed him to be dead.
As a companion, she was confident, inquisitive and possessed a sharp mind as well as a sharp tongue. She was also something of a feminist — in her first appearance she was infuriated when the Doctor asked her to make coffee, and she often verbally sparred with fellow companion Harry Sullivan, who had an old-fashioned, chauvinistic and unintentionally patronising attitude towards her. Her feminism was more practical than fanatical, and did not get in the way of forming close friendships with Harry, however, and a more personal feeling for the Doctor himself. These views became less prominent as the series went on, but Sarah never gave the impression that she was less than capable. In spite of the dangerous and frightening situations she often found herself in, she loved adventure and risk, and in spite of her outward complaints, was always thrilled to go off in search of more adventure. She shared a strong rapport with the Third and Fourth Doctors. Thirty years later, Sarah was still single, having found it impossible to hold down a lasting relationship with any man following her experiences with the Doctor. (DW: School Reunion)
- In the lead-up to the broadcast of School Reunion, Sladen was quoted in The Daily Mirror being somewhat critical of the characterisation of Sarah Jane in the original programme: "Sarah Jane used to be a bit of a cardboard cut-out. Each week it used to be, 'Yes Doctor, no Doctor', and you had to flesh your character out in your mind — because if you didn't, no one else would." She spoke more favourably of the characterisation in the new series.
In the time after Sarah's newest adventure with the Doctor (at least a year and a half), K-9 has left Sarah to close off a black hole, occasionally passing close enough to contact her, leaving her entirely alone. Sarah Jane has developed a reputation on Bannerman Road as being unsociable and quiet, keeping her investigations into alien life a secret. Acquiring a sonic lipstick, a watch to scan for alien life, sentient supercomputer assistant Mr Smith and various other futuristic and extraterrestrial devices in the meantime, she has helped the Earth and alien life forms in a much less violent way to organisations such as UNIT and the Torchwood Institute, who she remarks tend to go in "all guns blazing". Sarah Jane has also adopted a son — Luke Smith, and befriended neighbour Maria Jackson, remarking that since meeting them she is no longer content to live alone. When asked by several characters why she has never married, she remarks that there was only one man for her, to whom no one could ever compare. (SJA: Invasion of the Bane)
- In the Past Doctor Adventure Bullet Time, Sarah was apparently killed in 1997, contradicting her other spin-off appearances. However, the novel took place during a story arc where enemies of the Doctor were attempting to eliminate his companions from the timeline, and Sarah's death may have been reversed when those enemies were defeated. In any case, other stories have shown her alive after 1997.