Sarah Jane Smith
Sarah Jane Smith was a generally freelance, but always investigative, journalist.
She was one few Humans to have enjoyed a relationship with the Doctor across more than two of his lifetimes. Of all the companions, she had by far had the longest relationship with the Doctor from his perspective. Only the Brigadier met more of the Doctor's selves than she. She travelled extensively with the Third and Fourth Doctors, briefly met the Fifth Doctor, and had significant contact with the Tenth Doctor.
She met more other companions and regular associates of the Doctor than any other companion. Along with Donna Noble, she was only one of two companions to both accept and reject the Doctor's offer to travel indefinitely in the TARDIS.
She was the adoptive mother of Luke Smith, the owner of K-9 Marks III and IIIb, and the friend and mentor to Maria Jackson, Clyde Langer, and, to a lesser extent, Rose Tyler. She was directly responsible for Mickey Smith finally becoming a traveling companion of the Doctor.
She had a working, if unofficial, association with UNIT in her youth, but more closely followed the Fourth Doctor's anti-establishment, anti-military approach to alien contact as she grew older.
Biography
Early life
Sarah Jane Smith was born in 1951 or 1952, based upon her age at the time of Andrea Yates' death.
Sarah Jane lost her parents in an automobile accident when she was very young. She was then raised by her father's sister, Lavinia Smith.
On 13th July 1964, while off on a school outing together, Sarah Jane's best friend, Andrea Yates, slipped off of a pier to her death. The Trickster would later alter this event and create a timeline in which Sarah died, rather than Andrea; a timeline which, many years later, would eventually doom the planet Earth.
In the normal timeline, the event would change Sarah, impressing onto her the importance of life. She would never forget Andrea. (SJA: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?)
Travels with the the Doctor
First meeting with the Doctor
Sarah Jane gave her age as 23 during the events of "Operation Golden Age", which occurred during the (DW:Invasion of the Dinosaurs). In her capacity as a journalist for Metropolitan magazine, Sarah posed as her aunt, Lavinia Smith, a famous virologist, in order to infiltrate a UNIT-controlled facility where some scientists had gone missing. She met Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and UNIT's unpaid scientific advisor the Doctor. Suspicious of the Doctor's activities, Sarah Jane stowed away in the TARDIS and traveled back in time with him to 13th century England, to defeat a Sontaran known as Jingo Linx, who had kidnapped the scientists. (DW: The Time Warrior).
Early adventures
Sarah Jane and the Doctor would have many adventures together both on Earth and on other planets. She got to know the Brigadier, Captain Mike Yates of UNIT (DW: Invasion of the Dinosaurs) and Jeremy Fitzoliver (BBCR: The Paradise of Death).
She met and fought the Daleks for the first time. (DW: Death to the Daleks). Faction Paradox altered the Doctor's timeline twice when Sarah Jane traveled with him. In one timeline, the Doctor died (and did not regenerate) on the planet Dust. In another, the Doctor did regenerate, an event which should never have happened at that time and place. (EDA: Interference: Book Two (The Hour of the Geek)). Later, these events reversed, allowing history to take its natural course. (EDA: The Ancestor Cell).
In the regular timeline, the Doctor regenerated following his exposure to deadly radiation in the cave of the Great One on Metebelis III. With the Doctor dying and his TARDIS lost in the Time Vortex, he left Sarah Jane and the Brigadier to await his return for three weeks. The Brigadier believed he had died, but Sarah maintained faith. Sarah and the Brigadier watched as the Doctor's TARDIS returned to UNIT HQ and he regenerated in front of them into his next incarnation. (DW: Planet of the Spiders, Robot)
Later travels
Along with another Human companion, Harry Sullivan, Sarah Jane and the Doctor traveled off on other adventures in time and space. (DW: Robot) The Doctor, in his new incarnation, had less interest in Earth, yet he seemed to have a closer relationship with Sarah Jane herself. She was present on the planet Skaro during the creation of the Daleks by Davros and the the Doctor's attempt to change or prevent it. (DW: Genesis of the Daleks)
- The Doctor's mission to stop or alter the creation of the Daleks has been posited as the origin of the Last Great Time War between the Daleks and the Time Lords by Russell T Davies in Doctor Who Confidential.
The departure
As she later related to Rose Tyler, Sarah encountered the Loch Ness Monster (DW: Terror of the Zygons), anti-matter monsters (DW: Planet of Evil) and "walking mummies" (DW: Pyramids of Mars. Earlier she had met the Cybermen. (DW: Revenge of the Cybermen)
Finally, after many trips with him, the Doctor received a summons to return to Gallifrey, his home world; as a human, she could not accompany him. The Doctor attempted to deposit her near her flat in South Croydon (DW:The Hand of Fear), but mistakenly left her in Aberdeen, Scotland, instead. (DW: School Reunion)
The Doctor would later suggest 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 (DW: School Reunion)). There is also evidence that he believed Sarah was growing too detached from her Earth life and it was in her best interests that she return to it. (DW: Doctor Who and the Face of Evil)
After the Doctor
The 1980s and 1990s
The Doctor did not forget Sarah, but sent her K-9 Mark III as a companion and keepsake. In the early 1980s, they uncovered the murderous cult of Hecate in the village of Moreton Harwood (K-9 & Company: A Girl's Best Friend). Sarah Jane was also instrumental in helping Harry Sullivan in Harry Sullivan's War. Shortly after, a Time Scoop removed her (but not K-9) to the Death Zone where she participated in the Games of Rassilion, and re-united with the Doctor's third incarnation. She briefly met the first, second and fifth Doctors, and introduced herself to Tegan Jovanka where they both entered into a private discussion as to what had happened to the Doctor's fourth incarnation. Sarah also had a reunion with The Brigadier and briefly met Susan Foreman and Turlough (DW: The Five Doctors). Sarah Jane was returned to her proper place in time and space, and, like the other off-worlders involved, had her memory wiped of these events on Gallifrey.
Decades later, Sarah Jane accompanied the Doctor's seventh incarnation to a jazz concert in the Albert Hall and defeated an invasion of Earth by rogue members of the insectoid Kalik species (DWM: Train-Flight). Presumably her memories were also wiped after this adventure.
Sarah Jane worked with Victoria Waterfield and the Brigadier to defeat the Great Intelligence (MA: Downtime).
The late 1990s
In 1996, with the Doctor's eight incarnation's companion, Sam Jones she fought against international human rights abuses and met her future husband, Paul Morley (NA: Christmas on a Rational Planet, EDA: Interference). Some accounts state they had a daughter together called Lauren and a grandchild called Lily (ST: Lily).
Later, in 1997, she assisted the Doctor's seventh incarnation against the Cortez Project in Hong Kong and died (PDA: Bullet Time). The Council of Eight had altered history by seemingly having Sarah die in 1997, well before her time (PDA: Bullet Time). This seems to have been undone by the Doctor's eventual defeat of the Council (EDA: Sometime Never...).
- Several contradictory accounts exist of the birth, deaths and marriages that occur or do not occur in Sarah's life following this adventure.
Sarah Jane Smith continued to work as an investigative reporter following her departure from Planet 3 and her aunt's death. (BFA: Comeback)
The Bannerman Road years
In the early 21st century, Sarah Jane and Bernice Summerfield enjoyed a coffee together and shared reminiscences of their time in the TARDIS (BFBS: A Life of Surprises: A Mutual Friend), a time that for Sarah was shortly to be revisted, as an inspirational reunion with the Doctor (DW: School Reunion) put her life back on track.
Sarah Jane Smith found, near the remnants of the Krakatoa eruption, an alien crystal, around which she built a computer, which she named Mr Smith. Mr Smith possessed information on many alien species and the ability to contact any computer in the world. (SJA: The Lost Boy). Sarah also had a sonic lipstick and a watch to scan for alien life, and various other futuristic and extraterrestrial devices. Using these technologies and her experience, she has helped the Earth and its alien visitors in a much less violent way than organisations such as UNIT and the Torchwood Institute, who in her estimation tend to go in "all guns blazing". (SJA: Invasion of the Bane)
Her amateur operation has more in common with that which Isaac Summerfield ran during the 1980s, being as likely to assist stranded aliens in returning home or in integrating as it is to oppose hostile incursions.
K-9 left her in order to stabilise an artificial black hole. Sarah had by that time developed a reputation on Bannerman Road for being unsociable and quiet. The Bane invasion changed all this as its events exposed her secrets to her young neighbour Maria Jackson. Along with "the archetype", an artificial Human boy created by Bane technology, they defeated the Bane Mother. In the aftermath, Sarah Jane adopted the boy as her own, re-naming him Luke. Sarah was no longer content to live alone and continues her adventures alongside her young friends. (SJA: Invasion of the Bane)
Through having Luke as a son, she met Clyde Langer, a friend of his and Maria's; all three helped her defeat the Slitheen. (SJA: Revenge of the Slitheen) They also helped her against the Gorgon. (SJA: Eye of the Gorgon) She and Maria saved Luke and Clyde from General Kudlak. (SJA: Warriors of Kudlak) She was almost wished out of reality by The Trickster until Maria's father Alan saved her and Maria. (SJA: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?) She was helped by the Slitheen to defeat Mr Smith, who had turned out to be evil. (SJA: The Lost Boy)
An unknown time later, Earth was transported to the Medusa Cascade and Sarah Jane was informed of its transportation by a reprogrammed Mr Smith (after she insisted he stop playing the fanfare used when activated). Soon after, Mr Smith relayed the Dalek warcry to Sarah Jane and Luke as the former became highly emotional and sobbed that Luke was "so young". Sarah Jane was eventually contacted by Harriet Jones and put into contact with Jack Harkness and Torchwood 3 along with Martha Jones via the use of a subnet network. Harriet told the group of a plan to contact the Doctor and Sarah Jane allowed Mr Smith to work in unison with Torchwood 3's Rift Manipulator in order to boost the signal of Martha Jones' superphone to enable it to reach the Doctor aboard the TARDIS. The plan worked, though Harriet Jones was exterminated soon after, and the Doctor and Donna Noble managed to reach Earth and Sarah Jane set off to its co-ordinates, supplied by Mr Smith. She soon ran into a duo of Daleks before reaching the Doctor who turned on her, preparing to exterminate her despite her cries of surrender. (DW: The Stolen Earth)
Alternate universe versions
- The alien Trickster swapped Sarah Jane's destiny with that of schoolfriend Andrea Yates. Consequently, Sarah Jane died as a child and never led the life she would have alongside the Doctor, and subsequently on Earth, and being the only person capable of stopping an asteroid headed for it, it nearly saw complete destruction until Maria Jackson was able to reverse the Trickster's spell.
Donna's World
In this universe, time is altered as the Doctor's companion Donna Noble is *assaulted by a member of the Trickster's Brigade who coerce her into turning right instead of left six months prior to The Runaway Bride, leading to her never meeting and saving the Doctor. Sarah Jane investigated the Royal Hope Hospital with Maria, Clyde and Luke; and met Martha Jones. When the hospital was teleported to the moon by the Judoon, Sarah Jane did try to step into the Doctor's role and defuse the situation. She was unsucessful, though, and, along with everyone else, died of suffocation from the lack of oxygen. (DW: Turn Left)
Personality
As a companion, Sarah 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 Doctor, and her subsequent life has been shaped by her finding him a tough act to follow; she stops short of saying that she had fallen in love with the Doctor, but the context of a discussion with Rose Tyler about the Doctor, and Rose's growing infatuation with the Doctor, implies this as a possible scenario (DW: School Reunion). Due to the common experiences, she bonded with Rose (after some initial mutual animosity and jealousy) and invited the younger companion to contact her if she ever left the Doctor and needed somone to talk to.
Other information
Aliases
- When she first met the Doctor she claimed to be her aunt Lavinia Smith. (DW: The Time Warrior)
- When she entered St. Agnes Abbey she called herself Felicity Barnes. (SJA: Eye of the Gorgon)
Behind the Scenes
Sarah Jane has appeared in the series 4 finale The Stolen Earth and is set to appear in Journey's End
External links
BBC Norfolk: Interview with Elisabeth Sladen regarding Sarah Jane Smith
