Why I Think Sarah Jane Smith Is The Definitive Doctor Who Companion
By Brandon Tempany

If someone had said the name Sarah Jane Smith to me before 2005 it would have meant nothing to me, the name conjured up only vague memories of a Doctor Who episode with weird looking mummies and a girl wearing a long white dress, say the name to me now and I’d be able to give you a whole back story of her character and name you any one of her episodes based solely on what outfit she was wearing in it.

Before Sarah Jane came back to Doctor Who in 2006 I knew very little about her, in fact she wasn’t even my favourite companion back then, I was still hung up on Jo, [I’m still upset that she left me for that welsh hippie actually!] I didn’t really know what all the fuss was about when everyone made a big deal over the fact that Sarah Jane was coming back to Doctor Who, but after seeing School Reunion it sparked an interest and I went back and watched as many of her episodes as I could get my hands on.

So why is Sarah Jane Smith one of the most popular companions? Why is it when I think of Doctor Who companions I instantly think of Sarah Jane?

Well…… I don’t know, but I’m trying to find out.

Sarah Jane Smith first appeared on Doctor Who way back in 1973 in The Time Warrior and there was instantly something special about her, The doctors previous two companions Liz and Jo had both worked for UNIT and were assigned to the Doctor, Sarah Jane was not, she was an independent Journalist who was trying to find a good story, Jo’s introduction to the show was on the lines of “Hello, I’m you’re new assistant”, whereas Sarah’s was more like “Hello, I’m a journalist, who the hell are you with all your weird gadgets?”

If I had to compare it to another companions entrance I would say her introduction is more along the lines of Tegans, neither of them wanted to go with the Doctor, they both had their own jobs to go to, but they both kind of got stuck with him.

Sarah’s one of those rare companions who doesn’t make any comment about the Tardis, it’s a running joke that every new person who encounters the Tardis ends up saying, “it’s bigger on the inside” not Sarah Jane though! Oh no! She doesn’t even mention it, even when the doctor tells her he’s a time lord her reaction is “I could murder a cup of tea!” That’s one of the reasons I think Sarah Janes so special, she is completely unphased by any of it, even when she realises she’s been taken back in time in The Time Warrior she’s not even worried about it, in fact by the end of the episode she was practically running the place! That’s Sarah Jane for ya!

I’m gonna be honest and say the pairing between Sarah Jane and The Third doctor never really worked for me, not like it worked with him and Jo anyway, it’s like Jo was his Assistant but she was also his friend, but with Sarah Jane I never felt like he was that close to her, not like the fourth doctor was anyway.

In their first adventure together, Robot, they are actually apart for most of it, there’s not much interaction between the two, She’s off doing her own investigations whereas the Doctor spends most of the story with the UNIT boys, by the end of it thought they are the best of friends, she even becomes the first person the fourth doctor offers a jelly baby too which is a big deal!, I think if the fourth Doctor had ever proposed to someone he would have done it with a jelly baby.

Now there’s more to being The Doctors companion than screaming, getting kidnapped and spraining your ankle, (Susan I’m looking at you!) A companion has to have a special connection with the Doctor, and Sarah Jane had that, I think my favourite line that shows the connection they had comes from The Seeds of Doom when the Doctor say’s “Have you met Miss Smith?, she’s my best friend”.

It’s not a big line, it’s not overplayed, but it shows how much he cares for her, there’s never been another companion that I know of that he’s referred to as his best friend, not even Rose who he had an even bigger connection with, it just goes to show the unique relationship that the two of them had.

Of course he’s had special relationships with other companions, Susan obviously, and he was very close to Jamie and Zoe, and with Ace I always saw it as a Father/Daughter thing, but with Sarah Jane I felt it was always that little bit more special between the two of them.

I really feel that if it hadn’t been for the restrictions of 1970’s society we would have definitely seen a more intense relationship between the two of them, and I don’t mean a sexual relationship or anything like that, I just mean that the relationship the two of them had should have been so much more than just friendship and I really wish it could have been shown, but luckily we still have those lovely little moments between the two of them like every time Sarah Jane thought he was dead and she cried over him, and when the Doctor thinks she’s dead in Genesis of The Daleks, and my personal favourite moment when she makes fun of him when he’s being all moody at the start of Pyramids of Mars, which just shows how much at ease she is with him and all the things they’ve been through together.

But like all companions they have to leave one day, a lot of leaving scenes for the companions are heart breaking, Susan’s, Jamie and Zoe and Adrics for example, and Sarah Janes is definitely up there with them, it’s just so unexpected, just when you think everything’s back to normal the doctor gets the call from Gallifrey and that’s it, she has to go, no questions about it! Even she was surprised about it, it’s so sad because you can see she doesn’t want to leave but she’s got no choice and neither does he, humans just aren’t allowed on Gallifrey. [Although it does piss me off that a season later Leela’s allowed to be there!]

I think if she’d had the choice Sarah Jane would never have left the doctor, she had plenty of chances to leave but she never did, like at the end of The Terror of Zygons when Harry decided to stay on earth, she could have easily stayed as well and she had the choice too, but no she decided to stay with him, even though she fully well knew the Doctor would never get her back to London five minutes before she left like he said HE WOULD!!

I don’t think any other companion has ever got as good a farewell as Sarah Jane had, Rose’s was quite good actually but I still love Sarah’s, it’s just perfect, I love the joke about how he got the location wrong and the whistling and the freeze frame at the end, it’s all brilliant, I just wish the Doctor could have shown her more love, I found myself watching it once and screaming at the doctor to at least give her a hug, just something to show how he felt about her, but no we had to wait until 2006 for him to be able to do that.

Now if there was ever a companion that was ever going to come back it would have had to be Sarah Jane, not only is she one of the most popular companions, she’s also one of those companions who’s story was left open ended [if you don’t count K9 and |Company], I think when they brought her back in School Reunion it was one of the best ideas they’d had since Doctor Who came back, and definitely the best episode of season two.

There’s a pivotal moment in that episode between the Doctor and Headmaster Finch where he tries to persuade the Doctor to join him, there’s almost a moment where you think the doctor might even say yes, and who steps in and stops him, Sarah Jane of course! She’s the one who talks him out of it, not Rose, I notice Rose said nothing at all during that entire speech, what was she gonna do let him go along with Mr Finch? The idiot child! Never send a girl to do a womans job! Sarah was the one who stepped up and did what the companion is supposed to do, stop him from going too far, Donna had it right in The Runaway Bride when she said “I think you need someone to stop you”. THAT is what the companions are for, and THAT is why Sarah Jane is in my opinion THE definitive companion, she was there to help The Doctor when he couldn’t destroy the Daleks in Genesis of the Daleks and she stepped in again to help him stop the Krillitanes in School Reunion, and after everything she finally, after 30 years of waiting, got to say a proper goodbye to the Doctor

You can compare Sarah Jane to any other companion and I guarantee she’ll come out on top; she’s completely in a league of her own.

This is just my opinion though, of course I am biased because she is my favourite companion, there are other companions I like too, I would love to see if Jo and Cliff stayed together all these years, and I’ve often wondered whatever happened to Ace, but I reckon I’m lucky because my favourite companion is still around and coming back again with her own show, Invasion Of The Bane was absolutely brilliant and I just cant wait for the rest of the series to start! You know it’s gonna be good, I mean come on! It’s Sarah Jane!

Brandon Tempany/Leather Tuscadero