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Late one Sunday night back in the mid-eighties, I was channel-surfing the handful of channels that was cable TV in those days. I was sixteen and had just gotten off the closing shift at McDonald's. I wasn't yet able to sleep despite the late hour. Coming to the PBS station, I was sucked into a show I'd never seen before--a man in a great coat and impossibly long scarf was going through caves with a young girl and what looked like a man made of rocks. I was very into science fiction in those days, and this looked like one of the cleverest science fiction shows I'd ever seen.
Thus began my love of Doctor Who, which I learned about only slowly, video-taping it week after week on my parents new VCR. It took years for PBS to cycle back to the story that was my introduction to the series, "The Hand of Fear". So, though Sarah Jane Smith was the first companion I ever saw, she was the last one I really got to know. Even so, it was easy to see (when I finally got to see) how Sarah Jane is the companion among companions.
When Doctor Who returned in the 2000's, I was right with it from the first episode. Though I still enjoyed watching the classic series on my now 20-year-old VHS tapes, it was exciting to have the series back. It's had a number of truly great moments--"Are you my Mommy?", weeping angels, Vashta Nerada, Pandorica--but one of the greatest has to be the return of Sarah Jane in "School Reunion". It is a well-done episode that makes a nice connection between the classic series and the new series. And it led to The Sarah Jane Adventures, a show that both my kids and I have enjoyed.
So what does this rather unusual and extended introduction mean? That, apart from the Doctor, Sarah Jane is one of the most important characters in Doctor Who and that her success as a character relies heavily on the performance of Elizabeth Sladen. I'm often hesitant to read biographies of actors but I occasionally read autobiographies and, with Ms. Sladen's sad passing this year, I couldn't resist getting one more look at a career that has meant a lot to me. Fortunately, for a Doctor Who fan, this is about the best autobiography you could hope for.
One of the reasons I think the quality of British television and movies is generally higher than the American-made is that British actors are generally highly trained and not picked out of casting books for their looks first. Even faced with low production qualities--wobbly sets, cheap special effects, and the like--British actors make you ignore this and concentrate on the story. Reading about Ms. Sladen's start in the theatre is a perfect example of this. She worked her way up through the theatre before she got into TV and developed skills. She also reminds us of how small the acting community is in Britain, occasionally name-dropping encounters with the likes of Helen Mirren and Patrick Stewart.
Of course, the bulk of the book is about her time on Doctor Who. She takes us carefully through her experience from auditioning, the background on every story, post-Doctor Who acting, her convention times, the birth of her daughter and her eventual return to the world of the Time Lord. It's very balanced. She's not generally catty about people and things she didn't like nor does she speak about everything in glowing terms. She just comes across as honest. She admits an occasionally rocky road with her first doctor, Jon Pertwee, and a great relationship with Tom Baker, with whom later companions would have a more difficult time working. Her stories and insights into the show are, frankly, wonderful.
Ms. Sladen has a co-writer, but as I was reading I went back to check if there was one, because the voice in the writing seems entirely hers. That's one of the things that makes this book so readable. It really is like what you'd expect if she were speaking to you herself from across the table.
Like anyone telling stories, I'm sure there are omissions and spin in Ms. Sladen's tales. Others who went through the same experiences probably remember some things differently. But it certainly doesn't feel that way as you're reading and, in any case, it's nice to have Ms. Sladen's point-of-view. It's clear that she cared about what she did, and the people around her. Perhaps that's one of the reason she is so mourned. It's nice to have this book by which to remember her.
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