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OT: RIP Elisabeth Sladen
Apr. 20th, 2011 07:42 pmYesterday I was saddened to see via Twitter that Elisabeth Sladen, who played the ever-popular companion Sarah Jane Smith on “Doctor Who” and on her own show “The Sarah Jane Adventures,” died at age 63 from cancer. Many people, even her associates, seemed to have no idea she was sick. I had no idea and apparently no one in DW fandom knew either.
Back in 1980-81, the only way I could see DW on this side of the Atlantic was on PBS and I just happened to have stumbled across the show one night while channel surfing. Thus began my brief foray into the Tardis. The episodes PBS aired were a couple of years old, so my introduction to DW was through the team of Tom Baker and Lis Sladen. I was hooked and I loved the relationship between the Doctor and Sarah Jane. Sarah Jane was in her own way a kick-butt heroine even though she was just a regular gal (she was a reporter or something, right?) who got caught up in this loony situation. She had no superpowers. She couldn’t swordfight or beat men up. She wasn’t a hottie who pranced around in a sexy outfit. But she was smart, sassy in her own British way, and wasn’t afraid of calling the Doctor out when it was necessary. She began to see her time traveling adventures as her new normal and it’s funny to see on “The Sarah Jane Adventures” someone who had long since learned to view the extraordinary as well, just a part of life.
Even though Lis, as she was often called, originally left the show back in 1976 after just three years, she never left the hearts of her fans. She always remained popular with DW fans and with sf/Brit t.v. fans. I never had the opportunity to meet her or see her at a con, but everyone who met her said she was as awesome in real life as she was on t.v.. She came back to DW in 2006 and got her own show a year later. She never ran from DW and never complained about it. She was happy to be associated with the show. And that’s always a nice thing to see.
Here’s Tom Baker’s tribute:
http://www.tom-baker.co.uk/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=159
Back in 1980-81, the only way I could see DW on this side of the Atlantic was on PBS and I just happened to have stumbled across the show one night while channel surfing. Thus began my brief foray into the Tardis. The episodes PBS aired were a couple of years old, so my introduction to DW was through the team of Tom Baker and Lis Sladen. I was hooked and I loved the relationship between the Doctor and Sarah Jane. Sarah Jane was in her own way a kick-butt heroine even though she was just a regular gal (she was a reporter or something, right?) who got caught up in this loony situation. She had no superpowers. She couldn’t swordfight or beat men up. She wasn’t a hottie who pranced around in a sexy outfit. But she was smart, sassy in her own British way, and wasn’t afraid of calling the Doctor out when it was necessary. She began to see her time traveling adventures as her new normal and it’s funny to see on “The Sarah Jane Adventures” someone who had long since learned to view the extraordinary as well, just a part of life.
Even though Lis, as she was often called, originally left the show back in 1976 after just three years, she never left the hearts of her fans. She always remained popular with DW fans and with sf/Brit t.v. fans. I never had the opportunity to meet her or see her at a con, but everyone who met her said she was as awesome in real life as she was on t.v.. She came back to DW in 2006 and got her own show a year later. She never ran from DW and never complained about it. She was happy to be associated with the show. And that’s always a nice thing to see.
Here’s Tom Baker’s tribute:
http://www.tom-baker.co.uk/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=159
