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Only weeks after we had to face losing one beloved figure in the Doctor Who universe, Nicholas "The Brig" Courtney (see this entry), comes even more tragic news about another. Actress Elisabeth Sladen, who played intrepid reporter Sarah Jane Smith alongside Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker and most recently David Tennant and Matt Smith as the mysterious time-and-space-traveling alien self-styled "The Doctor," in the original and revived series as well as not one but two spinoff shows, has died at 63 of cancer. The BBC News website reports her passing here (thanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pbristow for the link).
According to an old friend of mine and fellow Whovian, virtually no one outside her immediate family save her longtime friend and costar Baker knew Lis was even sick. She had been battling the disease for months, according to this report...and finally lost on Tuesday, April 19th. She had only recently finished the fourth season of her show The Sarah Jane Adventures (ironically featuring a guest shot by Nick—his last, as it fell out) and work had begun on a fifth. Now, sadly, there will be no more; I can't imagine them recasting the character any more than I can the Brig.
Sarah Jane was probably the very first companion I came to know when I first discovered the show way back in 1981 or thereabouts, along with Baker's now-iconic Fourth Doctor. As the feminist movement was then hitting its stride, she was also the first of the Doctor's many female companions not to be known chiefly for screaming and/or constantly needing rescue; no helpless, dumb or submissive girl she! Her abortive 1980s spinoff K-9 and Company notwithstanding, both the character and the beautiful, classy lady who portrayed her remained such a favorite among fans of the show on both sides of the pond that, when the series was finally resuscitated six years ago, she was brought back for a surprisingly dramatic and emotional reunion with the Doctor, who had by this time had his ninth regeneration into Tennant's Tenth. And both Lis and Sarah Jane showed that they still had what it takes...so much so that a second, more successful spinoff for the younger fans of the Whoniverse was ordered up by Auntie Beeb.
My heart, thoughts and prayers are with her surviving family—husband and colleague Brian Miller and their daughter Sadie—as well as the rest of her family, friends, coworkers and her many, many fans around the world. The TARDIS door has closed for the final time on one of the greatest characters—and actors—ever to pass through it. A fellow Englishwoman, filk superstar Talis Kimberley, has written a tribute song for her already, and you can find it here. Be warned: have some tissues close at hand.
Goodbye indeed, dear lady...and thank you from generations of fans of televised science fiction for decades of quality entertainment—not to mention feminists, girls and women everywhere for a role model of the kind that were (and still are) few and far between.
pbristow for the link).According to an old friend of mine and fellow Whovian, virtually no one outside her immediate family save her longtime friend and costar Baker knew Lis was even sick. She had been battling the disease for months, according to this report...and finally lost on Tuesday, April 19th. She had only recently finished the fourth season of her show The Sarah Jane Adventures (ironically featuring a guest shot by Nick—his last, as it fell out) and work had begun on a fifth. Now, sadly, there will be no more; I can't imagine them recasting the character any more than I can the Brig.
Sarah Jane was probably the very first companion I came to know when I first discovered the show way back in 1981 or thereabouts, along with Baker's now-iconic Fourth Doctor. As the feminist movement was then hitting its stride, she was also the first of the Doctor's many female companions not to be known chiefly for screaming and/or constantly needing rescue; no helpless, dumb or submissive girl she! Her abortive 1980s spinoff K-9 and Company notwithstanding, both the character and the beautiful, classy lady who portrayed her remained such a favorite among fans of the show on both sides of the pond that, when the series was finally resuscitated six years ago, she was brought back for a surprisingly dramatic and emotional reunion with the Doctor, who had by this time had his ninth regeneration into Tennant's Tenth. And both Lis and Sarah Jane showed that they still had what it takes...so much so that a second, more successful spinoff for the younger fans of the Whoniverse was ordered up by Auntie Beeb.
My heart, thoughts and prayers are with her surviving family—husband and colleague Brian Miller and their daughter Sadie—as well as the rest of her family, friends, coworkers and her many, many fans around the world. The TARDIS door has closed for the final time on one of the greatest characters—and actors—ever to pass through it. A fellow Englishwoman, filk superstar Talis Kimberley, has written a tribute song for her already, and you can find it here. Be warned: have some tissues close at hand.
Goodbye indeed, dear lady...and thank you from generations of fans of televised science fiction for decades of quality entertainment—not to mention feminists, girls and women everywhere for a role model of the kind that were (and still are) few and far between.
