One of the most popular and beloved of companions in the Doctor Who universe is Sarah Jane Smith (played by Elisabeth Sladen). The character started out in 1973 with the third doctor (Jon Pertwee) as a journalist with a keen inquiring mind but by the time the Doctor regenerated into the fourth incarnation (Tom Baker), her character even at the height of her popularity was rewritten to be a mere “yes” girl to the Doctor. She was very much a sidekick, and the on-screen relationship often resembled the teacher-and-not-so-bright-student paradigm. The character Sarah Jane Smith might nod to feminism but she didn’t present any real threat to the established order. Time, however, has been good to Sarah Jane Smith. Reflecting the cultural shift of the last forty years in perceptions of how to define a woman and her ascribed roles in society, the character of Sarah Jane Smith has evolved onscreen into a powerful woman who establishes her identity as a protector of earth. After the Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith separate, she becomes a warrior in her own right, humane, curious, a defender of earth, open to new species and ideas. This presentation examines Sarah Jane Smith’s transformation from sidekick to the doctor’s peer who can meet him on his own terms and traces how this popular icon echoes the expansion of just what a woman’s place in the SF universe can be.
About the presenterSheila Sandapen
Sheila Sandapen, Ph.D, teaches in the English & Philosophy Department at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Her teaching and writing interests include: children’s literature, genre fiction, cultural studies and all things Jane Austen.