I wasn't going to write about Lis Sladen's death as there are so many much better tributes to her out there that mine would never be good enough. But I'm writing a little something, just to remember one of Doctor Who's best loved companions.
Beginning her time on Doctor Who in the Third Doctor story The Time Warrior way back in 1973, Lis Sladen gave the character of Sarah Jane Smith something that previous companions didn't have - wit and intelligence and fight!
Sarah Jane was everyone's favourite companion, saving the universe with more Doctors than any other companion in the show! She first met Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor, stayed on to travel with Tom Baker's Fourth, then met the First, Second and Fifth in anniversary story The Five Doctors when she returned to guest-star alongside some of the best known companions in the show's history.
She then returned in the Tenth Doctor story School Reunion, alongside David Tennant, before being given her very own spin-off show on CBBC, The Sarah Jane Adventures. Within this show she more or less became a hero to a generation of children who had never seen her in Doctor Who. Still looking amazing and still with the energy and wit that she had back in the day, Sarah Jane Smith was well and truly back in the Whoniverse. Fighting monsters old and new, with our old friend K9, and meeting some more of the best companions ever - the Brigadier, Jo Grant, as well as the best new companions in Journey's End and the wonderful SJA kids...
It was on SJA that she got to meet the current incarnation of the Doctor, Matt Smith's Eleventh. And still, countless faces later, there was still a wonderful chemistry, a perfect nostalgia about their brief adventure together.
I'm so sad that Lis Sladen has passed away, but there are no words that I can really say to pay tribute to such a wonderful woman. So this little post is dedicated to the memory of one Sarah Jane Smith, investigative journalist, fan favourite and all round hotty. Even into her sixties. She will be missed <3
