Relationship Spotlight: Sarah Jane Smith & the Doctor (Doctor Who)

*A few Doctor-Sarah Jane spoilers.*

The most beloved companions tend to earn that status for two reasons. 1) Their own cool personality and awesome capabilities, and 2) their special dynamic with the Doctor. Sarah Jane is terrific in her own right, but when you add the Doctor into the mix, everything levels up even further.

We’ll talk Sarah Jane and Three briefly, since, for lot of fans (myself included,) the Four-Sarah Jane relationship is the true beauty. After cool, calm scientist Liz and warm, hippy-dippy Jo, Sarah Jane was again an entirely different companion for the Third Doctor. An aspiring journalist with abundant hustle, she first cons her way into UNIT for a story, then slips inside the TARDIS just before it takes off, unbeknownst to the Doctor. She’s smart and ambitious, with a lot of fire, and she and the Doctor can be at odds over his at-times patronizing attitude toward her and her tendency to plow in headfirst without help.

In short, they’re a little combative, but they do care about and respect each other, Three playing the slightly stern uncle to the upstart young reporter. The bickering doesn’t stop when Four comes along—Sarah Jane has a certain threshold for nonsense that Four can exceed in his sleep—but their relationship changes, mellows a bit and gains nearer-to-equal footing.

While the Doctor likely considers most of their companions their best friend at different points in their lives, Sarah Jane is one of the few who’s expressly introduced as such (to their captors while they’re both tied up, naturally.) There’s something special about that, and watching their dynamic, it’s easy to see why. For all that they tease each other and argue over the best strategy to get out of dangerous situations, there’s a huge amount of warmth and affection between them.

Sarah Jane admires the Doctor, but she never really idolizes him, and that allows her to approach him as a person rather than a mythic figure or a hero. The Doctor in turn admires Sarah Jane, alternately being impressed and amused by her, and their partnership is one of a madcap adventure across the universe, “being daft and fixing things,” as Amy Pond would say.

When they part, it’s as humorous as it is wistful. After a harrowing adventure, Sarah Jane loudly complains that she’s had it and makes a show of gathering up her ramshackle belongings, not realizing that, all the while, the Doctor is looking at a message from Gallifrey: he’s being called back to his home planet and humans aren’t allowed. So what begins as a threat to leave in a fit of frustration becomes a forced departure. As they say goodbye, it’s sad and loving, both of them entreating the other not to forget them.

For a long time, that’s all she wrote, until the fateful day in series 2 of new Who when the Tenth Doctor collides back into Sarah Jane’s life. After an initial painful meeting, with Sarah Jane feeling hurt that the Doctor never came back for her, they fall back into their old patterns, and Sarah Jane goes on to have a fun dynamic with Ten, and later Eleven, on the select occasions when their paths cross. Truly, a Doctor-companion relationship for the ages.

Relationship Spotlight: Maria Jackson & Sarah Jane Smith (The Sarah Jane Adventures)

 

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I first sat down to watch The Sarah Jane Adventures from the start, having only seen the stories in which the Doctor guest stars. I knew the show skewed younger and was prepared to find it pleasant but inconsequential while I enjoyed Sarah Jane herself and satisfied my completist nature. But even if the first few episodes of the show are fairly uneven, its potential is still immediately evident, and much of that is down to the relationship between Sarah Jane and Maria (a few spoilers for the pilot, as well as new Who’s “School Reunion.”)

After her travels with the Doctor end, Sarah Jane spends a long time feeling unfulfilled. Although she continues to investigate the inexplicable, she does it with a longing eye on the past, dwelling on the TARDIS life she no longer has. While running into the Tenth Doctor in “School Reunion” helps her realize she can honor/appreciate her past but still live for the present, she doesn’t quite get all the contentment she needs after that encounter. Why? Because, even if she’s found a way to scratch her itch for adventure, investigation, and heroics, she’s doing it mostly alone. Not that the friendship she had with the Doctor can be replicated, but she carries on largely in solitude, without many friends to share the wonder of the universe with.

When Maria Jackson moves in across the road, all that changes. Oh, Sarah Jane tries to keep to herself, convinced that it would be irresponsible to let anyone else in on her alien-chasing extracurricular activities, but Maria isn’t having it. The moment she spies an alien in Sarah Jane’s garden, Maria can’t go back to pretending life is normal, and one way or another, it’s inevitable that she’ll become the first human to join what will eventually be Sarah Jane’s team.

Sarah Jane resists at first, “frosty” as she is, but Maria ably demonstrates the value of having a friend and teammate. Despite Maria’s youth and inexperience, she’s brave, clever, and determined, and Sarah Jane works better when someone has her back. What’s more, Maria shows Sarah Jane that it’s all right to let others in and share the secrets of her incredible life with them. Maria opens the door to Luke, and then Clyde, which eventually paves the way for Rani and Sky. None of that would be possible without Maria making the first stubborn overtures.

Once Sarah Jane does manage to let her guard down a little, she and Maria quickly develop a close relationship. Sarah Jane is a mentor to Maria (along the lines of Giles and Buffy,) but they’re also just friends. Sarah Jane delights in showing the wonders of the universe to the awed Maria, and the two of them have a blast rigging up DIY sci-fi gizmos together. When Maria is dealing with issues at home, Sarah Jane instantly sees that something’s up, and when Maria lashes out at Sarah Jane under a moment of extreme duress, Sarah Jane doesn’t take it personally, welcoming Maria back with open arms when she cools down. In “Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?”, Sarah Jane confides that Maria is the person she trusts the most, and (given that the Doctor is rarely around in Sarah Jane’s life anymore,) I believe her absolutely. Maria is Team Sarah Jane all the way and won’t let her friend down for anything.

Relationship Spotlight: Sarah Jane Smith & Clyde Langer (The Sarah Jane Adventures)

Pretty much any combination of Sarah Jane Adventures characters will give you a good relationship to work with, and Sarah Jane and Clyde have one of the more dynamic ones. Their relationship undergoes a lot of change from where they start out, which makes their scenes together cool to watch.

By the time Sarah Jane meets Clyde, she’s already predisposed to have an unfavorable opinion of him. Clyde is one of the first new people Luke meets at school, and he quickly gives Luke an earful about what is or isn’t “cool.” Although Sarah Jane’s maternal relationship with Luke is still pretty new at that point, she’s very protective of him, so anyone who tells her son he’s not cool isn’t going to start out as one of her favorite people. Combine that with the fact that Sarah Jane isn’t thrilled about letting anyone new into the fold early on (she’s only just gotten used to Luke and Maria,) and you’re got a recipe for not starting on the right foot with Clyde.

And so, she’s unsure about him at first. She does her usual thing of trying to avoid bringing him in on the truth, even though he’s already seen aliens firsthand, and when he makes it clear he’s not just going to go home and forget about what he saw, she’s not exactly warm and inviting ot him. She attempts to keep him on a short leash and is pretty stern with him. Now, to be fair, Clyde does have a habit of ignoring directions when he thinks his way is better/cool/more exciting, and he occasionally stretches the truth when he knows he’s done something he shouldn’t have, so Sarah Jane’s instinct to keep him in line isn’t wholly without merit. But she does let her perception of him color how she treats him in those early days, whether by discounting his bright contributions or being quick to blame him when he and Luke get themselves into a tight situation (even on the occasions when it’s more Luke’s fault than his.)

But while both Sarah Jane and Clyde can be strong-willed, both are also willing to change their minds when they need to. As they get to know one another better, Sarah Jane realizes she doesn’t always need to have her back up with Clyde, that he’s a good, smart kid who can be counted on and who adds value to the team. She also recognizes that Clyde is a true friend to Luke and that, even when he gives Luke advice on “coolness,” it’s because he wants Luke to fit in and feel comfortable, not because he thinks Luke is “wrong” the way he is.  And for his part, Clyde learns to trust and listen to Sarah Jane more.  Sure, he’ll still go against her instructions when he has a mind to and he thinks he can get away with it, but he also understands the importance of leaning on Sarah Jane’s experience and gets that she just wants him and the others to stay safe.

The change in their relationship is, I think, more gradual than how Sarah Jane’s relationships deepen with Luke and Maria (and later Rani and Sky,) and so the shift doesn’t seem as dramatic at first, but it’s there.  I like their one-on-one scenes that build up over time, little moments, like him nervously showing her his artwork or her assuring him that being cool doesn’t mean he can’t be vulnerable with his friends.  When it comes to fighting aliens, they absolutely have each other’s backs, and they usually have a lot of fun together along the way.