When Matt Smith met Sarah Jane and Jo, it got him thinking – who is the Doctor’s best-ever companion?
This article originally appeared in Radio Times for the week 23-29 October 2010.
So who’s the greatest Doctor Who companion? That’s the question furrowing Matt Smith’s brow as he collides with two stellar graduates of the TARDIS in this week’s Sarah Jane Adventures. Of course, Sarah Jane is known to a new generation of Who fans through her eponymous CBBC series, and this week she’s joined by Jo Grant. Both have intergalactic form, as sidekicks to 1970s Doctors Jon Pertwee and – in Sarah Jane’s case – Tom Baker, too. In such exalted company, would Smith stay loyal to current partner Amy Pond when we ask who he’d pick as his definitive companion?
“Well, Amy,” he says. “But Lis Sladen [Sarah Jane] is a close second. I’m very fond of Lis. Working with Katy Manning [Jo] has been wonderful. Katy’s a lovely person. Mad a box of fish, but totally dynamite! The last time the Doctor met Jo, she was – what? – 21, 22, so the Doctor tells her, ‘It looks like someone’s baked you.’ I love that. Poor Jo.”
There was a touch of the Doctor’s childlike directness earlier this year when Smith described Karen Gillan (Amy) as a “remarkable specimen”. “Oh God, did I say that? Well, that hair, those limbs, that surprising brain… it’s like she’s from another planet. She’s a true eccentric. Karen provides my funniest moments on a daily basis. Seeing her run. Seeing her move. Seeing those limbs extend. When she opens her mouth, it tends to be funny – unwittingly, but funny. But underneath her mad exterior, she’s sharp. She’s just perfectly Amy Pond. People love her. She’s hilarious.”
There might be no Amy in this adventure, but together in the last series of Doctor Who they saw off Daleks and Weeping Angels – so what was his scariest moment so far? “Getting locked in the Pandorica [in this summer's series finale]. Without a shadow of a doubt. That’s when the Doctor is as up against the wall as he’s ever been. That’s the moment when you go, ‘God help us all.’ If the Doctor is worried, it’s time to be very, very afraid.”
His latest foes are the Shansheeth. “They’re galactic coffin-bearers, and very impressive. We should get them into an episode of Doctor Who. I’ve had a ball of a time on Sarah Jane, I really have. It’s been a privilege to do. I was a little… I don’t know if nervous is the right word. Probably, at times. But I wanted it to go well, because they’re great companions, Lis and Katy. They’ve worked with the greats – c’mon, Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker! You want to be part of that legacy.I loved picking their brains about working with their Doctors in the past.
“It’s amazing, I can tell that they’ve been companions, because they just know how to be around a Doctor. They know how to approach these scenes of high-octane drama. They get the tone just perfect.”
Benjamin Cook
ELISABETH SLADEN
CHARACTER: Sarah Jane Smith (1973-76, 1981, 1983 and from 2006)
PAST: The investigative journalist has a long spell in the TARDIS in the 70s, with Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker’s Doctors. She returned in the 80s teamed with K9 and, since 2006, has often helped our tenth Doctor David Tennant.
PRESENT: Now Earthbound, she keeps a constant eye out for aliens in The Sarah Jane Adventures. The CBBC hit is now into its fourth series.
What was your scariest moment?
“I would have to go back to our first glimpse of Davros [in Genesis of the Daleks, 1975], emerging from the smoke. It felt so real. The hairs stood up on the back of your neck. I don’t know anything else that comes close. Terrifying.”
The funniest moment?
“Most involve Tom Baker. I had to climb through a vent, and it was so small that I genuinely got stuck. Tom was pushing my bum, then he tried pulling. I think that’s when Tom and I bonded. But isn’t Matt lovely, too? He’s such a clever choice for the role. He’s like a young deer. I watch him move – he’s like Bambi. What’s lovely is that Sarah Jane is over all the, ‘Oh my God, it’s the Doctor!’ shock. She’s done the angst and can stand back and say, ‘You’ve changed appearance again? Oh, I see. That’s fine.’ It’s for Katy to ask those questions now.”
Definitive companion? Sarah Jane topped the last RT poll for best companion…
“Isn’t that lovely? But I think you have to look at the time I was in the show, and the Doctors I was paired with. That’s not me being bashful. I was saying to Matt the other day, ‘You can appreciate their talents, their looks or whatever, but they have to be paired with the right Doctors.’ In that sense, Katy and I were lucky – and we have a really good connection. We’ve both been there, at different times. We know what each other went through. We have so much to share, just like Sarah Jane and Jo. It’s joyous.”
Stragest fan encounter?
“I have the letter to prove this – I daren’t throw it away – from I think they’re firemen, I’m not sure. They said they’d come over clean my flat, and make a meal for me. This was last year, I think. I didn’t reply. I just dig it out and read it when I’m feeling down. Do you think I should say yes? I’d probably let myself in for a great deal of mess if I did! Or do you want to reply? I might send it to Russell T Davies, actually.”
Favourite line?
“No lines while I’m running down corridors! I can’t multi-task at my age. I don’t have enough puff. Maybe Jon Pertwee’s last words as the Doctor: ‘A tear, Sarah Jane?’ That’s beautiful.” BC
KATY MANNING
CHARACTER: Jo Grant (1971-73, 2010)
PAST: Plucky but somewhat ditsy, the much-loved mini-skirted Jo was inseparable from third Doctor Jon Pertwee – until she fell in love with an ecologist and joined his expedition up the Amazon.
PRESENT: Still protecting the Earth, but this time as an activist against destruction by humans.
What was your scariest moment?
“Oh, the monsters in this one – plucked turkeys with long black fingernails. They’re gorgeous, but strangely menacing. I don’t know whether to hug them or kiss them.”
The funniest moment?
“You know when people say, ‘Can you do this?’ – and you go, ‘Yes,’ and regret it afterwards? One time, they said, ‘Can you abseil?’ I said, ‘Of course,’ because I thought, yeah, I’m good with boats. I had no idea! I arrived on set thinking, hang on, where’s the sea? Jon said, ‘What sea?’ I said, ‘The sea I’m going abseiling on.’ Five minutes later, I was bouncing down the side of a mountain on a bit of rope. I didn’t let on.”
Definitive companion?
“Sarah Jane is the one. She started at 21, 22, and you watched her grow, in front of your eyes, from this naïve young girl. I thought she was absolutely fabulous. Jon handed Tom a terrific baton that had just been lit, and Tom took hold of it and Sarah Jane bloomed. Lis was right there as a strong, solid woman, but with enough vulnerability. That’s why she’s perfect to take on this spin-off. Jo would have a very different spin-off show. I think hers would be more unhinged!”
Strangest fan encounter?
“My weirdest one recently – I’m still trying to work it out – was a fan who gave me a Tyrolean doll and a Greek phrase book. What does that mean? I used to get some very strange letters in the old days. A lot of people who believed that I was, like, their girlfriend.”
What’s your favourite line?
“Jo has some lovely stuff in this. When Sarah Jane says, ‘There’s something wrong,’ and Jo replies, ‘Wrong? You mean – as in just-like-the-old-days sort of wrong?’ ‘Exactly like the old days.’ And Jo goes, ‘Ohh, groovy!’ It’s groovy granny time. Maybe I’m doing something for the older woman now. I used to do a voice for Jo – because Jon would tease me, he’d call me ‘the lorry driver’, so I lifted Jo’s voice right up – but there was a moment on set, for these episodes, where I forgot that Jo is 40 years older. I went, ‘Ooh gosh, Doctor,’ and scared myself. There’s nothing worse than a woman who’s had a 500-pound elephant sleep on her face suddenly going into girly mode! It’s torturously sad. Even if you’ve been botoxed to within an inch of your life, you cannot go girly mode.” BC
