Companions: Fifty Years of Doctor Who Assistants (40 page)

After an apparent Earthquake in
The Stolen Earth
, Sarah is horrified when Mr Smith plays her the transmission coming from a fleet of ships entering the Earth’s atmosphere. The sound of the Daleks’ voices terrify her to the core – a sound she never expected to hear again. She clings to Luke, the tears falling, saying, ‘but he was so young’, pretty convinced that their days are numbered. She is later a little surprised, but flattered, when Jack tells her she is looking good during the subspace network conference with the Doctor, and displays Luke proudly, although she never gets the chance to explain the circumstances of Luke’s arrival in her life (when the Doctor next sees Sarah in
SJA: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith
, he seems to know a lot about Luke, and the other teenagers who work with Sarah – clearly having done his homework at some point after
Journey’s End
). Her joy, though, turns to horror again when Davros breaks through the subspace network, and during a confrontation thinks it fitting that Sarah should be there to witness the ultimate triumph of his Daleks, having been there at the very beginning (
Genesis of the Daleks
). Sarah agrees, but she tells him that she has learned to fight since then, before she and Jack hold him to ransom with a warp star given to her by a Verron soothsayer (probably the same soothsayer who gave her the puzzle box used in
SJA: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane Smith
). She says a quick goodbye to the Doctor this time, wanting to make haste and return to Luke, but before going she does make a point of telling the Doctor that, although he acts lonely, he has got the biggest family of them all (his companions all over the planet) – reiterating a point she made about herself in
SJA: The Lost Boy
.

During the next year, Sarah and her team continue to defend the Earth, taking on Kaagh, the only survivor of the attempted Sontaran invasion in
The Sontaran Stratagem
, who wishes to take Sarah back to Sontar in order that she stand trial in the Doctor’s stead. We also discover that she comes up against the Trickster a further two times. First, in
SJA: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith
, he tempts her with a trip into the past, where she meets her parents in the small village of Foxgrove in 1951. Luke follows her there and tries to convince her to let her parents go, even though to do so will mean their deaths, but Sarah cannot do it. The emotional pull of saving her parents is too much. She also meets herself as a baby, and when she realises the mistake she has made, she is delighted to spot a Police Box and is certain the Doctor has arrived to help her. It is, however, just a Police Box and not the TARDIS. She eventually restores the timeline, at great personal cost. The second encounter with the Trickster is at her wedding to Peter Dalton, a man who has died and made an agreement to live only if he can marry Sarah. Peter is the first person she has had a proper romance with since leaving the TARDIS in 1980, no man could live up to the memory of the Doctor. By marrying him, Sarah is willing to give up her life as a defender of Earth, but the Doctor arrives to stop the wedding. It is only her faith in the Doctor that convinces her to do the right thing, and she shows Peter the truth of his ‘angel’, the Trickster. Peter alters his deal and the Trickster is defeated, once more at a cost to Sarah’s emotional wellbeing. After showing Luke, Clyde and Rani (who has moved into Maria’s old house) around the TARDIS, the Doctor and Sarah say goodbye again, in a manner that echoes their first parting in
The Hand of Fear
, and the Doctor tells Sarah not to forget him. She does not think anyone will ever forget him.

She encounters further Raxacoricofallapatrians on two occasions and a return match with Mrs Wormwood, who wishes to claim Luke as her son, having been the one who created him. Luke ultimately chooses Sarah. She is reunited with Brigadier Sir Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart (not seen on television since
Battlefield
in 1989), who helps her against Mrs Wormwood and Kaagh the Sontaran. They have not seen each other in some time, and have a very sweet and respectful relationship.

Following the fiasco with the ‘Master race’, she has Mr Smith send out a cover story, and very briefly sees the Doctor, who saves Luke from being run over by a car. No words are passed between them in
The End of Time
, but tears glisten in Sarah’s eyes for she is certain it will be the last time she will see this incarnation. The following year she discovers how right she was when she is informed by UNIT that the Doctor is dead, in
SJA: Death of the Doctor
.

She refuses to accept his death, but agrees to go to the memorial service, taking Luke, Clyde and Rani with her for emotional support. On seeing the casket and hearing how badly wounded he was, Sarah almost crumbles, the doubt setting in. It is only when she meets Jo Jones (nee Grant) that she realises that she is not alone in her belief in the Doctor’s continued survival – both are certain that if the Doctor had died they would both
know
. Shortly after, they meet the Doctor – now in his eleventh incarnation. Sarah recognises him instantly, and helps convince Jo. She seems to feel a little sorry for Jo, especially when explaining to Jo how many times she has seen the Doctor since they stopped travelling together. ‘Oh, he must have
really
liked you,’ Jo says sadly, having never seen the Doctor since she left to get married. Despite this, there appears to be a look of jealousy on her face when the Doctor and Jo are making their peace, Sarah watching from a distance. Not entirely unlike Rose, Sarah does not really like the idea of sharing the Doctor – not after all this time. Sarah shares a look with the Doctor, later in the TARDIS, when Jo mentions him getting into trouble with the Time Lords – she understands about the Time War now, and the pain the Doctor carries within. She shares an amused goodbye with Jo, who tells Sarah to find a good man, then reminisces with her team about how she sometimes does a search for the Doctor’s other companions; like her, there are others out there protecting the Earth in their own way.

The last time we see Sarah is in
SJA: The Man Who Never Was
, by which time she has adopted a young girl called Sky, K9 has finally come out of his safe, and she continues to have the assistance of Luke, Clyde and Rani.

For forty years Sarah has been out there, travelling, defending the Earth, but now she has found much more. As she says; ‘I’ve seen amazing things out there in space. But strange things can happen wherever you are. I’ve learned that life on Earth can be an adventure, too. But, in all the universe, I never expected to find a family.’

And Sarah’s story goes on… forever.

At the end of
Doomsday
we are introduced, very briefly, to ‘the Bride’, who has mysteriously appeared in the TARDIS console room mere moments after the Doctor’s heartfelt goodbye with Rose. It is an unexpected cliffhanger – a surprise ending kept from everyone beyond those involved. Donna Noble was not created to be an ongoing companion, but rather the complete opposite of Rose, someone who would help the Doctor get over his loss, and pave the way for the new ongoing companion, Martha Jones. Indeed, many other characters were considered for the next ongoing companion, including Elton Pope (previously seen in
Love & Monsters
) and a new companion, Penny (as producer Russell T Davies relates in
The Writer’s Tale
, published in 2008). It was only after actress Catherine Tate mentioned to producer Jane Tranter that she would be interested in returning that plans were made for the inclusion of Donna in series four…

Donna Noble
–
Catherine Tate
(
The Runaway Bride
and
Partners in Crime
to
Journey’s End
, plus
The End of Time
)

Donna makes quite an entry. She appears in the TARDIS barely seconds after the Doctor’s tearful farewell to Rose at the end of
Doomsday
. She is as surprised as the Doctor and immediately throws him off balance, not even giving him a chance to work through his grief. The Doctor is so shocked in fact that he can barely answer her torrent of questions… ‘Where am I? What is this place?’ She doesn’t accept that ‘TARDIS’ is a real word and even thinks he has kidnapped her. She runs to the doors and flings them open into space. She pauses for a moment, long enough for the Doctor to try and explain things a little. She spies Rose’s coat and assumes the Doctor kidnaps people – but the Doctor snatches the coat off her and point blank refuses to discuss Rose. Throughout
The Runaway Bride
she proves herself to be volatile, constantly shouting her way through everything, taking none of the Doctor’s nonsense. All she wants to do is get back to the church – from which she was removed abruptly while walking down the aisle to marry her fiancé, Lance. The Doctor is not sure why she would want to get married on Christmas Eve, but Donna points out she hates Christmas and is looking forward to her honeymoon in Morocco. She is highly skilled at sarcasm, as can be seen when she is being heckled by drivers who think she is a man in drag. Even more so when the Doctor asks if she has money for a taxi and she points out that when choosing a wedding dress the last thing on her mind was pockets.

Such is her rush that she ends up in a taxi driven by a Robot Santa (of the type last seen in
The Christmas Invasion
), but the Doctor chases her in the TARDIS. While racing down the motorway she is faced with the simple option – either jump from the taxi into the waiting arms of the Doctor, or continue in the taxi with the Robot Santa. Even then she is not convinced, but the Doctor tells her to trust him, she asks if Rose did. The Doctor tells her that Rose not only trusted him, but she is safe and well, which is all Donna needs to know to jump.

When they get to her wedding reception, which her guests are enjoying without her, she puts on a show of her own, playing the upset bride until everyone gathers around her offering sympathy. She then throws herself into the party, until it is crashed by Robot Santas. The Doctor is surprised that Donna seems to keep on missing the bigger picture – she somehow missed the big ship hanging over London the previous Christmas, and all the Cybermen in peoples’ houses earlier that year (she had a hangover on Christmas Day 2006, and was scuba diving when the Daleks and Cybermen battled it out in 2007). We see the first signs of her acceptance of the Doctor when he points out that he could not get rid of her if he tried – her response? A smirk of agreement.

She is initially upset at Lance’s betrayal when she discovers he has been filling her with huon particles for the Racnoss (which is what pulled her to the TARDIS in the first place), but is still upset when he dies later. To help her gain some perspective, the Doctor shows her the creation of Earth.

Despite the volatility of Donna’s personality, she is smart enough to realise that the Doctor is going too far when he floods the Racnoss’s lair (indeed it is because she is
not
there to stop him that he dies in the parallel world created in
Turn Left
), and she realises that is why he travels with people. He needs someone to ground him, to stop him from going too far. The Doctor asks her to join him, but she will not – his life scares her, but she does decide that she is going to travel, see more of the world. Before he leaves, she makes the Doctor promise to find someone, because he
does
need to. In return the Doctor tells Donna to be magnificent, and she responds with a smile; ‘I think I will, yeah.’

For Martha Jones the producers wanted something a little different from Rose. Someone less emotional and instinctive, someone a bit more educated, and slightly older. The rebound girl, in many ways, a ‘new soul mate’. She would be, as Russell T Davies says in
The Inside Story
, ‘a true twenty-first century girl. She’ll have a family, but they’re very different from Rose’s because there are lots of different ways of approaching it.’

Martha Jones
–
Freema Agyeman
(
Smith and Jones
to
The Last of the Time Lords
, and
The Sontaran Stratagem
to
The Doctor’s Daughter
, and
The Stolen Earth
to
Journey’s End
, plus
The End of Time
)

It is quite clear from the moment we meet her that Martha is a far cry from Rose. She is the family mediator, sorting through the arrangements for her brother, Leo’s party to ensure that her mother, Francine, doesn’t have to share the same room as her father’s (Clive Jones) girlfriend, Annalise, whom Clive left Francine for. As well as juggling her semi-dysfunctional family, she is studying to be a doctor at the Royal Hope Hospital, and paying the rent for her London flat. She briefly meets the Doctor while she is on the way to work; he steps out before her, takes his tie off, and wanders off again. She is not too sure what to make of the encounter. When she comes across him in the hospital later, having signed himself in as John Smith, she asks him about their earlier meeting. The Doctor has no idea what she is talking about, but her curiosity catches his interest, and his double heartbeat catches hers. After the entire hospital is transported to the moon by an H2O Scoop, she is the only one not to panic, and even attempts to calm people. The Doctor observes this, and overhears her remark about how the windows are not airtight, so even if she doesn’t open them it wouldn’t matter, the air would have been sucked out by now. The Doctor is impressed, and offers to take her out on a veranda to observe the moon; she is up for it even when he points out that they might die, to which she responds, ‘We might not’. Such a positive attitude attracts the Doctor to her, and over the next few hours they work together to hold back the Judoon while unmasking the Plasmavore who intends to destroy half of the Earth’s population to make her escape. Once Leo’s party falls apart – because Annalise refuses to accept Martha’s story about the moon – Martha sees the Doctor standing on the corner of an alley. He invites her to go with him for one trip, as a thank you. She is initially resistant, until he proves the TARDIS is a time machine by going back to the morning and removing his tie in front of the day-younger Martha. After learning about Rose, Martha points out that she is not even remotely interested in him, although despite her teasing it is perfectly obvious that she is totally taken in by him.