"There's nothing 'only' about being a girl."

[itcamefromjapan]

The first episode of Doctor Who I ever saw all the way through was "School Reunion."

Actually, that's not quite true. I saw at least two other episodes around that same time - "The Age of Steel" and "The Satan Pit" - and my memory is hazy enough that I might have seen them first. Also, I didn't see "School Reunion" all the way through that first

Comments

[torchbaby]

"She was a journalist and a feminist and yeah, sometimes she screamed and needed to be saved, but she was also clever and tough and didn't take shit from people."

Screaming at times and needing to be saved doesn't make a female character weak. It makes them human. It makes them sympathetic and real.
One of my favorite moments for Sarah Jane and the episodes I have seen is the look on her face when Davros speaks to her. Seeing heroes make that face and show how terrified they are let's us know that we are dealing with something massive.
Also, it was just a great acting moment on Sladen's part. Because it wasn't over the top (AHEM Barrowman) and it didn't need to be.

In a way, I'm glad that I haven't seen any of her original companion episodes. If I can't have new Sarah Jane, at least I can go back and see the history she made.

[itcamefromjapan]

Screaming at times and needing to be saved doesn't make a female character weak. It makes them human. It makes them sympathetic and real.
Oh, I agree - it's problematic if that's all a character does, certainly, but she had enough substance that it usually felt valid. It's just that it's such a stereotype about the old-school companions, and it's a charge that gets leveled at her from time to time, so I thought I'd mention it.

There's actually a great moment on the audio commentary track for "The Sontaran Experiment" where Lis Sladen says something like, "I love a good scream. I don't think it's degrading at all."

Oh god, that moment. ♥ "The Stolen Earth" is one of my favorite episodes mostly for its cheese, but that moment was legitimately great.

Yeah. I've only seen some of her original serials, and I'm looking forward to watching the rest. I do have "The Sontaran Experiment" and "The Five Doctors" on DVD, both of which are awesome and have Sarah Jane in them, so we should watch those sometime.

[torchbaby]

No one should run around screaming all the time. Unless it's a secondary character and played for laughs. Then it's just funny.
I just hate that female characters can't be afraid at all in order to count as 'strong' to a lot of people.

We should definitely watch those. You should bring them over sometime and Brandi can also join in (she didn't recognize Elisabeth Sladen's name but as soon as I said 'Sarah Jane' she was sad too).