BYE LIS
I'll never forget the first time I saw Lis Sladen on screen, it was 1974 and episode one of 'The Time Warrior'. Walking into the research station she fibbed her way past security then called The Doctor a male chauvinist. I didn't know what to make of this new assistant with her short brown hair and prim manner, "I'm a freelance journalist" she finally admitted, yes I thought and a full-time pain.
But I was wrong, dead wrong, the way she stood up to Iron Gron and Blood Axe was magnificent, "Oh get back to your butcher's shops", then she led a raid rescuing the Doctor, before going back to polish off the hideous Lynx. I was smitten I liked this Smith she had guts and fire, sure I missed Katy Manning but I'd get over it; such are teenage boys.
Over the next 3 years Lis battled Zygons in Scotland, Ice Warriors on Peladon; faced up to creeps like Davros, Sutekh and Morbius, proved herself a brilliant shot with a rifle, a rousing debater and in the end virtually indispensable. When she left I wept, just as I had for Jo Grant but little did I or any us know that Sarah-Jane Smith was not a gal you said goodbye to.
When she got her own series in 2007 I was delighted, "About time, why did it take so long," and I must admit to being an avid fan. I can't believe there won't be any more so I'm glad I recorded as many as I did.
Who would have thought that the feisty fireball of 1974 - who travelled with Doctors three and four - would still be going 35 years later meeting Doctors ten and eleven?
It seems Lis had cancer, I didn't even know, she must have been suffering with it when she made her final season of the Sarah-Jane Adventures but she carried on like a trouper, never giving up.
You can just imagine a certain freelance reporter cheering her on.