A 2008 conversation with Elisabeth Sladen

When the Chicago TARDIS convention announced in 2008 that Elisabeth Sladen would be one of the special guests that November, my first thought was that she was the absolutely perfect choice. She’d played Sarah Jane Smith for one “Doctor Who” season with Third Doctor Jon Pertwee, then for two full seasons and part of a third with Doctor No. 4 Tom Baker. Sarah Jane, a journalist with a nose for stories that often got her into trouble, was one of the most popular characters in series history.

In the 1980s, she came back to star in a special, “K-9 and Company,” meant as a pilot for a series that was never picked up. No matter. When the revived “Doctor Who” series wanted a touchstone with  the original series, they brought Sarah Jane back in “School Reunion” with Tenth Doctor David Tennant in 2007. By the time of the 2008 Chicago TARDIS, she’d appeared in two more “Doctor Who” episodes and been spun off into her own series, “The Sarah Jane Adventures.”

She was the ideal bridge between old series and new, appealing to young and old fans alike. I sold the Weekend editor of the Chicago Sun-Times on featuring Lis Sladen in a preview of the convention. Lis was a great interview, gracious with her time on the phone, and equally gracious when I met her backstage at the convention.

Sadly, Elisabeth Sladen passed on in 2011, and she is sorely missed.

As with the Beatles-related interviews I’ve posted on this blog, I was able to use three or four short quotes in the Sun-Times story, pulled from a much longer interview. Here’s a transcript.

JG: Lis, this is a real pleasure for me. I loved your era in “Doctor Who” with Tom Baker. And they keep bringing you back, with “K-9 and Company,” appearances in the revived Doctor Who series and now “The Sarah Jane Adventures.” Why do you think the producers keep returning to Sarah Jane Smith?

ES: We were bloody good, for one thing. And people just seemed to like her. I do.

JG: There’s a core to Sarah Jane who’s the same character we knew in the 1970s, but she’s evolved.

ES: Just as you evolve yourself. Just as you evolve yourself.  I bring things to it now, I think of doing “The Stolen Earth” [with 10th Doctor David Tennant] and meeting Davros again, and I have so much to scavenge from in reality in the past that’s tangible. You go on a journey in your life, Act One, Act Two, Act Three.

I remember coming back with David for the first time  [in “School Reunion]. I would get letters from people who had never seen the show before but had bought the videos or the DVDs. Although it was a dead program to television at the time, it was never dead to the public, because people would buy it and see something that had been on before they were born. So I would still get letters from youngsters who’d never seen the character or Doctor Who as a television program, and quite a lot of the questions would be where would she be now, and especially from the older fans. Where do you think she would be? And Toby [Whithouse’s] story tied up so perfectly with where I thought she would be that it wasn’t exactly a stretch. It was a gift.

JG: In “The Sarah Jane Adventures,” you essentially have the Doctor’s role …

ES: Yes.

JG: … with companions of your own to look after. How does that change your approach?

ES: Whereas before the character could leap before she thought, now she has to think before she leaps. Because you are responsible for these little people. I thought I might get a lot of stick actually over the sonic lipstick, which I think is wonderful. It’s difficult to use, actually. David is so lucky. All he does with the sonic screwdriver is point it and light it. With the lipstick I have to take the top off and swivel it up, and then light it. I thought the fans watching might think “Who does she think she is?” But I haven’t heard any of that. I was quite prepared for it because you know fans of any series, especially sci-fi, are quite proprietorial in their likes and dislikes, but they’ve been very kind.

We never talk down to them. Russell T. Davies started his career writing for children’s television, and to actually go back and write for it now, because this is his baby, I think is just great.

JG: In the ’70s, you were companion to two Doctors, Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, and now you’ve appeared with David Tennant. How do the Doctors differ?

ES: Jon’s Doctor, he was thought of as  protective, even with his uniform as the Doctor, his cloak, protective around the little chicks. That was Jon as well. He very much wanted to be the one who would be the protector. Tom’s Doctor was very much more do it on your own come back and report. And going from Jon to Tom was really lovely because you can only see what the Doctor gives you. So if you get different things from each Doctor it enlarges you as a character, different facets come into play, how you handle people in reality, in real life. And all the Doctors are so different that I’ve worked with that that was actually a bonus. And David being a younger Doctor you just look at him … “Oh, THAT’s the Doctor now.:

JG: Do you think you and Tom both being from Liverpool had anything to do with you working so well together?

ES: I wonder you know. I think maybe there’s something in the sense of humor. We got on so well. It just was so easy with Tom. For me anyway.

JG: Not everyone got along quite so well with Tom. But you enjoyed working with him?

ES: Oh, he was an absolute love, and still is. I suppose, you see, I was with him at the beginning. Tom says, “Oh, Elizabeth and I got on so well because she always laughed at my jokes.” That’s just Tom, that’s what he’s like. He always stands back a little bit and not give the real reasons sometimes. I think just it worked well with Tom and I. When he went on after me, he played the Doctor for a long time. When I was working with him you’d still get things in the script and go, ‘Has that happened before? How can we make that different?’ And that was the challenge. When it stopped being a challenge for me, I left. I suppose people change as time goes on, you know. But he was never difficult with me. He was great fun. He wanted it right, but don’t we all.

JG: How did your return to the new series come to pass?

ES: My agent phoned up asked me they wanted to take me for a meal, Phil Collinson  and Russell T. Davies, and it was about Doctor Who, and I thought, it must be Sarah Jane. And I’d seen some of the early episodes that they’d done with David and with Christopher Eccleston. I knew that that they were fans of the time that I was in the series. So I thought that’s a lovely little homage to Sarah Jane, uniting the two factions, the old and the new.

But I left it on such a high [when she left at the end of the Tom Baker story “The Hand of Fear”] I thought, “Do I really want to do something? I’d rather leave her where she was.” I thought, “By the time I finish this meal I won’t have an agent.” And we went along and they immediately put forth the story. And they said if you don’t want to do it, we won’t do this story, but this is what we would like. But they went into detail and it was just so lovely. It was kind of done deal and we just ordered more wine and had a lovely evening. And I thought what a lovely place to leave her. How really special. It went down well, and after it had gone out that New Year, the agent said they’d like to take you out for another meal, Julie and Russell, and talk about something else. And I thought, “Is Sarah Jane going to grow up at last and be in Torchwood?” And then Russell put it forth and said he had absolute faith in it. I don’t know that I did. I thought, “My God, can this work?” I think I said that to him. He said “Yep. We’re going to call it the Sarah Jane Adventures.” He knew right from the start exactly what he wanted.

JG: Now that you’re into “The Sarah Jane Adventures,” are you happy you said yes?

ES: It is an absolute joy to do. When I was in Doctor Who, the actors who’d come to join us as guest stars, they’d say, you have such a wonderful time. How lovely. What a gorgeous job. And it is just a joy. That’s due to the people behind the cameras as well. The crew are great, they really are. We have the same production values as Doctor Who because we have the same crew. We’re very lucky, because Sarah Jane’s a five-day week and I think Doctor Who’s a six-day week.

JG: I was looking at your bio on IMDB, and being an old fan of ‘60s music, it jumped out at me that you were in “Ferry Cross the Mersey” with Gerry and the Pacemakers.

ES: Oh I was at drama school. I was doing a play in the evening, a Shakespeare, so it was a full day, and I don’t know how long we were on it actually. It was just literally to be there for Gerry, and I remember the boat going back and forth to Birkenhead or wherever it was and turn around and come back. That was my first pay packet, a pound a day or something.

JG: You were the right age, growing up in Liverpool, to have this fantastic music scene all around you. Did you go to the clubs, experience all that?

ES: Oh yes, because when I was in school the Beatles were all up and coming. Although I actually preferred Elvis, but you support your home team. I did, and was great. They really took the heart out of Liverpool when they took the docks away. City of Culture, fifth year, I haven’t been back for about four years now. If I went back today, it’s changed a lot. When I first went into theater it was at the Liverpool Playhouse. I worked there for a year and I loved it.

JG: During fan conventions, you’re at work. But besides the job, what do you get out of conventions?

ES: One to one contact with the fans. You get exactly what they like and exactly what they don’t like. Sometimes they’ll pose questions and you’ll think, “Oh, I really haven’t had that, I really didn’t think of that.” And how lovely for people to appreciate to tell you all these things you never thought of. It’s not an audience you have to fight for. I don’t know any other audience like it. How lucky am I? And there are people who are not around anymore who obviously I miss, and when questions are asked about them, how lovely to be able to reminisce about them.