elisabeth sladen

Oh man, this one hurts.

Those of you who follow Twitter and Facebook as closely as I do already know this, but for those of you who don’t: the news just broke that Elisabeth Sladen, the actress who played Sarah Jane Smith in the classic Doctor Who series, the new series, and The Sarah Jane Adventures has passed away. And my heart breaks for her to hear that it was, yet again, due to cancer.

As many of you know I came officially into the Doctor Who fandom courtesy of the new show. But I can say with authority that Sarah Jane is one of the first Companions from the classic series that I very, very much liked, and I particularly liked her with Tom Baker in her run of episodes with him. Genesis of the Daleks, shown me by spazzkat in my marathon introduction to classic-series Dalek episodes, stands out for me as a shining example of a classic series episode.

Her appearance with David Tennant in the episode “School Reunion” remains one of my favorites of the new show as well, in no small part due to the scene where she finally is reunited with the Tenth Doctor. But her scenes with Rose as well are gold.

The official Doctor Who site has a confirmation and statements from several Doctor Who luminaries here. And I’m seeing confirmations all over Twitter, notably from Paul Cornell and from the gentlemen of the Doctor Who Podcast. It is a sad, sad day for Doctor Who fandom.

RIP, Sarah Jane. You will be sorely missed.

Talk to me about your favorite Sarah Jane moments, people? Let’s remember her together.

(And for those of you reading this on LJ or DW, I don’t have an exactly mood-appropriate Doctor Who icon, so I’ll have to make do with a Dalek with tea. ‘Cause yeah, I think tea would be good.)