Talk:Sarah Jane Smith

SJA's (non-)membership in UNIT
Just a note that even though Sarah Jane was not an official member of UNIT, it was during the Doctor's years with the organization that she served as his companion, so I'm including her under the "United Nations Intelligence Taskforce" category. --Freethinker1of1 04:54, 15 Nov 2005 (UTC)

Reasons for the Doctor's not taking her to Gallifrey
Was ever explained why the Doctor felt/said that he couldn't take her with him to Gallifrey? I'm sorry, I haven't seen the episode, and I don't know where to look for an answer. --Treelight 17:22, 27 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I thought it was just because she wasn't a Time Lord. I'm not sure though, since I haven't seen the episode recently. -<Azes13 12:40, 28 August 2007 (UTC)


 * It was all to do with the Time Lord's non-interventionist policies. Before The Deadly Assassin they're all big on the looking down on the lower species and that kind of thing, after Assassin the society goes through a bit of a shake up (which leads to Borusa taking power). The Doctor couldn't take Sarah back to Gallifrey at that point, but obviously things moved on following Assassin, which meant he was able to take Leela and then Nyssa later on. (Don't ask me where I got this from...I'm pretty sure I've read it somewhere before).
 * Alternatively it could have been the telepathic message that the Doctor receives foretelling the assassination of the President.
 * Also, alternatively, additionally to my original statement, the last time the Doctor had his companions on Gallifrey was The War Games, and at the end of that the Time Lords wiped their memories and sent them back to where they started, so perhaps he didn't want Sarah to go through that. --Tangerineduel 12:54, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

'Aliens on Gallifrey' seems to be a bit of a political hot potato there. The Doctor's father gets in trouble for faccilitating it (The Infinity Doctors) but it's a feature of the Romana Presidency that she really liberalises things thing on that particular issue (Lungbarrow). So yes, it would seem to vary politically.

Speaking of Gallifrey, Tangerineduel, why'd you think it's worth mentioning The Ancestor Cell in the bit on changes to Sarah's timeline? I'm not saying it isn't, as there's a lot about the logic of that novel I'm unclear on, but I don't remember any of what goes on there directly effecting the 'Dust Paradox' at all.--Richard Jones 13:30, 22 November 2007 (UTC)

We need to delete...
All the 90s stuff about her getting married and having kids. Perhaps a different section for the audios/novels which contradict the TV series. Perhaps we should regard them as alternate universes.81.96.164.52 23:46, 3 June 2008 (UTC)
 * No. The general format used on this wiki is to combine all different accounts into one, except on rare occasions. 23skidoo 15:21, 11 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Agreed we need to intertwined all sources unless they are conflicting. Dark Lord Xander 06:26, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

edited photos and made them accidentally made them vanish
don't know what happened. I sure didn't delete them on purpose. --Stardizzy2 18:08, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

Family - Brendan
Is he really an adoptive cousin? I've only seen him in K9 and Company, but I thought he was Lavinia's ward, not her adoptive son? Here (US) "ward" would just signify legal custody, not adoption or familial relationship. Is it different in the UK? Or just lack of a term way to describe the actual relationship? Or did I misremember? 216.226.176.142 15:59, September 15, 2010 (UTC)

Beetle
"Sarah owned a beetle called Edith, which was blown up" - it's not entirely clear from the text whether this was a Volkswagen Beetle or a beetle-beetle. Which was it? -Ashley Pomeroy 17:47, March 22, 2011 (UTC)

Fate
With Elisabeth Sladen dead now, the production crew will have to think of a way to either keep Sarah going, or get rid of her. The most logical thing to do is 2-fold: Another thing I thought of was having Sarah Jane have a day job, leaving Luke, Clyde, Rani & K9 to their adventures.
 * 1) Get a new actress (there's plenty of hopefuls out there)
 * 2) End her life off-screen (Remember Mr. Hooper?)

The best thing to do is cancel "Sarah Jane Adventures", but have Sarah Jane live on in the comics & novels (that's how previous Doctor's live on).

Finally, how about give replacing Sarah Jane with Jo Grant? She's just as popular, and with her more recent guest spot on SJA, she still has potential!

So, those are some ideas for the Sarah Jane Smith character. GODZILLA RULZ! 23:44, April 19, 2011 (UTC)

i think they should replace it with a UNIT show seen as martha and mickey are nboth part of itKingalien talk to me 04:54, October 26, 2011 (UTC)

Or we just go back to the original idea of having her be April Walker. --Kaylabaraonda ☎  12:34, December 5, 2013 (UTC)

"Doorstepping"
In Sarah Jane's "bio" there is a reference to "doorstepping: which is like "camping out" - hanging around trying to catch a scoop: usually refers to reporters or tabloid journalists

"Doorstepping is a term mainly used in UK media for waiting outside somebody's home for the appearance of a subject of interest, such as a or  waiting for a  or, in the hope of an exclusive to sell to the media. Sometimes the rewards are high if the subject is currently in the news and make it financially worthwhile standing outside in the elements for possibly several days.

Doorstepping does not have to be an actual doorstep but maybe the gates of a persons property, with the person not wishing to be seen or interviewed at that time, often leaving at high speed in a vehicle."

(Wikipedia)

Trivia sections
The following was in the article when I recently encountered it. We really don't want to encourage the creation of other, similarly sloppy trivia sections by including it in one of our most high-profile articles. This is all great information, but it needs to be incorporated into the body of the article proper.

Skills and abilities
Sarah received training in evasion tactics from her UNIT days, which she never forgot. She said"U.N.I.T training, never forgot it, just getting a bit older". (TV:Warriors of Kudlak) She gained superb leadership skills from her time with the Doctor and was very good with her Sonic lipstick. (TV: The Last Sontaran et al) She was intelligent and very knowledgeable about many types of aliens. She was one of the top three journalists in the United Kingdom by 2011. (TV: The Man Who Never Was)

Miscellaneous facts
The following two points, however, shouldn't be reincorporated:
 * Circa 2007-9 Sarah owned a car, a lime green Nissan Figaro. (TV: Invasion of the Bane onwards)
 * Circa 1980/90's Sarah owned a Volkswagen Beetle called "Ethel," which was blown up. She later had a yellow beetle which she gave to Luke. (TV:The Nightmare Man )
 * Until she apparently overcame it, due to the incident with the clown mannequin, Sarah had a case of coulrophobia. (TV: The Day of the Clown)
 * She also told the Third Doctor she suffered from vertigo. (TV: The Five Doctors (TV story))
 * She did not believe in ghosts. (TV: The Eternity Trap)
 * She was the first person to meet the first five Doctors. She met the first, second and fifth Doctors in The Five Doctors, the third in The Time Warrior, and the fourth in Robot.
 * We don't know that from an in-universe point of view. As far as we know, it's entirely possible that Winston Churchill knew the first five Doctors.  River Song says she has all his faces in her diary, so does that mean she's met the first five Doctors?  Probably.   Besides, it's not true, even if you assume that the only thing that counts in DW is what we the autience actually see in the televised programme.  The Brig got there first in Mawdryn Undead.  By the point he met Five in Mawdryn, he had already met the first four.  Sarah was very much playing catch-up in The Five Doctors''; the Brig already knew everyone in the room.


 * As of the episode Death of the Doctor, Sarah was tied with The Brigadier for appearing with the most incarnations of the Doctor on-screen, having been seen with seven out of his eleven faces.
 * This note was in the in-universe part of the article, but it's clearly something written from an out-of-universe perspective. Besides, it seems to be counting Dimensions in Time'', which this wiki has long ruled is non-canonical, and therefore can't be used to establish any sort of "records" held by any of the actors or characters involved.

20:36: Tue 10 Jan 2012


 * The skills and abilities section should be place under Personality, retaining it's heading like 'Habits and quirks'. As for the fact list - the two bits about the car can be placed into the biography section and the last three, ghost, vertigo and fear of clowns can be easily folded into her personality. MM/ Want to talk? 21:23, January 10, 2012 (UTC)

A possible solution to the BFSJS conflict?
It is at all possible that the second Big Finish Sarah Jane Smith series takes place at some point after the end of the Sarah Jane Adventures? That would mean continuity wouldn't be too badly affected if she really did die at the end.193.60.60.2talk to me 13:27, February 1, 2012 (UTC)


 * I think you'll find it would be, "forever" dosent have as much as a hold if it's really "a year or two..." plus, there's no real contradiction, NASA went on a missin to save her. We can presume they were successful. OS25 (talk to me, baby.) 13:47, February 1, 2012 (UTC)

Pyramid of Mars
In this episode Sarah states she is from 1980. This contradicts a lot of other info. Has it ever been stated if she was being serious? --Confused


 * See UNIT dating controversy. This has bedeviled fans since at least 1983. Different production teams had different intentions, and contradicted each other; fans have been trying (and mostly failing) to make the contradictions work ever since. Choose which you prefer. —Josiah Rowe talk to me 04:04, June 4, 2012 (UTC)

Form of Address
I've added something about the Doctor calling her "Sarah" - this might want to be worked into the article a bit better. Silent Hunter UK talk to me 12:15, June 7, 2012 (UTC)

Lily
I don't have Short Trips: A Christmas Treasury, so I haven't read "Lily". The article assumes that the daughter Lauren who appears in that story must be the result of Sarah's marriage to Paul Morley. But is there anything in the story to support that? Could Lauren be another waif or stray whom Sarah adopts after Luke and Sky? Could the story be set after the events of The Sarah Jane Adventures? If so, we could remove the references to that story in the "1990s" and "Continuity and canon" sections, and add it to "later life". But I don't want to do that without confirmation from someone who's actually read the story. —Josiah Rowe talk to me 05:01, June 23, 2012 (UTC)

Surrogate or Adopted?
Hello good people... i'm wondering if "surrogate family" in the introduction refers to her son, Luke. As an adoptee myself, i would prefer 'son' or even 'adopted son'(tho the latter Smarts... a LOT) over surrogate family...it just doesn't accurately describe their familial relationship accurately. I could be misinterpreting the meaning, tho. Thanks for letting me add my two cents...

Her Surrogate Family = Luke, Sky, Clyde, Rani, Maria, Mr. Smith, and K9. --Kaiko Mikkusu ☎  06:06, August 1, 2015 (UTC)

Mistaken Identity?
The article says that Sarah Jane has met, amongst others, the Sixth Doctor. While I can prove she has met One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Seven, Eight, Ten, and Eleven I cannot find a time listed in the wiki in which she has met Six. Although the article doesn't list Eight at first so is it possible that someone has mistaken one for the other? --TwinThoughts 16:20, 25 September 2013 (UTC)