Why and how Sarah Jane totally kicked arse
I mentioned my sadness over the death of Elisabeth Sladen.
Much has been said in the media about Sladen's defining role as a Dr Who companion, and I think we all appreciate her very fine performance within the constraints of the time - yes, many scripts were dodgy, many effects and costumes were worse - but Sarah Jane was not only real, consistent, and convincing, she continually fought to keep her feminist credentials clearly before the viewer, when so many companions before and since have had their supposed personas kinda swallowed up by indifferent writing. I think this is much to the credit of Elisabeth Sladen, and I think her constant challenging of the chauvinist attitudes around her - the Doctor, Harry (whose arse she totally kicked) and most especially the dear old Brigadier - while still conveying the deep affection the characters had for one another, was masterly.
Though perhaps we shouldn't use the word 'masterly' talking about Dr Who.
Much more important to me, however, as I have been thinking about it, is Sladen's role in the Sarah Jane adventures. I think the fact that she was given the opportunity, as a woman, in her late fifties, to front a science-fiction adventure show, is frankly staggering, and I think few other women would have been or will be again, given that opportunity. The popularity of the show attests to how well she carried it off. I know my kids have never for a second questioned her leading role as an arse-kicker of aliens, her knowledge and expertise, the fact that she was old enough to be their grandmother and yet fronting an action show aimed at teens and pre-teens. Never questioned it.
What I like about Sarah Jane in her later years, is that she pulled off this spectacular feat not by aping the young 'uns, no, and not by aping the Doctor either. Where the Doctor would leap in, Sarah Jane would hold back. Why? Because she's a responsible grown up, she's a mum, and she's thinking about the safety of others all the time. And yet she kicks arse. Is she boring? Hell no! But the governing principle of her life is that she is Luke's mum, and everything that happens in Sarah Jane comes through that prism. This is what an older, female action hero is like, and I must say it has a depth lacking in say, the Harrison Ford who appears to have had no development in maturity from the original Indiana Jones to the latest. It is a human and convincing way to have adventures.
I have had conversations with cassiphone on the difficulty of writing mum fiction. By which we mean cool, YA, speculative type fiction, not the sort that appears in Angus & Robertson catalogues at Mothers' Day with lashings of pink and roses on the cover. Generally adventures in fiction are had away from the parents, and parents usually are kept in the dark, cast in the role of unbelievers, kiboshers of fun, at the very best the unsuspecting providers of ginger beer for secretive adventurers. Parents are an absence in children's adventure stories. It is very hard to develop an interesting narrative where a mum, as a mum, can play a central role, without (usually) being some kind of damaged Sarah Connor type. But Elisabeth Sladen did it, she did it well, and she damn well went on doing it until the day she died, and all I can hope is that her example has opened the door to new ways of doing things, new opportunities for older actresses to get interesting roles, and more diverse models of what constitutes a heroine in our society, because Sarah Jane was one. She was a mum at the heart of the adventure.
Much has been said in the media about Sladen's defining role as a Dr Who companion, and I think we all appreciate her very fine performance within the constraints of the time - yes, many scripts were dodgy, many effects and costumes were worse - but Sarah Jane was not only real, consistent, and convincing, she continually fought to keep her feminist credentials clearly before the viewer, when so many companions before and since have had their supposed personas kinda swallowed up by indifferent writing. I think this is much to the credit of Elisabeth Sladen, and I think her constant challenging of the chauvinist attitudes around her - the Doctor, Harry (whose arse she totally kicked) and most especially the dear old Brigadier - while still conveying the deep affection the characters had for one another, was masterly.
Though perhaps we shouldn't use the word 'masterly' talking about Dr Who.
Much more important to me, however, as I have been thinking about it, is Sladen's role in the Sarah Jane adventures. I think the fact that she was given the opportunity, as a woman, in her late fifties, to front a science-fiction adventure show, is frankly staggering, and I think few other women would have been or will be again, given that opportunity. The popularity of the show attests to how well she carried it off. I know my kids have never for a second questioned her leading role as an arse-kicker of aliens, her knowledge and expertise, the fact that she was old enough to be their grandmother and yet fronting an action show aimed at teens and pre-teens. Never questioned it.
What I like about Sarah Jane in her later years, is that she pulled off this spectacular feat not by aping the young 'uns, no, and not by aping the Doctor either. Where the Doctor would leap in, Sarah Jane would hold back. Why? Because she's a responsible grown up, she's a mum, and she's thinking about the safety of others all the time. And yet she kicks arse. Is she boring? Hell no! But the governing principle of her life is that she is Luke's mum, and everything that happens in Sarah Jane comes through that prism. This is what an older, female action hero is like, and I must say it has a depth lacking in say, the Harrison Ford who appears to have had no development in maturity from the original Indiana Jones to the latest. It is a human and convincing way to have adventures.
I have had conversations with cassiphone on the difficulty of writing mum fiction. By which we mean cool, YA, speculative type fiction, not the sort that appears in Angus & Robertson catalogues at Mothers' Day with lashings of pink and roses on the cover. Generally adventures in fiction are had away from the parents, and parents usually are kept in the dark, cast in the role of unbelievers, kiboshers of fun, at the very best the unsuspecting providers of ginger beer for secretive adventurers. Parents are an absence in children's adventure stories. It is very hard to develop an interesting narrative where a mum, as a mum, can play a central role, without (usually) being some kind of damaged Sarah Connor type. But Elisabeth Sladen did it, she did it well, and she damn well went on doing it until the day she died, and all I can hope is that her example has opened the door to new ways of doing things, new opportunities for older actresses to get interesting roles, and more diverse models of what constitutes a heroine in our society, because Sarah Jane was one. She was a mum at the heart of the adventure.