The War Games commenced today in 1969. The last story of the Patrick Troughton era. The last story of Season Six. The last story of the monochrome era. The last story of the 1960's. The last regular story for Jamie. The last regular story for Zoe. The times they were a' changin'...
Season Twelve was also approaching its conclusion as Revenge of the Cybermen got under way today in 1975.
It was still early in Series 4 when The Planet of the Ood was first broadcast in 2008, thought this also included hints towards an ending - that of the Tenth Doctor.
Today we remember one of the stars you would have seen in Part One of Revenge of the Cybermen - Lis Sladen. Today marks the 11th anniversary of her death.
The role of Sarah Jane Smith was initially offered to another actress - April Walker, who was tall and blonde. Jon Pertwee hadn't been involved in her casting and took exception when he found out. He wanted a more physically vulnerable looking companion, one that he could be seen to be protective of. Walker was paid off and the role was recast, and so we almost never got Lis's interpretation of the role, which commenced with The Time Warrior in 1974.
After one season with Pertwee, he departed, along with producer Barry Letts. Lis feared that new producer Philip Hinchcliffe would want to cast his own companion, but she and Tom Baker clearly hit it off right from the start - the Fourth Doctor and Sarah frequently being hailed as the best Doctor-Companion partnership ever.
Lis remained on the series for another two and half seasons - a little longer than she planned as she was hoping that Tom and Ian Marter's movie idea might get off the ground. Had Douglas Camfield's final script for her been selected, Sarah would have been killed off. Lis did not want to be killed off, or married off, nor did she want her final story to be about her departure. She left after The Hand of Fear, which is a bit of a standard story.
Later producers attempted to get Lis back to the show - Graham Williams for the Key to Time season, and JNT to help bridge the handover from Tom to Peter Davison. Both were unsuccessful, but JNT did manage to secure her services for a proposed spin-off serial starring K9. Sadly this never made it past the pilot stage, but it was now canon that Sarah had her own K9 (Mark III), which we saw her with in The Five Doctors in 1983. It had been planned that Lis would feature alongside Tom in this, but his absence meant that she was reunited with Pertwee.
When the series was resurrected by Russell T Davies in 2005, the obvious companion to be brought back was Sarah Jane Smith. This was in School Reunion - which seemed to forget that The Five Doctors had ever happened. This episode served to show Rose Tyler that no companion of the Doctor ever lasted forever.
Off the back of this reappearance, a new spin-off series was devised for younger viewers, The Sarah Jane Adventures. Lis found herself as lead in her own popular CBBC TV series, finding a whole new generation of fans. She got to feature in a couple of special Doctor Who stories - the Series 4 finale and the final episode for the Tenth Doctor. Both David Tennant and Matt Smith guested on her series. The Eleventh Doctor story also saw the return of Lis' predecessor, Katy Manning, once again playing Jo. Had the series continued there were plans to bring back Sophie Aldred as Ace.
Sadly, part way through filming the fifth season in 2011, Lis passed away after a short illness. She was 65. Her passing made the national news.
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