Sara Kingdom

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Doctor Who character

Sara Kingdom
Affiliated with First Doctor
Race Human
Home planet Earth
Home era 4000
Appears in The Daleks' Master Plan
Portrayed by Jean Marsh
and May Warden

Sara Kingdom is a fictional character played by Jean Marsh in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A security officer for Mavic Chen from the 41st century, she would later join the First Doctor and Steven to work against Chen's interests. She is sometimes classed as a companion of the First Doctor by sources licensed by the BBC [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] and by unofficial sources [9][10], yet the BBC's official Doctor Who website has not afforded her such recognition on their list of companions,[11] although her disputed status is commented upon in its Episode Guide.[8]

She appeared on screen only for parts four to twelve of the twelve-part 1965 serial, The Daleks' Master Plan.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]

Contents

[edit] Televised history

[edit] Character history

Sara is a Space Security Agent, the sister of Bret Vyon, another agent who is aiding the Doctor in trying to defeat the Daleks. Told that Vyon is a traitor by Mavic Chen, the Guardian of the Solar System (who was in league with the Daleks) and ordered to kill whoever is working with him, she shoots her brother and is about to do the same to the Doctor and Steven when they are transported across space to the planet Mira. There she learns, to her horror and grief, that her unquestioning obedience has not only led her to unjustly kill her brother, but also that by doing so she has prevented Vyon from warning Earth of the Dalek plot. She then joins the Doctor in his fight, briefly travelling in the TARDIS to several different locations in space and time as the Doctor and Steven try to return the ship to Kembel for a final confrontation with Mavic Chen and the Daleks.

When the Doctor activates the Time Destructor — a device that accelerates time — as part of his plan to stop the Daleks, he orders his companions back to the TARDIS for their protection. However, Sara follows him, not knowing the nature of his plan but concerned it might fail. As a result, she is caught in the field of the Time Destructor as it rapidly ages everything around it. While the Doctor, being a Time Lord, can withstand the effects, Sara, being human, cannot. As Steven and the Doctor watch helplessly, Sara ages (and is portrayed as an old woman by May Warden) and dies, her remains aging to dust.

Sara is by turns aggressive, independent and ruthless in her pursuit of what was right, a single-mindedness that blinded her to the larger implications of her orders. Meeting the Doctor changes that, and she turns her formidable skill and intellect to the defeat of the Daleks.

[edit] Behind the scenes

The character was created largely because the production team decided that the character of Katarina, introduced in the previous serial The Myth Makers, would not work as a regular. Thus, Sara has some of the attributes and narrative function of a traditional Doctor Who companion. However, the official BBC website cites as "myth" the notion that Sara was created as a companion to replace Katarina. There were no plans to have Sara continue as a character beyond The Daleks' Master Plan. [21] This assertion is further borne out by the official site's listing of cast credits for The Daleks' Master Plan. There, the BBC gives only Steven and Katarina the top billing companions consistently receive across their episode guide. The credit for Sara is given amongst an alphabetized list of other guest stars. Marsh herself said in a 2003 interview for the Loose Cannon telesnap reconstruction that she would "definitely not" have continued in the role past Master Plan, even had it been offered to her.

However, a Production Diary compiled by David J. Howe, Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker from contemporary memos and correspondence [22] notes that producer John Wiles and story editor Donald Tosh employed Sara Kingdom as a "short-term companion...[to] be killed of at the end of [The Daleks' Master Plan]".[5] She was billed as "'Sara Kingdom" in the episodes "The Traitors" to "Coronas of the Sun", but her surname was dropped from the billing in her final six episodes and thus she was billed as "Sara" from "The Feast of Steven" to "Destruction of Time". Companion Steven Taylor is similarly billed simply as "Steven" throughout The Daleks' Master Plan. [23]

[edit] Proposed use after Doctor Who

According to The Official Dr. Who & the Daleks Book, however, Sara Kingdom was originally devised by Terry Nation as a supporting character in a proposed American-produced spin-off of Doctor Who that would have focused on Kingdom and her colleagues fighting the Daleks. A 30-minute script titled The Destroyers was created for a potential pilot episode which was never produced.[24]

[edit] Literary appearances

Sara's first use in tie-in material was in The Dalek Outer Space Book (cover dated 1966), the last of three Dalek annuals containing short stories and comic strips licensed by the BBC between 1963 and 1965.

John Peel's two-book novelisation of Master Plan indicates that some six months elapsed between the seventh and eighth episodes of the serial, during which Sara, Steven and the Doctor travel together and have other adventures; Peel stated that this was in order to allow future writers to develop stories involving Sara. Sara subsequently appears in various short stories. A new audio in the "Companion Chronicles" series of Big Finish Productions features Jean Marsh reprising her role as Kingdom and it is expected to feature a story set in this time.

A ghost-like illusion of Kingdom, alongside Katarina and another deceased companion, Adric, appears in the Virgin New Adventures novel Timewyrm: Revelation by Paul Cornell. This sequence takes place largely inside the Seventh Doctor's mind, showing that the Doctor still bears the guilt of some deaths.

A race of shapeshifters known as the Ganazalum impersonate various companions, dead and living in the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip Planet of the Dead (DWM #141-#142), Kingdom among them. Generally, the canonicity of the various Doctor Who spin-off media is unclear.

[edit] Jean Marsh in Doctor Who

Jean Marsh had previously appeared in Doctor Who playing King Richard's sister, the Princess Joanna in The Crusade. Marsh would return to the programme in the 1989 serial Battlefield, playing Morgaine, coincidentally with Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. Courtney also played Bret Vyon in Master Plan. In 2007 she appeared opposite the Sixth Doctor and Mel in the Big Finish Productions audio drama The Wishing Beast.

[edit] List of appearances

[edit] Television

Season 3

[edit] Audio

  • Home Truths

[edit] Short stories

[edit] Comics

[edit] References

  1. ^ Robinson, Nigel; Nathan-Turner, John (1981). The Doctor Who Quiz Book. Target Books, pp. 39 and 98. ISBN 0426-20143-4. 
  2. ^ Haining, Peter (1983). Doctor Who: A Celebration - Two Decades Through Time And Space. Virgin Publishing Ltd, p. 85. ISBN 0-86369-932-4. 
  3. ^ Standring, Lesley (1985). The Doctor Who Illustrated A-Z. W.H. Allen, p. 84. ISBN 0-491-03484-9. 
  4. ^ Lofficier, Jean-Marc (1994). The Doctor Who Programme Guide Third Edition. Virgin Publishing Ltd, pp. 16, 43 and 45. ISBN 0-426-20342-9. 
  5. ^ a b Howe, David J.; Stammers, Mark and Walker, Stephen James (1994). Doctor Who The Handbook - The First Doctor. Virgin Publishing Ltd, p. 297. ISBN 0-426-20430-1. 
  6. ^ Richards, Justin; Martin, Andrew (1997). Doctor Who The Book of Lists. BBC Books, pp. 13 and 218. ISBN 0-563-40569-4. 
  7. ^ Pixley, Andrew (16 December), Doctor Who Magazine, pp. 21 
  8. ^ a b Cornell, Paul; M.Day, K. Topping, D. J. Howe and S. J. Walker (1995, 1998 and 2003). The Daleks' Master Plan. Doctor Who: Classic Series Episode Guide. BBC. Retrieved on 2007-09-14.
  9. ^ Campbell, Mark; Duncan, Paul (2000). The Pocket Essential Doctor Who. Pocket Essentials, pp. 20-21. ISBN 1-903047-19-6. 
  10. ^ Outpost Gallifrey overview of the First Doctor era
  11. ^ Companions. Doctor Who: Classic Series Episode Guide. BBC (2007). Retrieved on 2007-09-14.
  12. ^ The Daleks' Master Plan, "The Traitors". Writer Terry Nation, Director Douglas Camfield, Producer John Wiles. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC1, London. 1965-12-04.
  13. ^ The Daleks' Master Plan, "Counter Plot". Writer Terry Nation, Director Douglas Camfield, Producer John Wiles. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC1, London. 1965-12-11.
  14. ^ The Daleks' Master Plan, "Coronas of the Sun". Writer Dennis Spooner, from an idea by Terry Nation, Director Douglas Camfield, Producer John Wiles. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC1, London. 1965-12-18.
  15. ^ The Daleks' Master Plan, "The Feast of Steven". Writer Terry Nation, Director Douglas Camfield, Producer John Wiles. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC1, London. 1965-12-25.
  16. ^ The Daleks' Master Plan, "Volcano". Writer Dennis Spooner, from an idea by Terry Nation, Director Douglas Camfield, Producer John Wiles. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC1, London. 1966-01-01.
  17. ^ The Daleks' Master Plan, "Golden Death". Writer Dennis Spooner, from an idea by Terry Nation, Director Douglas Camfield, Producer John Wiles. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC1, London. 1966-01-08.
  18. ^ The Daleks' Master Plan, "Escape Switch". Writer Dennis Spooner, from an idea by Terry Nation, Director Douglas Camfield, Producer John Wiles. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC1, London. 1966-01-15.
  19. ^ The Daleks' Master Plan, "The Abandoned Planet". Writer Dennis Spooner, from an idea by Terry Nation, Director Douglas Camfield, Producer John Wiles. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC1, London. 1966-01-22.
  20. ^ The Daleks' Master Plan, "Destruction of Time". Writer Dennis Spooner, from an idea by Terry Nation, Director Douglas Camfield, Producer John Wiles. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC1, London. 1966-01-29.
  21. ^ The Television Companion
  22. ^ Howe, David J.; Stammers, Mark and Walker, Stephen James (1994). Doctor Who The Handbook - The First Doctor. Virgin Publishing Ltd, p. 157. ISBN 0-426-20430-1. 
  23. ^ Pixley, Andrew (16 December), Doctor Who Magazine, pp. 30 
  24. ^ John Peel and Terry Nation. The Official Doctor Who & the Daleks Book. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1988 (ISBN 0-312-02264-6), pp. 195-196

[edit] External links

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