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Sara Kingdom
(1965 -
1966) |
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| Jean Marsh |
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| Born in London Jean Marsh began acting in
repertory theatre and appeared as a dancer in various films including, in 1953,
Will Any Gentlemen where she met Jon
Pertwee who she later married. She spent 3 years in the USA on a Broadway
production of Much Ado About Nothing. On returning to the UK she played
the part of Princess Joanna in the 1965 Doctor Who story "The Crusade".
In the early seventies she co-created and stared in the television programme Upstairs, Downstairs. She also played the part of wicked witches in the
films Return to Oz in 1985 and Willow in 1988. She was also in
the BBC1's children's drama Ghost Hunter in 2000. |
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 Sara Kingdom was a very dedicated Space Special Security agent in the 41st century, working under Earth leader Mavic Chen. Following the orders of Mavic Chen without question - the agency having become so comfortable in its power that it had become complacent -, she brutally killed her brother, Space Security Service agent Bret Vyon (played by actor Nicholas Courtney), believing him to be a traitor.
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| The Daleks' Master Plan |
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She ends up joining and travelling with the TARDIS crew when she is accidentally transmitted into space with The Doctor and Steven, having cornered them in a room that was actually an experimental teleportation device. It is while she is with them that she realises the huge mistake she has made when The Doctor manages to convince her that Mavic Chen is the real traitor. Shaken at the revelation that she killed her own brother under false pretences, she therefore decides to assist The Doctor to defeat the Daleks and prevent them from carrying out their master plan, helping him steal a Dalek ship on the planet where the teleporter had sent them so that they could return to the TARDIS and flee through time.
Sara Kingdom was cold, ruthless, aggressive, deceptive, and very independent. Her belief in doing what was right was paramount no matter what the consequences. Her training meant that she was professional and experienced in everything she did and she took great pride in following orders efficiently, although she learned to question orders more after learning the truth about Chen's accusations against her brother. Her ruthless and callous nature set her apart from previous companions. She did not require constant support and comfort, and was evidently a woman who could look after herself. This personal strength was so significant that Steven once worked out that he was in an illusion because the Sara in that vision was too needy, clinging to him for support as they were trapped in Berlin in 1966 where the true Sara would have been more strong-willed ("The Anachronauts"). The Doctor recognised the fact that Sara's technical knowledge and intelligence were well developed, which allowed them to develop a mutual respect for each other.
Possible because of the huge shock she receives, when The Doctor finally manages to convince her of the huge error that she has made when she killed her brother. Once the realisation of what she has done sinks in, she becomes a quieter, more sober young woman, with the tough lady that she really is only occasionally reappearing as she joins The Doctor and Steven in their travels to stop the Daleks. While she was amused by some of her trips in hindsight, such as laughing when she recalled a trip to 1960s Hollywood where she was mistaken for an actress, Sara's primary goal was always to protect others, holding on to the ideals that had inspired her to join the Space Security Services even after Mavic Chen betrayed those ideals. However, this desire manifested as a potential self-destructive streak, such as Sara exposing herself to an apparently acidic sea to protect a group of miners, only being saved because the 'sea' was a psychic life-form that was able to communicate with Sara thanks to her time in the TARDIS and negotiate an at least temporary truce to allow the miners to leave ("The Drowned World").
In trying to make amends for killing her brother she is very keen to help The Doctor and also to make sure that she does not cause any more innocent deaths. As a result, when a trip to 3999 resulted in Sara meeting Bret and Chen a year before the events that would lead to Bret's death and Chen's alliance with the Daleks ("The Guardian of the Solar System"), Sara seized the opportunity to try and turn Chen away from his alliance with the Daleks by encouraging other solutions. Sadly, this plan failed when her attempts to inspire Chen to find another solution to his plan to ensure humanity's supremacy just led to him promoting her past self and carrying out experiments in long-range teleportation like he had in the first place, Sara being forced to destroy his existing equipment to save The Doctor and Steven despite knowing that Chen would thus turn to the Daleks for help.
After six months wandering the universe in the TARDIS, Sara was forced to face the Daleks once again when their enemies' own time-travel efforts finally caught up with them, the Daleks aided in no small part by The Doctor's old foe the Meddling Monk ("The Time Meddler"). Using the directional circuit from the Monk's TARDIS, The Doctor was able to track the Daleks back to Kembel in a final attempt to thwart their plans, but Sara's desire to save lives came to a head when she went back for The Doctor when they should all be returning to the safety of the TARDIS. As a result, Sara was outside the TARDIS when The Doctor uses the Daleks' Time Destructor against them, The Doctor realising what had happened too late for him to prevent the course of events that he has put into motion. The Daleks' Time Destructor causes her to age rapidly to her ultimate death, The Doctor only just being saved as his naturally longer life-span gave Steven enough time to get The Doctor to safety before the Destructor destroyed the Daleks and their allies ("The Daleks' Master Plan").
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| The Daleks' Master Plan |
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Sara Kingdom's time with The Doctor was very short lived and she only appeared in nine episodes. She became the second companion to be killed and this was within the same story and only a few months after Katarina's death.
Despite the brevity of his time with her, however, The Doctor continues to remember her all the way into his eighth incarnation, with such diverse enemies as the Quantum Archangel ("The Quantum Archangel") and the Timewyrm ("Timewyrm: Revelation") attempting to use The Doctor's guilt over Sara's death to put him emotionally off-balance and force him to do their bidding. During a complex crisis that saw the Fourth Doctor tracking down the remaining members of the criminal syndicate formed from the heirs of Mavic Chen's would-be allies, his companion, Ann Kelso ("The Sinestran Kill"), was revealed to be a cover identify for SSS agent Anya Kingdom ("The Perfect Prisoner").
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Dalek Universe 1 - The House of Kingdom
(Andrew Smith) |
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Anya was later identified as Sara's niece when circumstances led to her meeting the Tenth Doctor after he was left trapped in the pre-Time War universe and met Anya's grandfather Merrick ("Dalek Universe 1 - The House of Kingdom"), who identified Sara as his other daughter; her sister Lena, Anya's mother, was killed by a Dalek attack on her colony, Anya blaming Merrick for this as the security council he was part of got advance warning of the attack and didn't warn the colony to protect their source (Brett Vyon was his ex-wife's son by her second marriage).
As well as the Fourth and Tenth Doctors’ encounters with Anya, Sara’s personal legacy can also be found on the distant world of Ely - assumed to be a continent on some future Earth that had fallen back into superstition, although it could just be a human colony - where a house that she, The Doctor and Steven visited during their journeys acquired sentience using an artificial intelligence based on Sara's own mind ("Home Truths"). As the House had nearly killed its previous residents by responding to their instinctual desires rather than their conscious intentions, Sara granted the House access to her mind so that it could take on a copy of her personality, the house essentially becoming Sara's 'ghost' as it took on her moral views to prevent it granting more impulsive wishes. Having shared her stories with Robert, an academic who visited the house to research its history, Sara and Robert were eventually able to trade places, Robert becoming the controlling intelligence of the House while the 'new' Sara manifested in an older version of her original body. Although Robert attempted to draw the TARDIS back for Sara ("The Five Doctors"), Sara was reunited with The Doctor when she was abducted along with prior companions Ian Chesterton and Steven Taylor along with later companions Polly Wright and Nyssa ("The Five Companions") and trapped in an alternative Death Zone, where they were caught up in a conflict between the Daleks and the Sontarans, although Steven was naturally surprised to learn of Sara's survival. The companions were all returned to their own times by the Time Lords after helping the Fifth Doctor defeat the conflict between his two enemies. |
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