The TARDIS was famously a no-romance zone during Doctor Who‘s classic era between 1963 and 1989. Despite accidentally getting engaged on several occasions and having a Gallifreyan granddaughter, Doctor Who portrayed its lead character as an asexual being incapable of having anything more than platonic feelings toward companions.
That all changed when Doctor Who returned in 2005. The Doctor and Rose fell in love, Martha fell in love (albeit the feeling wasn’t reciprocated), the Doctor and River Song fell in love, the Doctor and Yaz fell in love, then the Doctor and Rogue fell in love. Doctor Who explains this by suggesting recent regenerations of the Doctor are more emotionally available. It wasn’t like previous Doctors were deliberately picking companions they didn’t find attractive.
Nevertheless, it is strange (from an in-universe perspective), that no classic companion ever carried a torch for one of the younger-looking Doctors. If an episode from Doctor Who season 2 is to be believed, however, one companion secretly did.
Doctor Who’s “School Reunion” Reshaped Sarah Jane’s Relationship With The Doctor
Doctor Who‘s “School Reunion” marked the delightful return of Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, who accompanied the Doctor during his Third and Fourth incarnations before being dropped off in not-Croydon.
While Sladen’s Doctor Who comeback was a welcome treat, “School Reunion” altering Sarah Jane’s characterization was less welcome. As a recurring joke, the episode played Rose Tyler and Sarah Jane against each other as jealous rivals competing over the Doctor before eventually ending their feud and becoming friends.
The idea made sense from Rose’s perspective. By that point, Doctor Who had already been putting the foundations in place for a Doctor-companion romance, and season 2’s finale would pay that off in a satisfying way. While it was logical for Rose to get jealous over Sarah Jane, however, the feeling shouldn’t have been mutual.
Why Doctor Who’s “School Reunion” Got Sarah Jane Wrong
Sarah Jane and the Doctor were only ever great friends, and their bond made Sladen’s character Doctor Who‘s best companion of the classic era. To retroactively give their relationship romantic undertones distorted something that was virtually sacred to Doctor Who.
And yet there was little mistake over what “School Reunion” tried to imply about Sarah Jane’s feelings. For starters, her ire was directed entirely toward Rose, with no resentment whatsoever shown toward Mickey. Sarah Jane’s jibes also centered around Rose’s physical appearance.
Other characters framed the Doctor and Sarah Jane as a romantic entanglement too. Mickey joyously mocked the Time Lord, exclaiming, “The missus and the ex. Welcome to every man’s worst nightmare,” while Rose compared the situation to “Me and my mate Shareen. The only time we fell out was over a man.”
Sarah Jane wasn’t bothered about the Doctor having a new companion, but about what the Doctor’s new companion looked like. And it was really just for the sake of a comedic bit, because when the Tenth Doctor and Sarah Jane found themselves alone, their connection reverted to what it used to be. The ditched companion mentioned the Doctor being her “life” and struggling to move on, but she meant this in the sense of losing a best friend and a life calling all at once, not in the sense of a marriage breaking down.
It’s worth noting that “The Five Doctors” saw Sarah Jane encounter Fifth Doctor companion Tegan, and the two got along famously for the short time they spent together, with no hint of jealousy from either. It’s a strange situation when the dynamic between two female companions in an episode from 1983 has aged better than an episode aired in 2006, but that’s the situation Doctor Who found itself in with “School Reunion.”
- Release Date
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2005 – 2022-00-00
- Directors
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Graeme Harper, Euros Lyn, Douglas Mackinnon, Jamie Magnus Stone, Charles Palmer, Rachel Talalay, Joe Ahearne, James Strong, Jamie Childs, Saul Metzstein, Toby Haynes, Wayne Che Yip, Nick Hurran, Richard Clark, James Hawes, Daniel Nettheim, Colin Teague, Keith Boak, Azhur Saleem, Adam Smith, Andrew Gunn, Nida Manzoor, Lawrence Gough, Paul Murphy
- Writers
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Steven Moffat, Russell T. Davies
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Jodie Whittaker
The Doctor
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