Doctor Who companion spotlight: Sara Kingdom and her tragic story

Sara Kingdom: enemy. Killer. Friend. We look at one of the Doctor’s most unusual companions…

(Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

In celebration of International Women’s Day – and the fact that the character’s so brilliant – we look at Sara Kingdom of the Space Security Service, and why she’s one of the more tragic companions of Doctor Who.

Yesterday, we looked at Steven Taylor, a companion to the First Doctor. He was given some dark stories in Doctor Who, especially The Daleks’ Master Plan. But he wasn’t the only one who faced dark times in that story. In fact, another companion faced much, much worse.

At the beginning of the epic serial, the First Doctor and Steven travelled to Kembel with a new companion: Katarina from Troy. However, it wasn’t long before she was killed off, just a few episodes into the serial. (This was mainly done because the writers quickly began to realize that they couldn’t write for a historical companion. At least, not yet.)

During the course of the story, the Doctor and his friends discover a plot by the Daleks to take over the Solar System. To stop them, the Doctor steals the vital core of their ultimate weapon: the Time Destructor. Without it, the Daleks won’t be able to use the device.

There’s just one problem. With Mavic Chen on their side, the Daleks have a huge advantage. Because Chen is the highly trusted Guardian of the Solar System. Which means he has absolute power over Earth’s forces, including the Space Security Service. And to hunt the Doctor and his friends down, he decides to send their best agent: Sara Kingdom…

At first, Steven and Sara were on opposing sides. But it didn’t take too long for her to become a close ally to the Doctor and Steven.

(Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

From killer to ally

Sara is a highly intelligent woman. She’s spent a long time working in the SSS, and is, like most people, completely and unquestionably loyal to Mavic Chen. She knows how to handle herself in a fight, and she knows how to track someone down. So initially, she was a very dangerous opponent for the TARDIS team. Especially when she killed one of their allies: Brett Vyon, another member of the SSS who found out about Chen’s betrayal.

Kingdom came close to killing the Doctor and Steven, too. The only thing that saved them was, of course, very fortunate timing – they were in a room with a teleport experiment, and suddenly found themselves transported to another world. The Doctor and Steven were able to get Sara’s weapon before she could recover.

Unsurprisingly, she didn’t want to believe a single word of their story. She was loyal to Mavic Chen, and had to believe that he was a decent man. Worse, she had to believe that Brett’s death was a good thing. She eventually accepts the truth when she reveals that Brett had been her brother. She had killed a member of her own family over nothing more than a lie.

So her relationship with Steven and the Doctor didn’t exactly get off to the best of starts. But over time, they began to like and trust each other more and more. They even had a fun time during one of the strangest Christmas episodes in Doctor Who ever.

But with the Daleks constantly hunting them across space and time, it was only a matter of time before tragedy would strike again…

Death on Kembel

Eventually, the Daleks did get the Tiranium Core back. The TARDIS crew travelled back to Kembel, and the Doctor was able to stop them. But at a terrible cost. Turning on the Time Destructor, the Daleks were all wiped out by being aged to death.

Sadly, they weren’t the only ones to suffer such a fate. Helping the Doctor make it back to the TARDIS safely, Sara was horrifically aged, too. The Doctor and Steven avoided a similar fate by reversing the Time Destructor’s effects. However, while they were restored, it was already far too late for Sara, who had turned to dust.

Considering that Sara’s only television serial was The Daleks’ Master Plan, calling her a “companion” is admittedly debatable. But she did fulfil that kind of role within the story, and she did travel to many worlds and places with the Doctor and Steven. Her death is an absolutely devastating moment, perhaps even more so than Katarina’s was.

Sara and Steven had many adventures together on audio – including a meeting with the Sontarans!

Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish

Image obtained from: bigfinish.com

Expanded journey

And of course, while we know the start and end of her journey, that doesn’t mean there’s no room for more adventures with the character. In fact, John Peel’s novelizations for The Daleks’ Master Plan established a six-month gap between the seventh and eighth episodes of the serial. It’s an interesting idea, and one that Big Finish have had a lot of fun with.

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The character was given her own set of stories by Simon Guerrier, with Home Truths, The Drowned World and The Guardian of the Solar System. This partially helped to fill in the gap and allowed for more stories set during The Daleks’ Master Plan. But it was also just as focused on the consequences of one of those adventures, and created a way to bring the character back without undoing her dramatic exit in Master Plan.

Along with these stories, we also have several adventures that could be listened to right in the middle of The Daleks’ Master Plan, all of which feature Peter Purves as Steven, and Jean Marsh as Sara. These include The Anachronauts, An Ordinary Life and The Sontarans. The last one is particularly exciting, as the ending ties back to Master Plan in a big way.

Sara Kingdom had a very short life in the television series. Nevertheless, with both an excellent performance by Jean Marsh, and some very strong writing from Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner, the character was in many ways ahead of her time. Intelligent, dark and dangerous, while still wearing a surprisingly practical outfit, she’s still a companion who truly stands out, and it’s wonderful that Big Finish has given her the era she deserves.

Are you a fan of Sara Kingdom? Do you consider her to be a companion? Have you checked out some of her audio stories? Let us know in the comments below.