Perhaps like me she would have been one of the first (most likely the first) assistants you remembered as I started watching Dr Who in the early '70s.

Even after watching later, and pre (on video), incarnations of Dr Who, Jon Pertwee + Elizabeth Sladen will always be the doctor and his assistant to me.

My first would have been Liz Shaw, although she never had much impact for me. Jo Grant was a bigger hit with me as a kid because she was more familiar to me since she acted like a big kid. Plus I thought she was the hottest woman on TV at the time.

But Sarah Jane was such a strong character, more forthright and proactive than the other two companions I had seen. She also was the first one (for me) to cross the border of regeneration. I think that the warmth of Tom Baker's Doctor may have coloured how I saw Sarah Jane. Perhaps they really weren't as close as I imagined; it is just that their relationship post-regeneration seemed friendlier.

Tom Baker on the news:

http://www.tom-baker.co.uk/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=159 [tom-baker.co.uk]

'Sarah Jane dead? No, impossible! Impossible. Only last week I agreed to do six new audio adventures with her for Big Finish Productions...She can't be dead. But she is: she died yesterday morning. Cancer. I had no idea she was ill; she was so private, never wanted any fuss, and now, gone. A terrible blow to her friends and a shattering blow for all those fans of the programme whose lives were touched every Saturday evening by her lovely heroic character, Sarah-Jane Smith.'