Sarah Jane Smith; just how much does she know?

[solas]

This question occurred to me the other day as I was planning a story where my player characters (all bar one are aliens or from other timezones) are going to meet up with her.

As with most good NPC's, she'll be an excellent information source, and then I wondered 'just what does she know?'

She obviously has access to Mr. Smith (who obviously knows a LOT), and she knows The Doctor and probably more of his regenerations than any other Companion. But I wondered 'well, if you asked her about the Doctor, the Time Lords, etc) what might she say?

Her listed skills are very handy, but I guess it's that practical element I'm looking for. I watched The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith just to get a baseline comparison of what she and the Doctor knows, and she works out the Trickster's time trap as soon as she sees a tv repeating the same second. At this rate I'm wondering if she just won't somehow get the ability to regenerate...which would be cool, btw.

So, thoughts? Comments?


S.

[Craig Oxbrow]

The obvious answer would be "what the story needs" but to expand on that...

Here's what the TARDIS Wiki says about her and what she's done and experienced first-hand.

She only knows a little about the first and second Doctors. She knows the third and fourth (and tenth, and soon eleventh) personally, she knows Gallifrey was restricted to Time Lords, Time Lords aren't human... I don't believe she's ever met another Time Lord, but I could be wrong there. She probbaly knows or has guessed that they're gone, although I believe she doesn't know about the Time War as such... even though she was there when it started.

In general, she's as on-the-ball as a well-versed Doctor Who fan, genre-savvy for the Whoniverse, quick to figure things out, her suspicions are generally well-founded. She should probably have a point or two more in Ingenuity than the sheet gives her, considering...

[Kit]

Jul 18, 2010 17:05:20 GMT Craig Oxbrow said:

TI don't believe she's ever met another Time Lord, but I could be wrong there.

I believe there was another Time Lord present when the 3rd Doctor dies and regenerates into the 4th Doctor. She may have met the Master in The Five Doctors.

And lord knows what she learned from K-9.

[Craig Oxbrow]

I haven't seent eh regeneration story, so I'm happy to believe ya. She appears not to remember the events of The Five Doctors, though...

[knasser]

Jul 18, 2010 18:18:49 GMT Kit said:

Jul 18, 2010 17:05:20 GMT Craig Oxbrow said:

TI don't believe she's ever met another Time Lord, but I could be wrong there.

I believe there was another Time Lord present when the 3rd Doctor dies and regenerates into the 4th Doctor. She may have met the Master in The Five Doctors.

Yep - That monk guy appeared as some sort of psychic projection and he was a Time Lord.

[Eternally Lost Zeppo]

Heh. I remember being particularly amused by the Brigadier's reaction to that regeneration scene: 'Not again?!' ;D

[Siskoid]

The name of the Time Lord you're looking for is K'anpo Rimpoche.

[rev503]

I'm with Craig in answering "whatever you need her to know to move the story"
however, other stuff
She knows about Time Lords although I don't thing she knows about the Citadel and the Dome
She has seen a regeneration, knows the doctor has two hearts and a backup respiritory system
She could probably get a half authors credit on the Haines workshop manual for Daleks considering how many she's seen including the original models
She was around during that funny period when he Tardis was just starting to develop a personality (which makes me wonder if the Tardis might be a little protective of her)
K9 seems to have the same personality over all its different models, so I'd suspect the Doctor was cloning its prgramming rather than redoing it, implying she's had access to a 50th Century medical database for years.

[solas]

Thanks all. I've been wondering about all this, but your mentions of K-9 and I think more tellingly Mr. Smith are going to give her a -lot- of access to information a lot of NPC's wouldn't. I do also think K-9 'remembers' a great deal about the Time Lords also.

S.

[rev503]

I recently watched Journeys End again on DVD and one of the things that struck me was Sarah Jane instantly knew how to get the Daleks to take her to their space station.
She definately knows how they think and how to manipulate them.