The Sarah Jane and The Doctor Rescue Tally
This was inspired by a similar webpage about Mulder and Scully from The X-Files, which unfortunately I can’t find any more… If anyone knows who made it, please let me know so that I can thank them!
Anyway, the idea of that page was to count up how many times the pair rescued one another, in order to see whether one was more rescue-y than the other, and, more specifically, whether Scully was being portrayed as a damsel in distress, or being allowed to act in a strong, proactive, generally awesome way.
In order to attempt to answer the same sorts of questions about Sarah, I have done the same here.
Although there have of course been times that Sarah and the Doctor have rescued other people, for the purposes of this exercise I’m only counting the times that they rescued one another. Half points may be awarded for helping each other out of tough spots, or trying to rescue but not quite succeeding. Escaping together doesn’t count except in cases of exceptional ingenuity, for which a half point may be awarded. Only specific rescues count – for example, if the Doctor saves the entire planet it doesn’t count as rescuing Sarah.
All clear? On with the show!
Season Eleven:
The Time Warrior:
Sarah rescues the Doctor three times in this story – once when she organises the raid on Irongron’s castle to fetch him (she’s actually trying to capture him, but it still counts, right?), again when she helps him to escape being shot by Irongron’s men, and a final time when she stops the Sontaran from shooting him.
The Doctor doesn’t rescue Sarah once in this one, since she doesn’t appear to need it.
Invasion of the Dinosaurs:
Sarah jumps on someone attacking the Doctor, and then does it again later on. We can probably count each as half a rescue, making her score one whole rescue for the story.
The Doctor rescues Sarah from the T-Rex.
Death to the Daleks:
Sarah doesn’t rescue the Doctor in this story, being as she is too busy outwitting both the Daleks and the Exxilons.
The Doctor tries to rescue Sarah once but gets captured in the process – maybe this counts as half a rescue?
The Monster of Peladon:
Sarah doesn’t rescue the Doctor in this story.
He rescues her from being eaten by Aggedor.
Planet of the Spiders:
Sarah, at great risk, fetches the machine to save the Doctor’s life. She also helps the Doctor to escape later on, but she’s under the influence of the Queen Spider, so it probably only counts as half a rescue.
The Doctor keeps trying to rescue Sarah but getting shot or apprehended, but he does help her to throw off the influence of the Queen Spider, so let’s call it one full rescue altogether.
Season 11 Totals:
Sarah: 5 ½ rescues.
The Doctor: 3 ½ rescues.
A result which may surprise some, Sarah is ahead by two rescues! Although The Time Warrior did give her quite a head start.
Season Twelve:
Robot:
Sarah stops the robot from killing the Doctor.
The Doctor doesn’t rescue Sarah in this story, but to be fair he has just regenerated and he’s got a lot on his mind.
The Ark In Space:
Sarah rescues the Doctor from Noah.
The Doctor rescues Sarah from a tentacle.
The Sontaran Experiment:
Sarah sneaks around and rescues the Doctor from Vural.
The Doctor doesn’t rescue Sarah.
CLUE: CLICK HERE
Genesis of the Daleks:
Sarah, along with Harry, rescues the Doctor from Mutos, then later they overpower a guard to free him. Since these were joint efforts I’m counting them as one rescue altogether. Also, Sarah pulls the yucky mutant thing off the Doctor, which probably counts as another half.
The Doctor and Harry rescue Sarah from the Thals. Half a rescue for the Doctor, since Harry helped.
Revenge of the Cybermen:
Sarah helps the Doctor when his arm gets stuck in the door. Later on she puts herself in danger to warn the Doctor. Let’s count these as one rescue altogether.
The Doctor saves Sarah from death by cybermat. He goes to the beacon to rescue her, but gets captured himself – but since it’s his escape skills that get them out of it I’ll count this as a whole rescue, just because I’m nice that way.
Season Twelve Totals:
Sarah: 5 ½ rescues.
The Doctor: 3 ½ rescues.
Spookily, the rescue totals for this season are exactly the same as for the previous season, even though Season Twelve has Harry to share in the rescuing fun.
Season Thirteen:
Terror of the Zygons:
Sarah doesn’t rescue the Doctor in this story, because she’s too busy flirting with Harry.
The Doctor finds Sarah in the decompression unit and hypnotises her to keep her from suffocating.
Planet of Evil:
Sarah masterminds their escape from a cell. Half a rescue. Later on she pulls him out of a pit and gets him to safety.
The Doctor doesn’t rescue Sarah in this story.
Pyramids of Mars:
Sarah hides the Doctor from their enemies while he’s unconscious. Also she tries to pull an attacking mummy off him, which probably counts as a half.
The Doctor frees Sarah from the Decatron Crystal Tube.
The Android Invasion:
Sarah frees the Doctor from his cell. Later, she rescues him from being blown up and leads his to (comparative) safety. She releases him from a big creepy copying machine.
The Doctor pulls Sarah up when she nearly falls off a cliff. He hides her up a tree to stop tracker dogs from finding her when she hurts her ankle.
The Brain of Morbius:
Sarah rescues the Doctor from being burned by the Sisterhood of Karn.
The Doctor doesn’t exactly rescue Sarah in this story, but let’s give him half a rescue for getting her away from the Sisterhood safely while she’s blind.
The Seeds of Doom:
Sarah gets the Doctor out of the scary compost machine in the nick of time.
The Doctor unties Sarah in time for her to be not blown up, jumps through a skylight to save her from being experimented on, rescues her from being choked by evil plants and saves her just in time from the compost machine. Busy day for the Doctor!
Season Thirteen Totals:
Sarah: 7 rescues.
The Doctor: 8 ½ rescues.
And the Doctor wins his first round! Both he and Sarah get their highest rescue scores yet – lots of peril in Season Thirteen…
Season Fourteen:
The Masque of Mandragora:
Sarah doesn’t rescue the Doctor in this story.
The Doctor tries to rescue her from the Brethren when she’s first captured, but doesn’t succeed. Half a rescue, then. But when she really needs to be rescued, ie when she’s about to be sacrificed, he manages it.
The Hand of Fear:
Sarah doesn’t rescue the Doctor in this story.
The Doctor gets her out from under a rock fall, rescues her from the reactor chamber and saves her from falling down an abyss.
Season Fourteen Totals:
Sarah: 0 rescues.
The Doctor: 4 ½ rescues.
Not a great total for Sarah this season, but it is only two stories. The Doctor does fine.
Overall Totals:
Sarah: 19 rescues.
The Doctor: 20 rescues.
Wasn’t that exciting? Sarah took the early lead, but the Doctor caught up a bit in Season Thirteen and then managed a late spurt to just pip Sarah to the post…
Jolly good performance from the both of them, though. Let’s hope this puts to rest some of those nasty things people say about companions just hanging around waiting to be rescued…
|
|