Caroline John , who cash in one’s chips in the first place this month , was one of the most essential factors in the selection of Doctor Who , our favorite time - travel TV show . She only appear in four tale in 1970 , but she was subservient in transforming the show into something that could endure .
In 1969 , Doctor Who was on the brink of cancellation , perceived as an outdated dangerous undertaking show for kids — but instead of cancel it , the BBC give it a trade name raw format . The mercurial Doctor was dragged down to Earth , the story were more grown up and darker , and the Doctor was paired with a trigger - happy military formation , U.N.I.T. And it was in coloration , with cooler visuals and harebrained fashions .
If that transition had n’t worked , Doctor Who would n’t have made it to 1971 . That ’s why every Doctor Who fan owes Caroline John a huge debt — she carried a batch of the burden of making this more “ realistic ” take on the Time Lord ’s dangerous undertaking . She played Liz Shaw , a Cambridge scientist who ’s a disbelieving outsider in the Doctor ’s world , and over the course of four adventure she challenges the Doctor a fate more than most of his previous companions put together . Liz was n’t the first familiar who could hold her own intellectually — there were Zoe , and arguably Susan , before her — but Liz was the first who was understandably a grown - up and not particularly in the Doctor ’s phantasma .
Among other things , she helped to betray the moral dilemma of how to deal with another intelligent metal money with an adequate claim to our planet , in “ The Silurians . ” She ’s the brilliant scientist who ’s closest to the compromised genius who go way off the rails in “ The Ambassadors of Death . ” And she does an amazing job playing the coloured , fascist version of Liz Shaw in “ Inferno . ” As much as I love Katy Manning and her character of Jo Grant , it ’s hard to imagine Jo play the same role in any of those stories . If you doubt for a second that Doctor Who has grown up a bit and bring in more of an boundary in season seven , you only have to look at Caroline John ’s steely performance to know the the true .
As current Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat told BBC News , John was “ a brilliant actress , ” who played “ not just a brother but a scientist in her own right and a match for the universe ’s act one know - all … The Doctor ’s companions should never be his assistant – they ’re the people who keep him on his toe and that ’s what Caroline did . ” [ BBC News ]
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