3. Uncovering The Journalist
While UNIT security may be easy to fool, The Third Doctor was not. When Sarah Jane Smith enters UNIT headquarters posing as her aunt, the virologist Lavina Smith, the Doctor quickly questions her on her obviously forged credentials. His interest focuses primarily on an article that she is said to have written. What's most impressive is that you must have written it when you were five years old, he says. Sarah Jane comes clean to The Doctor, informing him she is a journalist from Metropolitan magazine looking for a great story. The Doctor does not give her away to UNIT, but enjoys teasing her and threatening to make her the coffee maker of the group. He immediately sees an intelligent ally for the future and makes sure to keep her around. From the moment the Doctor questions her, Sarah Jane Smith enters the chronicles as one of the most beloved companions of all time. She helps defeat Linx, the first Sontaran viewers encountered on Doctor Who. She is at the Doctor's side on Metebellis 3, retrieving items from the TARDIS when the Doctor is shot by the lightning powers of the Eight Legs and unable to move. Of course, Sarah Jane is with him until the very end of his cycle and into his regeneration. Sarah Jane and the Doctor blend their creative and inquisitive spirits to truly keep up the adventurous feel of Doctor Who.