Sara Kingdom
Name:
Sara Kingdom
Main Aliases:
Sara Taylor
Species:
Human
Place of Origin:
Job:
Space Security Service
Brothers:
Bret Vyon
David Kingdom
Last Appearance:
The Daleks’ Master Plan (regular)
Appearances:
Main Actor:
Jean Marsh
click on images to enlarge
Sara was the sister of Bret Vyon, another SSS agent whom The Doctor had found on Kembel, and was gradually convinced of his suspicions of Chen. (The Daleks’ Master Plan) Trained and efficient, Sara had the strength of ten men. (Sara Kingdom: Space Security Agent) She was a high-ranking and original member of the SSS. Her initial assignment placed her in charge of the organisation’s field operations. (The Outlaw Planet)
Sara, with fellow SSS agents Jason Corey, the humanoid robot Mark Seven and her brother David Kingdom, encountered The Daleks in a brief confrontation early in her career. (The Destroyers) Mark Seven wrote a file about the incident, which Mavic Chen consulted when he and Bret Vyon unexpectedly met Sara in 3999, she was supposed to be stationed on Venus at the time. Sara received a surprise promotion from Chen at this time. (The Guardian of the Solar System)
On Earth the following year, she was briefed by Chen, and was told her brother was a traitor. In an experimental testing facility, she found The Doctor, Steven Taylor and her brother, the last whom she shot to death. Sara would have done the same to The Doctor and Steven, but all three were accidentally transferred from Earth to Mira by cellular transportation. There she learnt, to her horror and grief, that her unquestioning obedience had not only led her to unjustly kill her brother but also had prevented Vyon from warning Earth of the Dalek plot. She joined The Doctor in his fight.
With Steven and The Doctor, Sara took a short, stress-free trip to (in Sara’s terms) long-ago Earth. (The Daleks’ Master Plan, The Little Drummer Boy) After spending Christmas Day on Earth, Sara Kingdom and the others spent six months having other adventures before once more getting involved with the issue of The Daleks and Chen. (The Mutation of Time) they visited 3999 where Sara met Vyon and had an audience with Chen, which finally explained why she had been promoted in that year (The Guardian of the Solar System). After further travels with The Doctor, they came upon a house in Ely that granted wishes, after the adventure a copy of her mind lived on inside it for thousands of years. (Home Truths) After that, they once more returned to the struggle against The Daleks on several worlds and time periods.
The Daleks turned against Mavic Chen (who intended to betray them) and killed him. The Doctor had returned to Kembel to activate the Time Destructor to finally stop them. The Doctor ordered his companions back to the TARDIS for their protection. However, Sara followed him, not knowing the nature of his plan but concerned it might fail. She was caught in the field of the Time Destructor and, being a human rather than a Time Lord, aged to death. As Steven and The Doctor watched helplessly, Sara died, her remains ageing to dust. (The Daleks’ Master Plan) The death of Sara, as well as theirother allies Bret Vyon and Katarina, caused Steven to confront The Doctor about the violence that seemed to follow him. (The Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Eve)
The copy of Sara Kingdom’s mind left behind in the house in Ely lived on into an age of Earth’s history in which advanced technology had become almost non-existent. An academic named Robert befriended her, interested in hearing stories from her past. Eventually, Robert wished to take her place as the entity inhabiting the house, and the alternate Sara was given human form as an older woman. Robert drew The Doctor’s TARDIS back to the house, and allowed Sara to choose whether to join with The Doctor (in a later incarnation) or to remain on Earth. What choice she made is unknown. (Home Truths, The Drowned World, The Guardian of the Solar System) This version of Sara later joined Steven, Ian, Polly and Nyssa in being abducted by Borusa, utilising a Time Scoop, to an alternative version of the Death Zone on Gallifrey, where she met the Fifth Doctor and once again battled The Daleks as well as the Sontarans (The Five Companions).
AFTER LIFE
In his seventh incarnation, on the ruined planet Adeki, The Doctor thought that he’d found Sara Kingdom among others of his companions alive again and desperate to leave in the TARDIS. He learned that one of a race of shape-shifting Gwanzulum had used his sentiment in order to manipulate him into helping it escape the dead world. (Planet of the Dead).
Later, while in a Hell-like world composed of the Seventh Doctor’s mind, Ace met an eerie, ghost-like recreation of Sara Kingdom among his companions who had died because of him. Ace didn’t recognise her. (Timewyrm: Revelation).
Although her time as a companion was short, Jean Marsh came back in the programme with Sylvester McCoy in Battlefield.
Sara pictures thanks to Radio Times, Wikipedia and TARDIS Wikia.
Back to Assistants page
Why not hear the Dalek Masterplan on CD
Share your comments about Sara on the Message Board!