Current mood:	devastated
Current music:	WatO
Entry tags:	r.i.p.

Caroline John: 1940 - 2012

I have been having a bit of a cry to myself this lunchtime, after the official BBC Doctor Who twitter account confirmed the passing of one of my favourite Who alumni, Yorkshire lass Caroline John.

Losing Liz Shaw in the same year as Sarah Jane Smith is a total kick in the teeth for all Who fans, and feminist ones in particular. Acerbically humourous, intellectually brilliant, and personally confident, Liz Shaw was everything I wanted to be when I grew up. She was a proper scientist, too, both full of old learning and open to new learning, both sceptical and curious: in these respects she is streets ahead of her namesake in a certain recent movie.

Her short time as a Who companion (she only did one season, before being dropped in favour of Jo Grant, who was far less threateningly smart) had and has a huge amount of resonance for me; from her first appearance in Spearhead from Space where she puts the Doctor in his place with great aplomb to her cameos in The Five Doctors and Dimensions in Time she owned the screen and claimed my heart.

I wish I had had the opportunity to meet her and tell her how much she meant to me.