Leela

[Wonkakid]

I really enjoyed watching her in stories like The Sunmakers for sure.

I'm pretty sure that when this aired originally, there was a scene (edited in the DVD version) in which she's climbing down a ladder and you could clearly see her behind. I guess the original editors didn't catch it but later ones did. I noticed this in a videotaped episode that someone uploaded to YT years ago (as I recall). In the one that's on YT now, it appears to have been edited. <Sigh>

[Prydonian]

Hmmm, never ever noticed that. Thanks for the info. I guess the DVD will have all sorts of little tweaks to it, as with any of the range. It's not available in America yet, so I can't see it but I used to have the VHS. I gave a copy to a friend some years ago. I don't know that he ever watched it, as he was more fascinated by Douglas Adams' City of Death which I had also bought for him.

[metalheadjay]

Good news! The "Sun Makers" will be released on DVD this year. The commentary track has already been recorded and yes..Tom is in attendance. I love this story. It has quite a bit of depth. Holmes wrote it to criticize the unfair taxation system in the UK. Tom's humor is wonderful as well in this one. It's going to be great to hear him comment on it. Hopefully, it will be released very soon!

Jay

[Clara Listensprechen]

----

[tch]

I thought Leela was created also because having a more primitive companion gives us a more natural way to have the Doctor explaining everything. The constant 'Why Doctor' doesn't sound as annoying coming from someone like Leela.

Which, is why Jamie worked so well as a companion. Like Leela, he was also a fighter and wore a short skirt.

[Graceful Leonard]

Well, I don't think it's just that; I also think it was a matter of broadcasting standards in force at the time during what's termed "the sexual revolution" that was also happening during the era the Fourth Doctor covered. Sarah was expected to be girly-girl with an occasional stubborn streak and an occasional spark of brilliance so as to make the Doctor to "look like the man" in the series; this sort of broadcasting standard was also in force in the States at the time.

Interesting. I'm possibly biased, but I felt Sarah Jane was more independant than Leela, although she didn't have the same propensity for violence, of course. It wouldn't surprise me at all, however, if a few BBC execs back then figured that the best way to reflect womens' greater independence would be, no, not to make her more intelligent or a stronger personality, but to give her a bloody great knife and take her clothes off.

I think there's something in what tch says, too, about them using her to prompt the doctor's explanations.

[Clara Listensprechen]

----

[Graceful Leonard]

Be that as it may, the role of Sarah was definitely damselish as a rule where her stubbornness and independence were exhibited only under extreme circumstance and not otherwise...and then, only sometimes. She often fell as the victim of things she was unfamiliar with while the Doctor, when bested, was instead about the business of a task against the given villain.

You're probably right regarding her role in the stories, I've never analysed them much. I found myself rather mesmerised, and relished her every contribution when I was a boy, so most likely accorded her greater importance.

How do you rate the success of the Leela character in terms of her representing the change in attitudes towards women that you mentioned earlier?

[tch]

Interesting that Leela was followed by Rommana, someone almost as smart as the Doctor, but not a fighter, and then we went back to damsels and 'girls from now'.
Until Ace, who was very much a 'Why, Professor?' girl, but once took a baseball bat to a Dalek.

After that, it's pretty much damsels. Dr. Grace from the movie was portrayed as being very smart, but who knows if they would have continued to treat her as almost the Doctor's equal if there had been a serious.

That's one of my few grumbles about the new show, that all we get are 'girls from now'. Any companion that's different ( such as a guy) gets shipped off within 3 episodes.

[Prydonian]

I think you're overthinking it, but agree that there was some polotical upheavel going on behind the scenes between Sarah Jane's departure and Leela's arrival. Say, does anyone remember her saying she got the Leela movements from a dog named Sally? I seem to recall that being said in an interview long ago...