A COUPLE OF DODOS

I've been thinking about Sarah Jane Smith since hearing the news of Elisabeth Sladen's death the other day. And I've been watching some of the video tributes to this member of the TV Crossover Hall of Fame over at YouTube.

I was reminded of the abrupt way she left 'Doctor Who' - dumped by the side of the road in Croyden. But at least she got the chance to come back in "The Five Doctors," and then again with 'K-9 & Company'. With her appearance in the "New-Who" episode of "School Reunion", she was re-introduced to a new generation of fans, which led her to getting her own show, 'The Sarah Jane Adventures'.

So at least she was properly re-integrated into the series. The same can't be said about another former companion, Dorothea "Dodo" Chaplet.

Here's the basic biography for Dodo, supplied by Wikipedia:

Steven returns at the same time that a young woman wanders into the TARDIS thinking it was a real police box. The Doctor and Steven are taken aback when she introduces herself as Dodo Chaplet and reveals that her grandfather was French. The Doctor speculates that Dodo might be Anne's descendant. As some have pointed out, this would mean Anne lived to have an illegitimate offspring (unless she married a man of the same name).

In her travels with the Doctor, Dodo travels to the far future, unfortunately bringing the common cold with her to infect humanity's descendants; faces the mad games of the Celestial Toymaker; witnesses the gunfight at the O.K. Corral; says good-bye to Steven in "The Savages"; and is hypnotised by the rogue artificial intelligence WOTAN in "The War Machines".

Halfway through that last adventure, she abruptly departs for a rest in the country after being hypnotised, and never reappears. At the story's conclusion Polly (who, with Ben Jackson, took Dodo's place as a companion) explains to the departing Doctor that Dodo has decided to remain in the 20th Century.

I'm thinking that Dodo sought assistance in her recuperation from her aunt, her mother's sister, after whom she was named. In fact, both of them carry the same nickname of "Dodo".

Dodo Mackintosh was an old friend of Hilda Wystan, later known as Hilda Rumpole, the wife of Horace Rumpole as seen in 'Rumpole Of The Bailey'.

We met Dodo Mackintosh in October of 1983 when Hilda asked for her help while planning the party at Chambers for what she thought would be Rumpole's elevation to be Head of Chambers. Hilda wanted Dodo to make her famous little cheesy bits for the hors d'oeuvres.

In mid-July of 1966, when Dodo was left in a hypnotized state, the Doctor sent her off to the country for a rest. She may have gone to the home of her Aunt Dodo just outside of London.

Dodo Mackintosh may have been her maiden aunt, which would mean that the last name of Dodo's mother was originally "Mackintosh" before marrying Dodo's father.

By the way, when the Doctor saved the lives of that family in Pompeii on Volcano Day in "The Fires of Pompeii" at the urging of Donna Noble, he may have relented because he remembered back to how he left Anne Chaplet to her uncertain fate.......

BCnU!