Beautiful Companion

Publication: Starlog
Date: number 221 (December 1995)
Author: Steven Eramo
Page: 56
Language: English

Caroline John found her way into TV, acting scientific in Doctor Who.

In 1970, not only did the entire world witness the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, but also the beginning of a new decade for the BBC's long-running SF series Doctor Who. The TARDIS now materialized in color and was controlled by a new Doctor in the persona of Jon Pertwee. Helping the Time Lord battle enemies both terrestrial and extraterrestrial were the men and women of U.N.I.T. (United Nations Intelligence Task-force), as well a new companion, the strikingly beautiful and highly intelligent Cambridge University scientist Liz Shaw.

Described at the time by Britain's Sun newspaper as "a rather cool, scientific lady," Liz Shaw was played with warmth and feeling by Caroline John. The show's producers at that time, Derrick Sherwin and Peter Bryant, were looking to change the series' feel to attract more adult viewers. Along with having degrees in physics and medicine, the Doctor's new companion was also very attractive. That combination helped Sherwin and Bryant attain their goal.

One of eight children, John was born in York and brought up in Kenilworth, England. Her father ran the Midland Theatre Company in Coventry. Being born into a theatrical family helped influence her career goals. "I actually wanted to be a dancer," says John, "but changed it to acting at age 13 when I played Puck in an amateur theater production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

"That same year, I also appeared in a film called Raising a Riot, starring Kenneth More and a little girl named Mandy Miller, who was quite famous at that time. I only worked on the film for one week but thoroughly enjoyed it. I went back to school, took all my exams, and when I graduated, I went to France for a year to work as an au pair, which I didn't like very much, though I did learn to speak French."

After training at London's Central School of Speech and Drama, John worked extensively in British repertory theaters. She appeared in Ipswich and Worcester opposite her then husband-to-be, actor Geoffrey Beevers. The actress went on to work with the Royal Shakespeare Company before joining the National (now Royal) Theatre, then under Sir Laurence Olivier's director ship. She acted there for the next four years in numerous productions, including Juno and the Paycock, Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Franco Zeffirelli, and the premiere performance of Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

New Companions

Toward the end of the '60s, the actress became determined to pursue more television work. She had done two television plays, The Black Madonna and an adaptation of the Zeffirelli Much Ado About Nothing. "Because of all my theater work, I suppose I was known as a classical actress," says John, "and that made it more difficult for me to get into television.

"I wrote letters to various TV producers and directors but got very little response back initially. I sent a second letter and included a photo of myself in a bikini. This time I got several interviews, which says something about producers and directors," she laughs. "My photograph was passed on to Derrick Sherwin and Peter Bryant, who were looking to recast the girl for Doctor Who, having already cast Jon Pertwee as the new Doctor. I got an interview, and eventually the role of Liz Shaw, which was wonderful."

Providing the link between the Doctor and the British Division of U.N.I.T., Liz Shaw was the miniskirted companion with a first-class brain. "When I went for the interview, they told me that they were looking to make Doctor Who more adult. Liz was to be a very brainy scientist who was at Cambridge University doing postgraduate work. I found the whole concept of the character quite interesting and was relieved that she didn't have to be a bimbo. It did vary, however. When I was doing my second story, 'Doctor Who and the Silurians,' a new producer, Barry Letts, came on board. I found that each of the different directors and writers I worked with on every new story required something different from my character.

"Many people ask me why I had so many different hairstyles," continues John. "I was very naive at the time, not wanting to be temperamental, and, to borrow a phrase, I allowed too many cooks to spoil the broth. What I should have done was say, 'Listen, I want my hair down and there's going to be no two ways about it.'

"It was the same with my clothes. I got on very well with the costume designer, Christine Rawlings, but for some reason I wasn't allowed to wear trousers. When it came time to film 'Doctor Who and the Silurians,' we had to go down into the mines. I begged them to allow me to wear trousers and they said, 'No, no, no.' When I walked on to the set, Jon looked at me and asked, 'You're not going down into the mines in that miniskirt, are you?' When I told him that they wouldn't let me dress any other way, Jon made a fuss for me and they finally let me put on one of the extras' mining suits, which ended up looking rather good. Knowing what I know now, I would have made that fuss for myself, but, being new and green, I didn't want to cause a commotion, so I allowed people to dictate to me a bit."

"Doctor Who and the Silurians" was extraordinary in many ways. Not only was it the only serial to contain the words "Doctor Who" as part of its official title, it was also the first to use color separation overlay (CSO), wherein the image of one camera was combined with an image from another and manipulated to achieve a variety of on-screen FX. "I quite enjoyed doing that episode," John says, "although at the time I didn't think I was very good in it. The BBC recently sent me a tape of the program, and when I watched it, I ended up being quite pleased with my performance."

Old Companions

When the third Doctor tumbled unconscious out of the TARDIS in his first adventure "Spearhead from Space," he had no idea that he would soon find himself battling the formidable Nestene intelligence and its servants the Autons, plastic human facsimiles being used to replace key government figures. "The first day of filming was horrendous," recalls John. "I didn't have very much to do. We were in some underground parking garage in the north of London and I was very, very nervous.

"We would always film any outdoor scenes first, have a read-through of the remaining scenes in the script and then, week by week, do all the interior shots of whichever episode we happened to be working on. During 'Spearhead from Space,' we had to film some scenes at Madame Tussaud's in London, as the Autons were supposed to be dummies. It was actually quite terrifying, because we did it all through the night and there were times that you didn't know who were extras playing Autons and which were the waxworks.

"After we finished filming, everyone said to me, 'See you in Evesham tomorrow,' and I said, 'What? Don't be daft,' and they said again, 'No, we're going to Evesham tomorrow.' There was a technician's strike on at the BBC so they couldn't tape anything in the studio. It was decided to do 'Spearhead from Space,' which was four episodes long, all on film. We had completed a little bit of indoor filming, but the remaining parts of the script, scenes we would normally shoot in a studio, were all to be done on film. At the time, I was living in Ipswich, which was two or three hours away by train. I had to rush up there, collect all my gear and get to Evesham, which was in the opposite direction, for filming first thing in the morning. You can just imagine the hysterics needed in order to accomplish that!"

John's husband appeared as a radio operator in her third and penultimate Doctor Who adventure, "The Ambassadors of Death." "I enjoyed that one," says the actress. "Michael Ferguson directed and he was great fun to work with. This was another episode I saw very recently and there's one chap in it whom I don't even recall working with, and he's playing one of the leads! I remembered certain people, but not him, and I found it extraordinary that I could remember the little things but not the large events."

In her final adventure, "Inferno," she found her work doubly hard but equally as rewarding. Along with playing Liz Shaw, John also played a radically altered mirror image of the same character. "This episode was great fun because I had two roles due to the alternate universe. Looking at the whole of 'Inferno,' you can see where both Liz Shaws come from. One world made her OK, and the other made her into an absolute cow. However, her alternate image doesn't shoot the Doctor at the end, but actually helps him to get back to his own universe. I think that says a lot about the character."

John has only praise for her Doctor Who colleagues Pertwee, Nicholas Courtney and John Levene. "All were very professional and great fun to work with," she says fondly. As for the stories themselves, "We had very good scripts, particularly 'The Silurians,' because it had such a good message in it, and one that I probably appreciate much more now that I'm older. When the army goes in at the end and destroys the Silurian base, you can really see how upset and disappointed the Doctor is in humanity. His reasoning was that maybe it's better to find out a little bit more about people and not to fear them before you go out and act the role of killer."

Having recently seen all of her Doctor Who stories, is there anything she would have changed about her character? "I would have liked to have suggested more fun between the Doctor and Liz," John declares. "There is a little bit here and there and I thought it was wonderful. If there had been more of a twinkle in the eye from time to time, it might have lifted the series slightly. When you're doing something very serious, it's always good to have that little bit of lightness and fun. It makes for a good balance."

The final moments of "Inferno" found Liz Shaw smiling and laughing. This was also the last time audiences would see John as a series regular. "When I left Doctor Who, I was four months pregnant. I didn't tell anyone but I wouldn't have been asked to stay on anyway, as Barry Letts was looking for another ingredient. He was a new producer, and, obviously, wanted to make his mark on the series. It was also suggested that perhaps, for Jon's Doctor, the foil of someone who was very knowledgeable might have restricted his character's reaction, although when I now see the four stories, I think it worked rather well."

Past Companions

After having her first child, Ben (the actress also has a second son, Tom, and a daughter, Daisy), John decided to specifically focus on television and films as opposed to theater, which gave her more time to spend with her family. Over the years, she has appeared in such TV projects as A Perfect Spy and A Very British Coup, both with the late Ray McAnally, Wish Me Luck, The House of Elliott, Poirot, The Hound of the Baskervilles opposite former Doctor Who star Tom Baker (produced by Letts), Moon and Son, The Bill and The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries.

John also reprised her role of Liz Shaw in the Doctor Who 20th-anniversary episode "The Five Doctors." "I did that because I was broke," she says frankly. "I didn't have very much to do in it and wasn't tremendously happy with that." She also appeared with other Doctor Who personalities in the recent Children in Need charity appeal. "I found that to be good fun and I very much enjoy doing things like that, but—and I hate to have to say this—it really wasn't a very good story. Having said that, and being fair to the writer, they were given the difficult task of having to take so many things into consideration, along with showing so many facets of different assistants and Doctors as well as doing it so quickly."

Out of the diverse characters she has played in various productions over the years. the actress remembers one as being particularly challenging. "I worked on an adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel Hard Times at the Orange Tree Theatre, an absolutely wonderful theater which is near where I live and where I work quite a lot," John explains. "There were four of us doing the whole play and I played three or four different roles, including that of an old spinster. I thought that particular part was going to be extremely difficult for me, but in fact, I learned more from that role than from most things and enjoyed it tremendously. I've discovered that whatever role you're given is a challenge. and you hope you can learn something from it. I would rather get really good parts and work at them than be a personality actress."

In recent years, John has appeared at various Doctor Who conventions and book signings around Britain. "I thought I should get a bit more involved before I died," she says with a smile. John also worked in front of the camera with former Doctor Who star Colin Baker in the "Breach of the Peace" episode of the Stranger video series.

Looking back on her work on Doctor Who, Caroline John says, "I learned television while I was doing Doctor Who and will never be able to thank it enough. The four episodes I did that year were a wonderful entrance into learning about the medium. I'd had a lot of grounding in the theater even before I went to the National Theatre, and so. when I went into the series, it was wonderful because I learned the whole technique of television and how to appreciate the camera and not be shy of it. I now really enjoy working on television, and those four episodes of Doctor Who taught me a lot."

Captions:

Caroline John brought a dose of class and intelligence to Doctor Who as Cambridge University scientist Liz Shaw.

A classically-trained actress, John had some trouble making the jump to television, until she decided to make the most of her good looks.

I would have liked to have suggested more fun between the Doctor and Liz," says John, in retrospect.

"I thought I should get a bit more involved before I died," declares John, who has been making the rounds at Doctor Who conventions.

You can tell that this shot is from a rehearsal—the Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney) isn't wearing his trademark moustache and John has pants on!

"I learned television while I was with Doctor Who and will never be able to thank it enough," notes John.

Beautiful Companion

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