Caroline John

Caroline John was a classically trained actress who did some significant and prestigious stage work. However, she is best remembered for one television role which she played for less than a year (and only four serials) - that of Dr. Elizabeth Shaw in Doctor Who (1963). Of the many satellites that have orbited the official incarnations of 'the Doctor' between 1963 and the present, John was arguably one of the brightest. Not only was she one of the most attractive of the companions but she also stood out for her resourcefulness and intelligence. The daughter of an actor and a dancer, John was trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London before making her stage debut with the Royal Court Theatre. She then acted in repertory and had a three-and-a-half year stint with the National Theatre Company under the auspices of its artistic director Laurence Olivier, performing in such plays as "Othello", "The Master Builder" and (as Ophelia) in "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead". John joined Lambda in the late 1960s, touring through Italy, Yugoslavia and Romania with D.H. Lawrence's play "Daughter-in-Law". Having submitted a glamorous modelling shot of herself to outgoing producers Peter Bryant and Derrick Sherwin, John successfully auditioned for the role of Dr. Liz Shaw and was first featured at the beginning of Season Seven in Spearhead from Space: Episode 1 (1970). Like her immediate predecessor, astrophysicist Zoe Heriot, her character was meant to be super-intelligent (the Brigadier famously describes her as being "an expert on meteorites, with degrees in medicine, physics and a dozen other subjects") who would help the new Doctor (Jon Pertwee) and also shared his moral principles. Her strong and independent personality contrasted markedly from the stereotype of the screaming, helpless scatter-brained companions prevalent throughout much of the 20th century series. In a 1987 interview, John revealed that she was on occasion given leeway to ad lib if it helped to liven up a scene that didn't come off as originally written. However, script editor Terrance Dicks, new producer Barry Letts and Jon Pertwee all disliked the character of Liz Shaw, considering her too clever and grown-up to be relatable to the younger members of the audience. They also perceived it to be necessary to more fully explain the 'technobabble' to audiences. This required a suitably naïve character to ask the relevant questions. Consequently, John was dropped from the show at the end of the season in favour of Katy Manning's Jo Grant, a reversion to the show's earlier format. Terrance Dicks later commented that he thought John was actually too good an actress to play a companion to the Doctor. Although he'd written her out of the show, Barry Letts later cast John in his BBC version of The Hound of the Baskervilles (1982). John occasionally reprised her role of Liz Shaw for direct-to-video spin-offs, an audio series and for the seminal 1983 reunion special The Five Doctors (1983). Post- Doctor Who (1963), she had a regular spot on Harry Enfield's Television Programme (1990) and guested in such shows as Poirot (1989), Silent Witness (1996) and Midsomer Murders (1997). She also maintained a steady flow of theatrical engagements and was latterly noted for her solo tour-de-force as Mildred Asher in "Nightingale", a play written by Lynn Redgrave, which ran at the New End Theatre in London and at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles in 2006.