She joined the show with "Spearhead From Space", the first story to feature Pertwee as the Doctor, and the first of a new format for the show in which the Doctor was stranded on contemporary Earth, unable to operate his TARDIS and travel through time and space as he had in his previous incarnations. Instead, the Doctor was stuck working for the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT) as their scientific advisor. Caroline John's character, Liz Shaw, was a highly qualified scientist who worked alongside the Doctor as his assistant, perhaps the most intelligent human companion the Doctor ever had.
Unfortunately, she was deemed too intelligent by the incoming producer Barry Letts, who believed the Doctor's companion needed to be someone more "ordinary" who could ask him the questions that would enable him to explain the plot to the viewer. As a result, he opted not a renew her contract at the end of her first season.
As it turned out, Caroline John was pregnant and would not have been able to return for the following season in any case. However, as Letts was unaware of this when they decided to drop her, John perceived this as him being dissatisfied with her acting ability, to which she took great offence. It would not be until several years later that she learned the true reason for Letts' decision.
In 1970, the same year that she starred on Doctor Who, Caroline John married fellow actor Geoffrey Beevers, who would appeared on the show alongside John in a small role in "The Ambassadors of Death", and would have a much more memorable role as the Master in "The Keeper Of Traken", over a decade later.
John made a cameo appearance as Liz Shaw in the Doctor Who 20th anniversary special "The Five Doctors", and from 2007 onwards reprised her role in audio form for Big Finish Doctor Who.
Her television acting career would continue all the way into the 21st century, with her final credit coming in 2008. Sadly, Caroline John died of cancer in 2012 aged 71, a year after fellow Doctor Who regulars from the Third Doctor era Nicholas Courtney and Elisabeth Sladen had passed away from the same disease.
Works with pages on TV Tropes that she appeared in:
TV
- Doctor Who: 26 episodes / 5 storiesshow list (1970, 1983) — Liz Shaw
- The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: episode "Madame Sara" (1971) — Edith Dallas
- Z Cars: episode "Operation Ascalon" (1972) — Mrs. Drummond
- The Bill, episodes:
- "Lost" (1985) — Mrs. Lubaczewska
- " Better the Devil" (1992) — Doctor Wells
- "High Places" (1992) — Medical Examiner
- "Divided We Fall" (1993) — F.M.E.
- One Born Every Minute (1994) — Doctor
- A Very British Coup: 2 episodes (1988) — Annette
- CASUAL+Y: episode "Drake's Drum" (1988) — Edith Howlett
- Poirot: episode "Problem at Sea" (1989) — Mrs Tolliver
- Wish Me Luck: 5 episodes (1990) — Helene Renard
- Harry Enfield's Television Programme: 4 episodes (1990) — Housekeeper
- London's Burning: 1 episode (1992) — Counsellor
- Children in Need: "Dimensions in Time"note (1993) — Liz Shaw
- The House of Eliott: 1 episode (1994) — Lilian Brownlow
- The Choir: 3 episodes (1995) — Janet Young
- Eastenders: 1 episode (1995) — Judge
- Silent Witness: 2 episodes (1996) — Mrs. Claire
- Midsomer Murders: episode "Blue Herrings" (2000) — Florist
- Doctors: episode "Mummy Dearest" (2008) — Susan Milnes
Film
- The Razor's Edge (1984) — Mrs. Mackenzie
- Santa Claus: The Movie (1985) — Woman (uncredited)
- Love Actually (2003) — Sam's Grandmother
Audio Play
- Big Finish Doctor Who:
- Main Range: "Dust Breeding" (2001) — Madame Salvadori
- Companion Chronicles: 5 releasesshow list (2007-12) — Liz Shaw
Tropes related to her work:
- Real-Life Relative: She acted alongside her husband Geoffrey Beevers several times:
- They appeared together three times television: during their engagement in the Doctor Who story "The Ambassadors of Death" (1970), and (after they were married) in A Very British Coup (1988) and the Poirot episode "Problem at Sea" (1989), in which they played a married couple.
- They both appeared in the Big Finish Doctor Who audio story "Dust Breeding", though not as their characters from the televised series.
- They frequently acted together in repertory theatre early in their careers, in which they played, in Beever's words "every conceivable relationship, from brother and sister, to lovers, to husbands and wives, to mothers and sons".
- In the unofficial direct-to-video spinoff P.R.O.B.E. in the 1990s, where John reprised her role as Liz Shaw and Beevers played Brian Rutherford.
- You Sound Familiar: For her first appearance in Big Finish Doctor Who in "Dust Breeding", she voiced the new character of Madame Salvadori rather than her show character Liz Shaw, though she subsequently reprised the role of Liz for The Companion Chronicles.
