Summary
- Susan Foreman, the Doctor's first companion, left the TARDIS after falling in love with a human.
- Susan reunited with the Doctor in "The Five Doctors," then again in "An Earthly Child." Big Finish audio "Susan's War" explored Susan's fight in the Time War.
- In Doctor Who season 14, the Fifteenth Doctor claims to believe Susan was killed when the Master wiped out the Time Lords.
Susan's story continues to develop long after she departed Doctor Who companion, with the time-traveling duo escaping their home planet of Gallifrey to settle in London, where Susan was subjected to the unforgiving environment of the British education system. Susan then ed her grandfather's adventures through time and space alongside her Earth schoolteachers, Ian and Barbara.
Unfortunately, their bond was not enough to prevent William Hartnell's First Doctor locking Susan out of the TARDIS in the closing moments of 1964's "The Dalek Invasion of Earth." Justifying his decision, the Doctor explained that he knew Susan would never willingly leave his side, despite falling in love with human freedom fighter David Campbell. The Doctor realized that the time had come for Susan to fly the TARDIS nest, which just so happened to coincide with Carole Ann Ford leaving Doctor Who's cast. Susan's story since then has gradually unfolded piece by piece.
25 Greatest Doctor Who Stories Of All Time, Ranked
Doctor Who has been a fixture on TV screens for 60 years, meaning there are plenty of stories to choose from when picking out the Time Lord's best.
Susan Returned In Doctor Who's 20th Anniversary Special
Susan's Return In "The Five Doctors" Wasn't A Proper Doctor Who Comeback
From the perspective of the TV series, Susan isn't heard from again until the 1983 Doctor Who anniversary special, "The Five Doctors," which reunites several past Doctors with an assortment of their former companions. Although Susan is 20 years older by this point, "The Five Doctors" strongly implies she has not seen her grandfather (any of them) during that entire period. Nevertheless, Susan seems pleased to stand beside the Doctor again, showing no sense of resentment over their abrupt separation.
A homicidal Dalek cuts Doctor's catch-up with Susan short, giving audiences no opportunity to glean information about her life after leaving the TARDIS. Susan is then sidelined for the remainder of the story, spending most of her time trapped in the Fifth Doctor’s TARDIS with Turlough, and, as if that wasn’t bad enough, recovering from a twisted ankle suffered while running. "The Five Doctors," therefore, never seriously addresses Susan's post-TARDIS life or her relationship with the Doctor before she gets returned to her own timeline via the Time Scoop.
Susan's Doctor Who Story Continued Via Big Finish Audio Stories
Some Of Susan's Best Doctor Who Adventures Didn't Happen On TV
Managing to completely forget about his granddaughter once more, the Doctor wouldn't meet Susan again until 2009's Big Finish audio story "An Earthly Child." Set 30 years after the Dalek occupation of Earth, the planet is in a sorry state and still recovering from years of Dalek rule. Susan, now a widow, works for the Earth Council, trying to get the planet back on its feet, but she worries Earth will slide back into the dark ages and believes the only way to stop the planet's decline is extraterrestrial assistance. Susan uses her Time Lord smarts to build a transmitter, hoping aliens can aid Earth’s recovery.
The Big Finish audio "Susan’s War" explores her battles in the Time War, which conclude with Susan remaining on Gallifrey.
Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor also picks up the transmission and actually makes the effort to see his estranged granddaughter. Unlike "The Five Doctors," a palpable tension presides on this occasion, with Susan quite appalled that the Doctor has regenerated so many times since she met his fifth incarnation. In turn, the Doctor is surprised to learn he has a great-grandson, Alex Campbell, and is especially shocked Susan could conceive a child with a human. Naturally, Doctor Who's original TARDIS duo are embroiled in another adventure.
The reunion takes a turn when the Doctor invites Susan and Alex into the TARDIS for Christmas dinner, leading straight into the second Dalek invasion of Earth - an epic tale where Susan finally tells the Doctor how furious she still is about being left behind. Despite her rage, Susan is ultimately happy that her grandfather kept his promise to return - even if it was quite a few regenerations later. Tragically, the Daleks claim the lives of both Alex and Eighth Doctor companion Lucie. This unhinges the Doctor, who tries to break the laws of time to save them before Susan intervenes. The Doctor invites his granddaughter to re him aboard the TARDIS, but Susan declines.
Ironically, Susan then moves into an apartment building on the site of what used to be Coal Hill School from Doctor Who's very first episode. Here, she is ed by the Time Lords, who wish to recruit her in Doctor Who's Time War against the Daleks. Despite the best efforts of the Eighth Doctor, she agrees, and is taken to the conflict's front lines. The Big Finish audio "Susan’s War" explores her battles in the Time War, which conclude with Susan remaining on Gallifrey.
The Doctor Thinks Susan Is Dead In Season 14
Susan Is Presumed Dead In Doctor Who
Since Doctor Who returned to TV screens in 2005, the titular protagonist has repeatedly declared all of his family dead, leaving him as the last Time Lord. Ever the dramatist, Doctor Who has proven this assertion wrong on numerous occasions, firstly by revealing the Master's survival, then by confirming the entirety of Gallifrey was actually fine all along. This revelation left Susan's ultimate fate in Doctor Who ambiguous. If her Big Finish adventures are considered canon, it must be assumed that Susan survived the Time War alongside her fellow Gallifreyans. If the Big Finish audios are not canon to the TV show, Susan must still be on Earth.
A long-awaited Gallifrey's Timeless Child secret by committing genocide against the Time Lords. The Doctor speculates that the Master's attack rippled across space and time, which would mean Susan died regardless of whether she was on Earth or Gallifrey.
Will Susan Finally Return To Doctor Who?
Susan May Return In Doctor Who Season 14
Despite what the Doctor may think, Susan could potentially return in Doctor Who season 14 and beyond. As alluded to previously, the Doctor has a habit of wrongly proclaiming himself as the universe's last Time Lord standing. His belief that Susan was killed during the Master's genocide is merely speculative, and the strong possibility that his granddaughter somehow survived cannot be ignored. Crucially, the Doctor hasn't bothered to find out Susan's status for certain, either because he is afraid of learning the answer, or because assuming Susan died is easier than facing her after so long apart.
Upon hearing about Susan in "The Devil's Chord," Ruby appears taken aback that her new time-traveling companion has a granddaughter that he doesn't see. Ruby, an orphan abandoned by her own parents, perhaps recognizes that the Doctor has been avoiding the Susan issue for too long and needs closure one way or the other. Consequently, season 14's Susan reference could be the first step toward a grandfather-granddaughter reunion. For her part, Carole Ann Ford is willing to return to Doctor Who, meaning Susan's story may not be finished quite yet.
The latest Doctor Who series introduces the Fifteenth Doctor, ed by new companion Ruby Sunday.
- Network
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