Just who was that woman in the TARDIS in this week’s episode of “Doctor Who”? Viewers were treated to an unexpected but delightful cameo in “The Interstellar Song Contest” and if you want to know who she was, you’ve come to the right place!
But just in case you haven’t seen the episode yet: SPOILERS!
The woman who kept appearing to the Doctor in his mind is none other than Susan, the Doctor’s Granddaughter, as played by Carole Ann Ford. This marks her first return to the role on the TV show proper since 1983. Let’s dive into the character’s history a little bit!
TV Beginnings
Susan is the Doctor’s granddaughter and the original companion from when the show started in 1963. Exiled from their home planet (not yet named in “An Unearthly Child”), Susan attended school on Earth. Her advanced knowledge and reluctance to share much about her home life draws the attention of two teachers: Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill) and Ian Chesterton (William Russell).
Barbara and Ian wound up following Susan home one night to check on her, and got a LOT more than they bargained for. Seemingly she lived in a junkyard- a junkyard containing a Police Box. When her Grandfather- the Doctor- returns to their home, he is very displeased to see Ian and Barbara sneaking around outside of his ship and even less happy when they force their way in! Unconvinced that the schoolteachers won’t reveal his and Susan’s secret the Doctor, well, kidnaps them! Thus starts the first on-screen TARDIS team… A very unwilling one!
Susan’s Departure from “Doctor Who”
Susan continued to travel with the Doctor and her schoolteachers until the second serial of the second season: “The Dalek Invasion of Earth”. During the original TARDIS team’s fight against the Daleks in 22nd century London, Susan meets a man called David. The two fall in love, but Susan decides she should leave despite David’s proposal. She does love David, but she feels she has a duty to her aging Grandfather. However, the Doctor makes a decision for her- locking Susan out of the TARDIS and telling her she deserves a happy, normal life with David. However, he promises to return one day.
“I want you to belong somewhere, to have roots of your own. With David, you’ll be able to find those roots and live normally like any woman should do. Believe me, my dear, your future lies with David, and not with a silly old buffer like me. One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs, and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine. Goodbye, Susan, goodbye, my dear.”
Susan’s Return for the 20th and in “New Who”
Carole Ann Ford reprised her role as Susan in 1983’s “The Five Doctors”. This episode, celebrating the 20th anniversary of “Doctor Who” saw many faces return to the show. Susan, along with other past companions and previous Doctors, were taken from their times and places by a Time Scoop and placed in Gallifrey’s Death Zone. Susan and the First Doctor (Richard Hurndall in this story) are reunited in the story. She also got to meet a few other Doctors and companions before returning to her own time.
Susan has also cropped up a few times in modern “Doctor Who” as well, but mostly just mentioned in dialogue. From the first mention of the Doctor being “the last of the Time Lords” in “The End of the World”, it’s more or less been assumed that Susan was also a casualty of the Time War. In “Death in Heaven” when Clara is pretending to be the Doctor she says that the Doctor’s children and grandchildren are “missing, and I assume, dead”. Happier moments are mentioned too, though. In “The Rings of Akhaten” the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) remembers visiting the same planet with Susan.
We did get the tiniest peak of Susan’s back in the opening to “The Name of the Doctor”. In one of the various scenes of Clara’s Echoes, we see her talking with the First Doctor as he and Susan flee Gallifrey in a stolen TARDIS.
In “The Pilot”, a picture of Susan is also on the Twelfth Doctor’s desk.
Susan in other “Doctor Who” Media
As such an integral and founding character, Susan has, of course, appeared in many other non-TV stories. Most of these deal with her time with her Grandfather. There’s even a story where, while still attending school in 1963, she meets River Song! However, there are some that tell her story after leaving the TARDIS. Including ones that give her and David a son together- Alex.
I have not yet personally gotten a chance to listen to these stories, but one continuation is done by Big Finish. Filling in an as-of-yet unexplained gap is “Susan’s War”. The series details Susan’s personal efforts in fighting the Time War. The Doctor, of course, tried to prevent her from being called up. However, as she’d spent many years helping the Earth rebuild after a Dalek Invasion, Susan felt she could be helpful.
The series also featured appearances by the Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann) and the War Doctor (Jonathon Carley). The most recent installation just released this March- “Grandfather Time“.
Susan in “Doctor Who” Recently
Of course, Susan was mentioned more recently in Ncuti Gatwa’s first season as the Doctor. The Fifteenth Doctor mentions his Granddaughter to Ruby in “The Devil’s Chord”. Since the pair had landed in 1963, the First Doctor and Susan were somewhere nearby, with the TARDIS parked in that original junkyard! Interestingly, the Doctor gets a little inconsistent with his story. He mentions that he “did have” or “will have” kids and grandkids. “Time Lords get a bit complicated,” he says.
Here we also get our first TV explanation for why he assumes Susan was killed. “The Time Lords were murdered. The genocide rolled across Time and Space, like a great big cellular explosion. Maybe it killed her too.”
Susan was brought up again in “The Legend of Ruby Sunday”. In researching the woman who keeps appearing everywhere the Doctor and Ruby have been, they find that UNIT has been investigating a woman called “Susan Triad”, an IT whiz and with the same face that’s been following them. Of course, despite the Doctor’s hopes, it turns out that *this* Susan is a trap for the Doctor. Sutekh, the god of Death, has used Susan’s name and the Doctor’s hope to lure him in.
But, it would seem, that all of those mentions of Susan were leading up to this! What do you think is next for the Doctor’s Granddaughter?
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