Susan

[creed462]

Out of all the former companions I've always thought that Susan should return what are your thought on the character and what do you think about them bringer her back in a future episode

[Admiral Mappalazarou]

How did she get out of Doctor Who anyway?

[Xicer]

Wasn't she married off in one of the episodes?

And I think the actor wanted to leave the show because she didn't like how her character wasn't really developing.

[Flyboy]

Susan is an interesting character. Technically the first Doctor Who companion, before even Ian or Barbara. She refers to the Doctor as grandfather, and was are lead to believe she was born on Gallifrey, however it is never stated she is a time lord/lady. Mainly because the term Timelord wasn't coined until after the first Doctor regenerated. Thus, she could merely be Gallifreyan. Timelords are sort of... the elite in the social class, and unlike regular gallifreyans, ie, lower class citizens they can regenerate. Timelord status is... bestowed, much like lordship in the UK. If she's not a timelord then that would make her character one who has the potential to return. Otherwise there's not much hope...

As for her departure...

Susan left in The Dalek Invasion of Earth where the Doctor left her behind so she could stay with a guy she was blatantly in love with.. even though she was alledgedly "seventeen" at the time. She put up a complaint but the doctor left anyway. She was reuinted with him briefly in the Five Doctors where she seemed to have aged natrually and was in good health.

[Reefgirl]

From what I understand Carole-Anne Ford who played Susan didn't want to be typecast as a School girl, I think she was 21 or something at the time

[Flyboy]

She was indeed. It was rather horrific tbh.

[Wordsmit2]

There was a 20th Anniversary Radio Times magazine that had a story by Eric Saward (who was script editor for DW at the time) in which Susan had been the focus of a political struggle on Gallifrey. To escape, she had stowed away in the TARDIS and she and the Doctor sort of adopted each other.

The story concerned the Master abducting the fifth Doctor and Susan for his own nefarious ends. I forget what the Doctor had to do with any of it. I do remember even *he* wasn't sure why he'd originally left Gallifrey, thanks to a block on his memories. At the time the Doctor left Gallifrey, the Master had been on the wrong side of a revolution, and the Doctor had been aggressively recruited by both sides. The movement wanted to install a sort of monarchy of Rassilon descendants that they thought they could control because the only candidate was the fifteen year old Lady Larn. However, she vanished about the time the Doctor stole a TARDIS and disappeared. Hey, you don't think...?

I remember I was quite taken with these aspects of the story, but didn't much like the story overall. There's something delicious about the idea of Susan only playing the granddaughter, but in fact being the navigator of her own life. In the earliest episodes she was in fact rather smart and dangerous, but over time she was turned into the cliche teenage girl--which is why *I* heard Carole Ann Ford asked to leave.

[Dave9946]

I'd say for the sake of what we know and have been told Susan is the Doctors blood grandaughter.

So in which case it means the Doctor has children. Funny how this seems to have been forgotton and, to my knowledge, never ever talked about in the show.

Why would the Doctor never talk about a child he must have fathered at some point?.

And as we know Susan was left on Earth with that man she fell in love with. So hardly the last of the Time Lords, more so if Susan ever had children of her own?.

[Pitry]

If I'm not mistaen, Doctor's Who original producer Varity Lambert said she's his real gradndaughter, end of story.
|ALso, was it ever actually mentioned in Doctor Who that there are differetn classes adn only the elite are Time Lords? I know I have that impression myself - but I think ti was never said outright?

[The Signal]

So in which case it means the Doctor has children. Funny how this seems to have been forgotton and, to my knowledge, never ever talked about in the show.

Why would the Doctor never talk about a child he must have fathered at some point?.

He did...

The Doctor: "I was a dad once"

[Wordsmit2]

I'd say for the sake of what we know and have been told Susan is the Doctors blood grandaughter.

So in which case it means the Doctor has children. Funny how this seems to have been forgotton and, to my knowledge, never ever talked about in the show.

Not forgotten. --It was never *established*.

She called him "Grandfather", and they implied they were from the same planet. But that's *it*. In fact, given the Doctor's consistent dissembling, you could probably make a fair argument that he may not even be from Susan's planet.

The original production team had a running argument about Susan. The original concept was for her to be mysterious. But some people insisted that there was something unintentionally suggestive about an old man going into a box with a teenager, so they crossed out "Doctor" and wrote in "Grandfather". She did call him "Doctor" a few times anyway.

Hm, I wonder if she ever referred to him as "my grandfather"? If not, that's more evidence that it was a name, not a description.

Why would the Doctor never talk about a child he must have fathered at some point?.

Which is why fans assumed Susan wasn't the Doctor's own granddaughter. Then Russell T. Davies started retconning, and now everyone "knows" something completely different. Just like everyone "knows" the Doctor snogs anyone who travels in the TARDIS.

Only the *new* series says he married and says he "was a Dad". In fact it's only the new series that says he had a brother. (Although back in the third and fifth Doctors' eras the writers were toying with the idea of making the Master his brother, both teams decided it was a bad idea. Davies has said the brother is not the Master, but Davies has been known to change his mind too.)

The only commitments to family relations the original series made were the first Doctor's "cut off from our own planet" (suggesting either his family is dead or they've mutually disowned each other), the second Doctor's telling Victoria that he has to "really *want* to" remember his family and that the rest of the time "they sleep in my mind", and the seventh Doctor not knowing whether he even *had* any family.

Here's a video with the relevant clips: Babel's 'Beginner's Guide To Doctor Who' - The Doctor

[Wordsmit2]

|ALso, was it ever actually mentioned in Doctor Who that there are differetn classes adn only the elite are Time Lords? I know I have that impression myself - but I think ti was never said outright?

That comes from little things in "Deadly Assassin" and "The Invasion of Time" which suggest that not all Gallifreyans are Time Lords (e.g. the guards).

[Pitry]

That comes from little things in "Deadly Assassin" and "The Invasion of Time" which suggest that not all Gallifreyans are Time Lords (e.g. the guards).

Yes, I know, I've watched these episodes and that's where I had my own impression from.... but as I said, it's not said outright.

[Flyboy]

The doctor has a brother?

[Dave9946]

If I remember correctly there are 2 possabilities here.

First off I think that there is or was possably mention that those that live outdoors if you like outside the cities in kind of wastelands on Gallifrey, were simply a lower class of Time Lords. And that they simply did'nt want to live the life or use there powers that the Time Lords created.

Also those that live outside might not even be Time Lords. But instead are the original race that lived on Gillifrey. And the Time Lords settled on Gallifrey after there powers were created due to the planets location.