Departures: Susan Foreman

The Dalek Invasion of Earth saw, for the first time in Doctor Who, a regular cast member leave the show. When such an event happens I'll take the time to post my thoughts on the departing cast members.

Name: Susan Foreman (alias)
Home Planet and Time: Gallifrey-present era
# of Stories: 10
Most likely to say: "Grandfather!"

Susan is the Doctor's original companion and his grand daughter. Although very little is ever revealed about the Doctor and Susan's origins while she is a member of the TARDIS crew in Unearthly Child it is established that the Doctor and Susan are exiles from their home planet and presumably they left Gallifrey together and have been traveling for some time. The Doctor's reluctance to travel with Ian and Barbara suggests that they are the first outsiders to join Susan and the Doctor in the TARDIS.

Susan's character is not that interesting and was never fully developed in my opinion. Susan's origins themselves could have been fascinating story lines themselves had the producers of the day thought to flesh out her alien background. Fan's fascination with Gallifrey and Time Lord culture is well known - classic episodes like The Deadly Assassin were so interesting just by virtue of them filling in huge chunks of the Doctor's background. By the time Susan leaves we don't even know the name of the Doctor's world.


We are left with questions that will never be answered as a result:

• Is Susan really the Doctor's grand-daughter?
• Is Susan a Time Lady? Will she regenerate on poor David some day?
• How old is Susan. Considering the centuries old nature of the Doctor one would have to assume that Susan is older than she looks in the show if she from Gallifrey.

It also feels ironic that Susan is the first companion to depart the TARDIS considering how Ian and Barbara discovered it, that they didn't even want to be apart of the crew in the first place and hear Susan is staying behind on Earth while they fly away with the Doctor. To compensate they introduce David and the love story -- two characters that at least have more chemistry on screen than Harry and Ginny do in the Harry Potter movies -- to explain why she is out of the TARDIS.

Final Thoughts -- Glad to see her go.