Posted in: TV | Tagged: doctor who

Doctor Who: Why Every Companion Has Always Been Susan Foreman

A look at why every Doctor Who companion is metaphorically Carole Ann Ford's granddaughter, Susan Foreman, and how that's impacted the show.

In the December issue of Doctor Who Magazine, Carole Ann Ford, who played Susan Foreman, gave correspondent Benjamin Cook a lengthy interview conducted before and just after her return as Susan in "The Interstellar Song Contest" in Season Two of Doctor Who. It's possibly the longest interview Ford ever gave, perhaps the definitive one. She discusses her life, career, time on Doctor Who, and her thoughts about the series ever since, including Russell T. Davies' decision to bring her back in what now seems to be an abandoned storyline for the latest version of the series. As they spoke, Cook gained insight into the fact that the Doctor-companion relationship has always been rooted in that first relationship. Every companion has been Susan. Every Doctor has been, deep down, the grandfather played by William Hartnell.

"It's the Doctor-Susan dynamic," said Cook. "With her there, he's a guardian – not a saviour of the universe, just a grandfather keeping one girl safe. She gives him permission to be kind and scared and to bluff and to walk away when fists would fail. That brains-over-brawn thing: that's because of Susan. And as you said: no Susan, no Ian and Barbara stumbling into the TARDIS, no show. Also, I love that she claims to have made up the name TARDIS. That's exactly the sort of ridiculous lie I'd tell to impress my teachers! I love Susan's thirst for knowledge. Her excitement for what's out there – "all the mysteries of the skies". Her cheerful disregard for danger. Her urge to help. She's who the Doctor secretly wants to be – and eventually becomes." "I'm loving this!" said Ford. "That's wonderful."

Doctor Who: The Eternal Loss of The Doctor's Granddaughter

This is a wonderfully resonant and poignant insight into what drives The Doctor, every Doctor since the first played by William Hartnell. It's about why The Doctor is drawn to girls and young women as his companions. He misses his granddaughter desperately and has been trying to mend the gap in his broken heart. But they always leave in the end, as he knows, over and over again. It's not about creepy old man enticing youbg girls, it's about a grandparent trying find himself again in a surrogate granddaughter, be it Dodo, Victoria, Jo, even the more adult women like Liz Shaw, Sarah Jane (whom he tended to infantalise a bit, but now you know why), the savage Leela, Ace, and so on. The Doctor may claim to be just traveling around seeing the universe to have a gay old time, but is really always looking for another Susan to take care of, to be brave for, to be the grandfather she looked up to.

Even in the Virgin novel "Love and War" from the 1990s, Paul Cornell wrote of Ace angrily leaving the Seventh Doctor after he sacrfices the boy she liked to save the day, and a heartbroken Doctor implores archeologist Benny Summerfield to travel with him because he can't bear to be alone, bringing up the story of the magic dragon who needs his young friend to be brave for. Even as Russell T Davies made The Doctors younger (Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant) so they can act like their companions' best friend, they're still old, ancient, and cast a paternal eye over them. The 11th Doctor (Matt Smith) may look young, but fails to act young. He still watched over Amy (Karen Gillen) and Rory (Arthur Darvill) like an older guardian. After he regenerated into an older man, he had to tell Clara (Jenna Coleman) he wasn't her boyfriend and set that boundary. Steven Moffat acknowledged this theme in "The Pilot," where the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi) glances at a photo of Susan on his desk as he decides whether to take on Bill Potts (Pearl Mackie) as his new companion, his desire to nurture and teach and be a grandparent even as he weighs the dangers he would subject her to. Moffat made their relationship explicitly one of a surrogate grandfather-granddaughter.

Russell T Davies made the Doctor's yearning for Susan explicit with the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) still thinking about her, fearing she might be dead but hoping she's still alive out there somewhere, yearning but also fearing a reunion because of his guilt for abandoning her. He may put on an act as a younger man and treat Ruby (Millie Gibson) like his best friend, but he's still taking care of her as a proxy for Susan. The reappearance of Susan in season two of the Disney era was intended to be the start of a payoff for the longest-dangling thread in sixty years of Doctor Who, which may or may not be resolved.

The Doctor, regardless of gender or appearance, is always in search of that granddaughter they raised and let go, the child that represented their best self. Doctor Who is also a parable about parenthood and guardianship. This is why Susan matters, and has always mattered, most to the Doctor and to the series.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!