Posted in: BBC, Disney+, Doctor Who, streaming, TV | Tagged: jukebox, Ncuti Gatwa, russell t davies, susan, tardis

Is Russell T Davies Hiding the Return of Susan to Doctor Who?

The recent 60th-anniversary episodes of Doctor Who may have begun the return of Susan, the Doctor's granddaughter - but with a twist.

The recent 60th-anniversary episode Doctor Who: Wild Blue Yonder began with Isaac Newton heading to the orchard in the late summer of 1666, passing by one older woman he calls Mrs Merridew on his way to discover gravity – or rather mavity as it has now been renamed, thanks to Donna Noble.

The character was played by one Susan Twist, best known for her work on Channel 4 soap opera Brookside, as well as appearing in ITV's  Coronation Street.

In the most recent Christmas Day special, Doctor Who: The Church On Ruby Road, Susan Twist returned in a speaking but uncredited role in the nightclub in which Ruby Sunday was working in a band.

When the goblins messed with the electrics, she called out for the singer to give a rendition of Gaudete, a 16th-century Christmas Latin carol. Then, in the trailer for the return of the show in 2024, she seems to appear again in the distance, on a barren moorland

So what's going on? Well, first, writer and showrunner Russell T Davies is a big fan of British soap operas. He cast Anita Dobson as the mysterious Mrs Flood in The Church On Ruby Road, best known as Angie Watts from Eastenders, whose own Christmas Day Special in 1986 was watched by over 30 million viewers in the UK – half the British population. So he may well have known of Susan Twist from those shows.

Before the launch of the recent 60th-anniversary shows, Russell T Davies also posted to the official Doctor Who Instagram. A post that showed the moment that the Doctor left Susan, the Doctor's granddaughter, back in 22nd-century London, with David, the man that she loved. Giving her the classic First Doctor speech;

"During all the years I've been taking care of you, you in return have been taking care of me. You are still my grandchild and always will be. But now, you're a woman too. I want you to belong somewhere, to have roots of your own. With David you will 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."

Russell T Davies started all manner of gossips, by posting in response, "Whatever happened to her?", fuelling speculation that Carole Anne Ford might return to Doctor Who for the 60th anniversary to play Susan. She did not. But maybe… somehow Susan did?

We did get one scene of the Doctor challenging another over leaving without saying goodbyes in Doctor Who: The Giggle.

Would Russell T Davies commit an egregious pun by casting an actor called Susan Twist to play Susan, lost in time – one who is calling out for a carol? Or at least, to do this to suggest the character's return? Especially given that in Doctor Who: The Giggle, The Toymaker talked about the one potential foe whom he ran from, called The One Who Waits. With capital letters and everything.

But that this was someone else's game. Who has waited longer than Susan for a Doctor who never returned, despite his promises? Susan… with a Twist? Is Mrs Merridew actually Susan? Or is she an immortal, a Time Lord, a time traveller, or a reincarnated soul?

Do you want more? The Doctor now has a jukebox in his TARDIS, the one we also saw in Russell T Davies' second episode, The End Of Time. SFX Magazine revealed that one of the songs on the jukebox is John Smith and The Common Men's Twist At The End.

Now, John Smith And The Common Men was the fictitious band that Susan was listening to at school in the very first episode of Doctor Who, An Unearthly Child, interrupted by her teachers, Barbara and Ian. The song wasn't named. But what might A Twist At The End mean? Susan Twist? Susan at the end? Susan with a twist at the end of the 2024 season?

It is also notable that in 2024, the Doctor will be taking a trip to sixties London and the Abbey Road studios. We presumed this was meant to be the Beatles, but what if it was the Common Men instead? The Doctor has often used the alias John Smith as well… would a trip to the sixties to meet Susan's favourite pop group be enough to bring the one who waited back? With a twist? Maybe she could have gotten a lift off a zingo? All speculation at this point… but it's fun speculation, yes? After all, the Doctor did abandon her in 22nd century London with a human called David Cameron, whom she had only just met because the Doctor believed that they were in love.

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