Susan Foreman

Last updated 28 March 2020


Susan Foreman -
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Susan Foreman


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Susan Foreman is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The granddaughter and original companion of the First Doctor, she was played by actress Carole Ann Ford from 1963 to 1964, in the show's first season and the first two stories of the second season. Ford reprised the role for the feature-length 20th anniversary episode The Five Doctors (1983) and the 30th anniversary charity special Dimensions in Time (1993). Susan appeared in 10 stories (51 episodes).

Susan is introduced in the first Doctor Who story, An Unearthly Child (1963), with the first episode focusing on her as an unusual teenager with an advanced knowledge of history and science. This catches the attention of her teachers at Coal Hill School, Ian Chesterton (William Russell) and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill), who follow her home to a junkyard. It is revealed that she and her grandfather, the Doctor (William Hartnell), are exiles from their own people in "another time, another world" and have been travelling through space and time in a machine she named the TARDIS from the acronym "Time and Relative Dimension in Space". As Ian and Barbara have gained this knowledge, the Doctor whisks them away on the TARDIS against their will, and he cannot accurately fly the machine.[1] Through the run of the series, it is learned the Doctor, aided by Susan, stole the TARDIS.

Susan continued to travel with the Doctor and her two teachers until the 1964 serial, The Dalek Invasion of Earth. During the events of that story, Susan falls in love with David Campbell, a young freedom fighter in the 22nd century. However, Susan feels that she has to stay with and take care of her grandfather. The Doctor, realising that Susan is now a grown woman and deserves a future away from him, locks her out of the TARDIS and leaves after a tearful farewell.[2] Ford reprised the role of Susan on television in the 20th anniversary special The Five Doctors (1983), but no mention of David, or what became of him, was made on screen. In the novelisation of the same story, they are still married, while she struggles to age herself by applying make-up.[3] Ford also reprised her role for the 1993 charity special "Dimensions in Time".

In The Curse of Fenric (1989), the Seventh Doctor states that he does not know if he has any family, which may indicate uncertainty of Susan's whereabouts.[4] In 2005's "The End of the World" the Ninth Doctor states that his home world has been destroyed and that he is the last of the Time Lords.[5] Although Susan is not mentioned by name, the Doctor says in "Father's Day" (2005) that his "whole family" died,[6] and in "The Empty Child" Doctor Constantine remarks he has been a father and grandfather, but now he is neither, and the Ninth Doctor replies "I know the feeling."[7] In the 2006 episode "Fear Her" the Tenth Doctor states nonchalantly "I was a Dad once", but does not elaborate on this revelation.[8] In the 2013 episode "The Rings of Akhaten", the Eleventh Doctor mentions that he travelled with his granddaughter to the planet Akhaten.[9] The 2013 episode "Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS" contains audio from the scene in An Unearthly Child where Susan explains how she named the TARDIS.[10] A brief glimpse of Susan, played by an unidentified body double, is seen in the opening scene of "The Name of the Doctor", which depicts the Doctor and Susan leaving Gallifrey in a TARDIS.[original research?] In the 2014 episode Death In Heaven Clara Oswald, pretending to be the Doctor, says that the Doctor has been married four times, and has children and grandchildren, now assumed to be dead.

Biography from the wikipedia article, licensed under CC-BY-SA