The Doctor has had many companions, but the very first stands out above the rest. Is it time to bring back Susan Foreman, The Doctor's granddaughter?
Doctor Who has changed a lot since 1963. Though fans have come to know The Doctor as a war-weary genius with a heart of gold, there was a time when the character was simply a wise old traveler trying to take care of their granddaughter. In fact, it was that granddaughter, named Susan Foreman, that inadvertently kick-started The Doctor’s path to becoming the hero fans know and love today. For two seasons, Susan served on the TARDIS crew, helping her grandfather battle all sorts of alien foes as they traveled the universe.
However, this all changed when they arrived in the future on a war-torn Earth, in which the human resistance battled against an oncoming Dalek invasion. It was there that Susan fell in love with a human named David Campbell, forcing her to decide between traveling with The Doctor and settling down with her newfound love. But before she could choose for herself, The Doctor locked her out of the TARDIS, promising that one day he would come back. Unfortunately, he never did. And that begs the question: is it time for Susan to finally make her grand return?
Now, of course, Susan has reappeared a few times already. Firstly, she reunited with The Doctor in the show's 20th anniversary special, The Five Doctors. But this story failed to explore her life post-Doctor, instead choosing to portray her as if nothing had changed since her last appearance. But of course, Susan’s most notable return to Doctor Who comes from the Big Finish audio dramas; which fully explored the aftermath of The Doctor's departure and developed Susan into a more independent character, even having her fight in the infamous Time War. However, her revival came with some notable caveats, including the question of whether or not they were even canon.
The Big Finish audio dramas are something of a challenge to pin down officially, because though they tend to adhere to the canonicity of the show, the show is never bound to the canon established by the audio dramas. This means that these stories are only dubiously canon to begin with, and even that’s ignoring the biggest issue these dramas faced. Because of how closely Big Finish tries to stick to the timeline of the show, they can’t contradict The Doctor’s established character arc and, as such, the impact of Susan’s return has to be minimal. Instead of being a profound moment that forces the Time Lord to reflect on the past and embrace a history they’ve become infamous for running from, her return ends up as little more than a footnote in the character's adventures.
So, technically, Susan has already returned. But the only undeniably canon story came and went with little fanfare or development, while the only stories to really dive into her life after The Doctor are constricted by the timeline of the show, which they aren't even fully canon to anyway. Surely, it must finally be time to bring her back properly; to have Susan return to the show in a substantial, game-changing way. But how should they do it, and what would be the point anyway? Fortunately, both questions can be answered with a single answer: the Timeless Child arc.
The Doctor has had a bit of a roller coaster of development since season 12's major plot twist. From claiming she didn’t know who she was, to realizing her past never mattered, to struggling to come to terms with it anyway, the most consistent aspect of her arc has been the heavy focus on her past. This isn’t unprecedented for The Doctor, either. Many arcs over the years have had to do with one incarnation or another grappling with a part of their life that they’d been running from, which is exactly where Susan comes in.
Not only is Susan the only family member The Doctor has left, she’s also one of the few Time Lords left that has any chance of being alive after the desolation of the Time War and the subsequent genocide of The Master. And yet, The Doctor left her behind and never came back for her. There’s no denying the conflict that could cause, with Susan potentially feeling alone in the universe while The Doctor grapples with the reality of consciously avoiding their own granddaughter. This could serve as the catalyst for The Doctor’s most profound character arc yet, should the writers choose to go in that direction.
But even if they don’t want Susan’s return to be a point of conflict, there’s still plenty they could do with her. She was one of the first and most important people in The Doctor’s life; regardless of how they choose to bring her back, there’s no way it wouldn’t cause major changes for both The Doctor and the show itself. And especially after so much time has been spent focusing on The Doctor’s struggles with their own past, having one of the most important people from that past make her return could finally push them into having a profound and definitive arc that determines how they’ll handle that past going forward.
And once The Doctor has undergone an arc like no other, the options any Doctor Who writer would have are limitless. They could have Susan return as a full-time companion. They could have her show up occasionally in important story arcs à la River Song or Jack Harkness. They could even give Susan her own spinoff show akin to Torchwood. Regardless of what they do with her, the ideal option is that they do something.
Because, at the end of it all, that’s the most important takeaway: Susan, both as her own character and as the spark that ignites a new chapter in The Doctor’s life, has too much potential to be left abandoned on a war-torn Earth. If given the chance, there is so much that any current or future Doctor Who writer could do with her, but it all depends on them. Yes, it’s time to bring back Susan Foreman. Because in a twist of fate only Doctor Who would provide, it could just be the show's past that saves the character’s future.