Companions: Fifty Years of Doctor Who Assistants (5 page)

There are four distinct ‘origin’ stories for Susan. In one account (written by 1980s
Doctor Who
script editor, Eric Saward, and published in the
Radio Times 20th Anniversary Special
) she is the Lady Larna, whom the Doctor rescues when he escapes from Gallifrey. Larna is a descendent of Rassilon (the ‘greatest single figure’ in Time Lord history), and the last of Gallifrey’s royal family. It draws from Anthony Coburn’s original draft of the very first episode, in which he describes Susan as being of royal blood; an idea that never made it beyond that first draft.

A second origin is presented in the tongue-in-cheek radio broadcast
Whatever Happened to... Susan Foreman?
In this it is suggested that Susan’s parents dispatch her to Earth with her grandfather because she is failing such subjects as French on Gallifrey, French being a common language in most galaxies, but she is fine with subjects such as thermodynamics. This account is full of contradictions and is not meant to be taken seriously.

A third, and much more complex idea is put forward in the 1997 novel
Lungbarrow
and it does not completely contradict established facts. In this Susan is the last child born on Ancient Gallifrey, and granddaughter of the mysterious Other – a mythical being who is said to form a triumvirate with Rassilon and Omega, and thus is one of the founders of Time Lord society. This Other, in this account, is reincarnated centuries later as the Doctor, who, when escaping Gallifreyan life, finds himself in his planet’s past where both Susan and he recognise each other. She then joins him on his travels. Epic, yes, but it does fit in with some of the hints from stories late in the classic era’s run, such as
Remembrance of the Daleks
and
Silver Nemesis
in which it is implied that the Doctor was present at the birth of the Time Lords.

What gives this account some credence is that it was written by a TV script writer, Marc Platt, using the so-called ‘Cartmel Masterplan’ – a name given to the long-term plans of script editor, Andrew Cartmel – the basis upon which much of the final two years of
Doctor Who
’s original twenty-six-year run on TV was informed. This origin story has been acknowledged by many of the novels that follow, and still remains the most popular theory (although, it is important to point out that it has never been confirmed by anything seen or said in
Doctor Who
since 2005 – indeed, the Doctor has said that he ‘was a dad once’, which at least confirms that he had children and, presumably, grandchildren, of which Susan is most certainly one).

Her origins are further expanded upon in the novella
Frayed
, which is set before the first TV story. In this we learn that the name Susan was given to her by an Earth colonist called Jill, after her mother. And in a short story published in
Doctor Who Magazine #214
, it is revealed that Susan’s real name is Arkytior, which is High Gallifreyan for ‘rose’ (an interesting link between the first companions of the original series’ run and that of the 2005 revival; even more so when you consider the short story was published in 1994).

A final piece is mentioned in the short story
Ash
, wherein the Doctor tells Steven that Susan’s parent entrusted her care to him.

Little more is added to Susan during the period she travelled with Ian & Barbara, despite the many Expanded Universe journeys written. However, one area people seem keen to explore is her life after she left the Doctor. As one might expect, the accounts are contradictory.

Only one thing has been consistent in these accounts; Susan and David marry and have children. In the novelisation of
The Five Doctors
, author Terrance Dicks mentions that she has three children. This idea was revisited by John Peel when he wrote
Legacy of the Daleks
which sees a reunion between Susan and her grandfather, now in his eighth incarnation. In this book we learn that she and David had helped rebuild England after the Dalek invasion, and adopted three war orphans, who they named Ian, Barbara and David Junior. The reason for the adoption is that Susan is not able to conceive with David. She also ages slower than humans, and often has to wear make-up to disguise her younger appearance. During the course of the story, she is taken captive by the Doctor’s nemesis, the Master, and brought to the planet Tersurus. She leaves that planet in his TARDIS, believing she has killed the Master.

This interesting, grittier side of Susan has never been further explored, since she never returns to the novels. However the audio production company Big Finish offer their own version of events post-
The Five Doctors
. Again she reunites with the Doctor in his eighth incarnation, and again she is a mother. Only this time she and David have their own biological child, a son called Alex. Their son has only one heart, and Susan asks the Doctor to take Alex to Gallifrey to be better educated. She helps the Doctor repel a second Dalek invasion of Earth, which costs Alex his life in
To the Death
. She is left alone to deal with her son’s death.

A curious detail is related by Susan when she tells the story
Here There Be Monsters
. In this story she claims that at the time of her travels with Ian & Barbara her actual age was more than theirs combined, even though she was still a baby by Gallifreyan standards (and the Doctor was only a child!). It is an interesting idea, but does not fit with anything ever revealed in fifty years on television.

In one further account, the entire universe is rewritten by a planar shift; an event so catastrophic that it destroys Gallifrey and rewrites the Doctor’s entire timeline. In the final story,
Matrix Revelation
written by Dale Smith in 2006, it is revealed that Susan was copied into the Matrix, the repository of all Time Lord knowledge, when Earth’s history was rewritten. It is there that she is eventually reunited with her grandfather, now in an alternative fifth incarnation.

One final piece of apocrypha should be mentioned, although technically it is fan theory, it does open up a whole universe of possibilities. In
The End of Time
, a mysterious Time Lady appears to guide Wilfred Mott into helping the Doctor. It is quite clear, at the end of the story, that both she and the Doctor recognise each other. It is never made clear who she is, but it has been inferred by some that she may be Susan; when Wilf asks the Doctor who the woman is, instead of answering he looks past Wilf, towards Donna, Wilf’s
granddaughter
... As ever with Susan, it is an intriguing possibility.

As one might expect, the rest of the First Doctor’s companions are dealt with in a much more straightforward manner in the Expanded Universe, mostly with writers content on filling the back-stories of those characters who on television, tended to have a past that was, barring a few hints, largely a blank slate. Another thing writers of the apocryphal material liked to play with was ‘what happened after so-and-so left the Doctor?’ with varying degrees of success.

Like on TV, Ian & Barbara’s Expanded Universe appearances are mostly coherent. We learn more about Ian’s past than Barbara’s, discover a couple of new bits of information from their journeys with the Doctor, and we learn that they do indeed get married – long before it is confirmed in
The Sarah Jane Adventures
on television. They even have a son...

We discover that Ian was born in Reading, and grew up during the London Blitz, with a brother and a sister. He loved Jules Verne and HG Wells as a child; he was inspired by them to become a teacher of science, and he served in the British Army as a private for two years – confirming what we know about his National Service from the television series. We also learn in
The Eleventh Tiger
that his great-great-grandfather, Major William Chesterton, looks a lot like an older Ian, when Ian was mistaken for him. Of Barbara’s early life we learn very little – other than that she once dated a boy who carried a knife, that she has an aunt named Cecilia, that when she was a student teacher she had a flat in Cricklewood and that Ian and Barbara first met in a little tea shop on Tottenham Court Road.

Extra information about these two is a little thin on the ground, despite the amount of Expanded Universe adventures they had. We discover in
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
that Barbara has a fear of heights, something she is not aware of until she soars high into the sky on a broomstick. At one point (in the short story
Set in Stone
) they spend four months living in 1950s Shoreditch, believing that is the closest they will ever get to their own time. And, most curiously, there are two different accounts of the month between the opening scenes of
The Romans
that lead up to their moving into the villa on the outskirts of Rome – accounts that are hard to marry (in the short story
Romans Cutaway
and the novel
Byzantium!
).

But the oddest reveal of all is in
City at World’s End
when Ian believes the Doctor and Susan to be human – even though he knows from the very first episode that this is not so!

There are also confused accounts of when Ian & Barbara first realise their love for each other. There are moments in the book
Venusian Lullaby
when Ian’s true feelings are hinted at. The loss he feels when he believes Barbara has died in a spaceship explosion is crushing, to the point where he ponders suicide. And then in the later book
The Plotters
Barbara realises she is quite comfortable posing as Ian’s wife. Further books set before
The Plotters
reveal that both Ian and Barbara have confessed their love for each other. In
Romans Cutaway
Ian admits that he loves Barbara, but is unable to tell her. Barbara finally tells Ian that she loves him in
The Eleventh Tiger
and Ian reciprocates. It is at this point that they both agree to get married when they return home. However, the later audio book,
The Rocket Men,
has Ian realising he loves Barbara, even though this is set some time after the events of
The Eleventh Tiger
.

In the 1991 novel,
Timewyrm: Revelation,
we get the first mention of singer Johnny Chess (or Johnny Chester), who is idolised by future companion Ace at the age of fourteen. Johnny is the son of Ian & Barbara born in 1967, his full name being John Alydon Ganatus Chesterton, named after two Thals encountered in the television story
The Daleks
(the full name is not revealed until
Byzantium!
is released in 2001). Information on the events that lead to their marriage are not revealed until 1996 with the release of the novel,
Who Killed Kennedy?
According to that novel after returning to Earth Ian & Barbara excuse their two year absence by claiming they have been missionaries in Central Africa. Barbara takes up a position at a university lecturing, specialising on the Aztecs, while Ian gains a professorship within a year (which at least backs up the reference to Professor Chesterton in the novelisation of
The War Machines
set in 1966) and begins writing papers on astronomy. In the 2005 novel
The Time Travellers
we are treated to a scene set straight after
The Chase
in which Ian takes Barbara home to see her mother, Joan. More information is revealed when Ian & Barbara finally return to
Doctor Who
fiction in the 1998 novel
Face of the Enemy
. Set during the 1970s, Ian is in his late 30s and teaching at the RAF’s college in Farnborough, while Barbara is teaching at a local comprehensive. They are called in to assist UNIT, thus helping the lifelong friend of the Doctor, Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart (see The Brigadier chapter to learn all about this key figure) and work alongside the Doctor’s mortal enemy, the Master. During this novel we learn a bit more about their life post-Doctor – how they eloped on the first anniversary of their return home and how Ian has to sell everything he owns to get a new place, while Barbara stays with her parents. They also have plans to leave a journal for Susan, who they know will end up on Earth in 2167. During the course of the novel Ian believes Barbara has died in a car crash, and once again considers suicide as a way to end his pain.

In
Byzantium!
we are given a sneak peek into the life of Barbara in 1973, at which point she is thirty-two years old. It is said that she gave up teaching probably around the time of her son’s birth (although she is still teaching in
Face of the Enemy
which is almost certainly set during the early ‘70s).

From Ian & Barbara’s point of view, the first story to feature them post-
The Chase
is the comic strip
Hunters of the Burning Stone
, the fiftieth anniversary story published in
Doctor Who Magazine
issues #456 to #461
. They are kidnapped by the Prometheans and placed in an illusionary world that looks like Coal Hill School. The Eleventh Doctor finds them there, but they have forgotten all their adventures with him. Eventually he is able to jog their memories, but Ian is not as willing to be convinced that the young man before them is the Doctor, although, as per
An Unearthly Child
, Barbara keeps a more open mind. Along with the Doctor they find themselves up against the Tribe of Gum, the cavemen primitives they encountered in the very first
Doctor Who
story in 1963, now a group of Hunters scouring the galaxy, having been given psychic metal by the Prometheans.