Companions: Fifty Years of Doctor Who Assistants Read Online Free PDF

there that a concerned Ben & Polly witness him collapse mere moments after setting the time machine in motion. They pull him over to check on him, and watch as his face begins to blur and change...

The First Doctor
    Expanded Universe
     
    Once again, we start with Susan, a character we know so little from TV, the Doctor’s very own granddaughter. It isn’t surprising that the stories contained in the Expanded Universe explore her origins and character in some extreme (and often conflicting) ways.
    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