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Desperately Seeking Susan

black and white head and shoulders photo of Carole Ann Ford from 1963. She is wearing a black polo neck top and has short dark hair. She is looking at the camera with a cheeky half-smile.BBC Archives

"In the past, right now, I live in a place called Totter's Lane. 1963, I park the TARDIS in a junkyard and live there with my granddaughter, Susan." The Doctor (2024)

It has been over 60 years since The Doctor left Susan to live her own life without him, but she has remained a constant presence in the BBC Archives all that time, just waiting to be revisited. So, as Susan helps the Doctor during the events of Interstellar Song Contest, here's an insight into her earlier life.

Susan was the Doctor's original companion, already part of his life when he is first seen on screen in 1963. This extract from a document exploring the background to the series provides a little more detail about the character, but still leaves plenty of mystery as to Susan's background.

Extract from a typed document. The text reads "Susan: The Doctor's granddaughter, aged fifteen. She is a sharp intelligent girl, quick and perky. She makes mistakes, however, because of inexperience. Addicted to 20th Century contemporary slang and likes pop records - in fact, she ires the life teenagers enjoy in 1963. At the beginning of the story, she has persuaded the Grandfather to stay in 1963 so that she can create at least one complete section of experience. Since she has been visiting all sorts of existences and places with her Grandfather, Susan has a wide general knowledge and on some subjects can be brilliantly factual. On other matters, she is lamentably ignorant. She has something of a crush on Ian Chesterton."BBC Archives

Part of the General notes on Background and Approach (1963)

As well as that intelligence and other-worldliness, original producer Verity Lambert was also looking for something else when she cast the part of Susan, as she explained in this unedited interview from 1999.

Verity Lambert describes what she needed Susan to be. From an unedited interview for Doctor Who: Adventures in Space and Time (1999)

"They had to be able to scream, because she spent a lot of time screaming."

The ability to scream would be something that many future companions would be required to bring to their role in Doctor Who as 'the young person in jeopardy'.

Black and White production photo from The Daleks. Shows Susan (Carole Ann Ford) and the Doctor (William Hartnell) surrounded by three Daleks. Another actor is on the floor behind one of the Daleks. There is a boom microphone in the top left of the image.BBC Archives

Screaming may be required when facing the Daleks for the first time. Carole Ann Ford and William Hartnell on set in 1964

The role of Susan was given to Carole Ann Ford, who by 1963 had already established an acting career in film and television. She describes her excitement at getting the part in this unedited interview from 2003, and talks about her frustrations with the lack of character development.

Carole Ann Ford discusses the character of Susan. From an unedited interview for The Story of Doctor Who (2003)

"But you were weird!"

Despite being the prototype for later Doctor Who companions, Susan had a unique bond with the Doctor – she was his granddaughter, and she always referred to him as grandfather. The affection between the pair was obvious on screen, as can be seen in this photo of them with fellow companions Ian (William Russell) and Barbara (Jacqueline Hill) and other cast from the 1964 story Marco Polo.

Colour photo from Marco Polo. Susan (Carole Ann Ford), wearing a blue Chinese-style dress, is sitting at the feet of the Doctor (William Hartnell). Sitting either side of them are (left) Mark Eden (Marco Polo) and (right) Ian Chesterton (William Russell). Barbara Wright (Jaqueline Hill) is standing behind them.BBC Archives

Susan is safe in the arms of her grandfather. Carole Ann Ford and William Hartnell (centre) in Marco Polo (1964)

"We're much too far away from home, my granddaughter and I" The Doctor (1964)

Although Carole Ann Ford disliked the lack of character development for Susan, there was an enduring mystery as to who she really was. In this unedited interview from 2003, she explores Susan's relationship with her grandfather and some of the discussions around whether or not she was a Time Lord like the Doctor.

Carole Ann Ford explores some of the mysteries surrounding Susan, From an unedited interview for The Story of Doctor Who (2003)

At the end of The Dalek Invasion of Earth (1964) Susan had fallen in love and was left by the Doctor, to begin a new life without him. And so the mysteries surrounding Susan were never answered. However, there was a glimpse of Susan's origins in the 1983 anniversary story The Five Doctors. An older Susan was reunited with her grandfather (now played by Richard Hurndall) and recognised that they were on Gallifrey, the Time Lord's home planet, suggesting that maybe she'd been there before.

The Doctor (Richard Hurndall) and Susan (Carole Ann Ford) in The Five Doctors. Susan, wearing a beige mac with a scarf at the neck, is sitting. Standing next to her is the Doctor, wearing a dark suit and fingerless gloves. He is carrying a walking stick. They are in a strange corridor with grey and mirrored angular s on the walls.BBC Archives

Return to Gallifrey. The Doctor (Richard Hurndall) and Susan (Carole Ann Ford) in The Five Doctors (1983)

"You're still my grandchild and always will be" The Doctor (1964)

In 2013, then Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat was asked if there would ever be a story to find out what happened to Susan. "I don't know that we're ever going to do that as a storyline" was his response.

Steven Moffat answers listeners questions on the Richard Bacon show (2013)

Fourteen years later and Susan finally reappears back in the TARDIS. But the mysteries around her and what her life has been like without the Doctor remain questions still to be answered.

Colour image of Susan, wearing a white top and silver chain necklace and her short, dark hair, standing inside the TARDIS.

Susan appears to the Doctor in The Interstellar Song Contest (2025)

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