Susan’s fate is one of Doctor Who‘s biggest unanswered questions, and fans have been hoping for the Doctor to reunite with her ever since she left the show in 1964. It was unknown if she survived Gallifrey being destroyed twice, if she ever regenerated, and why the Doctor never sought her out again after promising to do so. Susan made a surprise return in Doctor Who season 15, appearing briefly to ask her grandfather to find her. However, their familial connection is now in doubt with a new piece of information about the Time Lords.
The Doctor’s Infertility Makes Susan’s Parentage Even More Complicated
The Show May Have Already Introduced A Solution
Susan’s fate is one of Doctor Who‘s biggest unanswered questions, and fans have been hoping for the Doctor to reunite with her ever since she left the show in 1964. It was unknown if she survived Gallifrey being destroyed twice, if she ever regenerated, and why the Doctor never sought her out again after promising to do so. Susan made a surprise return in Doctor Who season 15, appearing briefly to ask her grandfather to find her. However, their familial connection is now in doubt with a new piece of information about the Time Lords.
The Doctor’s Infertility Makes Susan’s Parentage Even More Complicated
The Show May Have Already Introduced A Solution
Susan’s fate is one of Doctor Who‘s biggest unanswered questions, and fans have been hoping for the Doctor to reunite with her ever since she left the show in 1964. It was unknown if she survived Gallifrey being destroyed twice, if she ever regenerated, and why the Doctor never sought her out again after promising to do so. Susan made a surprise return in Doctor Who season 15, appearing briefly to ask her grandfather to find her. However, their familial connection is now in doubt with a new piece of information about the Time Lords.
The Doctor’s Infertility Makes Susan’s Parentage Even More Complicated
The Show May Have Already Introduced A Solution
In the Doctor Who season 15 finale, it is revealed that any surviving Time Lord is now infertile, meaning the entire race will eventually die off. The Fifteenth Doctor stated that he had not yet been a father to one of Susan’s parents. However, in season 14, he explains to his companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson), that “I did have [children], I will have. Time Lords get a bit complicated.” The Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) has also directly said that he had children. It could be that the Doctor already had children who are not directly connected to Susan.
The show may have already introduced a solution to this with the reintroduction of Poppy, a young girl who debuted in season 14, episode 1 “Space Babies.” Poppy may be the Doctor’s daughter, with her even calling him “Daddy” in her first appearance. This could mean that Poppy is Susan’s mother, but that will be dependent on if and when Poppy returns to the series.
Who Poppy’s parents are is not fully explained as a result of an alternate timeline, and is something that will need to be addressed. As she may be the child of the Doctor and Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu), Poppy could still have Time Lord DNA, despite the Doctor saying she is now fully human.
Susan’s Return Can Explain Her Origin, But Only If Doctor Who Season 16 Happens
Season 15 Only Had Brief Flashes Of Susan
Doctor Who season 16 has not been renewed at the time of writing, leaving a lot of unanswered questions. Whether Doctor Who continues on Disney+ is unknown, but the cliffhanger ending with Billie Piper returning, and Susan’s fate unknown, it feels like the show has to continue. With Ford’s cameo appearance as Susan, she notably is still calling the Doctor “grandfather,” which is how she always referred to the First Doctor.
Doctor Who has often put an emphasis on found family more than a blood connection, so it is possible that Susan is not directly related to the Doctor. Hopefully, that is not the case as she is an integral part of the show, and that would result in the new lore taking something away from her rather than adding to her story. One theory suggests that Susan is born out of a Gallifreyan Loom. Showrunner Russell T Davies has made other changes to the canon that pull from sources outside the TV realm, and the Looms may come into play.
Whenever Susan, or any member of the Doctor’s family comes up, the character always shows genuine sadness. Now that Susan is confirmed to be alive, a priority of the show needs to have the Doctor find her. Why Susan is calling out to the Doctor needs to be revealed, and with that, the truth surrounding her origin. Now that a new piece of lore has been added to Doctor Who, the show will have to address its massive implications.
