Susan Foreman

My reaction the first time I see the First Doctor when I am a teenager is what? Yeah, as a 10 year old child, I am only able to watch the Fourth Doctor. And by then is has been 20 years since Doctor Who is first shown. Therefore, the only Doctor I know is Tom Baker, and it is not until I am 15 or so that I see Susan Foreman in a Doctor Who serial.

Well, LPB is beginning to air some of the oldest shows of Doctor Who. It is at this time I meet the First Doctor, William Hartnell and the very first TARDIS crew. This crew has Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, and of course Susan Forman. Consequently, I find out that the Doctor was married at one time and has children and at least one grandchild. Now, I can’t remember if the first time I see the First Doctor, whether it is An Unearthly Child or one of the other serials which did not having missing episodes. I did at a later date get to watch An Unearthly Child and try to gauge Susan’s character.

Susan seems to me to be like a young child. There is not any indication of her age during the serial.  I do understand she is a high school student. She attends Coal Hill School in London.(1) Gauging from the fact she is in high school, I might would say that she is at least fifteen years of age. Of course, I can be wrong.

I find her very intriguing. She acts like a teenager and is sometimes a little naive. But she is very useful for her grandfather. Susan is her name but Foreman is not real last name. This is a mystery. We as who fans don’t even know the Doctors’ name so why not keep Susan’s last name a secret as well. The story of how she gets her last name is from the proprietor of the junkyard where the TARDIS lands.  The story implies this very fact as that the junkyard owner is I.M. Foreman. So, she adopts this as her last name.(2)

I like what Susan does in the show. Therefore I wish there weren’t so many missing episodes from the time she is part of Doctor Who. She is a breathe of fresh air to show and gives it a kiddy like look. As a result, children may want to watch it in 1963. Hey, who knows that may be true.

I have only seen a couple of the serials she plays in partly because of missing episodes, and the fact the older classic serial are not aired as mush as the newer ones are. Overall, I enjoy whatever serial I can see and consequently enjoy seeing Susan Foreman.

Susan will travel with her grandfather until the 1964 serial Dalek Invasion Earth. While he hates to see Susan Foreman leave the Doctor knows it is time. Over the first year of the program we see the the Doctor’s little granddaughter mature and becomes a woman. It is at this time that the Doctor know it is time to say good bye and does just that.