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The return of Susan....
[Deleted User]
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As part of the 50th Anniversary special, I realy want to see Susan - The Doctor's grand daughter - return, and have a storyline that leads to the answer to the question: is she capable of regeneration?
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However, I would like to see Ian return somehow. Nothing too big and flashy, but something small and simple is what I think would work best. Just a scene that involves the Doctor talking with one of the very first people to travel with him.
I do understand your point of view Salad that maybe it wouldnt appeal to everyone but this is the 50th anniversary and the mystery of Susan was what started the whole story off. Modern fans get enough new stories but the past needs to be acknowledged too
I dont feel that Susan actually got a good 20th anniversary story in the Five Doctors spraining her ankle and stuck in the Tardis so their relationship needs to be revisited and updated ( If Carole Ann would do it of course).
If Susan has descendents lets meet them too..Love the idea
I wasnt around the first time Ian was there but having seen some of the First Doctor yes lets see Ian again.
According to Big Finish she
Any inclusion of Susan would need some nifty explaining.
so you would prefer a self referential fan w*** fest that ties itself up in knots with meaningless throwbacks to a long forgotten past that appeals only to a few Gallifrey Base dwelling sad sacks and seeks to alienate the millions of family viewers that helped make the show the success it is? Well thank god you're not the show runner as it would be cancelled. This isn't Firefly. It is primetime BBC entertainment. Most people don't give a damn about Susan, or Eight, or the Time War, or the Rani. They want a decent exciting modern story that thrills. For a program that celebrates the endless possibilities of all space and time its fans are sometimes a strangely backward looking bunch.
I think School Reunion has probably set the template for that — nobody minds if a fan favourite is brought back, as long as it's for the purpose of telling a new story and not just so they can say 'look who's back' in the Radio Times. The return of Sarah Jane was about what it's like when eventually the Doctor leaves you behind, so what new stories do we think could be made of a return for Susan or Ian?
Any other episode? No. I felt the Nimon reference in The God Complex was unnecessary but pleasing fan-service. I would have much preferred a dedicated card for Nick Courtney at the start of S6 instead of the shoe-horned in Brig reference in Wedding of River Song that stood out like a sore thumb, but for the 50th?
Yes, that is exactly what I want and exactly what it should be. If it isn't going to be a self-referring, fan pleasing celebration of that 'long forgotten' history then what is the ****ing point They might as well skip the anniversary, ignore the birthday and just go straight onto the Christmas special and into Series 8.
And it seems Moffat somewhat agrees with me, as shown with the rather pointless return of the Great Intelligence. Was that anything other than fan-service? I'm sure they/it will appear again for a greater purpose but why bring that villain back at all? How many of those casual or family viewers were clambering and wetting themselves for an origin story to a long forgotten 60's villain that appeared in all of two stories that don't even exist anymore? Why didn't Moffat create a new villain and not reuse one that hasn't been seen in 40 odd years? Why? Because it's the 50th anniversary....
I would love plenty of references to the past. Even some returning characters. But TEDR said it best above me. There needs to be a STORY. Why in the middle of the current arc and history of the show would they go back to tell a tale that doesn't need to be told? It shouldn't happen. And it won't. Foe good reason.
The reason for the anniversary is to celebrate an amazing television program and piece of cultural history that became that through being something new and different and forward thinking. A tedious exercise in navel,gazing nostalgia wouldn't do that. It would go against the very beauty of the show.
You mention the use of the GI? Yep. That struck the balance well. A nod and a wink to the hardcore fans that didn't matter to those who didn't get it. I will say it again...alot of people are shouting out names they want to see come back as if that's job done. Its not. I challenge someone to actually put forth a plausible plot to go with it. That will fit in a seventyish minutes of prime time TV. No one can. But hey! Who cares!
What we need is something that pays tribute to the past fifty years, but without it taking over the plot.
Yep. I could handle that. I'm glad I'm not the showrunner, too. Trying to please fans has driven Moffat to become obsessed with tall buildings.
i think if they knew how dr who would pan out they would never had made her his granddaughter
As 90%, or maybe even more, of the Doctor's life since he and Susan parted company at the end of "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" has been off-screen, how do we know he hasn't visited her?
"School Reunion" wasn't just about the nod to the past - it was about Rose coming face-to-face with what it means to be a companion, and the realisation that she's not as irreplacable as she thought she was.
What could the Doctor learn about himself from a re-uniting with Susan?
Sorry. That doesn't cut it for me. Too obvious I'm afraid. And you can't expect the show itself to respect audio books as canon, no matter how good.
There would have to be a good reason in-story to involve Susan again and there would have to be an explanation for the lack of contact.
I know we don't get to see all the Doctor's activities (far from it) and I know the real-world reasons why we've never seen her or even be mentioned since the character left, but still, Susan would naturally get mentioned now and again so the lack of that would need an in-story explanation in my book.
Even if you ignore the books and audios it was stated on television that the 10th Doctor visited every companion he ever had before he regenerated.
So unless that did not include Susan for some reason (possibly Timelocked) then he has been in contact with her during NuWho.