Doctor Who: 5 Classic Companions Who Should Reappear

Doctor Who Ace Change is constant in life, and this is seen quite frequently in Doctor Who. Yet this is not just in the change of the main actors, but also in the revolving door of companions, and it all points to one simple truth €“ it seems no one is destined to stay with the Doctor permanently. One of the features of modern Doctor Who is that we tend to find out what the companions do with their lives after they leave the Doctor. In classic Doctor Who, however, this wasn't covered as frequently. Many companions left to start new lives, but we never learned how well those lives went. Here, then, are five classic companions that I would like to see make at least a brief reappearance so we learn what happened to them. This is by no means a definitive list; there are many companions who should come back at least once, but these five are ones that I think deserve a bit of an epilogue.

5. Susan Foreman

Doctor Who Susan It was sadly ironic yet appropriate that the Doctor's first on-screen companion was the first one to leave him, too. Susan Foreman was the Doctor's granddaughter and was indirectly responsible for an initially unwilling Ian and Barbara joining the TARDIS crew. At the time, the Doctor was staying in 20th-century London to make repairs on the TARDIS, and Susan decided to enroll in a local public school to see what Earth education was like. Her superior knowledge of math, science, and history attracted the attention of Ian and Barbara, the science and history teachers at Coal Hill School, and they decided to investigate their strange pupil. This, of course, led them to the Doctor. The Doctor had the ideal companion in Susan €“ she was intelligent, loyal, and, most importantly, obedient. But all of these qualities paled in comparison to the simple fact that she was family. As long as she was aboard the TARDIS, he retained a link to his family and home back on Gallifrey. But when Susan fell in love with David Campbell, a resistance fighter against the Daleks' invasion of Earth in the 22nd century, the Doctor realized he had to set her free to make a life of her own. This parting was hard for both of them, but the Doctor promised that he would return and visit one day. Now a return visit to Susan would have made an excellent story for an episode of either classic or modern Doctor Who, but the Doctor never does go back to visit Susan, or if he does, it was never shown onscreen. Granted, Susan does return in The Five Doctors (the 20th anniversary special), but she never talks about David or her new life on Earth. Because we haven't seen her since 1983, we have no way of knowing if she fought and died in the Time War or if she ignored the summons to Gallifrey and is still alive somewhere. She was the Doctor's granddaughter and his first onscreen companion, so it would be nice to learn what happened to her. More importantly, I think the Doctor would want to know what happened to her as well.
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Paula Luther hails from Pennsylvania and has been an avid Whovian since 2008. She enjoys writing (obviously), reading, dancing, video editing, and building websites. She has also self-published two books on Amazon, "Bart the Bard" and "Android Mae and Other Stories".