20 Things Doctor Who Wants You To Forget

16. Leaving His Granddaughter With A Man She Barely Knows

Doctor Who Forget
BBC

The first companion to leave Doctor Who was his granddaughter Susan, and although the Doctor gives a lovely speech about going forward in all your dreams, it still feels a touch irresponsible of him to just leave her with David Campbell at the end of The Dalek Invasion of Earth.

It wasn’t the last time he’d do this of course – he makes no effort to stop Leela from inexplicably settling down with the chancellery guard Andred in The Invasion of Time. And dear old Peri – fixed up with Yrcanos? At least when Jo Grant decided to hook up with Clifford Jones he went off on a sulk.

The Doctor is rubbish when it comes to saying goodbye and knowing when it’s time to go. He seemed genuinely shocked when Tegan said it had stopped being fun, he left Sarah without even checking she was in the right location, and after gifting Amy and Rory with a house, knowing they’d be better off without him, he still couldn’t keep away.

Contributor
Contributor

Paul Driscoll is a freelance writer and author across a range of subjects from Cult TV to religion and social policy. He is a passionate Doctor Who fan and January 2017 will see the publication of his first extended study of the series (based on Toby Whithouse's series six episode, The God Complex) in the critically acclaimed Black Archive range by Obverse Books. He is a regular writer for the fan site Doctor Who Worldwide and has contributed several essays to Watching Books' You and Who range. Recently he has branched out into fiction writing, with two short stories in the charity Doctor Who anthology Seasons of War (Chinbeard Books). Paul's work will also feature in the forthcoming Iris Wildthyme collection (A Clockwork Iris, Obverse Books) and Chinbeard Books' collection of drabbles, A Time Lord for Change.