Simply in time for the real-life Eurovision Music Contest, the TARDIS takes a detour to the 2925 model of the annual music and dance jamboree. In “Physician Who” season 2 episode 6, “The Interstellar Music Contest”, the Physician and Belinda land within the huge Concord Area, the place the largest music present within the galaxy is about to get hijacked.
There are cameos for real-life BBC Eurovision hosts Rylan Clark and Graham Norton, and villains who virtually share the names of James Bond assassins Mr Wint and Mr Kidd. “Who” followers will even notice that singer Cora Saint Bavier (Miriam-Teak Lee) is representing Trion, the homeworld of Fifth Physician companion Vislor Turlough.
However by far the largest speaking level from “The Interstellar Music Contest” is the Physician’s repeated visions of a face we’ve not seen in a long time. This is the whole lot it’s good to find out about that mysterious lady within the TARDIS, and why she’s integral to “Physician Who” historical past.
SPOILER WARNING! Cease studying now for those who’re but to observe “Physician Who” season 2 episode 6, “The Interstellar Music Contest”.
Who’s the lady within the Physician’s visions?
That is Susan Foreman, the Physician’s granddaughter. She’s performed by Carole Ann Ford, who first portrayed Susan within the first-ever “Physician Who” serial, “An Unearthly Little one”, manner again in November 1963.
Susan was impersonating an atypical teen at Coal Hill College in London, when her prodigious intelligence attracted the eye of lecturers Ian Chesterton (William Russell) and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill). After following Susan again to the TARDIS (on the time parked in a junk yard at 76 Totter’s Lane), Ian and Barbara grew to become the primary time-travelling companions of the First Physician (William Hartnell) and his granddaughter. Susan’s adventures within the TARDIS ended with 1964’s “The Dalek Invasion of Earth”, when the Physician deserted her, reasoning that dwelling a traditional life with freedom fighter David Campbell (Peter Fraser) can be higher for her than hanging out with a “foolish outdated buffer” like him.
The Physician’s visions in “The Interstellar Music Contest” present Susan as an older lady. She’s on board a TARDIS, carrying a white costume and a sequence that seem like they may very well be formal Gallifreyan clothes.
Whereas the Physician is floating frozen within the vacuum of area, Susan says, “Grandfather, return!”, giving him the jolt he must return to the Concord enviornment. A bit later, she instructs him to “Discover me”, and — when it appears to be like just like the Physician’s anger may get the higher of him whereas apprehending Child (Freddie Fox) — acts as his conscience, telling him to “Cease!” Whether or not these are reminiscences, desires, or communications from the precise Susan stays to be seen. Whereas the Physician at present believes he is the final of the Time Lords, he is been fallacious about this earlier than — rumours of the Grasp’s demise proved to be drastically exaggerated — so Susan should be on the market, misplaced in time and area.
Has Susan appeared in “Physician Who” since she left the TARDIS in 1964?
The Physician promised he’d “come again” on the finish of “The Dalek Invasion of Earth” however, as is so typically the case with former companions, he seemingly by no means did.
That stated, a Time Scoop reunited Susan with 5 incarnations of her time-travelling grandfather in twentieth anniversary particular “The 5 Medical doctors”. She’s additionally turned up in varied (non-canonical) books, comics and audio dramas, whereas Ford appeared in Fifth Physician Peter Davison’s fiftieth anniversary comedy “The 5(ish) Medical doctors Reboot”.
Whereas Susan hasn’t appeared on display since 1983, she’s been referenced straight and not directly on a number of events. The Ninth Physician (Christopher Eccleston) alluded to a misplaced household, whereas the Tenth Physician (David Tennant) admitted to companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) that “I have been a father earlier than”. The Eleventh Physician (Matt Smith) recalled visiting the bazaar on the Rings of Akhaten along with his granddaughter, whereas a flashback to Gallifrey “a really very long time in the past…” in “The Identify of the Physician” confirmed the Physician and Susan stealing a TARDIS.
The Twelfth Physician (Peter Capaldi) has a photograph of Susan on his desk whereas he is masquerading as a college lecturer in “The Pilot”, and there is even room for a point out of a sure S. Foreman on the Position of Honour at Coal Hill Academy in “Who” spin-off “Class”.
What about Susan within the Fifteenth Physician period?
Ncuti Gatwa’s first season within the TARDIS appeared intent on making Susan extra outstanding than she’d been in years. When the Physician and Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) visited 1963 London in “The Satan’s Chord“, the Physician pointed to the outdated junkyard in Shoreditch the place he used to stay with Susan.
When a shocked Ruby requested, “You’ve got obtained youngsters?”, he replied: “I did have, I’ll have. Time Lords get a bit… difficult.” He additionally admitted that he has no thought the place she is, and — alluding to the bloodbath of his individuals — defined that, “The Time Lords had been murdered. The genocide rolled throughout time and area like an incredible huge mobile explosion. Perhaps it killed her too.”
Is Susan Triad the Physician’s granddaughter?
All through season 1 the Physician met quite a few incarnations of the identical lady, all performed by Susan Twist. In “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” we discovered that she was truly twenty first century tech pioneer Susan Triad. The truth that S. Triad is a really solvable anagram of TARDIS — coupled with the identify Susan — made the Physician imagine he might have lastly discovered his long-lost granddaughter.
The wordplay finally turned out to be a entice set by god of demise Sutekh, who was utilizing Ms Triad as his emissary on Earth. With a whole universe to save lots of, the Physician’s hunt for his Susan went on the backburner.
Does Susan have any reference to Mrs Flood?
Nosy neighbor Mrs Flood (Anita Dobson) has been paying a lot nearer consideration to the Physician this season and appears delighted when he will get his Vindicator working on the Interstellar Music Contest: “Thanks, Physician. That is the ultimate hyperlink.”
Then, the top credit sequence explains why Mrs Flood is so au fait with the methods of the Time Lords, after Gary (Charlie Condou) and Mike (Kadiff Kirwan) pull the final survivor from mavity nicely stasis. An agitated Mrs Flood asks if the Physician has gone, and decides it is now “protected.”
“I am afraid my double mind stem froze — deadly for a Time Girl — however I’ve obtained my very own knack for survival. I suppose I ought to consider some well-known final phrases. How about, ‘Let battle start’.”
As a well-known cloud of regeneration power seems round her head, she “bigenerates” — because the Fourteenth Physician did when the Fifteenth Physician first appeared — and splits into two separate individuals. The brand new model (performed by “The Good Spouse”‘s Archie Panjabi) is clearly in cost, and confirms the duo’s id: “Our identify is the Rani. Though she’s turn out to be a Rani, whereas I am the Rani. The particular article, so to talk.”
It is practically 4 a long time because the Rani appeared in “Physician Who.” A renegade Time Lord in the identical custom because the Grasp, she appeared reverse the Sixth Physician (Colin Baker) in “The Mark of the Rani” and the Seventh Physician (Sylvester McCoy) in “Time and the Rani.” Again then she was performed by the late Kate O’Mara.
This new Rani guarantees to deliver the Physician “absolute terror,” suggesting she has some function to play within the Earth being “disintegrated into rock and dush and ashes” on Saturday, Might 24, 2025. Presumably, the digital assistant Graham Norton did not see this one coming…
Unrelated, however why does everybody maintain speaking about mavity relatively than gravity?
Mavity has been the accepted terminology within the Whoniverse ever because the Fourteenth Physician (y’know, the one who’s the spitting picture of the Tenth Physician) ran into Sir Isaac Newton in “Wild Blue Yonder”.
The duo inadvertently modified the course of historical past in probably the most seemingly minor manner doable, altering the phrase gravity into mavity. This appears to only be a operating gag via the final couple of seasons, however who is aware of, we would get a payoff for it down the road.
New episodes of “Physician Who” stream on BBC iPlayer within the UK and Disney+ within the US each Saturday. Chosen “Physician Who” episodes that includes Susan are additionally out there on BBC iPlayer within the UK.
