In April 2025, Doctor Who saw the highly anticipated return of one of its biggest characters, and while Carole Ann Ford’s cameo as Susan Foreman was somewhat wasted by the hit sci-fi TV franchise, the upcoming 2026 Christmas special could make up for it. However, Doctor Who’s scrapped Season 15 finale ending changed everything. Despite the excitement about the return of the Doctor’s granddaughter, Doctor Who didn’t explain why Susan popped up in the titular Time Lord’s mind out of the blue.
After the future of Doctor Who was seemingly up in the air following the release of “The Reality War,” audiences are now eagerly awaiting the show’s return next year, especially as the identity of Billie Piper’s character is still unknown. How Susan and Piper’s characters are connected is yet to be revealed, but there is evidence to suggest Doctor Who’s 2026 Christmas special will redeem the show for failing its very first companion.
Susan’s Cameo in Season 15 Changed ‘Doctor Who’ Forever
Susan Foreman, or Campbell, stole the show when she unexpectedly appeared in the Fifteenth Doctor’s mind in the Season 15 episode “The Interstellar Song Contest,” in which she called out to her grandfather, requesting that he seek her out. After Ford left Doctor Who in the classic era serial “The Dalek Invasion of Earth,” she reprised her role in “The Five Doctors,” but it didn’t expand upon her character hugely. Susan’s return as one of Doctor Who’s best companions all these years later was a huge moment for several reasons.
While Doctor Who’s extended media, like the novels and Big Finish’s audio dramas, gave us plenty of Susan-focused content, dedicated followers of the franchise will know that the show’s lore generally takes precedence over everything else. The show has never properly acknowledged what role Susan played in the Time War, if she was even present at all, or the fates of the children she shared with human David Campbell.
In a recent interview, Ford revealed some of the details of Doctor Who’s scrapped finale ending, which were instead replaced by a scene which saw Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor regenerate, only for Billie Piper to be standing in their place. However, instead of discovering the reason for Susan’s return, “The Reality War” left audiences with more questions than answers.
Audiences Missed Out on a Huge ‘Doctor Who’ Lore Change
In the original ending, the Doctor, Belinda, and Ruby celebrated at a party after they fixed the glitches, and a promotional image of this scene was initially posted to social media before it later disappeared. Audiences would then see Susan watching through a nearby window while holding hands with Poppy, followed by the revelation that the child was in fact the mother of the older woman.
The subject of the Doctor’s family has changed a lot over the years, and Doctor Who’s retcons have been plentiful. Susan was established as their granddaughter in the very first episode, and the Doctor frequently made reference to having children at different points throughout Doctor Who’s lengthy run. In fact, the show went as far as introducing Jenny in Season 4’s “The Doctor’s Daughter.” However, in Season 14’s “The Legend of Ruby Sunday,” the Fifteenth Doctor implied their children hadn’t been born yet, and Season 15’s finale also revealed the Time Lords became sterile at the end of the war.
As the Doctor themselves has said on multiple occasions, time can be rewritten, but all of these canon changes have left things unclear. This cut scene would’ve finally explained how the Doctor became a grandfather to Susan by establishing Poppy as her mother, and in theory, Doctor Who Season 16 would’ve delved into how Susan ended up in the care of the First Doctor on Gallifrey.
While there was never an official statement about why the ending of “The Reality War” changed at the last moment, it was later revealed that showrunner Russell T Davies wanted to wrap up Poppy’s storyline “instead of having to pick it up in a later season with a new Doctor.” It was common knowledge “The Reality War” had reshoots, and it has been heavily implied that it was due to Doctor Who’s deal with Disney and Ncuti Gatwa’s decision to step away from the role of the Doctor.
Susan’s Return Could Tie-In With Billie Piper’s Role in the 2026 Christmas Special
While it’s incredibly frustrating that Susan’s cameo in Doctor Who Season 15 is so anticlimactic, it’s also worth noting that the shocking plot twist at the very end leaves some hope for the iconic companion. Although it is implied that Piper will portray the Sixteenth Doctor in the upcoming Doctor Who Christmas special, considering she literally regenerated into Gatwa’s shoes, nothing has actually been confirmed.
It’s also unlikely that Piper will be playing Rose Tyler, seeing as the companion is in a parallel world with the Metacrisis Doctor, although this can’t be completely ruled out at this time. However, one logical explanation for Piper’s return to Doctor Who is to reprise her role as the Moment, the dangerous weapon the Doctor uses to bring the Time War to an end, whose interface takes on the appearance of Rose (or the Bad Wolf) in the 50th anniversary special “The Day of the Doctor.”
While there are pieces of Doctor Who’s extended media that focus on Susan during the Time War, it has yet to be confirmed whether those stories are canonical in the show or not. Gallifrey has been saved and destroyed again since the Time War, and the fate of the Time Lords and the planet got a little confusing, so it wouldn’t be surprising if Susan had somehow got trapped at some point during these events and the glitches created in Season 15 were connected to her sudden reappearance.
There are an endless number of possibilities for Doctor Who’s 2026 Christmas special, and while audiences are eager to find out why Piper is back, they’ll need to be patient. Susan’s return to Doctor Who was a groundbreaking moment for the show, but hopefully, Russell T Davies will make 2026’s Christmas special worthy and offer her a more fitting return.
- Release Date
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2005 – 2021-00-00
- Network
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BBC
- Directors
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Graeme Harper, Euros Lyn, Douglas Mackinnon, Jamie Magnus Stone, Charles Palmer, Rachel Talalay, Joe Ahearne, James Strong, Jamie Childs, Saul Metzstein, Toby Haynes, Wayne Che Yip, Nick Hurran, Richard Clark, James Hawes, Daniel Nettheim, Colin Teague, Keith Boak, Azhur Saleem, Adam Smith, Andrew Gunn, Nida Manzoor, Lawrence Gough, Paul Murphy