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The mystery of Ruby Sunday is at the heart of Doctor Who Season 1, and could a familiar face from the past provide us with some answers?
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00:00Hello everybody, Ellie here for Who Culture and season one is almost upon us.
00:05We are so close. I can see it. I can see it in the distance.
00:09Now obviously we've had trailers and we've had all of this time to gather some information
00:14and it now allows us to say, we have a theory.
00:18I got a theory. It could be bunnies.
00:21Bunnies aren't just cute like everybody supposes.
00:25Our theory revolves around the mystery of Ruby's Sunday.
00:30Now obviously Ruby's history, her parentage is going to be at the heart of season one
00:36and presumably we are going to get at least some answers surrounding this big question in the first eight episodes.
00:44It may even extend into season two, but we will at least get some answers in season one.
00:50Now often the case with mysteries like this in television, in film,
00:55is that the reveal often involves somebody we've already met.
00:59So our theory is, drumroll please,
01:04Susan Foreman, the Doctor's granddaughter, is involved somehow with the mystery of Ruby's Sunday
01:11and quite possibly might make a return in season one.
01:14I am going to explain why we think this.
01:16Before I do though, make sure that if you haven't already, that you've hit the subscribe button.
01:20We're going to have so much stuff coming out in the upcoming weeks
01:23that you don't want to miss it because you didn't press subscribe or the little notification bell.
01:27So Susan was the first ever Doctor Who companion, played by Carol Ann Ford.
01:32She was in the very first episode of Doctor Who back in 1963
01:36and travelled with the first Doctor and then departed in 1964.
01:41She is also the Doctor's granddaughter.
01:45So she is a very important figure within the history of the show
01:49and it kind of would be fitting somehow for her to make a return,
01:53especially when you consider that this new season has been labelled season one
01:58and the very first season of Doctor Who back in 1963 was also called season one.
02:03So it has a nice synergy about it.
02:05It would be very, very fitting for her to return this season.
02:08Now a lot of this theory hinges on this recurring mystery character played by Susan Twist.
02:14So first of all she appeared in Wild Blue Yonder playing Mrs Meridue
02:18and then she also popped up in the church on Ruby Road as a woman in a pub
02:22who was asking Ruby's band to play a particular song
02:26and we know that she will have more appearances in season one.
02:30So the big question is, who is she?
02:32Well, what if she is Susan Foreman?
02:36And what if she's actually Ruby's mother?
02:39So first of all, I don't know if this is the case or not,
02:42but I wouldn't put it past Russell T. Davis.
02:44The actress playing all these characters is literally called Susan Twist.
02:48Russell T. Davis is the kind of cheeky chappy
02:50who would cast someone based solely on their name.
02:55You know, and it would be very fitting for an actress named Susan Twist
03:00to be playing a twist surrounding the character of Susan.
03:04I wouldn't put it past him.
03:06Stranger things have happened.
03:07Also, because she's playing so many different characters,
03:09I mean, we keep referring to her as Susan Twist.
03:12It's very, it's not very often that you refer to characters by their actor's name.
03:16You know, you refer to the character.
03:18But because Susan Twist is playing such different characters
03:22across every episode or across multiple episodes,
03:25and also they're not particularly memorable characters,
03:29you know, they're quite background characters.
03:30We just keep calling Susan Twist.
03:33So maybe this has been done on purpose.
03:36But while we are on the topic of Russell T. Davis,
03:39back in January 2023,
03:41he actually did tease something about Susan Foreman.
03:44So there was an Instagram post with a clip of Susan's departure.
03:49And he commented,
03:51whatever happened to her on that post?
03:53Look, it could mean nothing.
03:55He could have just been teasing.
03:56He could have just, you know, been getting in on the fun.
03:59On the other hand,
04:00he could have actually been hinting about something he knew that we didn't,
04:04which was,
04:04I actually do know what happened with her.
04:07And also, let's not forget,
04:08Russell T. Davis is a huge Doctor Who fan.
04:11So he probably wants answers as to what happened to Susan just as much as we do.
04:16And he's actually in a position where he can give an answer to that question,
04:21create an answer to that question.
04:23Then we have Carol Ann Ford herself.
04:26She has said in the past that she'd love to return to Doctor Who.
04:29In fact,
04:30she was actually in attendance at the premiere for the Starbeast back in November last year.
04:35Obviously,
04:35that doesn't actually mean anything because Nicola Bryant was also at the premiere.
04:39And I don't, I don't think Perry is going to be returning anytime soon.
04:43I mean, you know, anything can happen.
04:45But when you combine the fact that these people are still being invited to these events
04:53and being included in, in all of the hype surrounding the new, the new show, the new season,
04:59um, there could be more method to this seeming madness.
05:05Also, a lot of people did point out that when Tales of the TARDIS aired,
05:09Carol Ann Ford, or Susan, was one of the few people not to have an episode.
05:15Of all the characters for people to expect to have had their own little tale of the TARDIS,
05:21Susan seemed like an obvious choice and she was not there.
05:24Originally, you might have said, well, you can't because William Hartnell is no longer with us,
05:29so that wouldn't have worked.
05:29But we, that, that means nothing because David Bradley has been playing the first Doctor
05:33for a long time at this point.
05:35That's one of the characters that really did make sense to have.
05:37And so it seemed questionable as to why she wasn't there.
05:41Well, maybe that's because she was already involved.
05:46Maybe Russell had other plans for her character.
05:48And so she wasn't involved in Tales of the TARDIS because she had a bigger role to play
05:53in the main show itself.
05:54Let's not forget that season one was filming, filmed by the time Tales of the TARDIS came
06:01around to being shot.
06:02Tales of the TARDIS was a very last minute thing.
06:05Also, I've just thought, maybe this has more connection to our theory that we were talking
06:11about the other day with regards to the memory TARDIS seemingly appearing in season one.
06:15Remember we said that Tales of the TARDIS came after season one.
06:20So the memory TARDIS, presumably if it's in season one, was created for the show itself
06:26and then just repurposed for Tales of the TARDIS.
06:29So maybe Susan's Tale of the TARDIS is in the show itself.
06:33There is one thing though that I would like to make sure does happen, especially if the
06:38whole Susan twist element of this theory is correct, is that I would still like to see
06:44Carol Ann Ford return as Susan.
06:46I've said this before because people always say to me, oh, would you like, what would
06:49you do if Riversong returned but played by someone else?
06:52I would rather we did not have Riversong return than have her played by someone other than
06:58Alex Kingston.
06:59Now that's a little bit different because, you know, how much I love the character.
07:02But in terms of Susan returning, if we are going to have Susan returning and she has changed
07:08appearance, I would like at least a scene where we can have Carol Ann Ford passing on the baton
07:15or, you know, acknowledging the fact that she is Susan and then perhaps see that regeneration.
07:23Like when we in The Night of the Doctor, when we saw Paul McGann regenerate into the War
07:29Doctor.
07:30So we then had a little bit of closure because we had an answer to a long-standing question.
07:36Now in-universe there might be some more clues.
07:39So the name S-Triad has been spotted on screen at Unit HQ in one of the trailers.
07:46It's in the shot where the TARDIS is being scanned and it's on the screen.
07:50You know, we're the kind of people that zoom in and look at all those details.
07:54Now it's widely believed that this character S-Triad is another one of Susan Twist's characters.
07:59Susan Triad, who is the head of Triad Technology, which was mentioned in The Giggle.
08:06We know Unit are using Triad Technology.
08:08Mel mentioned it.
08:10So we've already had some breadcrumbs dropped with regards to Triad Technologies.
08:16Also, S-Triad, has anyone else noticed?
08:19It's an anagram of TARDIS.
08:21And who originally claimed to have invented the TARDIS acronym?
08:27Well, there you go.
08:28You guessed it.
08:28Well, I made up the name TARDIS from the initials time and relative dimension in space.
08:33So we did mention earlier that Susan Twist is set to have more appearances in season one.
08:39That's not just speculation.
08:40So we've had the cast list revealed for The Devil's Chord and it reveals that she will be in this
08:45episode
08:45and she'll be playing a character, a different character to the previous ones we've seen,
08:49just named Tea Lady.
08:52Interestingly, for the cast list for Space Babies, Susan Twist doesn't appear.
08:56So whether that means she's in the episode and they're trying to keep her appearance in that particular story secret
09:03or, more likely, she's not appearing in every single episode of season one.
09:08Then the question is, why not?
09:10So another theory that we do have about Susan Twist's characters is that they only appear in Earth-based stories
09:17or at least stories that have Earth featured in them.
09:20So think back, you've got 1600s England in Wild Blue Yonder
09:23and then you've got modern day London in the church on Ruby Road
09:26and then you've got Abbey Road Studios in the 1960s in The Devil's Court.
09:31Now, the reason for this could, again, link back to Susan Foreman.
09:35She was left behind by the first Doctor on Earth.
09:39So if then she did go on to become Susan Twist,
09:43then that could explain why she only appears in Earth locations, because she's stuck on Earth.
09:48The only issue with this being that the Doctor actually left Susan in the 2160s,
09:52so quite a long way in the future,
09:55but I'm pretty sure that there could be some sort of mechanism created
09:58which allows her to travel through time, but not through space.
10:02So she's still stuck on Earth, but she can travel through all different periods of time on Earth.
10:07Also, the 2160s.
10:08Who's to know what sort of technology has been created in the 2160s?
10:12Let's not forget, people, this is Doctor Who.
10:14All you have to do is invent some sci-fi technobabble
10:18and you can do literally anything you want.
10:20So if we do assume that these characters that Susan Twist is playing is Susan Foreman,
10:25let's not forget that when the Doctor did leave her behind,
10:28he left her with a TARDIS key.
10:30Now she did drop that key on the ground and walk away from it when the Doctor dematerialised,
10:35but I mean, we've all thrown something in like an act of rebellion or to make a point
10:41and then awkwardly had to go and pick it up because you can't leave that there.
10:45It's reasonable to assume that yes, she dropped it on the floor,
10:47but she could have easily just turned around and picked it back up again.
10:50Once she'd realised that, I probably should keep that.
10:52Now we did see in the time of the Doctor that a TARDIS key can actually summon the TARDIS.
10:58So maybe that is why the Doctor keeps ending up near her,
11:02because she has a key and so the TARDIS is drawn to that key.
11:05Or even better, what if she is using the key to somehow try and track the Doctor
11:11and track the TARDIS to try and make contact?
11:14Okay, and now let's circle this back to the Ruby's mother element of this theory.
11:19Now, if Susan is Ruby's mother, it would explain why the Doctor didn't try and stop the hooded
11:27figure from walking away when he travelled back in time in the Churchill-Ruby Road.
11:30Timelords can sense each other, remember?
11:32So perhaps if it was Susan, then he could sense that it was, if not Susan, at least another Timelord,
11:38and perhaps knew that now wasn't the time to interfere, and that the time would present itself
11:44at some point in the future.
11:46Or maybe even Susan left Ruby there on purpose to try and lure the Doctor out,
11:51to try and draw the Doctor's attention.
11:52Now, Susan having kids is not completely out of the realm of possibility.
11:57The Doctor actually left her because she'd fallen in love with a man named David,
12:00and in the extended media, her and David, they have a son called Alex,
12:04and she actually sent a hypercube to the Doctor to inform him about the new addition to her family.
12:11So this could be another instance, like the Star Beast,
12:15where Russell T. Davis has kind of adapted extended media story into the main show itself.
12:23Obviously, we could be completely barking up the wrong tree here.
12:26We could be completely way off the mark.
12:28But with the number of crazy comebacks that the show has had in just the last year alone,
12:34there's more of a chance of this being likely than ever before.
12:38I mean, if you had told any Doctor Who fan five years ago
12:41that Russell T. Davis, David Tennant, Catherine Tate, Murray Gold, Stephen Moffat,
12:46and Rachel Talalay would all be returning to Doctor Who,
12:48I mean, they'd have laughed in your face, let's be honest.
12:51And look what happened.
12:52And obviously, like with most theories, there are holes in it.
12:56Of course there are holes in it.
12:57You know, why would Susan have left Ruby in the first place?
13:00Why would she leave her child?
13:01But, you know, we all like to have a little bit of fun theorising about what's coming
13:05in the upcoming seasons of the shows.
13:08But let me know in the comments down below.
13:09Does our theory have merit or do you think we are way off?
13:14We're cray-cray.
13:15We're cray-cray.
13:15What are we talking about?
13:17In the meantime, though, I've been Ellie for Who Culture
13:19and in the words of River Song herself, goodbye, sweeties.
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