Theory about Susan, and departure from Gallifrey

[glamourweaver]

This just occurred to me: something that might retroactively explain Susan's very un-Time-Lord perspective & attitude toward history while still explicitly being of the same people as her grandfather.

The Doctor had been traveling for a few years with Susan before meeting Barbara and Ian. If we assume she is actually the age she says & seems (which would be consistent with the eight year old Master looking like an eight year old human), than perhaps the motivation to leave in the first place (though likely the straw that broke the camel's back) was to protect Susan from the Untempered Schism. While the High Council sees it as a necessary right of initiation & test of character, the Doctor (who shamed himself by running from the pain and madness he faced) would see it as child abuse, especially in light of how it drove his child hood best friend completely mad. I could definitely see the Doctor stealing away his eight year old granddaughter to protect her from that.

Susan never having stared into the Schism does not "see time" the same way that a fully initiated Time Lord does, though she does still have the inherent psychic abilities.

[allenshock]

It is an interesting theory but involves a lot of "retconning" in light of things we know from the later history in the classic series and the new series. Susan did not "see time" primarily because the whole "Time Lord" thing had not been created yet; I don't really recall the First Doctor ever "seeing time" in the stories and actual episodes of that time period...but in later books, he is referred to as a Time Lord, even though that idea was not invented until later.

It would work as a retroactive explanation, though.

Allen

[glamourweaver]

Jan 27, 2010 6:55:03 GMT allenshock said:

It is an interesting theory but involves a lot of "retconning" in light of things we know from the later history in the classic series and the new series. Susan did not "see time" primarily because the whole "Time Lord" thing had not been created yet; I don't really recall the First Doctor ever "seeing time" in the stories and actual episodes of that time period...but in later books, he is referred to as a Time Lord, even though that idea was not invented until later.

Oh I completely realize that. The canon of the series has always been made up as they went along. This is completely an attempt to (I hope elegantly & thematically appropriately) explain earlier elements that don't line up with later elements as they developed. I realize the Doctor never explicitly "saw time" that early, but he was still a more otherworldly & strangely knowing figure than Susan who in contrast is pretty much completely a 20th Century human girl (with a penchant for screaming) in attitudes & personality, save for advanced knowledge of science & holes in her knowledge of present "history".

[ugavine]

I quite like that idea, it kind of fits too.

There is also the possibility that just because she is The Doctors grand-daughter she may not be a Time Lord. Galifreyan yes, but not Time Lord. Time Lord, and the powers that go with it, could be something that is granted upon graduation of the Galifrey Academy/whatever. We know that Regeneration can be granted by the Time Lords from the Five Doctors when they offer The Master a new life cycle, and death is no problem either with the Time Lords bringing The Master back to fight in the Time War. So it wouldn't be a stretch to believe Susan is Galifreyan without Time Lord abilities.

[glamourweaver]

Jan 29, 2010 15:18:47 GMT ugavine said:

I quite like that idea, it kind of fits too.

There is also the possibility that just because she is The Doctors grand-daughter she may not be a Time Lord. Galifreyan yes, but not Time Lord. Time Lord, and the powers that go with it, could be something that is granted upon graduation of the Galifrey Academy/whatever. We know that Regeneration can be granted by the Time Lords from the Five Doctors when they offer The Master a new life cycle, and death is no problem either with the Time Lords bringing The Master back to fight in the Time War. So it wouldn't be a stretch to believe Susan is Galifreyan without Time Lord abilities.

I actually have a very retconny fanwank theory on that too - since there is conflicting evidence through the series. It seems that Time Lord is a rank of power on Gallifrey, but is often referred to as the species collectively. This can make sense with outsiders as Time Lords would be the only people that non-Gallifreyans would ever have contact with - but the Doctor refers to his own people that way as well. I hardly think the very non-classist Ninth & Tenth Doctors would fail to mourn the commoners of Gallifrey along with his own social caste. So if I may pose a theory - Time Lords are a rank ruling over the people of Gallifrey but they are also the people of Gallifrey in their entirety. They are the future inheritor race of the Gallifreyans ruling over their own past, shepharding their ancestors to evolve into them. There is some First Law of Time violation here, but the Time Lords have never been above hypocrisy. What's more it may be consistent with history if they are upholding events as they have always been - Time Lord history may simply be a circle, with Rassilon & Omega journeying from the future with their super-tech (TL 11 in the game) to lead/create Time Lord society in the past. It would explain why the Time Lords treat the more advanced tech of their founders as legend - its their future.

Thus the Doctor thinks of his race as Time Lord, even while his non-Time-Lord ancestors still exist. He includes them in the continuity of the race as he imagines it.