Susan Twist Returning To 'Doctor Who'
There’s always a twist at the end, and the end will never end
Have you ever dreamt of continuing a recurring role? Susan Twist, the unexpected face of Russell T. Davies’s second stint as showrunner of Doctor Who, has been confirmed Friday by the show’s socials to be appearing in the long-running series’s upcoming season, set to premiere in April.
Yes, her real name is Susan Twist, and she’s been a pretty regular presence on British television for decades. In Who’s second 60th anniversary special “Wild Blue Yonder”, she first appeared as Mrs. Merridew, the housekeeper of Isaac Newton, likely the first to hear about the wonders of mavity. She then shows up as as unnamed, headbanded heckler at a performance by the Doctor’s soon-to-be companion Ruby Sunday, played by Millie Gibson, the “Space Babies” space station’s communications officer Gina Scalzi, who was among the crew that abandoned the babies. Then the Tea Lady in “The Devil’s Chord” which features “There’s Always a Twist at the End”. In “Boom” she was the face of the Villengard ambulance, then a Hiker in the averted timeline of “73 Yards”, and then the soon-/already-deceased Penny Pepper-Bean in “Dot and Bubble”. And that’s when things started getting suspicious for the Fifteenth Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa, as well as Ruby, whose recollection is more vague. While a portrait of the Duke of Pemberton’s mother compounds things in “Rogue”, the suspicions are put over the edge when the pair encounter several more doppelgangers, a Sloogma on Sloog, a Griffin on Varsitay, a Bleet in the Fivefold Configuration. But that was a lot of greenscreen posing for reference files to show UNIT in “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” to help find out anything about her. They’re already on the path of Susan Triad of S Triad Technologies because they thought a TARDIS anagram was a lead. Then it was suspected she might be the Doctor’s regenerated granddaughter, Susan Foreman, rarely seen since her departure in the First Doctor era. Instead, they were Angels of Death serving Sutekh, who had been clinging onto the TARDIS ever since he originally appeared in the Fourth Doctor serial Pyramids of Mars. These doppelgangers were injected into history as complete people everywhere to spread the Dust of Death. While Sutekh was eventually defeated in “Empire of Death”, Susan Triad survived, all the angels just going back as they were before being “activated”. And like with the Doctor’s companions at the support group in “The Power of the Doctor” and Donna Noble in “The Giggle”, she was offered a job at UNIT by Chief Scientific Officer Kate Lethbridge-Stewart.
Considering this is where we left off with the character, and we know UNIT will be appearing in the upcoming season with Kate, Colonel Ibrahim (Alexander Devrient), and Shirley Anne Bingham (Ruth Madeley), with Ruby also hired there, it’s very likely we’re seeing Triad again. It’s unknown how big a swath of UNIT employees were getting in the series beyond the three who will also be series regulars for the The War Between the Land and the Sea spinoff miniseries. The season will see the Doctor joined by a second companion, Belinda Chandra, played by Varada Sethu, who was also in “Boom” as Mundy Flynn. Jonah Hauer-King, Archie Panjabi, and Rose Ayling-Ellis are on the roster of the new guest stars announced.
