What If...Ian and Barbara never investigated Susan Foreman? (Part 1)

Alright, so now that we have An Unearthly Child and Remembrance of the Daleks under our belts, we can chat about this particular What If that I've had running around in my head for quite some time. Going back to the events of Doctor Who's very first episode, let's take a look and see what would have happened if Ian and Barbara had decided not to go in pursuit of Susan Foreman and thus never discovered the truth about her origins.

Not that they ever really discovered the truth, if you believe the Doctor Who Expanded Universe, but that's a whole other can of worms I won't be opening here. The two school teachers were, originally, going to follow Susan after Barbara had brought her a book on the French Revolution. In this version of events, however, she had misplaced the book and elected to simply give it to her before school in the morning.

Susan came, Barbara gave her the book, and Susan was quite grateful for the literature...even as she quietly corrected some of the mistakes in the book with an ink pen after Barbara had left. A very simple, small change that will cascade into so, so much more.

Now, there isn't an exact time frame given for the time between An Unearthly Child's first episode and the events of Remembrance of the Daleks. We do know from the fourth wall breaking joke in the latter episode that it takes place at some point in late 1963, since "Doc-" is spoken of as a brand new science fiction show from the BBC. There's also the dialogue from real life figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and John F. Kennedy to consider as well. So, based on all that, I'll be saying that it's no later than November 30, 1963 give or take a day.

You see, children, before Chris Chibnall decided to subvert our expectations (because he's an incompetent hack), Doctor Who was actually airing on Saturdays. Crazy, I know!

The Doctor Who wiki claims that the episode takes place on November 29-30, 1963, so that's what I'm going with. Though, upon reflection concerning the episode and it's relation to the first part of An Unearthly Child, I'm a little disappointed we don't see missing posters for Ian and Barbara in the actual episode. Just a very minor side note.

Anyway, to get on with it: Susan remains a little strange but, thinking it over, Ian and Barbara think that they must just be seeing more to the girl than her simply being a flighty teenage girl and decide to leave it at that. Best not to pry into such things, after all, it'll cause nothing but trouble...keep calm and carry on and the sort, you know how it is.

Like in Remembrance as broadcast, the activity of the Daleks roaming about gets the attention of the military and Group Captain Gilmore is on the scene with Professor Rachel Jensen and the rest of the Intrusion Counter-Measures Group. They occupy the school as a base, causing no small amount of trouble for the staff and students there who were just looking forward to dismissal on that Friday afternoon. They are told that there's no cause for alarm, which they don't believe primarily because they have working eyeballs.

The first we see of Gilmore is him leading a strike team into a certain address - 76 Totter's Lane. They pass by a big, blue box seemingly without even noticing it and a battle breaks out between the strike team and what appears to be a single opponent firing some type of energy weapon. The Doctor is apparently not there as in the main timeline and, without Ace's Nitro 9, the strike team is slaughtered save for Gilmore and Jensen, Gilmore barely managing to take out the Dalek with a lone anti-tank rocket. We don't see the Dalek onscreen, however, just the beams it fires and then both Gilmore and Jensen's reactions to it after the shot kills it and blows its casing open. Kind of preserving the mystery for a bit longer as in this scenario, both they and the viewers at home have no idea what it is they're looking at given that we're in an alternate 1963...mixed with a bit of 1988.

...it's a what if, and it's a Doctor Who one, don't try to figure out the logic.

Ratcliff shows up to make his appearance and he and his men haul the destroyed Dalek away from 76 Totter's Lane.

Trapped in a science lab, Susan ponders what to do and eventually decides to go looking for the source of the problem, her Time Lady senses telling her that something very much isn't right here and her not remotely believing the cover story of the military. At one point, Susan notes a strange blonde-haired girl a few years her junior (by human standards anyway) walking about humming nursery rhymes, but she doesn't think too much of it...

Ian and Barbara, meanwhile, begin to notice strange behavior from the Headmaster. When investigating the cellar after hearing a strange noise from it, Barbara gets pushed in by the Headmaster (who failed to dissuade her from going to look), who closes the door before getting into a struggle with Ian. Ian is promptly rendered unconscious by a blow to the head.

In a tip of the hat to the show, rather than seeing the Dalek levitate up the stairs (though we'd still hear the sound effect, admittedly) toward Barbara, we witness a parallel of the iconic shot from The Daleks where Barbara backs up into the door to the cellar and screams as a plunger lunges toward her menacingly...

...and that's where we're going to leave off this time. Yeah, the Doctor hasn't made an appearance yet, but he'll be here. Don't you worry about that. The Daleks are invading Shoreditch and are already in the Coal Hill School.

Is there more going on than simply that? Well, yes, obviously from what happened in Remembrance. However, what will the differences be with the First Doctor and his companions handling things rather than the Seventh and Ace? Will the Doctor even want to become involved given how the Doctor is so different a character? Come back next time to find out!

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