Thoughts on “School Reunion” (Doctor Who)

“School Reunion” is a much-beloved episode of new Who, and for good reason.  Seeing the return of Sarah Jane and K9 from the classic series is a huge moment, and Sarah Jane’s interactions with the Tenth Doctor bring up a lot of strong emotional content for her, him, and Rose, as all three of them contemplate the nature of the Doctor-companion relationship.  The most recent time I watched the episode, however, it finally struck me that the picture it presents isn’t altogether accurate (spoilers for “School Reunion,” as well as companion departures throughout classic and new Who.)

We’ll start with what the episode gets right:  once the Doctor leaves a companion, he/she doesn’t really spend much time looking back (note:  I’ll mostly just use “he” pronouns here, since Thirteen has yet to say goodbye to any of her companions.)  There are references to past companions, of course, and the new series has featured the Doctor going into much longer sulks after losing a companion (Ten-Rose, Eleven-Ponds, Twelve-Clara – oh, the angst!)  But typically, there aren’t a lot of return visits.  On the rare occasions when the Doctor does see old companions again, it’s usually either by accident (like here, when team TARDIS and Sarah Jane are investigating the same school) or involves the companion doing the legwork (like Jack chasing the TARDIS in “Utopia” or Martha calling the Doctor in “The Sontaran Stratagem.”)  On the whole, once the Doctor finds a new companion, he’s looking ahead, not behind.

That tracks with the discussion in “School Reunion.”  When Sarah Jane argues that he could’ve come back for her, Ten tries to avoid the question, saying, “Oh, you didn’t need me.  You were getting on with your life.”  He tries to put a bright spin on it despite Sarah Jane’s repeated insistence that she’d wanted him to come back.  And later, when Rose asks how it could be that the Doctor was once so close to Sarah Jane and now “never even [mentions] her,” he replies, “I don’t age.  I regenerate.  But humans decay.  You wither and die.  Imagine watching that happen to someone you…” (Ten totally loves Rose but is also totally incapable of actually saying it.)

As the crux of the issue, this makes sense.  It’s the ever-present problem of the immortal, or at least the very long-lived – the pain of getting attached to the “mayflies” when their lives are so fleeting.  The Doctor “[has] to live on, alone,” and that’s why he/she doesn’t look back.

Where the episode doesn’t quite get it right, though, is in the implication that the Doctor chooses to leave the companions.  Sarah Jane laments, “You just dumped me,” and Rose says, “You just leave us behind,” but on the whole, that’s not how it goes.  While it’s technically true that Four leaves Sarah Jane, it’s not his choice; he’s called back to Gallifrey and isn’t allowed to bring a human with him.  One also leaves Susan, but only after he realizes she’s fallen in love with David but is preparing to leave him behind for the Doctor’s sake.  And Nine leaves Adam after Adam’s total indifference to the disaster he creates in “The Long Game.”

But, and I mean this literally, these are the only times when that happens.  There are also a handful of deaths or forced separations (as is increasingly the case in new Who,) but at the time that “School Reunion” comes along, they’re not the status quo.  No, the status quo is companions leaving the Doctor.

Ian and Barbara, Dodo, Ben and Polly, Harry, Tegan, and Mel(?) decide to go home (or does Mel stay on Iceworld?) – Liz leaves UNIT and Grace never accepts the invitation to travel with Eight.  Vicki, Jo, Leela, and Peri fall in love and decide to stay behind with their new beaus (Susan kind of fits into this category, too, even if the Doctor realizes it before she does.)  Steven, Romana, and Nyssa decide to stay somewhere that needs their help.  Victoria finds a new home for herself, and K9 decides to stay, in different iterations, with both Leela and Romana.

Case in point?  The Doctor’s not the one who ends things.  This story is about Sarah Jane because she was such a well-loved classic-series companion, yes, but also because this emotional throughline couldn’t have been brought forth by almost any other companion – it just wouldn’t bear up.  The Doctor isn’t the first one to say goodbye.

A truer depiction comes in the short story “The Christmas Inversion,” in which Three, Jo, and Mike Yates find themselves in the middle of the events of “The Christmas Invasion” and meet Jackie Tyler.  Seeing that Jo is a past companion of a past Doctor, Jackie has the same reaction that Rose does in “School Reunion,” quizzing poor Jo on “how many” came before her and asking Three if his successor will one day abandon Rose.

Three replies, “No.  I can promise you that.  It’s not me who leaves them.  Not ever.”  And at the end of the story, as Jo repeats the same question (“Is that true?  That you never leave them.  I mean us.  I mean… me,”) he assures her, “One day you’ll fly the nest, Jo.  But I’ll never push you out of it.”

Yep, there he is.  That’s my Doctor!