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"FELLOW TRAVELLER – TEA, TEARS, AND THE RETURN OF SUSAN"

Mark Gatiss’s Fellow Traveller is a rare gem: tender, poetic, and quietly devastating. Clocking in at only a few pages, this short story delivers more emotional depth and character insight than many full-length episodes. It's the kind of tale that sticks with you, lingering like the scent of rain in a countryside breeze—or the warmth of shared kippers and tea between two very old souls.

WALKING THROUGH MEMORY

Set in the misty wilds of the British countryside, the story initially appears simple. An old woman is out walking alone in the drizzle, wrapped in memory and loss, when she encounters a kindly stranger. They share food and quiet conversation. The descriptions of weather and landscape are so vivid they seem to drench the page: sodden earth, rustling trees, a chill wind creeping through autumn air. It’s slow, atmospheric, and introspective.

The stranger, of course, is the Doctor—but Gatiss plays it coy, allowing the reader to piece this together from tone, rhythm, and implication rather than outright statement. The moment-by-moment build-up is delicately paced, focusing instead on emotional resonance.

AFTER THE WAR, AFTER THE LOSS

As their conversation turns to the past, hints begin to emerge that we are post-Dalek Invasion of Earth—the old woman references the Daleks, speaks of rusting husks, and of the husband she lost in the aftermath of war. It’s not just a story of historical memory—it’s a story of personal memory: grief that never quite fades, wounds time can’t fully close.

And then comes the revelation: this woman is Susan. The Doctor’s granddaughter. The very first companion. Gatiss drops this truth like a whisper rather than a bombshell, and it makes the moment even more moving. It recontextualises everything: her sorrow, her isolation, her strength. She's not just any old woman—she’s a Time Lady who stayed behind, grew old, loved, lost, and waited.

A MEETING LONG OVERDUE

What makes Fellow Traveller so powerful is its quiet restraint. There are no grand confrontations, no convoluted plot mechanics, no dramatic soundtracks swelling in the background. Just two people, sharing food and feelings. The Doctor never says who she is out loud. Susan never needs to say she remembers her. It’s all in the silences between words, the looks not described, the memories unspoken.

And then Susan takes a stick and beats the lifeless husk of a Dalek. It’s a small, almost absurd act—but it's loaded with everything she’s held in for decades. Pain, fury, grief. It’s catharsis, not spectacle. And it’s earned.

📝THE BOTTOM LINE:

Fellow Traveller is a beautiful, melancholic reunion between two characters long separated by time, space, and narrative neglect. Mark Gatiss crafts it with subtlety and emotion, proving that sometimes the most powerful stories are the quiet ones. It gives us what the show never has: closure for Susan. And it does it not with fanfare, but with feeling. 9/10