WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Doctor Who season 14!

It’s been teased that Doctor Who‘s season 14 finale will be connected to the Jon Pertwee era, providing a chance to solve a 53-year-old companion mystery. Ncuti Gatwa’s first Doctor Who season will come to a end with an epic two-parter, “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” and “Empire of Death”, that will reunite the Doctor with UNIT for an adventure that Russell T Davies has teased as “apocalyptic“. Doctor Who‘s UNIT is synonymous with the Pertwee era, as the Third Doctor spent much of his life as their scientific advisor.

Previewing the new series in the print edition of Radio Times, Russell T Davies teased a Third Doctor link in Doctor Who season 14, episode 7. It’s a tantalizing hint that creates all sorts of possibilities for this season’s big bad. As well as a potential comeback for a Pertwee-era villain, revisiting the Third Doctor’s time with UNIT could finally reveal what happened to his erstwhile companion, Liz Shaw (Caroline John). Read RTD’s synopsis for Doctor Who season 14, episode 7, “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” below:

The TARDIS is on a top-secret mission, heading straight for the UNIT Tower in the middle of modern-day London. But ten floors below, a long-buried secret has been waiting since the era of the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee), and Ruby’s mother holds a vital clue that might change her daughter’s story forever.

This is the first part of a two-episode season finale, and oh my, the vultures are coming home to roast. Plots, hints, secrets, lies, and twists that have been muttering in the shadows since Christmas now rise up and unleash an absolute snowstorm of horror. Sometimes, late at night, I play this episode just for myself. So I can imagine being eight years old. And terrified. Because this one is the stuff of nightmares.

Doctor Who Never Properly Explained Liz’s Companion Exit

UNIT’s first scientific advisor, Liz Shaw, was introduced in Jon Pertwee’s debut serial, Spearhead from Space, in which she was promptly demoted to being the Third Doctor’s assistant. Despite this, Liz and the Doctor were a partnership of equals, two scientific geniuses investigating strange goings-on at the behest of UNIT. Unfortunately for Caroline John, producer Barry Letts deemed that Liz was too intelligent, and therefore overqualified to fulfill the role of the curious Doctor Who companion, and wrote her out of the show.

Liz Shaw was replaced by Jo Grant (Katy Manning) in “The Terror of the Autons”, the opening serial of Doctor Who season 8. Due to the decision being made after season 7 had been filmed, Caroline John never got to film a companion exit story. A line of dialog explained that Liz had gone back to Cambridge because she felt that the Doctor didn’t need her. While not the worst explanation for why a Doctor Who companion left the show, it still feels underwhelming 53 years later.

Doctor Who Season 14, Episode 7’s Connection To The Third Doctor Era Can Explain Liz’s Exit

Russell T Davies’ Third Doctor era tease doesn’t necessarily have to link to a classic Doctor Who villain like Azal or Omega. Instead, it could refer to something that Liz Shaw had been working on prior to her abrupt Doctor Who exit. RTD previously updated viewers on Liz Shaw’s life after the Doctor in The Sarah Jane Adventures, season 4, episode 5, “Death of the Doctor”, by revealing she was assigned to UNIT’s Moonbase. It’s clear, therefore, that Liz continued to work for UNIT for decades after seemingly going back to Cambridge between Doctor Who seasons 7 and 8.

Perhaps like Barry Letts in the real world, the fictional UNIT realized that Liz Shaw was overqualified to be the Third Doctor’s assistant and reassigned her elsewhere, to whatever is hidden ten floors below UNIT HQ. Quite how Liz’s reassignment would connect to Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) and her mother Carla (Michelle Greenidge) remains to be seen. However, Doctor Who‘s season 14 finale having links to the Third Doctor era still feels like the ideal opportunity to expand the story of Liz Shaw, and honor the contribution of the late Caroline John to the show’s longevity.

Why Liz Deserves A Better Ending Than Doctor Who Gave Her

Liz Shaw was an incredibly progressive Doctor Who companion that helped usher the show into a more modern era back in the 1970s. She was a gifted scientist, and was more than capable of holding her own against both the Third Doctor and the Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney). It’s for this reason that Liz’s Doctor Who departure is so disappointing, because she never gets to say goodbye to her two friends. While that still won’t happen in Doctor Who season 14 due to Caroline John, Nicholas Courtney and Jon Pertwee no longer being around, an addendum to the story could finally give Liz her happy ending.

Doctor Who season 14’s cast could still honor Liz, especially as UNIT is now headed by the Brigadier’s daughter, Kate Stewart (Jemma Redgrave). As the keeper of her father’s legacy, Kate would still be able to reminisce with the Doctor about Liz, and her impact on his lives. It was criminal that a character as strong as Liz Shaw never got the send off she deserved, but as Doctor Who returns to the Jon Pertwee era, it could finally right this decades-old wrong.

Source: Radio Times.