If you thought the new Doctor was young …
… then what do you think about his new assistant?
According to the BBC website, the new companion for Doctor # 11 Matt Smith will be 21-year-old Karen Gillan.
The actress has already appeared in the series, playing a soothsayer in a Series Four episode set during the Pompeii/Vesuvius disaster.
Well, so much for all the talk about a possible return of Sally Sparrow, the spunky heroine from the episode BLINK written by new head honcho Steven Moffat.
I had been hoping for the intriguing dynamic of young Doctor/older female companion with Moffat casting longtime collaborator Gina Bellman, who worked with Moffat on both COUPLING and JECKYLL. It’s possibly her commitments to the TNT show LEVERAGE may have prevented her from taking the part. Or I’m just wacky for this suggestion.
As someone clinging to the “In Moffat We Trust” mantra, I’ll wait and see how this young pairing works. That said, wouldn’t it be great if they finally introduced a third companion to the TARDIS during the show’s revival (not counting semi-regulars like Mickey or Rose’s Mum) and it was someone totally opposite this younger demographic? You know, like Bernard Cribbin as Wilf?
Posted by Mark Coale
05/29/09 at 7:56 pm
Well, she is absolutely gorgeous, and she was also pretty good in “The Fires of Pompeii,” for what it’s worth. I’ll try to avoid the kneejerk “too young! too sexy!” reaction and keep an open mind. Besides, she is coming directly after Catherine Tate’s Donna Noble, who was pretty on in the years, by Doctor Who companion standards.
I would welcome a third companion, though. The Davies years were pretty good about throwing in a third companion for small stints here and there to keep things fresh — I think Jack Harkness was the most successful of these — but none of them lasted for very long. Then, that might be something they’ll save for a sixth or seventh year, with Smith’s Doctor more fully established.
05/29/09 at 8:26 pm
A menage a TroiARDIS would be a nice change of pace.
05/29/09 at 9:59 pm
Wonder Woman?
05/30/09 at 12:09 am
Yeah, I think Karen Gillan’s casting was partially the result of going against Catherine Tate’s older Donna Noble character. But her age shouldn’t be that much of an issue, should it? After all, Billie Piper was only 22 when she recorded Series One for DOCTOR WHO’s return in 2005.
What should be of prime importance here, though, is the issue of whether Gillan will use her natural Scottish accent for her character. Personally, I’m hoping for a younger version of Garbage’s lead singer Shirley Manson…
05/30/09 at 2:51 am
I just watched the first of the 2009 Who episodes (yay Bittorrent!) and the companion in this, the first of four episodes closing the David Tennant era, was MIchelle Ryan, also a regular in Moffat’s “Jeckyll” (and the “Bionic Woman” in the recent American redo of that series). She was quite good, and there was some nice chemistry between her and Tennant. Although she took her leave at the end of the episode, I was hoping that Moffat would bring her back as next season’s designated companion.
05/30/09 at 8:00 am
The ‘Pompeii/Vesuvius disaster’ was a series four episode.
No Sally Sparrow?!? damn!!
I was really looking forward to seeing her as a regular. I realllllly hope there is a second companion. I think it might give the show a whole new dynamic, and I’m with you on bringing in an actual adult!! haha… How about Donna back as a regular? Come on, just one more series!! She was my absolute favorite!!
05/30/09 at 1:49 pm
If they are going with a young, female companion, I thought the actress in the Blink episode was incredible. And she could of played the same person.
05/30/09 at 4:30 pm
You know, just because Carey Mulligan’s character Sally Sparrow wasn’t picked as the Eleventh Doctor’s companion, it doesn’t mean that she couldn’t join the TARDIS crew somewhere down the line. After all, Russell T. Davies added Captain Jack Harkness as a second companion two-thirds of the way through Series One and later made recurring character Mickey Smith an official companion for a brief time in Series Two.
I’m guessing, though, that Steven Moffat probably wants time to establish both the Eleventh Doctor and Karen Gillan’s character before shaking things up with a second companion. And yeah, Wilf would be a great companion, but there is all that running involved. Still, from what I’ve been reading online, we may not have heard the last of ol’ Wilf just yet…
05/30/09 at 5:00 pm
spoilery spoilers
Yeah, I just got the latest DR WHO magazine and there’s an article about how Wilf and Sylvia will be in Tennant’s finale, which presumably means the return of Donna (boo!).
05/30/09 at 7:02 pm
Poop…I thought Cassie from Skins was going to be the new companion…:( she’s such a great actor.
05/30/09 at 8:45 pm
[…] Who news Jump to Comments Just as I’m searching for information on when Dr. Who is returning to CBC (season 4 is thelast Who I’ve seen), the Twitter-verse explodes over news of the Doctor’s newest assistant. […]
05/31/09 at 8:38 am
Carey Mulligan is now a pretty successful movie actress. She’s in the new Michael Mann movie ‘Public Enemies’ this summer and filming the Kazuo Ishiguro adaptation ‘Never Let Me Go’ at the moment. And was Sally Sparrow that interesting a character? Surely her story ended within ‘Blink’?
As for Karen Gillan, she’s young, fresh, gorgeous - and from what i’ve seen of her work - does comedy very well. Like with Matt Smith (who’s a top actor btw), as long as the new Who producers keep doing things that surprise and go against the fans, frankly, rather uninspired casting suggestions the show’ll be fine.
05/31/09 at 2:45 pm
As young as Gillan looks, Matt Smith looks even younger. Like, Mary Kay LeTourneau-bait young.
I think it’d be a neat, original twist if the Doctor regenerated into Gillan and Smith was the Companion. The eventual run in with the Doctor’s Daughter would be hilariously wrong in all the right ways (and right in all the wrong ways).
– Rob