Doctor Who News: New Companion for Series 7 Named!

It’s big news day folks. The news DOCTOR WHO fans have waited to hear since learning that Amy and Rory would be leaving the show and a new companion would be accompanying the Doctor on his adventures has finally dropped.

Announced today, Jenna-Louise Coleman (EMMERDALE) will be the new companion joining Matt Smith’s Doctor after the departure of Amy and Rory, which will happen (according to showrunner Steven Moffat) in Episode 5.

I applaud the choice simply because I am a big fan of EMMERDALE and Jenna’s role on it. I think she’ll provide a great foil to Smith’s manic Doctor.

What does everyone think about this choice? Aside from blowing my crackpot theory about it being The Master out of the water, I am curious to find out where she’ll be from and what her backstory will be.

UPDATE: I've added a video below of Jenna's first interview about the part. Enjoy!

Doctor Who Crackpot Theories! Series 7! The Master as the new Companion! Multiple Doctor 50th Anniversary!

Sorry about the slow week folks. I’ve been moving house for the last two weeks or so and my reading/watching time has been seriously reduced by packing/cleaning/throwing out stuff ect. Moving sucks. I also had read Will Hill’s mammoth 700-page DEPARTMENT 19 sequel THE RISING, and though I wrote up my review for it, I’ve been asked by Harper Collins Canada to not post until close to the release date and I’m abiding those wishes. I had also planned to begin doing reviews of MERLIN (like I do with DOCTOR WHO) starting with Series 2, but now I am having my girlfriend watch Series 1 so we can watch the second Series together. So that will have to wait as well. The life of a blogger when life interferes eh?

So I thought for Friday that we’d do a DOCTOR WHO Series 7 Informational and Crackpot Theory Post, which will include all the info we have so far.

First things first, when it comes to info about Series 7 the only clearly admitted and defined fact is that both Amy and Rory will be exiting the Series (and if Karen Gillan is to be believed her character at least will be killed and un-revivable) and that an all new companion will be joining the Doctor. The talk from Moffat was that this person is not from earth and is “the last person the Doctor would expect”. The other somewhat knowable info is that Matt Smith MAY be leaving at the end of the Series which will also be the excitement-inducing 50th Anniversary Special(s) and he MAY not. If he does, I’d be fine with that as he’s had a good run, but I’d also be quite comfortable with him staying on board for an 8th Series. Some guest actors have been announced like Mark Williams (who played Arthur Weasley in the HARRY POTTER films) who’s character has been revealed as Brian Williams which we can all safely assume is Rory’s father. I’ll be very interested to see Rory’s parent since his family has been conspicuously absent so far. The cast has left for Spain where they will be shooting an Old West-based episode. They will shoot another episode there as well and there is a rumor that the Tabernas Desert will be standing in for the ruins of Skaro.

Now onto crackpotted-ness.

Achievement Unlocked: Point-Form-io!

- I personally think that Amy will die and Rory will live, since only Gillan has mentioned about wanting her character completely killed off. I have a feeling that her goodbye will have something to do with making the Roman Soldier Who Waited Rory “let her go” and that will be the catharsis for his character and an end to his arc since he spends so much time protecting her, it would be a nice dovetail for his end to not be marred by trying to save her once again. I also think that the “They always kill Rory” aspect will be flipped around and he will live to a ripe old age.

- I think Matt Smith WILL leave the role with the 50th Anniversary since that’s not only a natural stopping point, but it will really place his 11th Doctor into a very nice spot in the fandom and people will really remember him that way.

- When I heard the news that the new companion wasn’t from earth and was the last person the Doctor would expect I had two thoughts. Both utterly outrageous, one not really do-able and the other one is tantalizingly feasible. First I’m sure everyone has heard about Moffat trying to get people to follow Sophie Myles on Twitter (who played Madame De Pompadour in the Hugo-winning episode he wrote in Series 2 THE GIRL IN THE FIREPLACE, but she’d be negated because she doesn’t fall into the category of “not from earth” so she’s not all that feasible. The second guess is wild but I love it. What if the Doctor’s new companion is …The Master. Think about it. John Simm’s Master not only helped the 10th Doctor in THE END OF TIME against the rogue Time Lords led by Rassilon, he also spent that episode proving that perhaps his madness came from the implanted “four beats” in his head. I just think it would be a really excellent juxtaposition between the Doctor’s good nature and the Master insane nature. It would make for a VERY interesting series if nothing else. Plus TWO Time Lords!

- I have been discussing the 50th Anniversary with Chris for a while and we both feel that they might perhaps spread the 50th over a few specials (and not just one or a two-parter) and that makes sense in my head since the running belief is that it will be a multiple-Doctor story arc. We expect the 10th Doctor (David Tennant), the 8th Doctor (Paul Mcgann), the 5th Doctor (Peter Davison), and maybe even the 9th Doctor (Christopher Eccelstone) to appear, and possibly even a wibbly wobbly timey wimey version of the 4th Doctor (Tom Baker). I think if the 50th happened without hosting multiple Doctor’s then that would be an utter travesty to the show. So my thinking is that they might have separate episodes that each concentrate on a different Doctor (in their era or not) and that all of them will have some over-arcing threading into the 11th’s death on the fields of Trenzalore when the question that must be asked is asked... “Doctor Who?”

- Now, if the multi-Doctor arc turns out to be true then can we expect any previous companions to return? Strangely I doubt it (even though seeing Rose one more time would fill me with immense joy!), simply because Moffat is seemingly a fan of leaving the past in the past when it comes to the Doctor’s relationships. That said, if we could see married couple Martha and Mickey kicking ass, or Rose + Torchwood Alt Earth and maybe even the Human Doctor too, and Donna…oh how great would it be to see Donna again? I think that seeing any of these people again is the most ephemeral of wishes and they probably won’t come true, but a fan can still dream.

- Lastly, in the mention of the rumor about the Spanish desert standing in for “the ruins of Skaro”, that gets me excited beyond belief. Simply because the aspect of “ruins” implies that this will be post-Time War Skaro and therefore will include some sort of facet of the aftermath of the Daleks and the Time War. Because if you think about it, so far we’ve only dealt with remnants, secret police and escapees (including Davros) of the time War when it comes to the Daleks. What we haven’t seen is properly what happened to the race as a whole. We also have Dorium Maldovar’s cryptic statements about the reasoning behind the Silence’s attempts to prevent the Doctor being on the “fields of Trenzalore and the Fall of the Eleventh”. I foresee a possibility where those fields are actually on Skaro, but who knows since the Doctor wasn’t given much time to react to that revelation at the end of THE WEDDING OF RIVER SONG. At any rate, the ruins of Skaro also further makes the case for the multi-Doctor arc since it is post-Time War and you could literally have anything happen. 

So, what think all our faithful readers of the Crackpot notions I have put forth? Or the info we have that is confirmed? Amy and Rory leaving (yeah I’ll be honest and say that I’ll miss Rory more than Amy as she was kind of a bore in Series 6 as a character)? Speculation on the new companion? Is Matt leaving? What say you? Have at it in the comments section folks.