Now that Jenna Coleman’s tenure as Doctor Who‘s Clara Oswald is over, 12th Doctor Peter Capaldi needs a new friend to join him on his many travels across time and space. Hence why showrunner Steven Moffat and the team behind the hit BBC series are hard at work plotting stories and creating possible characters for the actor actress lucky enough to win the role. Oh, and if these two old, white men have anything to say about it, the next companion will definitely be a woman.
In a previous interview with Radio Times, Moffat discussed everything from the show’s low ratings to Coleman’s departure. When asked about the new companion, Moffat wouldn’t mention specifics, though he did admit that he was “beginning to have an idea of the kind of person, specific ideas but not a specific actress.” His saying “actress” seemed to suggest that the next companion would definitely be female.
Capaldi all but confirmed this in the Radio Times Christmas edition, saying he did not want to be paired with a new actress. Sure, it sounds pretty gross, but let the Doctor explain himself:
“With the best will in the world, I don’t want a bloke,” he says, “because I’m frightened that they’ll give him all the action and I’ll be standing around spouting scientific gobbledygook… ‘Oh, Peter’s not up to chasing those Zygons down the corridor, let the chap do it.’ And that would be awful. I want to chase the Zygons!”
“I’d like a bit of Jon Pertwee karate,” he added, referencing the classic series’ third Doctor. “A bit of Venusian aikido.”
In other words, the 57-year-old actor doesn’t want his older version of the character to become an inactive source of exposition who lets everyone else do all the action. (Which is kind of what the Doctor does anyway.) It has less to do with the romanticish machinations of previous Doctor-companion pairings — like David Tennant and Billie Piper, or Matt Smith and Karen Gillan — and more to do with kicking alien ass.
Of course, female actors and the companions they play can and have performed just as many stunts as the Doctor, so whether the show’s next sidekick is a man or a woman doesn’t matter that much in this regard.
(Via Radio Times)
