Inside Television with Alan Sepinwall

'Doctor Who' casts Jenna-Louise Coleman as new companion

Actress to succeed Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill when the Ponds leave the TARDIS

By Alan Sepinwall Wednesday, Mar 21, 2012 10:20 AM

New "Doctor Who" companion Jenna-Louise Coleman.

Credit: BBC

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"Doctor Who" fans already knew that this season — the show's 50th anniversary season — would be the last one to feature Karen Gillan as the Doctor's trusted companion Amy Pond (and also Arthur Darvill as Amy's husband Rory). And now we know who will be tasked with replacing her: 25-year-old actress Jenna-Louise Coleman, who's previously been on UK shows like "Emmerdale."

Where the original "Doctor Who" series featured companions of all ages and sizes, the modern series has, with the exception of one season with Catherine Tate's Donna Noble, stuck to a pattern of attractive women in their 20s, a pattern that Coleman continues.

The press release announcing the casting doesn't say exactly who Coleman will be playing, or when in the new 14-episode season she'll arrive, but "Who" showrunner Steven Moffat said the following:

"It's not often the Doctor meets someone who can talk even faster than he does, but it's about to happen. Jenna is going to lead him his merriest dance yet. And that's all you're getting for now. Who she's playing, how the Doctor meets her, and even where he finds her, are all part of one of the biggest mysteries the Time Lord ever encounters. Even by the Doctor's standards, this isn't your usual boy meets girl."

Here's Coleman being interviewed about the casting:

Alan Sepinwall
Sr. Editor, What's Alan Watching

Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com

Related Searches: Doctor Who, Jenna-Louise Coleman

jp

Wow---a pretty girl in her 20s! What bold casting.
March 21, 2012 at 10:29AM EST Reply to Comment
- Chris L You're a 900-year-old man, what do YOU want to look at it in that little box with you everyday? :)
  March 21, 2012 at 10:42AM EST
- Yeah, let's just turn 'Doctor Who' into another all day sausage fest where women only exists as girlfriends, wives or corpses. Do you actually have a specific beef with Coleman or is this just the Whovian tradition of "got to find something to pick at" every damn time there's a new hire?
  March 21, 2012 at 5:14PM EST
- webdiva @Chris L: he's not a 900+-year-old man, he's a 900+-year-old TIME LORD, which is not quite the same thing. There are more than a few reasons for The Doc to be a bit 'clumsy with the girls,' as Tom Baker used to say. For one thing, he doesn't think like a human guy; his perspective is pretty different when it comes to personal relations, birth, death, lots of things. His childhood isn't what you'd imagine a normal human childhood to be. For all we know, his kind are all test-tube babies who get raised in a group creche. That's bound to alter your worldview. For another thing, I'd **rather** that the writers were forced to be a little more imaginative and less predictable in the plots. Keeping him (and us) off-balance when it comes to our expectations about relationships is better for the scripts. So yeah, it's about time for more variety in age for the companions. Either that, or bring back Captain Jack Harkness so the rest of us have something to drool about. After all, it's not like the last season of Torchwood gave us all that much to cheer about ...
  March 23, 2012 at 10:38PM EST
- Dylan She is hot
  April 1, 2013 at 7:42AM EST
Paul F

She's going to be in Julian Fellowes' Titanic mini, which I think is on ABC next month.
March 21, 2012 at 10:33AM EST Reply to Comment
Mike

The Doctor Who twitter feed said her first appearance will be in the Christmas episode.
March 21, 2012 at 10:36AM EST Reply to Comment
- mrbilliam Really? Didn't we already get the season 7 Christmas episode?
  March 21, 2012 at 11:38AM EST
- r1pvanw1nkl3 Season 7 is beginning in the Fall, so the Christmas episode will be in the middle of the season this year.
  
  The past few Christmas episodes haven't been considered part of any of the seasons I think.
  March 21, 2012 at 12:06PM EST
ed w

I'm not initially impressed. She seems generic.
March 21, 2012 at 11:47AM EST Reply to Comment
- webdiva Yup. Casting director must have been on autopilot.
  March 23, 2012 at 10:39PM EST
- Guest660 She looks quite pretty to me.
  April 12, 2012 at 5:47PM EST
J

>> the modern series has, with the exception of one season with Catherine Tate's Donna Noble, stuck to a pattern of attractive women in their 20s

Well then Arthur Darvill definitely deserves an award of some sort. Phooey on Glenn Close, I've never once thought of Darvill as an attractive woman in her 20s. Well done, miss.
March 21, 2012 at 11:57AM EST Reply to Comment
- sepinwall I put Rory in the same category as Adam, Mickey, Captain Jack, etc.: he is A companion, but not THE companion of his era. He's there because he's Pond-adjacent, and he only got on the TARDIS full-time after Amy had the Doctor all to herself for most of her first season.
  March 21, 2012 at 12:15PM EST
- J I buy that for his first stretch, when Moffat was tinkering with the trio as a fairy tale triangle. But once that was resolved for good, I think Amy and Rory very convincingly became a unit and "the companion" was the couple. Would he have gone away with The Doctor without her? No. But I don't think she would without him, after the marriage, either. And his travel time has definitely been longer and more consistent than the others you mention.
  March 21, 2012 at 12:58PM EST
- So, Alan, if you're so over "attractive women in their 20s" would you actually prefer having another genre show where the top tier cast is all testosterone. Personally, I prefer 'Doctor Who' to the long string of American genre shows where the women basically only exists to give the guys something to flirt with - or kill.
  March 21, 2012 at 5:18PM EST
- sepinwall Craig, where did I say I was over attractive women in their 20s? That thought goes against everything I believe as both a heterosexual male in general and an Amy Pond fan in particular.
  
  Was just noting the pattern they have stuck to, with the exception of Tate (who was actually my favorite of the Davies companions).
  March 21, 2012 at 5:20PM EST
- aamadis @Craig: Why do you think that not casting an "attractive woman in her 20's" automatically means casting a male companion? Or do you women not in their 20's not exist in your book?
  March 21, 2012 at 7:44PM EST
- Like Alex Kingston and Catherine Tate, Ammadis? (Or Bernard Cribbins, for that matter, who joined Doctor who soon after his 80th birthday)
  
  Yeah, sorry for being a tad over-snarky there, but I'm just a little over the "oy noes, another attractive young woman companion". When it comes to diversity in casting 'Doctor Who' can teach a hell of a lot of other genre shows (whose "pattern" of casting, well, attractive young white men in lead roles) a lesson. And for the record, Matt Smith isn't exactly The Elephant Man. :)
  March 22, 2012 at 2:15AM EST
- "Craig, where did I say I was over attractive women in their 20s?"
  
  Sorry, you didn't say anything that dick-ish and sorry for being a bit of a willy myself. I'm just a little tired of the whole "pattern of casting pretty young women" tone of the coverage. Isn't it funny how every season we get genre shows with a "pattern" of casting... well, pretty young men in the leads without comment?
  
  And I really don't think this "pattern" is even that accurate -- Alex Kingston, Alan? Bernard Cribbins? Arthur Darville? Lindsay Duncan in 'The Waters of Mars' -- who wasn't only playing a grandmother but a kick-ass commander of the first human settlement on Mars?
  
  Personally, I actually think it's a good "pattern" to have a young women as a lead on a high profile SF show who isn't the male lead's girlfriend or resident "sexual tension". YMMV and IMO, of course.
  March 22, 2012 at 2:25AM EST
- webdiva Yeah, there's *a* companion, and then there's *the* companion. Which means that neither Alex Kingston or Lindsay Duncan count: they were both transient, though Kingston much less so. I wouldn't mind another gal if she were more like Leela and completely uninterested in the Doctor other than as a friend and a ticket to a great adventure -- and either much younger (like Ace with the 7th Doctor) or much older would be in order.
  March 23, 2012 at 10:43PM EST
Tammy

I actually think Karen Gillan was largely squandered in her time on the show, particularly last season. I suspect that people will like this new companion better, if only because she won't have Rory and River taking up so much story time.
March 21, 2012 at 11:59AM EST Reply to Comment
- Plathismo Amen to that. Married companion = bad idea. Ruins the tension with the Doctor.
  March 21, 2012 at 4:02PM EST
- webdiva Actually, I was thinking that married/sexually preoccupied Doctor = ***REALLY*** bad idea. Then it's just another common-denominator romantic comedy and not the futuristic fantasy that makes us think and laugh that we've come to know and love. Nix the tension, already -- I had more than enough of that with the unforgiveably whiny Rose. Could have had less of her, thank you.
  March 23, 2012 at 10:46PM EST
Ryan

When exactly did the original series not feature an attractive woman in her 20s as at least one of the companions the Doctor was traveling with?
March 21, 2012 at 12:21PM EST Reply to Comment
- dwb Teagan?
  March 21, 2012 at 2:44PM EST
- anthonystrand Well, technically the original cast didn't have that, because Susan's a teenager and Barbara was at least mid-30s. They're both pretty cute though.
  March 21, 2012 at 3:15PM EST
- Ryan You know, Teagan did cross my mind, but I don't think they were going for unattractive there. And you're right, Anthony! The only time there isn't a pretty woman in her 20s is when there's a teenager instead.
  March 21, 2012 at 4:11PM EST
- Ryan After all, Rose is 19 when she first shows up.
  March 21, 2012 at 4:13PM EST
- ed w I get that, but I wish they'd picked someone whose face at least implies a little depth whether it is actually there or not. Like Jessica Brown-Findlay, of Downton Abbey as one example.
  March 21, 2012 at 4:32PM EST
- J Susan may have been a teenager, but Carole Ann Ford would have been 23 when the show first aired. Romana was 139 when she was introduced.
  
  I have enough faith in Moffat after Smith and Gilan worked out so well and will keep faith and reserve judgment. I'll forever wish for a return appearance by Sally Sparrow. But perhaps the next companion will be an elderly calico hermaphrodite (maybe there are things about Wilfred Mott we never learned?) just to please all comers.
  March 21, 2012 at 5:30PM EST
Swearin

Good (Time) Lord, is she stunning! I'll always like that sweet, Scottish ginger but new girl here looks promising. I just hope she can act, and roll with Matt Smith's rythym
March 21, 2012 at 10:11PM EST Reply to Comment
Lazy Iggy

I really really hope they make her an alien! That would be a first, right?

Also, now that Doctor has stepped back "into the shadows," it would be interesting if the new companion would be accepting to that added layer of lifestyle.
March 22, 2012 at 7:29PM EST Reply to Comment
mrbilliam

I think it would be interesting if she was from either the future or the past, since there's no particular reason for him to keep picking up people from our present.
March 24, 2012 at 11:20PM EST Reply to Comment

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'Doctor Who' casts Jenna-Louise Coleman as new companion

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Option 1

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Option 3

jp Wow---a pretty girl in her 20s! What bold casting.

Chris L You're a 900-year-old man, what do YOU want to look at it in that little box with you everyday? :)

Yeah, let's just turn 'Doctor Who' into another all day sausage fest where women only exists as girlfriends, wives or corpses. Do you actually have a specific beef with Coleman or is this just the Whovian tradition of "got to find something to pick at" every damn time there's a new hire?

Dylan She is hot

Paul F She's going to be in Julian Fellowes' Titanic mini, which I think is on ABC next month.

Mike The Doctor Who twitter feed said her first appearance will be in the Christmas episode.

mrbilliam Really? Didn't we already get the season 7 Christmas episode?

r1pvanw1nkl3 Season 7 is beginning in the Fall, so the Christmas episode will be in the middle of the season this year.The past few Christmas episodes haven't been considered part of any of the seasons I think.

ed w I'm not initially impressed. She seems generic.

webdiva Yup. Casting director must have been on autopilot.

Guest660 She looks quite pretty to me.

sepinwall I put Rory in the same category as Adam, Mickey, Captain Jack, etc.: he is A companion, but not THE companion of his era. He's there because he's Pond-adjacent, and he only got on the TARDIS full-time after Amy had the Doctor all to herself for most of her first season.

aamadis @Craig: Why do you think that not casting an "attractive woman in her 20's" automatically means casting a male companion? Or do you women not in their 20's not exist in your book?

Tammy I actually think Karen Gillan was largely squandered in her time on the show, particularly last season. I suspect that people will like this new companion better, if only because she won't have Rory and River taking up so much story time.

Plathismo Amen to that. Married companion = bad idea. Ruins the tension with the Doctor.

Ryan When exactly did the original series not feature an attractive woman in her 20s as at least one of the companions the Doctor was traveling with?

dwb Teagan?

anthonystrand Well, technically the original cast didn't have that, because Susan's a teenager and Barbara was at least mid-30s. They're both pretty cute though.

Ryan You know, Teagan did cross my mind, but I don't think they were going for unattractive there. And you're right, Anthony! The only time there isn't a pretty woman in her 20s is when there's a teenager instead.

Ryan After all, Rose is 19 when she first shows up.

ed w I get that, but I wish they'd picked someone whose face at least implies a little depth whether it is actually there or not. Like Jessica Brown-Findlay, of Downton Abbey as one example.

Swearin Good (Time) Lord, is she stunning! I'll always like that sweet, Scottish ginger but new girl here looks promising. I just hope she can act, and roll with Matt Smith's rythym

Lazy Iggy I really really hope they make her an alien! That would be a first, right?Also, now that Doctor has stepped back "into the shadows," it would be interesting if the new companion would be accepting to that added layer of lifestyle.

mrbilliam I think it would be interesting if she was from either the future or the past, since there's no particular reason for him to keep picking up people from our present.

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Doctor Who is updated

jp

Wow---a pretty girl in her 20s! What bold casting.

Paul F

She's going to be in Julian Fellowes' Titanic mini, which I think is on ABC next month.

Mike

The Doctor Who twitter feed said her first appearance will be in the Christmas episode.

r1pvanw1nkl3 Season 7 is beginning in the Fall, so the Christmas episode will be in the middle of the season this year.

The past few Christmas episodes haven't been considered part of any of the seasons I think.

ed w

I'm not initially impressed. She seems generic.

Tammy

I actually think Karen Gillan was largely squandered in her time on the show, particularly last season. I suspect that people will like this new companion better, if only because she won't have Rory and River taking up so much story time.

Ryan

When exactly did the original series not feature an attractive woman in her 20s as at least one of the companions the Doctor was traveling with?

Swearin

Good (Time) Lord, is she stunning! I'll always like that sweet, Scottish ginger but new girl here looks promising. I just hope she can act, and roll with Matt Smith's rythym

Lazy Iggy

I really really hope they make her an alien! That would be a first, right?

Also, now that Doctor has stepped back "into the shadows," it would be interesting if the new companion would be accepting to that added layer of lifestyle.

mrbilliam

I think it would be interesting if she was from either the future or the past, since there's no particular reason for him to keep picking up people from our present.

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