The Doctor’s New Companion?
And, again I state, there’s a spoiler or two here.
British media are reporting the new companion next season on Doctor Who will be played by Tom Ellis, who was the handsome Doctor Thomas Milligan on the season finale, The Last of the Time Lords. Ellis is perhaps best known for playing the handsome Doctor Oliver Cousins on the long-running (except by Doctor Who standards) soap opera and PBS money-sucker Eastenders.
The BBC has not confirmed these reports, several of which ran this morning on the BBC. Freema Agyema’s character of Martha Jones will be appearing on three episodes of the adult Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood, and will be rejoining the Doctor Who cast mid-season. We don’t know if the new companion will stay around, but it certainly wouldn’t be the first time (is that a pun?) there were two companions. Or even three.
We also don’t know if Ellis would be repeating his Doctor Milligan role; we recall that Martha Jones was revealed to be the identical cousin to the character Freema Agyeman played in the previous season.
Thay're recycled actors from all three seasons of the new show so far. Eve Myles from the first season's Unquiet Dead became a regular (with the same character name yet) on Torchwood, and last year they used Freema.I'm hoping we see the delightful Samantha Sparrow (from Blink) again as well. Davies and his team have done a great job of creating characters that you would be happy to see again. Elton from Love and Monsters is another one I would happily see again.So far, the best episodes of the last two seasons have been the "extra" ones, filmed without the regular cast to allow for an extra episode to be filmed. Kind of like "The Five Obstructions", the challenge is to write an episode of Doctor who almost no Doctor in it, and so far they've kicked ass.
BTW, I only just read that Torchwood will be premiering on BBC America on September 8. I'll be curious to see if it gets trimmed any – aside from simply making room for advertisements, the UK are more than happy to allow the Four-letter eUphemism for Carnal Knowledge on the air after certain hours. I don't believe BBC-A has that luxury.It's a spotty show, with less "wins" for the team than you're used to with Doctor Who. But worth a look.
Like Doctor Who, Torchwood builds as it goes along. Unlike Doctor Who, they've got a cast of characters and gets his or her turn at development before it all comes together.