Coleman talks Doctor Who and companionship

BBC One has posted a clip featuring an interview with the new Doctor Who co-star Jenna-Louise Coleman.

Fans of the show have known for some time now that the latest companion for the Doctor (after the Ponds are out of the story) will be a girl named ‘Clara’ played by Jenna-Louise Coleman, who is slated to be introduced in this year’s holiday episode set in Victorian London. 

Many of us were thrown for a loop when the actress appeared early on the first episode of the current season, playing a girl called Oswin who had undergone a terrible transformation. It’s still not confirmed whether or not Oswin has any connection to Clara or if it was just a dual use of the actress.

In this new featurette, Coleman discusses the multi-part audition process she went through:

In a recent interview, showrunner Steven Moffatt discussed his thoughts on Coleman, and the nature of the Doctor’s companions. “We are going to do the story properly of the Doctor having lost a friend and making a new one. We’re not taking that lightly. It’s not in one door out the other. It’s the story of how all that affects him, why he engages with somebody else and what’s going on with that – that’s all important.”

Frankly, I’m really looking forward to the new companion, the potential for new storylines and a very different tone to a show that has become increasingly goofy over the last season or so. If the addition of Coleman sobers the series up a bit, it will be a welcome change.

Right now, however, we still don’t know a thing about her, and I think Moffatt likes it that way.

The second half of the series kicks off in the new year, but in between we’ll have the holiday episode which is slated to air on December 25, 2012. A Doctor Who 50th Anniversary special will also arrive sometime in 2013, but the series will be on hiatus after that until Fall 2014, when series 8 is scheduled to be split across the new year, similar to this season.