Doctor Who announces new companion

Not only that but in the Doctors Wife the Doctor states that the Corsair regenerated into a female and back again a few times. So it can happen

You're right about that. Tegan was




While Donna was more of

Different strokes and all that. (After all, I'm fairly cool toward Tom Baker most of the time, but like the fifth and sixth doctors... and people are really down on Colin Baker.)

Frankly, I wouldn't mind a bit more... questionableness in a companion at some point, a la Turlough (which, I suppose, we had a bit of in Jack Harkness.)

See my Guides and Tutorials

Well, they talked about The Corsair in one episode. And how they always got the same tattoo regardless of what form they took after regeneration.

And I quote "He was a bad girl!"

Then there's Curse of the Fatal Death, a Doctor Who send-up. Where The Doctor eventually regenerated into Joanna Lumley.

Written by none other than...Steven Moffat.

So the basic "idea" is there.

Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.

Good penmenship and personal hygene?

I'll admit she wasn't unattractive but she wasn't attractive enough to carry the role solely on her physical appearance.

Are you suggesting Tegan had anything in common with Peri? I mean, besides an inexhaustable capacity of abrasive whingeing?

It would be a huge mistake to rank the Doctor's companions in terms of mere eye candy rather than the rapport between the characters, not to mention the actors. Sarah Jane Smith is remembered so fondly not simply because she's an "English rose" but more due to her character's pluckiness and Elizabeth Sladen's ability as an actress to convey both bravery and fear. Her tenure with Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker is a significant part of why their Doctors rank among the top of the show's. Conversely, Bonnie "Mel" Langford was the nail in the coffin of Colin Baker's Doctor and got Sylvester McCoy's off to a very rocky start - which didn't recover until Ace came along.

I'm reasonably confident that Moffat is aware of this and that he has created an interesting character for the new companion and cast a capable actress to play her. The crazy thing is that with the new series's international popularity, Jenna-Louise Coleman's casting is mainstream news for the likes of the New York Times and the Hollywood Reporter.

In fairness to Peri ([insert bunk related quip here] ) she was stuck with 6 for a long time, including his regeneration I believe so she got an awful lot of stick; he "woke up" cranky and didn 't get much better.

Sorry, no special pleading. Colin Baker's Sixth notwithstanding*, Peri dragged down Peter Davison's Fifth, who had already had to put up with a series of companions who were either bland at best or, more often, irritating. Much of the tension in Davison's final story drew from how the Doctor was risking his own life to save that of this extremely annoying pseudo-American.

In any case, I am too much the gentleman to speculate on a competition between Jenna-Louise Coleman and Nicola Bryant (if you know what I mean, and I think you do).

* While his tenure was the nadir of the classic series, he's been gracious enough since then that I wonder how he'd have fared with adequate scripts, costumes, and companions.

Aye, I've thought the same recently. I think he was totally shortchanged by the scripts and then made the scapegoat when it all fell apart.

And any memories I have of Peri are coloured by being a hormonal pre-teenage boy at the time. So my focus may not have been quite on her character.

Being in the teenage formative years when I was first introduced to her and the Doctor, there's a reason all my Tegan memories are likewise rose-and-purple colored.

A little while back I was re-watching some of her first episodes and thought 'is that really her hair or did a bird make a nest up there when we weren't looking'. Ah, the '80's.

Blood Widow Ricki * Tide Shifter * T-34 * Opposite Reaction * Shaolin Midnight * ChernobylCheerleader

Entropy Legion * Hyperion Force * Hero Heights

I was all prepared to say exactly this. She is the one companion who got me to actually dislike Doctor Who. I still watched it but it quickly went from must watch it soon a possible to watch after my other favorites to I'm really bored (sigh) I suppose I could catch up on Who