Who’s Who’s Companion? — introducing Pearl Mackie
The BBC Network has announced the long awaited casting of the role of The Doctor’s new companion for the hit series, Dr. Who. After the departure of Clara Oswald, played for the longest run of any Who sidekick by Jenna Louise Coleman, fans have been anxious to discover who’d be jumping into the TARDIS next. Just yesterday, on BBC’s Football Match of the Day, the network released a halftime promotion announcing the newest young actor to fill the shoes:
Pearl Mackie, budding young actress with recent credits on the medical soap opera, Doctors, and a cameo in a 2005 episode of Dr. Who, has taken on the role of Bill, the next companion of the Time Lord when the series begins it new season in 2017, shortly after the annual Holiday Special. I’ve been a critic of Clara Oswald, I never fell in love with her from the start, and from what I’ve seen of Mackie in the trailer, I can’t wait to breath the fresh air.
Mackie, a striking young actress and South London native, studied drama at Bristol University. She went on to participate in theatre and hone her craft before finally getting her big break. I love that she’s new, and I love that she’s a bit funky. That’s what I’ve been missing since Matt Smith left the show.
Companions should be layered, displaying more than just nobly regarded character traits. They need to be as quirky as the Doctor himself, or at least as doctors nine through eleven. For me Clara was too perfect, too smart, too resourceful and too much. I hope Pearl Mackie maintains for the new season the same innocent realism of a newcomer facing the world of Who as she does in the trailer, and that the writers keep writing it that way. I’m excited, for the first time in a Gallifreyan year to watch a new Who. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait till Christmas.
'Well, uh, for Paulie, I really want to get him a snow cone machine. You like snow cones, don'tcha?'- Rocky Balboa
