I’m not a Who-head or a Whovian or whatever Doctor Who fans call themselves. But I am familiar with the controversies surrounding Doctor Who in the past several years especially. David Tennent gave way to Matt Smith, Matt Smith gave way to Peter Capaldi, and die-hard Whovians are really, really mad at Steven Moffat, the showrunner and writer of Doctor Who for the past six years. Has Moffat screwed up the series? From what I hear, yes, he has. Which is probably why this is his last season/year as showrunner. He announced his exit from the show back in January, and the new season (season 10) of Doctor Who will be his last. But Moffat had one final send-off before he left the series for good: he had to introduce a new “companion” for Capaldi’s Doctor Who following Jenna Coleman’s exit last December. And the new companion is… a woman of color! The companion will be played by Pearl Mackie.

Doctor Who fans, meet your new TV best friend! Pearl Mackie has been announced by the BBC as the Doctor’s (Peter Capaldi) new companion, replacing Jenna Coleman, who left the series in December. The theatre actress, who most recently appeared in the West End production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, will play a character named Bill, who she describes as “cool, strong, sharp, a little bit vulnerable with a bit of geekiness thrown in.”

Capaldi praised his new costar, saying, “It is a genuine delight to welcome Pearl Mackie to Doctor Who. A fine, fine actress with a wonderful zest and charm, she’s a refreshing addition to the Tardis and will bring a universe of exciting new possibilities to The Doctor’s adventures.”
Mackie, who is also a trained singer and dancer, joins a long list of actors who have played companion to the legendary time-traveling alien, including Coleman, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill, Freema Agyeman, Katherine Tate, and Billie Piper.

Ever since the long-running show was rebooted in 2005, companions typically stick around for no more than three seasons before moving on from the show. When we last saw Coleman’s character, Clara Oswald, she was sailing off in her own time-traveling Tardis with guest star Maisie Williams to travel the universe before returning to the eventual time of her death.

While the show seems to be in a constant state of shake-up, that will be especially true over the next couple seasons as showrunner Steven Moffat exits after season 10 and Capaldi may also be exiting, since his contract is up after one more year.

[From E! News]

The complaints about hiring Peter Capaldi had nothing to do with his talent – and he is a very well-known and well-liked actor in Britain – but because he was just another white dude playing Doctor Who. I mean, it’s science fiction, the Doctor can be played by literally anyone, the sky’s the limit. But Moffat-haters complained about how Whoville was being kept dude-based and white. There were also complaints that Jenna Coleman’s companion was just a bargain basement Manic Pixie Dream Girl, and that Moffat never knows what to do with female characters. I can attest to that – Moffat’s work on Sherlock shows that he doesn’t really know what to do with women, as evidenced by having Sherlock literally MANSPLAINING women’s suffrage. So, Moffat’s Doctor Who swan song is to hire the first woman of color to play the Doctor’s companion. I mean… it’s better than the alternative, I suppose. Moffat would have been getting a ton of shade he hired just another pretty young white actress. Update: because I don’t watch the show, I was just looking at other listings of companions and I didn’t realize they had hired women of color before now. My bad! Pearl isn’t the first woman of color, she’s the second.

Photos courtesy of WENN, @BBCDoctorWho Twitter.