Tell that to those on here slagging Michelle off but hey they are jealous of her so wont take any notice.

Your use of English explains everything to me.

i'm all for opposing opinions and negative reactions - it's part and parcel of forum life.

but when someone presents their opinion as absolute fact, then it gets annoying ..

Michelle has worked almost continually since she was 16. You don't get 9 years of work on looks alone.

There will always be actors/actresses we don't all like, in my case Barbara Windsor in EE ( or anyone in EE really!) but I wouldn't call them completely talentless.

I'm not a great fan to be honest. But I will admit that the Dr Who team got the best out of her. Could have been better, but she seemed to have improved a lot.

Can I give an un-biased opinion?

I've only ever seen Michelle Ryan in this - hated the inaccuracy of Merlin and don't much like soap operas - and I thought she was good. She's a perfectly good actress. Of course her looks had SOMETHING to do with it, but she played her part more than decently! Sadly, the part left something to be desired. It was an awful character IMO, mainly because of the one-liners (the one about her hair didn't fit with her tough, extreme character) and the lack of chemistry between her and the Doctor.
Provided that they didn't continue with the romantic pairing, and wrote the part more consistently, I think she'd make a decent full-time assistant.

I liked her

The only bit of her acting I found cringey was the sand in the hair bit. Other than that she did a good job with an average part in an average episode.

Can't blame it all on the actors, can we

I do think given decent scripts she'd make an excellent companion...

What's worse then slagging her off as being a pretty but incompetent actress is surely the sexist attitude of some of the male posters on here. Assuming girls who don't like her are 'just jealous' is patronising, untrue and a bit revolting really. Women aren't just a bunch of jealous harpies tearing each other apart. Look how popular women like Cheryl Cole are with other women, esp considering how gorgeous she is. I didn't like Michelle's acting or the character last night. End of. And I liked Rose. So doesn't really fit into the pretty girls = jealous women viewers BS being thrown about to explain poster's opinions.


Oh I know. I saw her on This Morning aaaaaages ago and it sounded unnatural then. You can't convince me that it's her original accent. EE was her original accent and through voice training or whatever she's altered it (presumably because she's seen from Martine McCutcheon that the cheeky cockney gal doesn't get you the best range of parts). And it doesn't sound quite right.

I thought she was an excellent companion

I would rather watch her than CT anyday

I think she was...
and i know i'll be hated but...
she was one of the best companions ever.
I loved everything about her: the way she interacted with the Doctor, her personality, her look everything!

You won't be hated - everyone is entitled to their opinion. If you want to say you liked her and thought she was the best - you are entitled to do so. Life would be boring if we all thought the same.

Of course, other people (like me!) are entitled to the opposite opinion!

So the cockney accent is her original voice?

Thats some trick for someone from Middlesex.

She was born in Enfield. Not technically cockney as in born within the sound of Bow bells but a London suburb not known for its posh parts.

Listening to an interview with her on a radio show a while ago made me think her posher accent sounds a bit contrived. It is the one she uses in real life but I don't think it's the one she grew up using.

Just my opinion, obviously.

Love the sarcasm! Britains Got Talent is watched by the Celebrity Get Me Out/X Factor brigade so will always attract huge ratings. To say, however that it BGT "beat" Dr Who is a bit odd as they were both on completely different times! I do feel though, that putting Doctor Who on at 6.30pm on Easter Monday would have been a much better time and would have attracted more viewers. It always beats Emmerdale when it is shown on Christmas Day and would have beat it again if it had been scheduled for an Easter Monday screening. I mean do we really need the One Show on Easter Monday?

She was excellent in Jekyll and Merlin; she gave exactly the performance both parts needed. I thought her performance in Doctor Who not quite so good; there were definitely moments that the character didn't seem to be working. But she wasn't rubbish by any means.

Scandalous!!!

Much as I liked her, it's going to take a hell of a lot to trump Donna for me

I didn't know that. That's where I'm from. Did she grow up here, or was she just born in Enfield? If she grew up here, I very much doubt that is her normal accent. For one she would have been lynched at school (assuming it was a local secondary school).

As I have said on another thread, she was the one good thing in what I thought was an otherwise woeful episode.

She does seem a bit inconsistent. In some scenes she's good and natural and in other scenes she sounds rather wooden. The scene when she's falling down that shaft to capture the alien magnetic things, her delivery was very stiff. It also sounded as if her lines were redone in post-production (and David Tennant has admitted he hates doing that because it's hard to act natural when you redo the lines in a recording studio). Daniel Tennant seems to act more or less the same way in most scenes, it's possible he's a more natural actor than Ryan. I think some actors just seem more natural than others. I guess that's the secret to acting - just seem natural rather than giving a forced 'trying too hard' performance.

I would say she could work as a permanent assistant. I wouldn't be surprised if she teamed up with Matt Smith's Doctor. I dunno if that will happen but she could have potential. I don't think you need to be a great actress to be a Doctor Who assistant. Just run and scream and maybe act tough in a few scenes - that's all you need to do! I think she would be a success teaming up with Matt Smith.

Sorry but I thought she was awful, she's never been a very good actress imo. Couldn't take her as a full-time companion.

Yes, assuming the next Doctor has a new personality, then a new/different kind of companion could be needed

Best since Kylie and they can't afford Kylie. She can act. She has presence and the tough aristocrat character works. Lots to explore there and its different to Rose and Donna and would work with a young unknown doctor. The people who don't like people for their Eastender's character won't like her but they are not the DW target audience.

She joins the list of potentially great companions who appeared on the new series and then just were left somewhere or died leaving stories untold. Meanwhile whilst the Doctor's Daughter, Lynda with a y and Christina come and go, you suspect the producers are dreaming up another weak companion like Martha so the new doctor isn't overshadowed.

All that trouble they went to get a bus out in the desert when all the show needed was Michelle,

the best assistant ever lets hope it's true she is going to be offered the part full time when the new Dr takes over because he will need all the help he can get as he'll be as exciting as sand.

I'm getting a bit fed-up with the number of times RTD introduces a great potential companion then drops them after one episode; Michelle, Kylie, Georgia Moffatt.

I suggest the BBC make a spin-off series in which Lady Christina in her flying bus encounters Jenny in her escape pod and they both go off together to have lots of babetastic alien-ass-kicking adventures together.

And, for the record, I saw nothing wrong with Michelle's performance. She was very good.