Why is that bad? That's just a different dynamic that we haven't had for a while. A fatherly relationship to his companion is not necessarily a bad thing. There are loads of successful stories that rely on a parental relationship.

It won't be the same as Smith/Coleman, but then we don't want it to be. A good shakeup is what regeneration is all about. A new dynamic is what makes it interesting.

For myself, I wouldn't mind seeing Coleman leave but not because of her age or Capaldi's. Instead it's because ever since the Clara character was put up on a pedestal as "The Most Important Companion Ever", I've lost some of my liking for her.

On a side note, I wonder if Coleman first felt happy that she was the veteran on Doctor Who and the actor to play the Doctor would be the new guy, only to find out that the actor playing the new Doctor had already been on Doctor Who before her.

Also, I'm not very familiar with Capaldi as an actor but from what I've read on here, he's apparently a veteran actor who's considered to be a good actor. If so, then I think Coleman is going to have to step up a little with her acting because right now I think she's been so-so, with her acting sometimes being alright and at other times giving the impression of an actress reading her lines.

you know .....

the pairing of capaldi and coleman might hark back to the ORIGINAL relationship, right at the start with DW and susan!

it also should give the younger more agile companions a bit more of the action-y stuff to do ..... can't have our lead actor breaking a HIP now, can we

Regarding the whole "romance thing", I think the show did itself a disservice by having it. Certainly it's been divisive and while I know there are some fans who like the romance, my impression from things I've seen on the internet is that most fans either don't like it or aren't wild about it.

And so I think the show should have had the Doctor and companion be just friends and then if some people wanted to imagine they were more than that then that's fine. At the same time, those people who didn't want the romance or soap opera elements wouldn't have been annoyed by it.

Also, it would have avoided "quality" dialogue like this:


DOCTOR: No, there's someting I'm missing Martha. Something really close, staring me right in the face and I can't see it. Rose'd know. A friend of mine, Rose. Right now, she'd say exactly the right thing.


Yes, Doctor, because 18-year-old Rose (or however old she's supposed to be) is such a vast fountain of knowledge and wisdom, she always knows what's going on in a situation and always knows exactly the right thing to say. Give me a break!


And then there's the Doctor finishing the dialogue up by being rude to Martha:


DOCTOR: Still, can't be helped. You're a novice, never mind. I'll take you back home tomorrow.


And so I definitely don't think the romance helped the show and actually made it worse in some areas.

But the example you have given wasn't a romantic exchange. It was showing The Doctors arrogance (not an new trait by all means, very classic infact)

The whole Martha 'lovie dovie' or whatever was firstly a character arc for The Doctor and how he copes with loosing a companion, I'm still amazed at how many people miss this and concentrate on what probably adds up to less than 10 minutes of an entire series of Martha being all lovie dovie.


I'm not sure where all this romance was during series 3 because apart from Martha fancying the Doc that was it. Hardly Mills and Boon.

Well said. I grew up watching that era and there was nothing wrong or creepy about having a younger companion.

So, you just wanted to be yet another person saying Peter Capaldi is "too old", but you wanted your very own thread.

Are you a TARDIS?

Well said!

The OP watches BB so it may explain things!
Putting my oar in on the borefest that has now become discussing poor Peter Capaldi's age, he obviously wont be in it long because he will drop dead from exhaustion having to heave his poor, wee, crock of bones around the studio and having to hang from the TARDIS whizzing around space!

If anyone is having problems with big age gaps, firstly why is there an assumption that there is going to be a romance, this only reared its head during DT's reign, secondly if there was what is the problem. She is a mature woman and women do have romances with sexy men in their fifties.

Absolutely! But that is another story altogether and I understand there are young, sensitive souls here...!

Are you for real, or is this just a wind-up?

Ridiculous, narrow-minded and bigoted.

I've been a bit disappointed with Clara.
Thought she was ok in Asylum of the Daleks and The Snowman.
Since then she seems to have been in hyper mode. Script or daft acting, or both ?

Don't mind if she leaves or not. ? (possibly worse than hate.)

what about jon pertwee and his companions ?
or patrick troughton .....

the third doctor and jo grant had fantastic chemistry, yet he looked like her grandad.

her and matt were great together in the latest episode, so it was definatelly down to appalling script before that.

Through no fault of her own, Jenna Coleman has been given a character who has been poorly written. Clara doesn't interact believably with the Doctor and is thinly sketched - we know very little about her background, family, friends, motivations etc. She's a cardboard cut-out of a character.

I hope that this is addressed in series 8 and Clara's character is properly explored and expanded.

People moaning about the age gap between Clara and Capaldi are really just demonstrating their ignorance about the show. Clearly they've never seen any 'Doctor Who' pre-2005.

I think that's what I was trying to imagine about the way she acts.
Almost if she is talking to a blue screen and then inserted in the scene ?
Moffat can't do female characters so well unless they act like Joan Collins - River Song.
Or Emma Peel - Jenny Flint ?

In these cases the companions/assistants are assumed to be the ages of the actresses playing them.

But consider Susan and Vikki from William Hartnell's tenure (Age 55 - 58) The actresses were older than the characters they were portraying (assuming Susan's age was 15). Carole Ann Ford was 23 on her DW debut, Maureen O' Brien was 21 on her debut.

If you then add the fact that Clara has travel in the Doctor's time stream, experienced all of the Doctor's 11 different life's, saved his life, been saved by him in return, this is going to bring the both of them closer together. This should bring them together and have them trust each other unlike before.

Where the Doctor was unsure of Clara, wondering why she was there, and Clara was feeling as something was wrong, a new feeling of trust can develop. A new relationship can develop from a joined experience.

That exchange was awful, admittedly. I didn't mind the Doctor being in love with Rose, but to try to make out she was some all-wise person was absurd. He knew she wasn't.

Poor Martha should never have been lumbered with the unrequited love thing. She was a really good companion and deserved better.

I do wonder if they will introduce a 3rd person to tardis for the adventure stuff, ie young fit male hero, or even bring back Captain Jack!!

Like 4th doctor, Sarah, Harry etc

This. There's been some really depressing stuff on here over the past few days.

It's the ideal answer. The girls (and gays) who like a hot guy get one. The guys (and girls) who like a hot girl companion still have one. Those who like a Doctor with a few years on him get one.

Everyone wins!

Actually, what I was trying to say is that the 10th Doctor and Rose had a romance and then in the scene/dialogue I mentioned, the Doctor is shown pining away for Rose, putting her up on an unbelievable and unrealistic pedestal and then being rude to Martha. If the show had never had the 10/Rose romance in the first place, this scene/dialogue wouldn't have taken place and I think the Doctor's character and the episode itself would have been the better for it.

Also I don't think Martha's crush on the Doctor helped her character and her character and episodes would have been better without it.

Sorry I wasn't as clear as I could have been regarding what I was attempting to say.