Disagree, IMO it was like a bad teen soap opera.

I agree, Jenna is a good actress but I also found the character intensely annoying so am looking forward to a new companion.

I felt that about Amy myself. Clara was a welcome breath of fresh air, even if I didn't really like her until around the time Smith was prepping to go.

Coleman has always impressed though, and I really hope she goes on to many other good things.

I found him purely cold and unlikeable for the sake of being 'different' without any actual weight given to that character development. By the end of series 8 I wouldn't have given a damn if he'd regenerated. I just couldn't bring myself to care about him which is wrong for a main character. Pity they did nothing with the fall out from Trenzalore (but that's part of the course with Moffat's writing).

Great stories thrive on their characters not their plots and if you find it difficult to care about a character then you don't engage in the story.


Of course not. There wasn't time to audition and hire someone before the Christmas special starts filming. They'll have until at least January if not longer to find someone new.

Imagine if we applied this to all journalism. We'd be pretty passive and compliant lot if we always waited for 'official confirmation'.

It's an entertainment story in a newspaper. Frankly, so what if it's a load of nonsense.

You get this is a forum, where people post their opinions? There was nothing in Collins1965's post that implied their opinion was more valid than yours

I'm indifferent. Didn't mind Clara but won't miss her. Which sometimes is more damning than "I Love " or " I hate" the character.

As long as the next companion isn't a stunt/publicity casting of an arsey comedienne or the like.

The character is what made me start hating the series. Me me bloody me all the time.

Mind you id blame the writers too for doing it that way.

Same here. There wasn't much to her and the way she treated both 'her' men last season was dreadful


It would be nice if she found someone else and just stayed at home After Rose, Donna and Amy I'd prefer a happy ending.
Then I hope the Doctor can find someone much better and more fun to be around who doesn't mess him around. He deserves that.

Cold and smug is bad writing I think. She isn't the first character in Dr Who who seemed to recite her lines. Martha was another.

Got fed up with Clara and the whole dreary Danny boyfriend thing last season. Left me cold, too. Far too much airtime wasted on their story arc. Like Jenna Coleman, though. Best companion for me in New Who- Donna Noble. Would be good to have a new companion whose 'pull' wasn't based on physical attractiveness - not that Catherine Tate isn't attractive but there was so much more dimension to her role.

Well, it's hardly a surprise if true, is it.

Fond of Clara, flaws and all, and think Jenna is a terrific actress. I wish her well.

That explains why River is in the Xmas special then, they needed a companion and they needed them quick. Makes sense for it be someone the audience knows already.

quick? Im sure Colemans exit was planned from the time Moffat started writing series 9.

Is Peter Capacity still on that one year contract he supposedly signed last year?

You do realise things like the cast leaving aren't just decided 5 minutes before the finale starts filming right?. Moffat would have known that Clara was leaving before he even put pen to paper on series 9, (as in probably close to a year ago) and as such, if series 10 is airing next year in the same slot as this year and last year, then the audition's for a new companion would have likely been done months ago, and the person already hired. They wouldn't introduce them in the Christmas special because they just don't do it that way. it's always episode 1 of the new series. (the only exception was of course Donna, but that doesn't disprove the role as of course when that episode was written she was only intended as a one episode companion, and then when she became a full companion she was still given a sort of secondary introductory episode in the first episode of series 4).

The only reason I can see that they wouldn't have already hired someone is if rumours of no series next year are true, in which case there would be no rush as any '2016' specials would probably feature one episode companions like Tennants specials year did, or perhaps the likes of River, Vastra, Jenny and Strax, and they'd have a nice long comfortable amount of time before having to hire a new full time companion for series 10 in 2017.

People seem to think that the announcement of someone leaving is a sign that it's all relatively recent. The concept of pre-planning seems to escape many. I think the only major cast departure that wasn't necessarily planned for outright was Eccleston's. Of course there were very specific circumstances surrounding that one though.


Whilst I'm really not hoping for a Specials scenario, its one saving grace for me would be Capaldi. I think it'd give him a chance to rest up, maybe do some other projects for a little while as well, and then he'll hopefully stay on longer (I'm still hoping for at least four years). And I also think his Doctor, and possibly even he as an actor is capable of carrying the show by himself better than Tennant did - for me part of the weakness of the Tenth Doctor Specials was that his companions were the absolute best of him - when you take those away for a year and leave him with a slur of temporary fill-ins, the problems start. The core foundation of the show is The Doctor travelling with his friends - when his friends are simply the people he meets on his travels there's suddenly a huge empty void.

Well for me, I'm personally still hoping to see Jenna for a special or two in 2016, because I absolutely love the character, but I don't think there's too much further to take her after this series and I'd be stunned if she didn't leave in the finale.

Plus I can understand Jenna wanting to leave, she's been at this since 2012, even if this is only her second full series.

The whole Danny Pink was getting tiresome as well. Why does modern day who always have to go back to the same setting. With Clara it was take me back, take me back all the time then he dies and she wants his death stopped so gets all sulky and destroys tardis keys. Any other doctor would have dumped her off at the next stop straight away.

Really dont see why they had to write it this way. I didnt mind Clara in her debut episode but the last series they have just been making her to look like a complete bitch where the fans dispise and hate her.

Would you for goodness sake go and get a life for yourself. Talk about an over the top childish reaction.

So I didn't like someone that you did. Boo hoo.

Re my above post I would like to take back what I said about the poster getting a life for himself/herself - that was a childish over reaction on my part.

The rest of my post stands. Nowhere in my original post did I say that I was right and everyone else was wrong. I stated that Clara as a character did not work for me and I was not sorry she was going. From reading the thread I am not alone in that. For the record those that love her and are sorry to see her go are entitled to hold that view as far as I am concerned. Room for both opinions, surely.

Rather tidily, Series 8 and 9 are both 12 episodes, then she did ten episodes of Series 7 plus the anniversary special and Smiths exit episode - equating to 12 again. She then did Last Christmas too but if you take off the Capaldi one-hander that's coming up she's done what amounts to three very tidy collections of 12 episodes a piece.

Clara will have been in more episodes than Rose and Amy.

Her leaving in Hell Bent seems like a good jumping off point.

Last year there would have been some truth in that. Clara was given a (soft) ending becauseJenna didn't want to stay on. Then Jenna said she'd do the Christmas special so Moffat wrote her into it. If she hadn't changed her mind Moffat would probably have just had the Doctor on his own. Moffat wrote her out completely , but did two endings because he was hoping to persuade her to sign up for series 9. (that weird thing where we saw Clara's very good exit from the show followed by it being undone).

This year I'm pretty certain that everyone involved knew from the outset that Jenna was not going to go beyond series 9. I suspect Moffat wouldn't have had a strong desire for Clara to be in series 10 and it was mutually agreeable that she leaves the show.

Unlike last years Christmas special I bet there was zero uncertainty about Clara's absence from it.

I'm glad Jenna did decide to stay on for series 9. I thought she was given a good exit in the Christmas special and groaned when it was undone again. But, that aside it's probably going to be a good thing. Clara was given a terrible introductory series and didn't register with me at all as a quality character. (There was stuff about Amy's first year that was pretty wrong but the strengths outweighed it for me). Then in series 8 Moffat completely rebooted the character and to my mind we had Clara's Introductory Series Mark II. Now I'll be happy to see Clara and the Doctor in full flight - with her actually travelling in the Tardis as a proper old fashioned companion.

I like the actor but I'm not overly fond of the dialogue she's given or the way she's asked to play it. An example: Dark Water: The phone call she makes to Danny during which he dies crossing the road. Not one bit of that sounded like a real conversation. I know what Moffat was going for, but it just felt too, I don't know - sitcomesque TV-quirky. It undercut what it was all leading up to.

I'm also not a fan of Moffat injecting Clara into the entire biography of the Doctor, so I don't want any more of that thank you. I'm half expecting to find out magical souffle impossible girl was the Doctor's favourite aunt all along and personally guided the Tardis to a junk yard in Totters Lane.

But other than that - I hope she goes out on a high having had a series of travelling in the Tardis and being a full on hero companion.