Are you still in touch with your Doctor’s companions?
“Yes, I was talking with Janet Fielding (Tegan) just this morning. So yes, very much. We still do the audio CDs quite regularly for Big Finish, licenced by the BBC.”Companions are different now, aren’t they?
“I think they struggled with companions as the modern world encroached on Doctor Who. They struggled to get them right. They wanted to do the right thing and make them interesting and challenging, just a better part, but I don’t think they managed it until Billie Piper arrived as Rose. She was the first companion that worked as a proper rounded character. Other than that, they were there to get into trouble and take a storyline in a certain direction. One of my companions, Tegan, basically had the storyline that she didn’t want to be there. I also had Turlough, who tried to kill me, but it didn’t really work. The answer was, you write a damned good character and that’s what Russell T Davies managed to do with Rose. Billie’s performance was great as well. The argument which I’ve heard is that Rose was the more important character and it’s not far off.
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