After Jenna Coleman’s surprisingly long stint as Clara Oswald came to a close last year, the TARDIS is vacant once again.

Here are ten of our top picks to fill that empty spot in the TARDIS…

 

Cara Theobold

Formerly of Downton Abbey, Yorkshire-born actress Cara Theobold has recently made a splash in the third season of Kay Mellor’s lottery drama The Syndicate and BBC Three sitcom Together.

Although she has a relatively small number of roles to her name at the moment; Theobold proved her strength as an actress early on, securing her two season role in Downton Abbey while still studying acting.

In Downton Abbey and her other work, Theobold has consistently held her own against more experienced actors as part of ensemble casts since the start of her career. Meaning that she’d likely be able to form a decent double act with Peter Capaldi while not necessarily being overshadowed by him.

As well as this, as an actress, Theobold works well as both a lighter presence and as the straight (wo)man. Which is very good mix for a potential companion since their role is often a mix of being the audience surrogate, but also a strong presence in their own right. Particularly in those occasional moments when the Doctor needs to be kept on the straight and narrow.

A number of roles like her one-off appearance in Season 4 of Call The Midwife show that Theobold has a flair for raw drama, and her sitcom work that she also has a talent for playing a brighter and more perky demeanour, which would contrast nicely to the Twelfth Doctor’s more sombre moments.

 

Charlotte Ritchie

Rapidly becoming a BBC mainstay with leading roles in BBC Three sitcom Siblings and period drama Call the Midwife, Charlotte Ritchie’s first major role was in Channel 4’s student flat-share comedy Fresh Meat as literature student Oregon Shawcroft.

These three ongoing and very different parts show Ritchie’s capability of playing a range of characters. Her Call the Midwife character Barbara is earnest and well-intentioned, Oregon is good-natured despite some personality flaws, and her Siblings character Hannah is so selfish and without empathy that she borders on sociopathic.

As well as showing a strong acting range in general, Ritchie recently proved her mettle outside of comedy in Call the Midwife, which (despite being a pre-watershed BBC One drama) often deals with some dark subject matter like birth defects caused by Thalidomide. While Doctor Who’s grimmer episodes aren’t quite that close to home, it’s a tone that both series deal in: family-friendly but not afraid to push boundaries and go down darker routes.

Ritchie also has an affinity for strong and brash characters, which could potentially make for an interesting character dynamic with the Twelfth Doctor similar to Tegan and Donna’s relationships with the Fifth and Tenth Doctors.

 

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