Doctor Who Brings in Samuel Anderson As New, Male Companion

The BBC announced today that Emmerdale‘s Samuel Anderson will join the cast of Doctor Who as a recurring character in Series 8.The actor will play Danny Pink, a teacher at Coal Hill School where companion Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman) also teaches.Danny Pink is being identified as a “male companion” in several of the online stories. Neither Anderson nor showrunner Steven Moffat, both of whom commented briefly on the casting, used the word, but it makes sense: in the early days of the series, it used to be fairly common for The Doctor to have two companions, including one who did a lot of the heavy lifting for the often-older Doctor. While Peter Capaldi is hardly ancient and feeble, the actor is decidedly less spry than Doctors Nine, Ten and Eleven.