Doctor Who's New Companion Has Only Seen One Episode Of The Show
Being the Doctor’s companion is something that many fans of Doctor Who fantasize about. Imagine [...]
Being the Doctor's companion is something that many fans of Doctor Who fantasize about. Imagine riding in the proverbial passenger's seat of the TARDIS as the Doctor sets a course through space and time for another dangerous and exciting adventure.
Pearl Mackie is living that dream. She'll make her debut as Bill Potts, the new Doctor Who companion, on tonight's Doctor Who Season 10 premiere episode, titled "The Pilot."
But the thing is, that was never really Mackie's dream. In fact, she admits that she has only watched one episode of Doctor Who ever.
"You know, I didn't watch much of Doctor Who when I was a kid. I didn't watch any of the feature series ― I think I've watched one episode," Mackie tells The Huffington Post. "But obviously you'd have to be living in some type of a hole to not be aware of the show.
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Mackie does go on to say that she tried to do the homework once she got the job, but that the people in charge told her not to.
"After getting the job, I said to [excutive producers] Steven [Moffat] and Brian [Minchin], 'Look, give me the back catalog and let me watch everything.' And they said, 'Well, what you're doing at the moment is great. You're bringing a really nice sort of freshness to it. And, you know, you experiencing things as Bill is kind of experiencing things seemed to work really well. So don't watch it!'
It turns out Mackie was just a natural for the job and she admits she didn't want to be tempted to cheat off her predecessors.
"And also, I kind of felt like as an actor watching someone play what is essentially your role [as a companion] and watching them do it so well, it would be hard not to borrow a little bit here and there, even subconsciously," she says. "And I really didn't want to do that because I thought Bill was supposed to be completely fresh and completely new to this. So I thought it was best not to [watch]."
That's an interesting way to go about preparing for such a high-profile role. And now fans are probably wondering which episode was the one that Mackie watched.
Fans will see if going into Doctor Who blind pays for Mackie when "The Pilot" airs Saturday night at 8 p.m. on BBC America.
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