To be perfectly honest, we would love to see an Indian companion on the show. It would create so many opportunities for socially conscious moments whenever the Doctor travels to the past. Imagine a modern Indian British companion with a sarcastic sense of humor, and the look on his face the first time someone in the past assumes that he is the Doctor's manservant. Some of Martha's greatest moments came when she defied other people's expectations of what she was capable of, both as a woman and a person of color. It would be nice to see more things like that. But Dev Patel isn't on the list just to check an ethnic box. He's a really talented young actor, as we've seen in projects like Skins, Slumdog Millionaire, and The Newsroom, but he never seems to get the credit that he deserves. Patel has a certain wide-eyed earnestness to him that would work well on a show with as many fantastic elements as Doctor Who does, but he's also capable of being as snarky as the Fifth Doctor when the occasion calls for it.