Doctor Who Series 10: Everything You Need To Know
12. Introducing Pearl Mackie As Bill
After two and a half series by the Doctor’s side, Clara Oswald finally left the TARDIS (forever this time, honest) at the end of Series 9. Taking over as the Doctor’s companion is Bill Potts, played by TV newcomer Pearl Mackie.
Bill will first meet the Doctor in one of several modern day Earth episodes set around a Bristol university. Bill’s not a student here, but an employee of its cafeteria. Nevertheless, she’ll impress the Doctor, who’s undercover as a Professor, as they battle an alien presence manifesting itself in water, particularly puddles. Bill’s also rumoured to have a love interest in Stephanie Hyam’s Heather, but she chooses life with the Doctor and begins her TARDIS travels.
Bill is an excitable, geeky and goofy young girl (so another sitcom-esque character from Moffat for some viewers to get horribly irritated by and others to love) who will begin the series inexperienced in time and space travels. Moffat described her as “someone who asks the questions that nobody has asked for 53 years”, such as what exactly the point of the Daleks’ plungers is – because working that out is obviously more important than running away from them, right?