Ncuti Gatwa is the 15th Doctor

[Starkers]

I'm not really sure why we're talking about companions falling in love with the Doctor like it's a regular thing. As far as I can tell, the only ones who definitely loved the Doctor in That Way were Rose, Martha and Yaz, and in the case of Yaz that's only been officially acknowledged within the show itself in the most recent season and the specials. The only other ones that come close would be Clara, though that was more a mutual attraction between her and the Eleventh Doctor that went away when he regenerated and Jack, though that seemed more an extension of his playful flirting with everyone. Maybe Sarah Jane, though that was more a retcon done after the fact in School Reunion. I guess there's River, depending on whether you count her as a proper companion or not.

Clara definitely while he was still Eleven, and for a time at least clearly Amy did as well.

Is it easier to identify companions who definitely didn't at least fancy the Doctor (in the modern era at least) Mickey, Donna, Rory, Bill, Ryan. Graham and Dan. (sure I've forgotten someone!)

It wouldn't surprise me if Nardole had a thing for the Doctor

Re classic companions. Jo Grant and Romana II could probably be added into the equation. I think there's clearly the possibility of romance in both cases, and it may be a stretch but at times you can feel something between Five and Nyssa, especially in Terminus.

The adverse reaction that certain parts of Who fandom have to the idea of romance between the Doctor and their Companions doesn't make any sense to me.

Also, River Song is officially considered a Companion.

River is definitely a companion. River definitely loves the Doctor. And the Doctor definitely loves River (despite her thinking otherwise). I have no issue with the Doctor loving River. Irrespective of Alex Kingston being older than someone like Billie or Jenna or Karen, the character of River is clearly far older than Rose or Martha etc. That said I have no idea how old River is though the consensus seems to be at least 200. I mean she spends 24 years with the Doctor at the Singing Towers Of Darillium on their last date alone and doesn't seem to age much. Irrespective, River feels far more of a contemporary of the Doctor than most companions.

This isn't just a problem I have with Who. A 900 year old man and a 19 year old girl is just as creepy as a 16 year old high school student and a 270 year old vampire!

 

[Brendan Moody]

I think there’s a difference between being in love with the Doctor and being in love with traveling with the Doctor. Rose and Martha and apparently (I don’t watch the Chibnall era) Yaz have decidedly been the former. Amy tried to seduce him once, in one of those “this is funny/cool in the moment so who cares how much sense it makes as characterization” moments Moffat went in for, but I don’t get the feeling she actually loved him in a romantic sense. I never got that sense with Clara and Eleven either, though I only watched a couple of their episodes.

 

[Captaindemotion]

I often think of Missy pointing out the couple walking their dog to Clara; she and the doctor are the couple, Clara is the dog!

 

[David cgc]

Amy tried to seduce him once, in one of those “this is funny/cool in the moment so who cares how much sense it makes as characterization” moments Moffat went in for, but I don’t get the feeling she actually loved him in a romantic sense.

That was definitely a result of Amy's near-death experience facing the Weeping Angels, combined with Amy's lifelong history with him as a mysterious stranger. The Doctor himself walks through it in the next episode, when he explains to her and Rory that he's well-tired of TARDIS travel and the emotional highs and lows of space-adventuring breaking up relationships and setting him up as the rebound, so he's trying to nip that in the bud before Amy and Rory turn into Rose and Mickey.

I never got that sense with Clara and Eleven either, though I only watched a couple of their episodes.

From the way the Twelfth Doctor talked in his first episode, he was on the rebound after what happened to Amy, and was playing at Clara being interested him like Rose was (or, more precisely, him being interested in Amy the way Rose was in him) because it was easier on him to keep things flirty and light and pretend that he couldn't tell the difference between fascination and infatuation with the mysterious space-person than to define the relationship, and it was only after the regeneration he was able to feel comfortable with being the responsible (in the legal sense) older friend with his "duty of care," though Clara continued to see the Doctor as her companion all the way to the end.

 

[DigificWriter]

One of the reasons that I don't understand the objections to the notion of the Doctor/Companion romance is how rarely it has actually been used as a story point over the course of the series. Out of 15 different (remembered) lives, the Doctor has been shown to have a reciprocal attraction towards exactly 3 people - Rose, River, and Yaz - and has, as of now, acted on that attraction exactly once, with River.

 

[Mr Awe]

This. It was one thing to see Rose dribbling over the Doctor like an adolescent (especially after being an actual person the previous season). Seeing the Doctor dribbling over Rose like an adolescent...words fail me. (The fact she ended up with her very own Doctor-lite / animated blow-up doll...gah. Just gah.)

Completely agree. In fact, once I was saying to some friends that to the Doctor, humans should be like pets. That got shocked looks. But if you think about the differences in lifespan and intelligence, we're probably no more than dog like to the Doctor. At best. That's probably even overstating it. But certainly no romantic feelings!

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Fan fiction is a whole other world. In some 11 and Amy did do the deed. Yuck

Jo Grant I think fancied the third Doctor

 

[diankra]

As far as pre-existing profile, this is far more like casting Tennant or Whittaker than Matt Smith; it’s just profile with a different audience. I’m a bit surprised so few people here have seen Sex Education. I know sci-fi and teen dramedy don’t have a ton of overlap, but it does have Scully off The X-Files!

Seriously, though, check the show out if you have Netflix. Even if it’s not your cup of tea, you’ll be able to see pretty quickly that Gatwa has charm and comic timing, which takes you a fair bit of the way as the Doctor.

If you have Netflix. I don't, so not seen it.

 

[StCoop]

Moffat is out promoting 'The Time Traveller's Wife' and mentioned that he was shown Ncuti's audition tapes by Russell. To give him some pointers on how to write for him perhaps?

 

[The Wormhole]

I never got that sense with Clara and Eleven either, though I only watched a couple of their episodes.

IMO, there's a lot of romantic subtext to the way Smith and Coleman played their scenes, especially in Day of the Doctor and Time of the Doctor. Indeed, it was something Capaldi noticed too, it was he who requested Moffat come up with a story reason to get rid of it when he started mainly because he wasn't comfortable with the idea of flirting with someone twenty-five years younger than him.

 

[Orac Zen]

One of the reasons that I don't understand the objections to the notion of the Doctor/Companion romance is how rarely it has actually been used as a story point over the course of the series.

The fact it's been done so incredibly badly, and the fact that we're talking about someone about 1000 years old dribbling over people in their twenties (in the case of Rose), is / are my issue(s) with "romance" in Who. Eleven / River passes - just - because Alex Kingston and Matt Smith made it work, but the other instances are just absurd. IMO, of course; I don't presume to speak for others, nor do I imagine my view carries any more weight than anyone else's.

 

[Starkers]

IMO, there's a lot of romantic subtext to the way Smith and Coleman played their scenes, especially in Day of the Doctor and Time of the Doctor. Indeed, it was something Capaldi noticed too, it was he who requested Moffat come up with a story reason to get rid of it when he started mainly because he wasn't comfortable with the idea of flirting with someone twenty-five years younger than him.

Paraphrasing but...

12: "I'm not your boyfriend."
Clara. "I never said you were."
12. "I never said you did."

 

[Brendan Moody]

A complicating factor here is that Steven Moffat writes flirtatious banter more or less by default, so a lot of his character interactions will have that edge regardless of whether there’s a deeper romantic storyline going on.

 

[DigificWriter]

Objecting to the Doctor feeling reciprocal attraction towards Rose and Yaz but not towards River is hypocritical, IMO, because it's manufacturing arbitrary standards that are being selectively applied.

 

[StCoop]

Objecting to the Doctor feeling reciprocal attraction towards Rose and Yaz but not towards River is hypocritical, IMO, because it's manufacturing arbitrary standards that are being selectively applied.

Bloody hell. For once I agree with you 100%

 

[StCoop]

People auditioning had to learn an eight page speech.

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-ncuti-gatwa-audition-newsupdate/

 

[Jedman67]

Objecting to the Doctor feeling reciprocal attraction towards Rose and Yaz but not towards River is hypocritical, IMO, because it's manufacturing arbitrary standards that are being selectively applied.

Besides the fact that River was also a time traveler and not "just" some stupid human, she was also like a hundred years old or so, objectively, when she started falling for him? And it took until halfway through 11 until he started reciprocating. The creep factor went down a bit by then.

 

[DigificWriter]

Besides the fact that River was also a time traveler and not "just" some stupid human, she was also like a hundred years old or so, objectively, when she started falling for him? And it took until halfway through 11 until he started reciprocating. The creep factor went down a bit by then.

It doesn't matter what mitigating excuses you want to throw on the table; the hypocrisy is still there.

You either have to be okay with the Doctor falling in love with all of the people they fell in love with or none of the people they fell in love with.

Anything else is hypocritical.

 

[Jedman67]

It doesn't matter what mitigating excuses you want to throw on the table; the hypocrisy is still there.

You either have to be okay with the Doctor falling in love with all of the people they fell in love with or none of the people they fell in love with.

Anything else is hypocritical.

Nooo, doesn't work like that. Doctor falling in love with someone who's basically a child, relatively speaking, versus someone roughly on his level, although younger.

 

[DigificWriter]

Nooo, doesn't work like that. Doctor falling in love with someone who's basically a child, relatively speaking, versus someone roughly on his level, although younger.

The Doctor is going to invariably and inevitably be older than anyone that they fall in love with, so you're either okay with that across the board or you're not.

There's no middle ground.