The next companion should be...

[Relayer1]

I liked the episode but I try and forget Myles was supposed to be De Pompedour since the character was paper thin and bland compared to how she comes across in the historical record. A limit to what you can do in 45 minutes though I guess, certainly Moffat never made the historical setting come alive. No problems with the actress coming back as another character though.

I think GITF was the single best episode of Who I've ever seen, with the possible exception of Blink.

Problem is that Sophia played an established historical characters whose death played a major part in the character development of the Tenth Doctor. I don't see her playing the same character - but there is certainly no law against her coming back in another role.
Alex

There was a huge gap before her death that could have been spent with The Doctor - when he found her already dead on his last visit, I thought he may have gone back (again) earlier.

Sadly, can't see the delightful Myles returning though. Anyway, replacing the divine Karen is an impossible task...

 

[CaptainMatt]

So some thought about Billie when she left. The show will go on, for better or for worse, with a new companion. But this time, can she please be from another world or time?

 

[The Wormhole]

First, is the Doctor really married to River or she married to the Tesselecta?

The Doctor was inside the Teselecta, controlling it, and speaking through it. If you married someone who was, say, sitting on a bicycle at the time, you wouldn't be married to the bicycle, you'd be married to the person operating it.

A more pertinent question is, since the wedding occurred in an alternate timeline that was then unmade, does it legally count?

This post has the makings of a very compelling legal drama concerning marrige law.

 

[Christopher]

^Or a topic on the Law and the Multiverse blog. I'm tempted to ask them.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I find it amusing that people discussing the legalities of The Doctor and River's marriage. My first thought is "Who's law are we suppose to follow? Time Lords? Humans? Which subdivision of which and in which era and in which timeline?" I think it's rather silly to argue whether or not their marriage is legal or not. It doesn't matter. What does matter is that The Doctor and River themselves consider themselves married.

Yeah, but in both cases, those were minor roles before the highlighted roles. Sophia Myles already had her big role.

Lalla Ward played a major role in "The Armageddon Factor" before being cast as the second incarnation of Romana in the very next storyline (although that was handwaved as Romana deliberately modelling her new appearance on Ward's character from the previous story). Jean Marsh had a prominent role as King Richard's sister in "The Crusade" before being cast as short-term companion Sara Kingdom in "The Daleks' Master Plan" -- and Nicholas Courtney had a prominent role as Sara's brother in the first few episodes of "Master Plan" before coming back several years later as the Brigadier. And Colin Baker played a fairly prominent antagonist in "The Arc of Infinity" before getting cast as the Sixth Doctor less than two years later.

In the new franchise, Eve Myles (no relation to Sophia, apparently) played the prominent character Gwyneth in "The Unquiet Dead" before being cast as Gwen Cooper in Torchwood. (And Naoko Mori was in a smaller role in DW before getting TW, but that was retconned as the same character.)

Yes, you're absolutely right. For whatever dumb reason, I only thought about new series examples when I clearly knew about the plethora of classic series examples.

Nonetheless, I would be surprised if Myles doesn't return as Madame de Pompedour in some form (I would also continue to argue the descendant idea if I didn't know now about actual historical record).

 

[Christopher]

^Well, yeah, I wasn't suggesting that the question of the marriage's legality was actually essential to resolve, just that it was a more valid question than the rather odd one about "marrying the Teselecta." I think some people don't quite get the fact that the Teselecta was a vehicle the Doctor was piloting, that he was actually physically there the whole time (just really small) and that the words and actions were his own, even if they were mediated through a mechanism.

 

[Sci]

I think it's rather silly to argue whether or not their marriage is legal or not. It doesn't matter. What does matter is that The Doctor and River themselves consider themselves married.

Do they consider themselves married? The Doctor still doesn't know River very well, frankly. I read that as being more about the Doctor wanting to do something to placate River, to ease her pain over the thought of having to take the fall for "killing" hm, than it being a "real" marriage, emotionally. I certainly don't get the sense that they're in a committed, monogamous relationship.

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ We don't get that sense because obviously we haven't seen them in any kind of relationship, but that doesn't mean they don't consider themselves in one. I think this will be revisited upon River's next appearance.

Also the next companion isn't replacing Amy...he or she is succeeding her. At least that is the way I look at it.

 

[RoJoHen]

^ We don't get that sense because obviously we haven't seen them in any kind of relationship, but that doesn't mean they don't consider themselves in one. I think this will be revisited upon River's next appearance.

I hope so. For as many times as we've seen her pop up, at no point have I ever gotten the impression (from him, anyway) that they're a couple. I'd love to see a series of episodes of just the Doctor and River going on adventures...or maybe even just one episode completely devoted to their relationship.

 

[Sci]

^ We don't get that sense because obviously we haven't seen them in any kind of relationship,

Well, no, we have seen the Doctor in a relationship. By the end of Series Two, I completely believed that even if they hadn't formally declared it, the Doctor and Rose were in love and the Doctor was going to stay loyal to her. They were just too casually intimate by that point for me not to think that they'd become a de facto couple.

I don't see that in the Doctor's attitude towards River. He stills seems uncomfortable with her, like he just doesn't quite trust her yet. She's still a mystery to him. I just don't see him as viewing himself as in a relationship with her (yet).

 

[Photoman15]

Maybe he tries (tried) to stay aloof because he know when and where she dies. He's already experienced it.

 

[Sci]

Maybe he tries (tried) to stay aloof because he know when and where she dies. He's already experienced it.

It's more than that. The guy just acts like he doesn't trust her yet, doesn't really get her. He doesn't seem to be in love.

 

[Starkers]

More Sophia Myles would be good, not sure I'd want her to be Reinette however...too timey wimey, even for Moffat!

 

[CaptainMatt]

Maybe he tries (tried) to stay aloof because he know when and where she dies. He's already experienced it.

It's more than that. The guy just acts like he doesn't trust her yet, doesn't really get her. He doesn't seem to be in love.

The Doctor did not marry River out of love. He did it to make a request that she allow him to proceed to his own "death" with his own plans in place instead of relying on her to save him. This does not a marriage make.

 

[Relayer1]

Sadly, can't see the delightful Myles returning though. Anyway, replacing the divine Karen is an impossible task...

So some thought about Billie when she left. The show will go on, for better or for worse, with a new companion.

Didn't have any strong feelings either way about Rose - blonde chavs are ten a penny...

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Maybe he tries (tried) to stay aloof because he know when and where she dies. He's already experienced it.

It's more than that. The guy just acts like he doesn't trust her yet, doesn't really get her. He doesn't seem to be in love.

I haven't gotten the sense that 11 really needs somebody, anybody, in that way. To have a spot at the Ponds table and to be able to pop in on Craig and so on seems enough for him.

 

[Sci]

Maybe he tries (tried) to stay aloof because he know when and where she dies. He's already experienced it.

It's more than that. The guy just acts like he doesn't trust her yet, doesn't really get her. He doesn't seem to be in love.

I haven't gotten the sense that 11 really needs somebody, anybody, in that way. To have a spot at the Ponds table and to be able to pop in on Craig and so on seems enough for him.

*shrugs* You can be happy without NEEDING to be in love. And that doesn't mean one will never fall in love later on. All I know is, I don't think he's in love with River.

 

[RoJoHen]

Yeah, it's not the the Doctor is looking for romance. It's that we know that at some point he finds it with River. So far, however, River seems to be the only one with those feelings. The Doctor is just kind of playing along, but it hasn't happened for him yet.

 

[Admiral_Young]

@Sci I was specifically talking about The Doctor and River...not the Doctor with anyone else. Also Rose and the Doctor would fall into the category of unrequited love to me.I would agree with you that they were falling in love, this started to happen with the Ninth Doctor I believe which is why she was so traumatized by the regeneration. Her friendship and relationship with the Tenth only cemented this aspect. They weren't in an actual acknowledged romantic relationship though...this why the Doctor was so affected by her loss. He never told her how he actually felt about Rose...until the second time where Donna was present and with the Meta Doctor. I thought this aspect was obvious.

 

[23skidoo]

More Sophia Myles would be good, not sure I'd want her to be Reinette however...too timey wimey, even for Moffat!

I gave this a little thought, and there is a way it could be done. Remembering that the Doctor is trying to "un-Doctor" himself, maybe Eleven does encounter Reinette between her encounters with Ten and simply does not reveal to her who he is. That does rely a bit on Reinette being a bit dense, I suppose. But then remembering the era she comes from, perhaps the idea of regeneration would be so alien to her it simply would never occur to her that this was the Fireplace Man with a new face.

Only problem with this is that it removes any sense of jeopardy since we know when she dies, so therefore anything that happens to her, we know she has to come out OK. It's the same Achilles heel faced by any established historical figure serving as a companion (like Mary Shelley in the Eighth Doctor Big Finish stories). It's a neat novelty, but not sustainable in the long term because we need stories that offer some form of jeopardy to the characters. And, yeah, of course we knew watching Series 5 and 6 that odds were Amy was going to survive. But we weren't sure about Rory and Earthshock and The Daleks Master Plan (twice) proved that being a companion isn't a guaranteed magic shield, so it's always in the back of our minds that maybe Amy could be in real danger, so it creates a necessary sense of jeopardy. But we wouldn't have that with Reinette as a companion (and we don't have that now with Mary Shelley as a companion) because we know from history what happened to them.

Alex