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Candice Allen, Facebook I’ve really loved Clara Oswald. She’s smart, witty and not afraid of what’s to come. I don’t know why so many people dislike her – perhaps it’s because she isn’t a meek companion?
Tim Pilcher, Twitter Without a doubt the most annoying assistant since Mel and Ace.
Daniel Langrish-Beard, email To be honest I’m very happy Clara’s leaving. She never really stayed on the TARDIS; never gave up everything to fly with the Doctor. I’ve never really felt like she gelled with the show.
Kevin Hall, Facebook I’ll miss Jenna – she brought a bright and breezy approach to Clara and I loved how she one-upped the Doctor on more than one occasion. Hope she gets an emotional, tear-jerking two-part exit.
Claire Rosemary Pugh, Facebook What is there to like about Clara? She’s vapid and has about as much personality as a cucumber. SFX You clearly haven’t met my best friend, Clarence the cucumber. He’s quite the card.
Katherine Easton-Campbell, Facebook I won’t miss her. Jenna’s a good actress but it needs to be the Doctor’s show again.
Bob Lee, Facebook For too long now it’s been all about the companion. It’s called Doctor Who, not The Adventures Of A Time-Travelling Companion, Guest-Starring The Doctor! SFX That’d probably be difficult to fit into a logo.
The Haunted Guy, Games Radar+ If she’d died at the end of “Last Christmas”, as was intended, (or just got old) I think it would have been the perfect ending.
Tony Bufton, Facebook She’s a teacher yet can walk into UNIT and get bossy – WTF?! We need a return to a non-human companion with no ties. SFX How about Tom Baker’s old idea of a talking cabbage? They can probably do that with CGI now…
Emmet O’Brien, Facebook Even though she’s been here for two seasons I don’t have a handle on any particular character there. She changes every
Jenna’s a good actress but it needs to be the Doctor’s show again
episode, and saying “... stuff” does not make her compelling.
Glenn Allen, Facebook Clara does my nut in. Apparently she’s smarter than the entirety of UNIT. She’s quite a horrible person when you think about her relationship with Danny, lying to him and leading her second life. SFX Hey, it’s not exactly easy to tell someone you’re a time traveller. They’re likely to think you’re mad!
Ian Salsbury, Facebook For years people have wanted a more intelligent, proactive companion but when they get one they’re not happy.
Medium Atomic Weight, Games Radar+ We’re on season nine and we still haven’t had a proper male companion. Jamie, Harry, Ben, Ian and Turlough have all shown how great a male presence in the TARDIS can be. Time for the ladies to move over and let the Doctor have a serious bromance! SFX I’m all for a male companion… after the Doctor’s regenerated into a woman. #CLASS WAR
The Llama God, email I think the idea of a new spin-off for Doctor Who is properly Class. Having been a big fan of The Sarah Jane Adventures, I think there’s room for a more yoof-oriented spin-off – especially given the rather dark and not-quite-kid-friendly turn that Who’s taken of late.
I’m not really bothered whether Clara appears in it or not – she’ll have had enough screen time by then. What I do demand is an appearance by the screencanonised head of Coal Hill School’s board of Governors, ’60s companion Ian Chesterton. While I fully support the idea behind Class, if the series does at no point feature a cardiganed Chesterton punching aliens off the roof of the school, then this is one class I’ll be dropping out of.
Andrew Davies-Land, Facebook Just give us a Paul McGann miniseries and bring back Susan! Stop with the shifty spin-offs and convoluted ideas! No one wants to watch the twatty unlikeable kids of Coal Hill School fight monsters for eight weeks! SFX Calm down Andrew. The Sarah Jane Adventures was a great show, and Buffy The Vampire Slayer – which this spin-off will probably be more akin to – was never less than brilliant, so I’m looking forward to seeing what they do with Class. Shame about the underwhelming title, mind.
#LOOKING PEAKY
Priya Turner, email I’m a bit worried about the new series of Twin Peaks. I’ve been watching Swedish drama Jordskott, which focuses on a small town of oddballs who have something creepy going on in their forest, and its themes keep reminding me of Peaks. Then there’s Wayward Pines, also about a town full of oddballs with something creepy going on. And Grimm, about a town with something creepy going on, and Once Upon A Time, and even things like American Horror Story... The weirdness that made Peaks such a success isn’t remarkable any more, so what will they do with the new series? Is there anything left to say, or did the show influence so many series that followed it that it’s rendered itself pointless? SFX Quit fretting, Priya, it’ll be fine. David Lynch is a genius – he’ll find a way to turn things on their head. Maybe this time it’ll be an earnest, quirk-free straight drama?
Why’s C5 waiting till next year to show Gotham?
#LONELY ORPHAN
Keith Tudor, email Why did the BBC treat the new series of Orphan Black so harshly, tucked away in the early hours of the morning at the weekend? How is that meant to attract any kind of audience? Is this the BBC hating the genre as silly and “for the geeks who’ve probably all downloaded it anyway” or is there another reason for this? I suppose we should be grateful it’s on at all.
Robert Graham, email The BBC’s treatment of Orphan Black reminds me of the bad old days of the ’90s when they would hide any sci-fi content on BBC Two at 6pm because they were ashamed and embarrassed of the genre. A hit series, critically acclaimed, hidden away and rushed through as though they wanted rid of it as quickly as possible. Arriving in the UK with hardly any advertising meaning I nearly missed it doesn’t help either.
SFX Series three debuted on iPlayer, so the Beeb obviously felt they could tuck it away in the conventional schedules. But it’s so easy to miss things on iPlayer if they’re not flagged up in listings mags, and it’s a crying shame to think that people are unlikely to stumble across a good show like this by accident.
#BRASSED OFF
Jasmine Boyd, email When will people stop describing any story involving a bit of brass or steam power as “steampunk”? There’s a lot more to steampunk than that, and welding some brass onto a bog-standard fantasy or space opera isn’t enough. Where’s the sense of an alternate history? Where’s the technological plausibility? As a genre, it’s becoming debased even faster than urban fantasy was – and at least that’s got plenty of sex!
SFX Hear hear! Authors: quit just super-gluing cogs onto things!
#WE ALSO HEARD FROM
Paul Hughes, Facebook They can make as many Transformers films as they want. Don’t care. Won’t watch them. But by making Pacific Rim 2 we are potentially missing out on other, better Guillermo del Toro projects. He owes us nothing, but I still selfishly hope that none of his precious time is wasted following up that movie. I’m still upset that At The Mountains Of Madness stalled!
SFX Just in case Michael Bay is reading, can I add: please DON’T make as many Transformers films as you want. We’ve suffered enough.
Ashley Beeching, email Issue 266’s Freespeak with Pat Mills was a scintillating read. It’s heartening to read that the advancing years haven’t dulled his anger at the worlds of politics and entertainment one iota. I look forward to seeing what institutions and dogmatic power structures he deems fit to rail against next in the pages of 2000 AD and beyond!
Andy Kinnear, Facebook down a cameo in Ghostbusters, Rick Moranis decided to stay out of what Michael J Fox describes in his book as “The Hollywood Bubble”. Fair play to him. He hopes it does well, but he is simply not interested. It makes a refreshing change from the limelight grabbers!
SFX Anything Rick Moranis does is alright by me – he’ll always be my role model and style guru. Which may explain why I’m single.
Nicki Sands, email Why’s Channel 5 waiting until next year to show Gotham? There’s so much internet buzz about how great season two is. It seems perverse that a TV company wouldn’t want to capitalise on free pre-publicity. By January the show may have been cancelled (hopefully not) so they could be launching it amidst terrible publicity. You’d have thought showing it sooner would cut down on piracy too!
SFX I’m starting to detecting a theme here. TV schedulers: our readers all think you’re
crackers!