Coleman sets Dr Who record
the Doctor, be in the TARDIS, and eat up as much as she can, travel as much as she can and see the world as an adventure,’’ Coleman said.
‘‘Because she’s been to a place where she’s lost everything and she’s been through that she’s kind of lost fear of her own mortality in a way. She’s kind of so much more reckless, living with the idea that life is short. I think the more and more times she spends with the Doctor the more and more she becomes like him and I think when you’ve got two similar birds in the same TARDIS it becomes a bit of a dangerous place to be.’’
Many of the stories of this series are two-parters, providing show runner Steven Moffat 90 minutes to tell a story and giving him the opportunity to reintroduce the cliff-hanger which helped define the original show, which ran between 1963 and 1989.
Coleman is pleased: ‘‘There’s so much more to explore and you don’t have to wrap it up in 45 minutes. There are some one-handers as well, which is great, because it means instead of us getting six places to visit we get a bit more exploration as well. Episodes 11 and 12, in true Steven Moffatt style, together are really a shocking two-parter.’’
Coleman also has a rare perspective working with both Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi as the Doctor. As Clara had to adjust to a new Doctor, Coleman had to adjust to a new actor.
‘‘They are quite different, but they are both really generous,’’ Coleman said. ‘‘They are both inventive, you don’t know what they are going to do from take to take. They are very gracious.
‘‘I suppose it’s that mercurial thing in the Doctor which they both have. You know they’ll keep throwing around ideas and keep on trying different stuff, but their Doctors are obviously very, very different. You know Matt was much more going out to the room whereas Peter is much more make the room come to him and that is the big initial difference, and I suppose that they both have different energy, they are both hilarious as well to work with, they are both very funny and they actually get on really well as well.’’
So what’s Coleman’s favourite thing about being on the show? ‘‘The fact that I get away from monsters is pretty cool and that’s my job. And I get to go to work every day and play, really, and be silly, and have the Doctor as my best friend, which is pretty cool.
‘‘Also, any job I think where you have a spaceship, and that’s kind of like your place to hang out, I think that’s a pretty cool bit of it, too. You can sit in your spaceship with your best friend and go ‘where shall we go today?’.’’