Doctor Who: New companion rumoured for Lanzarote adventure

Capaldi, who was handed the key to his space–time machine, the TARDIS, by Matt Smith in the 2013 Christmas special, The Time of the Doctor, also inherited his predecessor’s travelling companion, Clara Oswald (Jenna Colman). In April, it was then revealed that a second companion was joining the show this season, with the announcement that Samuel Anderson (from Alan Bennett’s The History Boys) was joining the cast as Danny Pink. Since beginning filming of the latest set of episodes, Anderson has been tweeting from the set (presumably with the BBC’s say-so), one of his most recent reading, “There’s a new member in the Who crew, my little sis.” Doctor Who TV has studied the pattern of casting and filming for the new season, and believes that, in at least two of the upcoming episodes, actor Ellis George will be playing Anderson’s younger sister, Courtney, and a pupil at Coal Hill School, where both Clara and Danny work as teachers. Currently, the Who crew are filming in Lanzarote, the island where the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) 1984 serial, Planet of Fire, was set. Photographs of the shoot, with Capaldi, Colman and George — together with guest star Hermione Norris — have just emerged, thanks to Wales Online. As already reported by Doctor Who TV, referring to Planet of Fire, Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat said, ‘It’s […] the first time since 1984 [that] the Doctor Who production team is heading to Lanzarote. The Doctor is returning to the scene of an old adventure – but there have been sinister changes since his last visit.’ Back to school Coal Hill School first featured in Doctor Who in 1963. The Doctor’s granddaughter, Susan (Carole Ann Ford), who was attending the school in the first-ever adventure, An Unearthly Child, inadvertently led two of her teachers — Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill) and Ian Chesterton (William Russell) — back to the TARDIS; whereupon, they were all whisked away into time and space … and the legend began! Last year, in the 50th-anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor, it was revealed that Clara had taken up a post, teaching, at the same school – a position she will continue to hold in the new season. With Clara and Danny being teachers at Coal Hill, George rumoured to be playing a pupil there and the current actor playing the Doctor being the same age as Hartnell was back at the show’s beginning, the scene would appear to be set for, as Den of Geek ponders, “an older Doctor next to two Coal Hill teachers and a family-member pupil, mirroring the make-up of William Hartnell’s TARDIS team.” When Capaldi was introduced as the Twelfth Doctor, live on television, last August, the Scottish actor posed in a distinctively First Doctor lapel-grabbing way. All of which, as suggested by fans, means that Moffat could be tracing a Hartnell-era thread throughout the new season of Doctor Who. The as-yet-untitled Lanzarote episode has been written by Peter Harness, a new writer to the series, who has previously worked on Peter Harness Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and the British version of the Scandi-noir thriller, Wallander. Produced by Peter Bennett (Wizards vs Aliens) and directed by Paul Wilmshurst (Strike Back), it is one of at least 12 new stories scheduled for 2014. Planet of Fire was a four-part serial in Season 21 of Doctor Who, and was originally broadcast between February 23 and March 2, 1984. At the time, the Doctor (Peter Davison) was joined by three companions: Turlough (Mark Strickson), the robot Kamelion (voiced by Gerald Flood) and Perpugilliam (“Peri”) Brown (Nicola Bryant). Together, they were pitched against the Doctor’s fellow Time Lord and nemesis, the Master (Anthony Ainley) in a story that led to the death of Kamelion and the apparent death of the Master. In Planet of Fire, he volcanic island of Lanzarote served as locations to depict the island itself and also the planet Sarn. Other guest stars this year include Jonathan Bailey (Broadchurch), Keeley Hawes (Line of Duty) Ben Miller (Death in Paradise), Tom Riley (Da Vinci's Demons) and Frank Skinner (Room 101). Other stories have been written by Moffat, Mark Gatiss (Game of Thrones), Jamie Mathieson (ALT) and Steve Thompson (Sherlock). Peter Bennett (The Mummy Returns) and Tracie Simpson (Baker Boys) have both returned to the series to produce Capaldi’s first season, as they did for Smith’s, in 2010. They take over from Marcus Wilson (The Sarah Jane Adventures), who bowed out along with Smith at the end of 2013. A Christmas special – the ninth consecutive one since 2005 — is once again scheduled for transmission on Christmas Day. Moffat, Mark Gatiss (Game of Thrones), Jamie Mathieson (ALT) and Steve Thompson (Sherlock). Bennett and Tracie Simpson (Baker Boys), have both returned to the series to produce Capaldi’s first season, as they did for Smith’s, in 2010. They take over from Marcus Wilson (The Sarah Jane Adventures), who bowed out along with Smith at the end of 2013. Directors on board this year include Ben Wheatley (A Field in England), Paul Wilmshurst (Strike Back) and Rachel Talalay (Kyle XY). A Christmas special — the ninth consecutive one since 2005 — is once again scheduled for transmission on Christmas Day.