Has Doctor Who found Jodie Whittaker’s Companion?

Detail from image showing Jodie Whittaker in character as the Thirteenth Doctor. Photo Credit: BBC/BBC AMERICA

Doctor Who cast its first female Doctor in Jodie Whittaker. But who will play her companion? A new report from British tabloid The Mirror suggests someone no one expected.

Now that we know who will be playing the Thirteenth Doctor on Doctor Who, it’s time to consider the next logical question. Who will play her Companion?

Jodie Whittaker was announced as Doctor Who’s first female Doctor back in July, to much excitement and general fanfare. (And all of it, very well deserved.) But now discussions have started about just who might join her in the TARDIS. And the leading candidate of the moment appears to be someone that none of us would have ever guessed.

According to a report published in British tabloid The Mirror this week, British comedian and TV host Bradley Walsh has nabbed the part. Walsh is an actor and entertainer who is probably best known these days for his presenting abilities. He’s currently the host of The Chase, among several other programs. Walsh once played professional football, previously starred on soap Coronation Street, and even released an album last year. It would seem he’s done a bit of everything.

But can he be a Doctor Who companion? (If he’s even got the job at all?)

Here’s the thing: Any rumor published in The Mirror should probably come with a boulder-sized grain of salt. That’s not to say this rumor couldn’t turn out to be completely true. It might. But there’s no official confirmation, and every quote in the article is from an anonymous, unnamed “source.” We should all be careful how much faith we put in this story. It may not be gospel.

But the idea of Walsh becoming a Doctor Who companion is an interesting one. And an almost entirely unexpected twist, if it does turn out to be true. To be fair, most of us are probably expecting Whittaker’s first companion to be male, simply to keep the gender balance in the TARDIS intact. But Walsh? He’s 22 years Whittaker’s senior, and would certainly be on the older end of Doctor Who companions of any era. Which theoretically could be an issue.

One of the most consistent rumors plaguing Peter Capaldi’s time in the TARDIS was that BBC folks in charge blamed the show’s declining ratings on the actor’s age. So it seems unlikely that that they would choose to cast Walsh, rather than a younger companion whose looks they could push more heavily on merchandise.

And almost as importantly, would the BBC really let someone star in their flagship sci-fi series while still hosting multiple programs on another network? (The Mirror report says that Walsh would at least keep his job as host of The Chase, which airs on BBC rival ITV.)

There’s also something that feels a bit off about pushing an older, male companion on the series’ first ever female Doctor. Particularly one that’s old enough to be her father. Does she need minding, in some way? Is it some sort of inverse of the Doctor/Companion relationships of years past? It’s hard to say, but it definitely seems…odd.

On the other hand, Walsh does have an existing relationship with incoming showrunner Chris Chibnall. Walsh worked with Chibnall back when he was lead writer on the UK version of Law & Order. And we’ve seen that the new boss is fond of collaborating with people he already knows. (Whittaker herself worked with Chibnall on Broadchurch, after all.) If he thinks there’s something there—whether it’s Walsh’s abilities as a dramatic actor or his chemistry with Whittaker—there probably is.

And in a series where we’re shaking everything that everyone thought they knew about Doctor Who up, why not go for broke and change up as much as possible? There’s no hard rule that says companions have to be young, or female, or even human, after all. And there’s a pretty compelling argument to be made that this should be the season where we throw every preconceived notion about Doctor Who out the window and take some big risks.

But that’s usually not how a network goes about making a TV show. And it’s certainly not how you make one with as big a brand footprint as Doctor Who. (Nor, honestly, is it the way that any network would likely be willing to handle a show with this many ratings problems, if we’re honest.)
In the end, this may all end up as so much baseless rumor-mongering. Remember when we all thought Kris Marshall was the next Doctor? But I’ve certainly been wrong about the risks the BBC might be willing to take with Doctor Who this year before. And it does feel like anything’s possible at the moment. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Next: Doctor Who Christmas special almost didn’t happen this year

Doctor Who will return with Christmas special “Twice Upon a Time” this December. Season 11—starring Whittaker and whoever her companion turns out to be—will likely air late next year.