It looks like the Twelfth Doctor and Clara Oswald will have some company on their journeys through space and time.
The BBC on Monday introduced Samuel Anderson as a character named Danny Pink, who teaches at the same school as Clara — a school with long roots in Doctor Who lore. It’s unclear yet whether Pink will be a “companion” in the sense that Clara is — but things certainly seem to be shaping up that way.
Coal Hill High School is where we saw Clara working at the beginning of the 50th anniversary special “The Day of the Doctor,” and it’s the same school the first two companions, Ian and Barbara, taught at when they fatefully followed their precocious young student Susan Foreman into a certain blue police box and met her strange grandfather.
“For the fourth time in Doctor Who history, Coal Hill School is coming to the aid of the TARDIS,” said leader writer and executive producer Steven Moffat. “In 1963 teachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright accompanied the First Doctor. These days it’s the turn of Jenna Coleman as Clara Oswald. And very soon now, Sam Anderson as Danny Pink will be entering the world of the Doctor. But how and why? Answers are coming later this year in Peter Capaldi’s first series of Doctor Who!”
Anderson has appeared in The History Boys, Gavin & Stacey and Emmerdale. “I was so excited to join Doctor Who I wanted to jump and click my heels, but I was scared I might not come down before filming started!” he said. “It’s a quintessential part of British culture and I can’t believe I’m part of it. It’s an honour to be able to work alongside Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman and I can’t wait to show people how my character becomes involved with such a fantastic duo!”
