Over the last twenty-four hours, showrunner Steven Moffat and Sophia Myles (AKA Madame de Pompadour from The Girl in the Fireplace) have exchanged a cryptic series of tweets that would seem to suggest that she is returning to Doctor Who.
If this proves true, it’s certainly and interesting tactic on Moffat’s part. Rather than having the tabloids sniffing around the production office (which opened this past week) and rifling though the garbage, why not take the wind of of their sails and hint at who is being chosen as the new companion. At a certain point, if the replacement took place mid-season rather than the very last section of the last episode, it would be increasingly difficult to hide who the new companion was. So, throw it out there for the masses.
There is certainly precedent for previous actors to have a role as a new character including companions. Freema Agyeman and Karen Gillan both appeared on Doctor Who as characters other than Martha Jones and Amy Pond. Agyeman was in the finale episode Army of Ghostsas Adeola one of the technicians at Canary Wharf and Gillan was one of the Soothsayers in the episode The Fires of Pompei.
On top of that, Moffatt has brought back aliens an characters from the episodes that he wrote when Russell T. Davies was the show runner: Weeping Angels from Blink, River Song from Silence in the Library. So bringing back Madame de Pompadour from his awards winning The Girl in the Fireplace episode isn’t a huge stretch.
Now whether Sophia Myles will play Madame de Pompadour, a descendant of Madame de Pompadour, or someone else entirely it remains to be seen. She’s roughly a year older than Matt Smith, so she certainly wouldn’t end up looking like the Doctor’s mother jumped into the TARDIS if she were to be around for awhile.
Moffat is known for red herrings on Twitter, but it would seem a bit too cruel for the back and forth banter between Moffat and Myles to amount to nothing. At the very least one would hope that Myles is guest starring even if she is not a companion.
Here are the Tweets judge for yourself:
Right EVERYBODY who follows me, go and follow @SophiaMyles – spin that fireplace. NOW. I’ll explain later. Or not.
Of course @SophiaMyles = Madame De Pompadour from Who, and IS Lady Penelope from Thunderbirds.
@steven_moffat NOW…….that Tweet Mr Moffat, shows us why you are the greatest writer in the galaxy. (in response to Moffat’s first Tweet)
There are then hundreds of tweets and retweets with fans, because Myles gained roughly 5K followers overnight based on the Moffat tweet. Then we get to a couple of more interesting ones.
So best ideas for Girl in Fireplace spin off series? Tweet ’em to me… @steven_moffat #foodforthought
can’t speak for him but I AM loving every second of this…(in response to a fan asking how she likes this attention)
@SophiaMyles Is it possible Madame de Pompadour left behind a secret bloodline? (she retweeted a fan who said this)
There you have it. The situation, at least on Myles part is ongoing. Moffat seems to have said all that he is going to.
Would you like to see Sophia Myles back as a companion or otherwise?