Friday, December 21, 2012

KOOL TV BABE OF THE WEEK: 'DOCTOR WHO's JENNA-LOUISE COLEMAN

You can never get enough red! Jenna-Louise Coleman heats up the screen in the new series of DOCTOR WHO. Images: BBC.

Despite her general mass audience appeal, I can't say that I ever particularly warmed to the fiery character of Amy Pond, accompanied by her mostly wet husband Rory, when they travelled in adventures far and wide with Matt Smith's incarnation of the Eleventh DOCTOR WHO for two and a half years. At best, I preferred her on her own with the Doctor in the stories, in a duration that might have worked best at a year and a bit. Perhaps she was just a bit too modern for my tastes, with that in your face and often sarcastic attitude. The idea of an at first mentally troubled companion, whose problems were created from childhood by the Time Lord, also left me a little uneasy. I like intelligence and the ability to stick up to baddies, as has been seen in everyone from the monochrome era's Barbara Wright to Freema Agyeman's underrated Martha Jones, but a bit of charm and a twinkle in the eye is essential in the companions just as much as within the Doctor-they have to be likable, and there were times when I thought Karen Gillan's performance was anything but. Amy Pond/Karen Gillan may have shaken up the series and the way the companions are ultimately portrayed in Producer /writer Steven Moffat's revisionist blueprint for the series, but it definitely shook me up too much.

Hold on tight! The Doctor and Clara: a fun new pairing for 2013 onwards.
Impressive new baddies for the Christmas Special: the Snowmen.

So I'm delighted to say that the recent casting of the petite and rather lovely Jenna-Louise Coleman in the new companion role of the seemingly upbeat and enthusiastic Clara has cheered me up no end as we approach another new look for the long-running series. The Lancashire born actress may have previously played a completely different (?) character in the series than the one that she will ultimately be appearing in from the upcoming Xmas Special, The Snowmen, onwards, but Coleman's talents as an actress, after years in soap operas but showing potential with roles in the Titanic mini-series and a brief appearance in the Captain America movie, really shined with on-screen promise, what with her truly surprise appearance with a twist as the lone survivor of a spaceship crash, the burnt souffle making character of Oswin Oswald in Season Seven's acclaimed opener Asylum of the Daleks, as Coleman lifted the story greatly above an enjoyable if wasted opportunity for the metal meanies in the fast approaching anniversary year. Now playing the big skirted, Victorian era persona of a children's nanny, caught in the terror filled gaslight streets alongside the stove piped hatted Doctor's investigations of the evil Doctor Simeon (Richard E. Grant) and the monsters he unleashes upon London in the shape of the evil, fanged teeth bearing Snowmen (voiced with relish by iconic actor Sir Ian McKellen), Coleman's bubbly and clever personality as both an actress and as an emerging character, often to be seen in the new series taking the initiative with her Gallifreyan buddy, looks set to shine brightly in this charming time of the year, as further epic, mini-movie adventures are promised for the new and charismatic pairing from April 2013 onwards, leading to the apparently epic Fiftieth Anniversary Special, promised by Moffat and his team as a wonderful tribute and confectionery to the past...


A recent publicity shot celebrating major filming on Season Seven for Smith and Coleman.

KOOL TV wishes Miss Coleman all the best of success for the series and beyond...


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