The new season of Doctor Who — the second one starring Ncuti Gatwa [Shooty GOT-wah] as The Doctor — starts streaming on Disney+ Saturday. What’s different this season is that The Doctor’s new companion, an ER nurse Belinda, played by Varada Sethu [VAH-rah-dah SAY-thoo], doesn’t want to be traveling through space and time with him; she just wants to go home.
“It kind of revolves around a companion that doesn’t want anything to do with it anymore,” Sethu laughs.
“Yeah, it completely changes the dynamic that we’ve seen traditionally,” Gatwa tells ABC Audio. “They’re on this journey together to go back home and they don’t know how to [get there]. It feels like they’re real partners this season, even though she doesn’t want to be a partner. She wants to get back to her s***.”
Also unique: Sethu was actually on the show last season, playing a character named Mundy Flynn. At the time, they had no idea that she’d be back. But, as Gatwa notes, “They wanted, for this season, someone that was going to be able to match The Doctor’s intensity. And Mundy Flynn was giving intensity! We were very surprised, but it also kind of made sense.”
Sethu says she’s “been really touched by all the love and the warmth” that the show’s rabid fanbase has given her, while Gatwa says going into his second season, “I felt more comfortable in The Doctor’s skin.” And the fans help with that.
“[They] are like the sweetest, loveliest people that you can meet,” he says, adding that it’s “beautiful that the show has this relationship with the fans — they feed the show and the show feeds them.”
“It’s just this nice beautiful cycle, so I feel very honored to be a part of it.”
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