{"id":319540,"date":"2026-03-08T19:00:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T19:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/319540\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T19:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T19:00:13","slug":"beloved-doctor-who-companion-gives-his-verdict-on-billie-piper-twist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/319540\/","title":{"rendered":"Beloved Doctor Who companion gives his verdict on Billie Piper twist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Doctor Who<\/a> companion Arthur Darvill<\/a> has given his take on the monumental twist that saw Billie Piper<\/a> return to the show last season.<\/p>\n

Upon Ncuti Gatwa’s<\/a> exit as the Fifteenth Doctor, the Time Lord regenerated into the returning actor, who previously played companion Rose Tyler. Notably, however, she wasn’t credited as the Doctor, leading to speculation about what her role will actually entail.<\/p>\n

Sitting down for Radio Times’s Doctor Who Insiders<\/a> for an exclusive in-depth interview, Darvill, who played companion<\/a> Rory Williams, gave his take, saying: “Billie\u2019s amazing. If that does happen and and she ends up being the Doctor, I think that’s an extraordinary move because she’s just such a good actor.”<\/p>\n

Darvill, who is set to revisit old episodes of Doctor Who in his upcoming podcast<\/a>, which will see him reunite with co-star Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), also spoke out about the future of the show, including the deal with Disney<\/a>, which the BBC announced has now ended.<\/p>\n

“It is an interesting point at the moment,” he reflected. “I haven’t really looked into the ins and outs of it, and I’m sure everyone’s got lots of very, very vigorous opinions on the Disney thing, and whether that worked or not.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t really watch it, I don’t know. I presume it will just go on forever \u2013 and that’s a good thing. It’s about change, and it’s about life and death and it’s about something regenerating, being reborn out of something that has gone before.<\/p>\n

“So I think it will always exist. I just hope it kind of keeps true to what it is. At its core, it’s so full of heart and love, and it’s about outsiders, and it’s about difference and embracing difference, but also about having really complicated ideas about things, and battles between good and evil, and the blurred lines between those two things.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

“I think there are endless stories you can tell. I mean, the number of Doctor Who books and fan fiction and things that are written – the possibility for stories is endless.<\/p>\n

“As soon as you put someone new in that part, it opens up a whole a whole plethora of other ideas and stories, and there are so many brilliant actors who could play that part.<\/p>\n

“It would be silly to not carry it on and keep changing it and see other people’s takes on it.”<\/p>\n

Arthur Darvill’s full interview will be published later this month.<\/p>\n

Missing Doctor Who? Register now<\/a> for Radio Times’s Doctor Who Insiders club for exclusive interviews with Doctor Who legends every month.<\/p>\n

Doctor Who is available to stream on BBC iPlayer. Check out more of our Sci-fi<\/a> coverage or visit our TV Guide<\/a> and Streaming Guide<\/a> to find out what’s on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Doctor Who companion Arthur Darvill has given his take on the monumental twist that saw Billie Piper…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-319540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}