Q&A with Karen Gillan
Thursday, March 18 2010, 10:32 GMT
By Neil Wilkes, Editor
The next 24 hours are going to be quite eventful for Whozapalooza! 2010. Later today we'll have the first report on the first episode of the new series, plus footage from tonight's red blue carpet premiere in Cardiff. But before all that, here's the second half of our interview with Karen Gillan, aka new assistant Amy Pond. If you haven't seen the first half yet, you'd do well to click here then come back.
Were you a fan of the show before?
"I wasn't a huge fan of it but I'd watched a fair bit of it. My mum's a huge fan, she absolutely loves Doctor Who so I had seen quite a bit of it before."
So if we asked if you'd like to go to Metebelis III...
"Hahaha! I'd probably say 'What?' to that but I am trying to swot up as we go! I've been trying to memorise what TARDIS stands for - Time And Relative Dimensions In Space! I've just been watching from 2005 onwards, but I did watch the first ever episode of Doctor Who on YouTube - it's very scary!"
Will you be using your native accent for the part?
"I'm going to be Scottish! Woohoo! She wasn't originally supposed to be Scottish - she was kind of anywhere really, but she became Scottish after I was cast - it was a nice little personal touch."
Does Amy take much convincing to join The Doctor?
"Yes - she's a very strong female character and she's not in awe of the Doctor as previous companions have been and she's sceptical of him so I think perhaps she's not just straight on the TARDIS as soon as he invites her."
Do we meet the Ponds in the series?
"You may get to meet Amy's boyfriend Rory (Arthur Darvill) in episode one, which is quite exciting. He's a nurse..."
Can we expect dark things from this series?
"Yes. Steven Moffat's writing is very scary at times and really funny at times so it's this rollercoaster. Many stories are fairytale-like and dark so lots of that to be expected."
Did any of the monsters from previous episodes scare you?
""I was very scared by the weeping angels in 'Blink'. They were very scary because they left it up to the imagination - you never actually see them do anything which is what scared me. That was a brilliant creation by Moffat."
Lis Sladen is still playing her companion character 35 years on. Do you think Amy will have that kind of longevity?
"That would be cool and I definitely wouldn't rule that out. It would be great to come back and do appearances and stuff like that but obviously it's too early to tell."
Have you spoken to any of the previous companions?
"I haven't, no. I would love to though. They're all busy actresses and I'm sure they've got more important things to do than get in touch with me, but hopefully I'll get to meet them in the future."
Do you know how long you'd like to play the role?
"I don't know - no decisions have been made so we'll wait and see."