An announcement is expected in the next few weeks as to the identity of who will be travelling with Matt Smith in his Tardis adventures when Doctor Who returns in series form in 2010. And the early front runner, Lily Allen, is no longer the name being heavily linked with the role.

Instead, the focus has switched to Michelle Ryan, she who left EastEnders to head to America and star in the criminally-cut-short remake of Bionic Woman. Since then, Ryan has returned to appear in the BBC’s Saturday night fantasy drama Merlin.

However, she’s now being linked with Doctor Who for the second time, having originally auditioned when Billie Piper snared the role of Rose Tyler when the show was originally brought back. According to one or two newspaper reports over the past day or two, though, the BBC is now in talks with Ryan, with a view to offering her the chance to replace Catherine Tate as the Doctor’s assistant.

She’d certainly fit the expected traits for the role, too. She’s young and female, for starters, and with a 26-year old Doctor, there’s little chance of them casting anyone particularly older than him (no matter how cool that could be). She’s also, and this is no doubt not lost on the Doctor Who production team, not unattractive either.

No official word has been forthcoming from the BBC, of course, although we surely don’t have to sit through another Doctor Who Confidential to find out who will formally be confirmed as Matt Smith’s assistant. Still, it seems Ryan is the new frontrunner at least.

We won’t be putting money on Paterson Joseph this time, though.

20 January 2009