Doctor Who often likes to avoid wasting its returning stars for anniversary occasions, however with the upcoming trilogy of specials to have a good time its blockbuster 60th already jam-packed, now it’s as much as Physician Who’s 14th season to shoulder a number of shock appearances—and its newest actually is sort of the shock.
Immediately the BBC confirmed that Bonnie Langford would reprise her function as Melanie Bush, ‘80s companion to the Sixth and Seventh Docs, in the next season of the present alongside Ncuti Gatwa’s 15th Doctor and Millie Gibson as incoming companion Ruby Sunday.
“I’m completely thrilled to be bringing Melanie Bush again. To be a part of the distinctive solid, crew and manufacturing crew led by the power of nature that’s Russell T Davies is a profession spotlight,” Langford stated in a press release. “I’m so privileged and proud to have been a member of the Physician Who household because the traditional period and to be included within the new technology is phenomenal.”
That is truly not the primary time Langford has reprised the function of Mel lately—she made a minor cameo look in “The Power of the Doctor,” Jodie Whittaker’s swan tune because the thirteenth Physician. However in line with returning showrunner Davies, this time Mel might be again within the thick of it alongside the Physician.
“Open these TARDIS doorways extensive, as a result of Bonnie’s again! What an honor, delight, and hoot to welcome again the character of Melanie, after too lengthy away,” Davies added in his personal assertion. “And this isn’t only a cameo, Bonnie is true within the thick of the motion, battling monsters and chaos and cliffhangers, proper on the Physician’s facet, similar to the previous days.”
It’s a shocking transfer, on condition that whereas Langford has all the time been an ardent supporter of Who since her tenure on the sequence, the character of Mel has lengthy been seen as one thing of annoyance relatively than a very engaged character within the eyes of followers. A very enthusiastic health fanatic, Mel is finest remembered for primarily one character trait: her ear-splitting shriek when within the presence of something even remotely harmful. Response to the character was so poor that Mel was quickly written out after Sylvester McCoy’s tenure started, hastily packing her off with the house pirate Sabalom Glitz in the identical story that launched Sophie Aldred’s Ace, a companion who time has been significantly a lot kinder too (and likewise final appeared in Whittaker’s ultimate story final yr, albeit in a a lot greater supporting function).
Hopefully time and house, metaphorically and fairly actually, will result in Mel getting the sort of justice she by no means actually received in her prior time within the TARDIS within the right here and now—and create an all-new legion of followers for the character. Langford will return within the 14th season of Physician Who, anticipated to start airing someday in 2024 on BBC 1 within the UK and on Disney+ internationally.
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