Georgia Tennant says she was “never asked” to return to Doctor Who after her first appearance
The Doctor’s daughter is back in action in a series of new audio adventures – but she says she’d have rejoined the franchise even earlier if she could
This week sees the return of a fan-favourite Doctor Who character to the franchise, with actor Georgia Tennant – who appeared in one episode of the BBC sci-fi series in 2008 – reviving her cloned Time Lady Jenny for a new series of Big Finish audio adventures.
In the decade since she played the genetic “daughter” to David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor, Tennant has been fielding fan questions about her possible return regularly, which she admits she never expected despite her fairly in-depth experience with the series (her father, Peter Davison played the Fifth Doctor in the 1980s).
“I've always been aware of what Doctor Who brings to it, and what you then carry on throughout your life,” Tennant told RadioTimes.com.
“But because it was just one episode I thought 'Oh...that'll just come and go.’ But it hasn't, and everyone's so lovely.”
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Of course, most of the fans only wanted to know one thing – would she be coming back to the series? – and it turns out there’s one simple answer as to why she never did.
You see, despite the episode ending with her character Jenny jetting off to hinted new adventures (which many fans took as a suggestion that the Doctor would run into her again), she was simply never asked back on the series - so even if she had been keen at the time, she never got the opportunity.
“Everyone's wanted me to do this, and at conventions everyone's been like 'Why don't you come back and do something?'” Tennant said.
“And you know, obviously they never asked me on the TV show...”
Considering ex-showrunners Steven Moffat and Russell T Davies also ended up telling fans Jenny had died offscreeen after the episode ended (a joke Tennant wasn’t overly happy about), it seemed like the character was gone forever – until now.
And Tennant is more than happy to finally have something new to talk to Doctor Who fans about when she next runs into them.
“You know, there's only so many stories you can tell,” she told us.
“It's difficult to tell [fans] about your character when your character hasn't existed before that point. It's very difficult to come up with anecdotes.
“I just felt that I needed to give everyone a break and stop talking about it. But now, I'm going to have LOADS of stuff to talk about, so they're going to have at least another 10 years of me banging on. So that'll be fun for everyone.”
She added: “She's got much more of a personality than she had, I think, in the TV show.
“Because we've had time to sort of create that. Which is nice. And in herself, she has had time to create her own personality. She's gone on.”
And who knows? Maybe this new audio series is just the reminder Doctor Who producers need to bring Jenny back to the main series once again. We’re sure those dedicated fans will have their fingers crossed.
All four episodes of Jenny – The Doctor’s Daughter are available for purchase and download now
Authors
Huw Fullerton is a Commissioning Editor for Radio Times magazine, covering Entertainment, Comedy and Specialist Drama.
