“Doctor Who” star Millie Gibson calls Xmas special a 'very feel-good' episode

Actress makes first appearance as Time Lord's companion Ruby Sunday on festive show.

This Saturday, Millie Gibson will make her debut appearance on Doctor Who, playing Ruby Sunday, the new companion of Ncuti Gatwa's titular Time Lord. The casting of Gibson in the role would have greatly surprised the actress as a child growing up in the UK, the young Millie not having dared to dream that she might one day join the beloved science fiction show.

"When I watched it, it was a bit far-fetched to even think about," says Gibson, 19. "I used to watch it with my Dad all the time and there was probably a passing comment of, 'Oh, imagine if you did that?' And I’d be like, 'Ha ha, anyway, what’s for tea?' It just didn’t even cross my mind. I still don’t believe it myself sometimes."

This year's Doctor Who special Christmas episode, "The Church On Ruby Road," is written by showrunner Russell T Davies and finds Ruby and the Doctor facing off against an army of song-loving, but baby-eating, goblins. Gibson reveals that the show's creators "do their best to bring the monsters to life without CGI as much as possible. I won't reveal too much, but it was weird to actually act off the physical main monster." Despite the many goblins on the episode, Gibson describes the show as "filled with so much fun. It’s a very feel-good episode and it stands true to Doctor Who. That's all I’ll say!"

Gibson first started seriously watching Doctor Who during Matt Smith's spell in the TARDIS, which began in 2010, and featured many adventures in which the Time Lord was accompanied by Karen Gillan's Amy Pond.

"Whovians cry at the fact that Matt Smith was my Doctor, because it makes them feel really old, but Matt Smith was my go-to," says the actress, whose previous credits include a three-year stint on the British soap opera Coronation Street. "I was alive for David Tennant’s era, I will say that, everyone don’t panic! But, yeah, Matt Smith and Amy Pond [are] the people I think about, when I think about Doctor Who."

Gibson describes Ruby as, "a very fun companion, and there is a certain level of innocence to her that no other companion really has. Obviously many actresses or actors play characters younger than them. Russell’s cast me to play my own age, so I think that shines through in the character. Yeah, she’s a cool girl and I’ve loved loved loved playing her."

Although Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor was introduced to viewers in the last of the recent Doctor Who 60th anniversary episodes he and Gibson bonded as newcomers to the show. The actress says the pair, "just fell headfirst into it, and we held each other’s hand all through the way, with constant laughs. I think he’s probably the most gifted actor that I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. There’s a moment in the Christmas episode, in fact, when I was watching him. and I started to cry, and I wasn’t even on camera so that was a waste of performance, but I just started to cry at how captivating he is. I just remember thinking, god, this era is going to be pretty special and people are going to be really gobsmacked by his performance."

Gibson has spent much of the last year in the Doctor Who production base of Cardiff, Wales, shooting both the Christmas special episode and the next season of the show, which will premiere next year. Is she ready to become a science fiction icon? The actress describes the notion as "surreal. I think I saw Russell post the Japanese Doctor Who logo the other day and I was like, whaaat? I can't even stretch that far to it even being on my telly in my own living room. It’s going to be a weird few years, but I’m very very happy, and I'm very very honored, and I’m very very excited."

The special Christmas episode of Doctor Who premieres on Disney + Dec. 25. Watch the show's teaser trailer below.

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