Doctor Who’s Ace companion actress Sophie Aldred reflects fondly on her reunion with Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy for “The Power of the Doctor.”
Doctor Who’s Sophie Aldred reflects on her reunion with Sylvester McCoy. Adlred played Ace to McCoy’s Seventh Doctor, originally taking on the character from 1987–1989. Aldred and McCoy reunited again to act together in Doctor Who season 13, episode 9, “The Power of the Doctor,” reprising their roles as the Doctor Who reboot said goodbye to Thirteenth Doctor Jodie Whittaker. Her time as Ace having officially ended, Aldred will not appear in the upcoming Doctor Who season 14.
Speaking with Radio Times, Aldred relays the importance of her reunion with McCoy. For Aldred, returning to Doctor Who allowed her and McCoy “to have the opportunity to have that scene [they] never had.” She found this moment to be “very emotional” and as if “the years just rolled away.” Check the full quote from Aldred below:
It was extremely important, because the last thing that anyone had ever seen from us was that we’d walked off into some bushes. I mean, it was actually in a quarry in Dorset, and the beautiful speech that Sylvester gives, it was actually a voiceover that was added on later, and written by the script editor, Andrew, to sort of cover the fact that it was going to be the last time that you saw Doctor Who for a while.
So, to come back, and to have the opportunity to have that scene that we never had, was just very emotional. And it was, I think, something that the fans had always wanted.
It was a very emotional moment. And I think the crew were quite emotional, as well, about it. I came and read the lines for Sylvester when he did his bit on green screen, so we were actually physically there together.
There were a lot of people around the monitor and in the studio that day, as well, who’d come to see that. And it was pretty emotional, just standing there seeing Sylvester in that costume again after all these years. I mean, we’ve done it at conventions and things, but actually being filmed to do that scene together.
He said, for him, it was as though the years just rolled away, and there we were back again. And the only thing that I felt, I think we probably both did, was, ‘What a shame we’re not about to start a new series again!’
Doctor Who Is Full Of Reunions Lately
The scene in question refers to when Ace and the Seventh Doctor get to have a long overdue emotional final scene together. A scene of this nature was absent from Doctor Who for decades, as Ace and the Doctor never received an on-screen goodbye during Aldred and McCoy’s original tenure on the show. McCoy expressed a similar sentiment as Aldred regarding this final reunion, calling it a “nostalgic” and “emotional” moment of closure.
McCoy and Aldred are not the only 1980s-era Doctor Who actors to revisit the show. Making a brief cameo in “The Power of the Doctor,” Doctor Who will bring back Bonnie Langford’s Melanie Bush. Melanie was also a companion to McCoy’s Seventh Doctor as well as Colin Baker’s Sixth Doctor. By bringing back Melanie, Doctor Who season 14 will reunite the old with the new as the series transitions to Ncuti Gatwa’s stint as the Fifteenth Doctor.
The Doctor Who reunions will not stop there, for the upcoming Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials will see a key reunion between David Tennant and Catherine Tate’s Donna Noble. Unlike McCoy, who reprised his role as the Seventh Doctor, Tennant will play an interim Fourteenth Doctor that bridges the transition between Whittaker and Gatwa. Nonetheless, those who enjoyed Aldred and McCoy’s emotional Doctor Who reunion will soon see another reunion of a critical duo.
