The BBC’s ‘Physician Who’ Secrecy Stopped It From Defending Millie Gibson From Tabloid Stories

Millie Gibson has spoken out about being unable to reply to a collection of stories made by British tabloids about her time on Physician Who—out of considerations from the BBC that doing so might potentially jeopardize revealing then-upcoming storylines from the present.

Chatting with the I Paper, Gibson touched on a collection of stories from British newspapers in 2023 that claimed that she had been dismissed from the collection earlier than she had even debuted because the Physician’s then-latest companion, Ruby Sunday, alleging that the then-19-year-old star behaved like a “diva” on set.

Gibson’s first full season of Physician Who wouldn’t premiere till spring 2024, on the climax of which Ruby selected to go away the TARDIS behind to spend time along with her household, however she would proceed to be part of the Physician’s life again on Earth by becoming a member of up with UNIT. By that time, nonetheless, set photos and early reporting had confirmed that Andor star Varada Sethu had joined the collection as its subsequent companion, Belinda Chandra, and it wouldn’t be officially revealed by the BBC till April 2024, a month earlier than Gibson’s debut season started, that she would continue to appear within the following season in 2025, in an irregular capability alongside Ncuti Gatwa and Sethu.

All that point, nonetheless, the BBC by no means formally acknowledged or denied the stories, leaving followers confused and Gibson on the mercy of public opinion even earlier than she’d but to essentially step foot out of the TARDIS. “I couldn’t be like, ‘It’s a lie!’ [because] they’d be like, ‘Properly, that’s spoilers,’” Gibson advised the I Paper. “It was fairly exhausting to face up for myself with out ruining the present. I used to be like, ‘Oh, that is horrific as a result of it simply appears prefer it’s true.’”

“Oh, it was terrible. What was irritating was the quantity of those that had been like, ‘Oh, sorry, this has occurred mate,’” Gibson continued, “and I used to be like, ‘Yeah, it’s not [happened], however thanks.’”

With out the BBC publicly defending her, Gibson turned to her co-star in Gatwa for recommendation on the best way to cope with the scrutiny. “He’s had his time with that,” Gibson added, “and it’s nearly simply with the ability to try to shut it out.”

Is a Physician Who spoiler value conserving if it means an actress as younger as Gibson is left defenseless from incorrect reporting? Maybe the formal announcement of her half in season two, alongside Sethu’s arrival, was seen by the BBC as a response to the allegations. However it’s not just like the BBC doesn’t reply to stories it considers factually incorrect, and all this nonetheless created extra confusion that would have probably been value it with out some type of pushback to the rumors, which might’ve simply been carried out whereas nonetheless preserving Ruby’s wider arc on the present.

However then once more, the BBC does appear to like creating confusion over Physician Who for little reason as of late.

Need extra io9 information? Try when to count on the newest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on film and TV, and every part it’s essential to learn about the way forward for Doctor Who.