‘Doctor Who’: Codenames used by companions Bill, Clara Oswald and Amy Pond revealed

“Doctor Who” is a very secretive show. Case in point, the companions had to be called by codenames before they were publicly announced. So what was Pearl Mackie called before she was revealed to be playing the latest companion?

Radio Times reveals the codenames that some of the characters had to use to hide their identity from the press and the fans. Mackie, who has recently been announced as the Twelfth Doctor’s (Peter Capaldi) new companion, was referred to as “Mean Town.” The name, as casting director Andy Prior told the website, isn’t as ominous as it sounds, though.

“It’s an anagram of Ten Woman,” he said. “Series ten, and also the tenth companion of the modern series.”

Read: ‘Doctor Who’: Fans react to Pearl Mackie’s casting as new companion Bill

For Jenna Coleman, who preceded Mackie as companion in the show, she wasn’t always Clara Oswald (or Oswin Oswald or Clara Oswin Oswald). To protect the secrecy of the show, Coleman had to tell her family, friends and even her agent that she was auditioning for something called “Men on Waves.”

“I worked out that Men on Waves is an anagram of Woman Seven, because this is the seventh series. Weirdly, seven is my lucky number and this is my seventh job,” she told Radio Times.

Clara’s predecessor, Amy Pond, was also called by a different name. When Scottish actress Karen Gillan auditioned for the part, she told the BBC Reception that she was in the premises to audition for a show called “Panic Moon,” which is an anagram of “companion.”

Torchwood

The title of the show’s 2006 spin-off series “Torchwood” didn’t come as a surprise to Whovians. After all, the word was used in the second season of the revived series, and even became the basis of the institute that Queen Victoria founded in the nineteenth century. But even before it became a series of its own, “Torchwood” was just a codename, an anagram of Doctor Who, that the producers used to re-label some videos of the show that had to leave the office. Then-showrunner Russell T Davies liked the word so much that he incorporated it to the show.

“Torchwood” then became a series of its own, starring John Barrowman, who played Captain Jack Harkness in “Doctor Who.”

Capaldi pretended he didn’t know Mackie

Capaldi was one of the few who knew about the actor playing his new companion. He had to know because he filmed a short clip with her. But again, he couldn’t tell anyone and had to keep his mouth shut even when he had to “meet” Mackie in public.

When he went to see the theatre production “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” in April, before Mackie was announced to play Bill, he did not know he would be asked to meet the cast after the show. Mackie was part of the cast, and so they had to employ great acting skills and pretend they had never met before then.

“I wanted to see the show but I didn’t expect to be asked backstage to meet everyone,” Capaldi told the BBC. “I knew Pearl had the job, but I couldn’t tell anyone and she couldn’t tell anyone.”

He continued, “So, that was a great performance of mine pretending that I didn’t know Pearl!”

“Doctor Who” series 10 will premiere in 2017.

Also read:
Female ‘Doctor Who’: Cartoon Time Ladies version of the Gallifreyan Time Lords
‘Doctor Who’ season 10: ‘Game of Thrones’ star Maisie Williams rejects return of Ashildr