They have shared a passionate on-screen kiss and she refers to the Tardis as his travelling ‘snog box’.
But the obsession with the sexual chemistry between Doctor Who and his feisty new companion Clara Oswald has proved to be a turn-off for one of the people who helped launch the long-running hit sci-fi show 50 years ago.
Waris Hussein, 74, who directed The Unearthly Child, the first episode in 1963, says scenes such as the one in which the lead characters, played by Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman, ‘snog’ – shown on Christmas Day – undermine the fundamental appeal of the Time Lord.
Close companions: Clara and the Doctor share a passionate embrace in the Christmas Day episode
‘There is an element – and I know we are living in a different era – of sexuality that has crept in. Now we have just had a recent rebirth and another girl has joined as companion. She actually snogged him in the first episode.’
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He added: ‘The intriguing thing about the original Doctor is that you never knew about him. There was a mystery and unavailability about him.’
Some 6.7 million viewers tuned in to last Saturday’s episode of Doctor Who on BBC1, making it the third most popular show of the night after Ant and Dec’s Takeaway and The Voice.
Tension:
Clara Oswald, right, refers to the Tardis as the Doctor's travelling
'snog box' - in what has proved to be a turn off for the programme's
first director
Close: Dr Who, played by Matt Smith, and Jenna-Louise Coleman, who lays Clara Oswald
Off-screen:
Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman as the man in charge of the first
series of Doctor Who has criticised the recent reincarnation of the
long-running science-fiction show, saying it has become too sexy
New recruit: Jenna-Louise Coleman, who plays Clara