Yeah, I don't know if I agree with that, see I do like Alex Kingston. I didn't mind River Song in the two episodes she had with Tennant but later I was not a big fan of the character as a whole, which is why I really do not want to see her being compared to Romana I and Mary Tamm who I absolutely adore and worship. In any event I agree that River Song was overused. That being said Matt just started to annoy me and the writing was in constant decline since season 6 - I mean, season 5 was so good, I guess I expected season 6 to... well at least make sense but it was all so convoluted and in season 7 I thought Moffat lost the plot altogether, the show only consisted of Matt running around and shouting frantically while everyone else looked puzzled. I was bored out of my skull.
Season 8 had a handful of good episodes I thought, but still some stuff where it was "yeah, this makes no sense... whatever" but at least Peter's and Jenna's chemistry helped me get through it. Then thankfully season 9 was good again!
I suspect Bill is short for Wilhelmina but don't quote me on it... yeah, the trailer after the Christmas episode made me worry that I wouldn't like her as she seemed to be like Ace or Mel but thankfully that wasn't the case at all.
Yeah, I wondered where you went...
Apparently they cast the new companion:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2017/0...ext-companion/