It’s fair to say that the actors playing Doctor Who companions have a very varied reaction to longrunning series foe the Daleks. Some (like us) find the tinplated terrors absolutely, well, terrifying, while others (like longtime series companion Billie Piper) just found them irritating. It takes all kinds.

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But now RadioTimes.com can reveal that current series companion Pearl Mackie’s first encounter with a Dalek might be the best of all – because the moment was not only absolutely adorable, but also caught on film for posterity.

In an exclusive clip taken from behind-the-scenes documentary Becoming the Companion (one of many special features available on the upcoming Complete Series 10 DVD), we can now see the moment that an absolutely gleeful Mackie first came face-to-stalk with a Dalek, and was perfectly confounded to discover that there was actually an actor inside the shell – not, as she had assumed, an empty remote-controlled drone.

“Hello! I didn’t know anybody was in there,” she says happily to the Dalek operator while on a spaceship set, which was constructed for the short introductory scene used to announce her character to the world in 2016.

“I thought it was, like, remote-controlled.”

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“No, it’s not remote-controlled,” a visibly amused Peter Capaldi replies, while Mackie apologises to the Dalek.

“I didn’t know!” she says.

We’re not sure what we love most about this – Mackie’s absolutely ecstatic facial expression, her delight at discovering a man inside the Doctor’s deadliest enemy or her high-pitched excited voice – but it’s definitely an introduction worthy of her character Bill, who brought her own lack of foreknowledge to the sci-fi series in a breath of fresh air for the show.

Now we only have to wait to see how new companions Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gill and Tosin Cole react to the Doctor’s greatest foe – because in terms of sheer joyfulness, Pearl Mackie takes some beating.

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Doctor Who: The Complete Series 10 is available on DVD from Monday 13th November, and can be pre-ordered here

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