Caitlin Blackwood (born 2000) played the young Amelia Pond in The Eleventh Hour, The Big Bang, Let's Kill Hitler and The God Complex, with a non-speaking cameo at the end of The Angels Take Manhattan. She is the cousin of Karen Gillan who played the adult Amy Pond, although they had never met before Doctor Who. It was Gillan who convinced producers to allow Blackwood to play the role, but she had to go through auditions first. (CON: Call Me the Doctor)

Blackwood is unique among the various juvenile actors and infants who have portrayed companions in their youths. She, not her adult cousin, originated the role of Amelia "Amy" Pond before the story jumped ahead and Gillan took over. Both the audience and the Doctor (Matt Smith) met young Amelia, not adult Amy, first. Seven-year-old Amelia [Blackwood was nine years old when filming her début] fully interacted with the Doctor who grew fond of her and invited her to travel with him despite her youth. (TV: The Eleventh Hour) Blackwood and Sydney Wade who portrayed Amelia's daughter Melody in the two-part The Impossible Astronaut & Day of the Moon have been the only juvenile actors to portray companions' younger selves in more than one episode, and Blackwood is the only such actor to have done so on a continuing, recurring basis. It was also Blackwood, not Gillan, who closed out the role via archive footage from The Eleventh Hour. (TV: The Angels Take Manhattan)

External link Edit

• Caitlin Blackwood at the Internet Movie Database
• "New Doctor Who star Karen Gillan meets cousin for the first time.. on set of the show" - Daily Record, 31 March 2010