Depending on what day of the week it was over the last several months, news of an impending Jenna Coleman departure from Doctor Who was either a wild rumor or an as-yet-to-be-verified fact. Truth be told, contrary to conventional wisdom, you can’t always believe everything you read on the Internets. Hard to believe, I know, but ’tis true.

It wasn’t until this past weekend when Doctor Who 9 premiered that you began reading from all those directly involved that the rumors were indeed certifiable fact and this would be Jenna Coleman’s last tour of the universe aboard the TARDIS as The Doctor’s companion, Clara Oswald. The former Emmerdale actress boarded the TARDIS in 2012 as companion for the Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith.

It seems like these things tend to surface every couple of years and alternate with speculation as to whether or not we will soon be searching for a new Doctor or a new companion. Based on last year’s performance and the first episode of the current series, let’s hope that the need for a new Doctor is far down the road as I am really liking Peter Capaldi as The Doctor. Unlike the premature reports of Mark Twain’s death, rumors of Jenna Coleman’s exit from Doctor Who are not greatly exaggerated as it was confirmed by Coleman, herself, that she has filmed her last scenes aboard the TARDIS.

It was announced last week that Coleman, who can also be seen in Death Comes to Pemberley and the visually stunning Dancing on the Edge, has been cast as a young Queen Victoria in a major new drama series Victoria for ITV. “I am delighted to be cast as Queen Victoria in this ambitious drama of her life. She is a vivid, strong, inspirational and utterly fascinating woman in British history and I can’t wait to tell her story”, said Coleman. She did admit, however, that it was a tough decision to quit Doctor Who. “There are not a lot of jobs where you get to have an alien as your best mate and get to run away from monsters… it’s been so much fun, I love it,” she said.

The ambitious 8-part drama follows the early life of Queen Victoria, from her ascension to the throne at the tender age of 18, through to her courtship and marriage to Prince Albert. Victoria went on to rule for 63 years, and was Great Britain’s  longest serving monarch until she was overtaken by Elizabeth II on 9th September of this year. Produced by the same folks that brought us Poldark and Endeavour, filming will begin in locations around the North of England this October.