Oh my gosh, I know what you mean. Luckily, I have not met people personally who are trolls in any fandom I've been in, but I have seen others encounter them. (through comments or fans talking about their experiences) And My Little Pony is no different. :\ It really is sad to me to see them in this one, considering My Little Pony: FiM is such a interesting show and has so many characters. If you don't like one, you'll probably like another enough to enjoy the show. If you look for fanarts, or just other fans, these type of people can really ruin it for you.

So I can completely understand why you would be reluctant to be a pony fan. I'm happy that you've met a nice fan, I actually met nice fans when I first became a fan, so it was a good experience.(some of the people who watch me were fans before me! I was surprised to learn that because my fanarts were mostly about another show before I drew this and a few sketches of MLP )

It's funny actually, I think her official name is going to be Ditzy Doo, so your description of her is exactly what I think everyone was going for. There's a series of audio fan episodes on YouTube called "Doctor Whooves and Assistant", which stars the Doctor Whooves pony and Derpy and he doesn't call her Derpy there, he calls her "Ditzy". This fanart was partially inspired by it, I find them to be really good actually, they aren't Doctor Who, but the episodes are well done and definitely remind me of it.

Anyway, besides the name, I mention it because the guy who voice Doctor Whooves there says that he uses a mixture of Ten/Eleven for the pony's personality and so is not really Ten or Eleven or any specific Doctor, but has traces of him all over. You have a point, he might be reluctant to bring someone like her, I'd imagine with her being clumsy, he'd have trouble getting along with her. As a fan though, my mind thinks of it as "maybe he could learn to accept her for who she is and see how amazing she really is and at least a friendship, even a small one could grow out of that". BUT that of course is fan theory, nothing but fan theory.

Ah, I understand. I never saw her as Romana, you know, I think Romana is too different in personality to match her at all. In terms of appearance and personality, I don't think she matches any companion...at least I haven't connected her with one yet.

Hmm, my advice is do it at your pace and by your choice. For me, I didn't check the show out at first because I thought it wouldn't be any good, but then I saw people geniunely saying "it's actually good". As a fan of animation, I decided to check it out, and at first it didn't catch my interest in the first minute, but as each character was introduced and the story unfolded I found something that I liked about all of them and what story it had to tell. So, don't check it out if you feel pressured or because "it's popular", do it because you want to check it out or because you want to see why your friends enjoy it if you'd like. And hey if it's not for you, that's fine. Real fans won't hate on someone just because they don't like the show, not everything is for everyone.

So yeah, do it at your pace, and enjoy the show and enjoy the nice fans of this show. (because there really are nice fans! ) Unfortunately, like in any fandom, *sigh* (the bad part of a group of fans of course) if you see people who fight against others for no reason or are incredibly rude about their point of view, just ignore them. They're not really fans, just people who call themselves that for the excuse of fighting others.

Oh my, this is long. Umm, sorry for the length. I'm happy to hear that, my friends have shows they like that I don't too, and that's fine with me.