Although she has yet to appear in the New 52, Dr Leslie Thompkins was a strong supporting character from the comics at one time. She is strongly against Batman using teenagers as sidekicks and at one time, withheld medication from Stephanie Brown, which caused her to die. She did this in order to show Batman that the vigilante lifestyle was too dangerous for kids.
Now, Leslie Thompkins will be making her way to Gotham in the episode "Rogues' Gallery" which will air on Monday, January 5th. Thompkins will be played by Morena Baccarin and she will be working at Arkham Asylum alongside James Gordon. The two will start off as friends, but get complicated after that.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Baccarin had this to say about the character:
I’m a physician. I’m working at Arkham, but we’re not sticking too close to the original mythology... We are having her team up with Jim Gordon instead of the Wayne family and Bruce. Eventually, who knows—it could go in that direction, but it hasn’t yet.”
She gets out [of Arkham] which is really fun and her and Jim kind of pair up and have this really great relationship. I think it’s important. Arkham is a really kind of iconic and dark and crazy world but I don’t think you want to spend too much time in there... Jim finds an ally in her, which I think is important for him at this point. He’s beaten down by the system and he’s been fighting this one-man operation to make Gotham not as corrupt. I think it’s really important that he finds that relationship in Leslie.
While in the comics, she's had a closer relationship with Alfred Pennyworth and Catwoman, here, she'll be working with Gordon and Arkham, which is a solid move for the show and a good way to get these two characters in the same room and working with each other.
What do you think of Baccarin joining the cast? Gotham returns to television on Monday, January 5th at 8PM on Fox.