“From the doctor’s own point of view, from his fictional point of view, he’s just the same man and he’s rearranged himself a bit. But he’s the same person looking out of those eyes.”
Those words from Stephen Moffat, lead writer and executive producer of Doctor Who, in a promo interview for the new season of the hit BBC series have me psyched for this latest incarnation of the Doctor—though he’s always “the same man,” we’ll get to see a different slice of his inimitable personality. Now, double that with the actor’s conversation via Metro about what to expect of the Time Lord in the upcoming season:
Peter Capaldi described his take on the Doctor as ‘slightly more impatient’ and ‘extremely fierce,’ but still ‘very joyful’, ‘very funny,’ and ‘enthusiastic about life and world around him.’
I, for one, am glad to hear we are heading down a slightly darker path with The Twelfth Doctor. That’s not intended to be a knock against Doctors Ten and Eleven (I wouldn’t want to marginalize them in the least since David Tennant and Matt Smith revitalized the series, taking the time-traveling, humanoid alien to new heights of distinction—I’m a BIG fan of both of them), but I gotta say, it’ll be refreshing to see a bit of grit creeping back into the show via Capaldi. The last two characterizations of the Doctor were your everyday nice guys, albeit a bit kooky, who you wouldn’t mind dating your daughter, right? And, you could introduce them to Grandma without too much concern… come to think of it, Clara Oswald (Jenna-Louise Coleman) did just that in “The Time of the Doctor.” Of course, they both had their moments when they could get mad as hell and even unpredictable, but there wasn’t ever much in the way of overt menace in their threats.
Like many others from my generation who grew up with Tom Baker’s portrayal, I saw a man who was much more alien in nature than the first three embodiments, and at times he was quirky, gloomy, and aloof. Of course he had lots of fun, but the weight of his travels was clearly etched in his face. And he could get downright curmudgeonly at times. When Romana II (Lalla Ward) questions his interfering, the Doctor, with snap, replies, “Interfere? Of course we should interfere. Always do what you’re best at. That’s what I say. Now come on!” Colin Baker (Sixth Doctor) and Christopher Eccleston (Ninth Doctor) also had a good measure of that alien vibe, the impatience and danger factor. And now it appears Capaldi will share these hardboiled, cantankerous traits, plus introduce a few new ones of his own.
A side benefit from a gruffer, more mature doctor is the possibility of a reprieve from the UST (Unresolved Sexual Tension) between the Time Lord and his companion—at least for a little while. Maybe that’s too much to hope for, but after several companions like Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) and Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) batted their eyes at him, I’m ready to take a breather from any more flirtations. There was even a trace of that between Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Eleven—despite marrying Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill), she seemed to harbor a bit of a crush on her raggedy man. I’m not saying Capaldi, because he’s older, isn’t swoon worthy; I overheard the receptionist at my doctor’s office tell a co-worker when she saw a commercial on BBC America, “I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on his sonic screwdriver,” (run, you clever girl), but I’m sensing the writers will take this opportunity to deviate from that particular plot device.
So how about you? Looking forward to the grittier Doctor or leaning toward gentler times? Would you want to see The Twelfth Doctor and The Impossible Girl, um, together?
Check out our spoiler-free review of Capaldi’s first turn as the Doctor in the season 8 premiere, “Deep Breath.” Plus, read more about Capaldi’s take on the Doctor, including his thoughts on any potential romances!
David Cranmer is the publisher of the BEAT to a PULP webzine and books and editor of the recent collections The Lizard’s Ardent Uniform and Other Stories and A Rip Through Time: The Dame, The Doctor, and the Device.
Given Eleven’s lack of respect for personal boundaries crossing into sexual assault territory, I would very much mind him dating my daughter. While the description in the text fits Eleven from season 5, he later became much creepier and much less trustworthy (“The Doctor lies,” anyone?) – while the narrative still presented him as someone nice and likeable. This article seems to me the proof that that’s the impression of Eleven that stuck with people.
Because of that I’m kind of tired of the whole ‘grittiness and crankyness’ business, but if that’s the way it has to be, I very much prefer this less likeable side of The Doctor out in the open, as seems to be the case with Peter Capaldi’s Doctor, than Matt Smith’s Creepy Nice Guy.
One of the best moments in NuWho is in episode 2 when Nine is chuckling over the impending incineration of the earth and Rose looks at him knowing he really is alien and she might be in big trouble.
I like the idea that the twelfth Doctor wants to “fix some past mistakes;” it hints to a bit less of the camp we’ve been experiencing of late, especially from Matt Smith’s Doctor, and a possible foray into more serious stories with a bit less swashbuckling.
Clara’s initial attraction to the Doctor was as a mystery and fascination, so I can see that continuing as-is for awhile… unless the new Doctor is so short and impatient that he takes the fun out of their outings, in which case, Clara strikes me as the kind of person who would let the Doctor go and seek some other fascination in her life. Of course, there’s no reason she couldn’t decide she fancies the serious and dedicated side of the Doctor, but she doesn’t seem the type.
After watching the interviews on the two Peter Davison DOCTOR WHO documentaries on BBC-America, I’m more than a little worried that this Doctor will be another Colin Baker disaster of a Doctor so alien he’s an unpleasant, arrogant jerk. I hope I am proven wrong.
Yeah, 11 could seem friendly and goofy and harmless. Which made his lightning quick flips to the dark side all the more arresting. His reaction to seeing a dalek again was essentially the same as 9’s (beating the piss out of it with a wrench). He blew up a legion of Cybermen just to find out where Amy was. He straight up executes Solomon and the end of “Dinosaurs, on a Spaceship!” 9 May have looked rough and tumble (my god! a leather jacket!), but he was the most devastated by killing and the most likely to try anything to avoid it. 10 would give you a chance, but just one. 11 would kill you or let you die without a moment’s hesitation. Of the three, I find him the darkest and most dangerous, especially when paired with the absent-minded professor image.
@1: StrongDreams, I sure did like #9’s alien demeanor. Strongest and most effective take since #4.
@3: Futurisk, There’s already rumor talk of Clara leaving at the end of this year. If true, in the long run, she didn’t spend much time with either #11 0r #12.
@1 Ummm… what? That’s just about the most ludicrious thing I’ve ever heard about 11. Good lord.
I’m looking forward to Peter Capaldi’s take on the Doctor. A strong actor who should own the role in no time at all.
@8: mates, I remember when all the talk was how could anyone replace/top David Tennant and now viewers are saying the same about Matt Smith. I’m with you that Capaldi will have no problem filling the shoes.
@@.-@ The vibe I’m getting is Capaldi’s doctor being more the “descendant” of William Hartnell’s First Doctor; his “default” personality tended more to being “impatient” and “cantakerous” more of the time than any of his successors. And, to my eyes, at least, in that photo Capaldi does look rather uncannily like a cross between Hartnell and Peter Cushing (the Doctor in the 1960’s DOCTOR WHO movies).
I didn’t like Capaldi on TORCHWOOD, but it may have been due to the role, so I’m trying to reserve judgment. I thought Eccleston was the best of the new Doctors, the perfect blend of goofy and grim. The real star of the show, though, has been the writing. The overall story arcs have been amazing.
Yeah, Eccleston had goofy and grim down pat. Wish we had him around for a bit lobger.
I’m really hoping for a more classical character here. Not “The Lonely God” who makes armies run at the sound of his name and uses his sonic screwdriver for everything the writers can’t think of a way around; just an eccentric, somewhat petulant stranger who shows up out of nowhere, acts like he belongs there and proves himself too useful to tell him otherwise by the time anyone realizes what’s going on.
I hope there’s no flirting and UST this season. Capaldi says there won’t be, which is nice.
Also hoping they won’t tie everything up into one long story arc, since Moffat is as bad at those as he is good at writing tense stand-alone stories. They probably will, though.
Max, I don’t mind the arcs but prefer stand-alones myself like “Blink” and “The Doctor’s Wife.” But it seems that most shows these days, on both sides of the big pond, really dig their story arcs.
I tend to prefer the stand-alones or the two-part episodes rather than the long story arcs.
I watched the show about what makes a good companion and how at least now the companion is the main point-of-view character, perhaps, and remembered how when I first started watching Doctor Who, I saw it as a show about a space traveller whose ship kept getting him into trouble :).
Dr. Cox, Ha! I have a similar experience. In my earliest memories (5-6 years old) of watching the show I thought of him (#4) as a very weird spaceman who kept getting in trouble on our planet. Baker had me convinced he was not of this world.
While Tennant could play the goofy with style and charm, I still remember the times he turned dark. High School Reunion, where he and Anthony Head are talking by the pool. Family of Blood two parter, where you learn what he did to them.
Tennant was almost terrifying at those times.
CainS.Latrani, Tennant had his moments for sure. And in “School Reunion” K-9 turned dark (and useful) for a change and kicked some major ass. Top episode.
I am glad the Doctor is getting older and more mature. If he kept getting younger, they would have had to rename him Intern Who, or maybe even Kid Who! ;-)
@16deranmer, :) The first episode I saw was “Logopolis”, and I only saw the last twenty minutes, so the regeneration was the first important happening that I saw, and thus I think of the Fifth Doctor as The Doctor but wasn’t it fun to see Tom Baker in the 50th anniversary episode! :)
I think part of my view of the show was influenced by how every episode seemed to start: there’d be new characters at the very beginning, something would happen where they were at, then the action would switch to the Doctor and his assistants/companions and their plans would be changed by the TARDIS suddenly beginning to shake/crash/land someplace they hadn’t planned for it to land.
Watching the most recent regeneration episode, I had an “I don’t want Matt to go” moment, but the episodes with Peter Capaldi will be interesting.
Dr. Cox, My wife still laughs at me over the 50th anniversary show. When the Fourth Doctor appears and you just hear his voice and see a part of his shoulder, I shouted out in an eight-year-old waaay too excited voice, “That’s Tom Baker!!” And I like Peter Davison’s take quite a lot but I have to be in the right mood because he was much more a reactor to situations and I prefer the meddler. Still, he was dashing and charismatic and I liked in “Time Crash” when Ten joked, “Ooh, I’m the Doctor, I can save the universe with a kettle and a piece of string and ooh, look at me, I’m wearing a vegetable.”
Max Gardner@13
Brilliantly put sir! I doff my trilby/panama/fez to you.
Since Tom Baker was my first Doctor–and I found him inexplicable at times, and so interesting by it–and I’ve loved Capaldi since way back in Lair of the White Worm, I’m really looking forward to seeing him in a grimmer, more overtly-other kind of portrayal.
Angus Flint! I didn’t realize that was him in Lair of the White Worm, Clare. Of course, I haven’t seen that film since the 80s. And I have enjoyed his performances in more recent films like In the Loop and World War Z.
I stopped watching partway through Matt Smith’s run, and I’m still not sure whether it was Smith’s portrayal or Moffat’s showrunning that did it. I’m a fan of Capaldi so he’s enough to get me to give the show a try again. An absence of UST would be refreshing.
welltemperdwriter, funny you should mention that because somewhere during Smith’s last series I also took a break but I think, for me, it was a needed break after having watched the show for so long. I just caught myself up ahead of Capaldi’s debut.
Save this for the end of Capaldi’s run:
“Change my dear, and it seems like not a moment too soon.”
Shelleybear, Sharp line from #5 and one of the most memorable regenerations.
Tandy Johnson here,
From comments already posted, there seems to be varied opinions on the Doctors. Tom Baker was my first(on it’s PBS run), but I grew to appreciate Jon Pertwee, followed by Tennant. Smith I got used to, but will rank low among my Doctors(just to young).
Looking forward to Capaldi’s take on our favprite Time Lord.
The flirtations need to end. The Doctor is more of a solitary character. They’ve never dealt into Hartnell’s past(grandfather and granddaughter Susan) on the series. If done so in the books, I don’t have any idea. After several hundred I stopped buying and only pick up the occasional ebook these days.
Randy, I’ve longed to see the return of Susan Foreman(granddaughter/first companion)
and just checking Dr. Who history (on Wikipedia) see she did, in fact, return for 1993’s Dimensions in Time. I’m definetly going to track that episode down. And I’ve only read a few books based on the series but I see there’s a War Doctor novel being released next month that I may be interested in checking out.
Who is your least favorite Doctor Who?
I find something interesting in each portrayal, Mates. But the Peter Cushing/Dr. Who films (which are apart from the BBC series) of the mid 1960s are a major bust. He’s a superb actor, without a doubt, but the films fall absolutely flat.
Agree on The Cushing Whos. Just rehashes of the TV episodes.
Oh, I’ve already put the War Doctor novel in my wish list file on Amazon.
Muy bien, Randy! I believe its called Engines of War. And I can’t imagine they would bring that particular incarnation back (for the show) too many more times or ever again. Too bad because Hurt created an unforgettable un-doctor.
What’s that running tonight on BBC America. It says new. The synopsis is cut off, but what’s there says the 12th Doctor(Peter Capaldi) and Clara visit seven countries on five continents. The tile is Earth Conquest I believe.
Capaldi & team have been on a world tour and this special has them
visiting seven cities/five continents in 12 days. Thanks for reminding me, Randy. On it…
dccranmer@30
Re Dimensions in Time
Don’t. It’s awful. A very short (about 15 minutes) almost spoof which merged Doctor Who with Eastenders, the BBC’s soap opera. A novelty piece done for charity. Very poor and Susan’s barely in it iirc.
You’d be better off with The Five Doctors (the 20th anniversary special) which does her more justice.
Excellent!
a-j, I have to watch everything associated with Who (though Dimensions does sound dreadful) and that includes the lame entries. I did see The Five Doctors a very long time ago but need to reacquaint myself with Susan’s part in that adventure.
Randy, “Deep Breath” was excellent though I found (being a tad critical here) the normally quite entertaining Madame Vastra and Jenny Flint annoying. But I’m instantly sold on Capaldi, the relationship with Clara, and the mystery of Missy aka “The Gatekeeper of the Nethersphere.” Does anyone have a clue who she might be?
Wondered about that myself. Methinks she will be seen again.
I have mostly just watched the reincarnation of Dr Who. I loved the ninth doctor and was devastated when he left, but loved David Tennant immediately. When he left, I was prepared to dislike Matt Smith but the first episode with the little girl and fish fingers was brilliant. So, I thought when Peter Capaldi was announced, let’s give him a chance. Well, I’ve given him about 5 chances now and I can’t stand his doctor. He’s pompous and arrogant. I wouldn’t mind him being darker but they’ve taken the character and made him unlikeable. I can’t believe any companion would want to stay with him. I only hope Capaldi will decide to leave the role quickly. Give us back a doctor we can admire. Humans are not idiots.