Yesterday the identity of the Twelfth Doctor was revealed to be Scottish actor Peter Capaldi. Join us for a special edition of Time Vortex as we investigate who Capaldi is imagine what sort of Doctor he may be!
First of all I must mention how wonderful Capaldi is as an actor and the fact that the Doctor Who fanbase has largely accepted him into the family shows you what a great Doctor he will be! Now Capaldi is not that well known outside of the UK Doctor Who fans will know him as Caecilius from the Series 4 episode The Fires of Pompeii, a clip of which can be seen below.
And that wasn’t his only part in the Whoniverse! He also played John Frobisher in Torchwood: Children of Earth, although things didn’t end so well for that character. Some people have complained that he shouldn’t be the Doctor because he has already been in the show before but these people are wrong. Colin Baker, the Sixth Doctor, was in the show before he was the Doctor as were Freema Agyeman and Karen Gillan (Karen is also inThe Fires of Pompeii). It’s no real issue and there are so many people in the time and space that look like different incarnations of the Doctor anyway!
Peter Capaldi is best known though for playing the sweary spinster Malcom Tucker in political sitcom The Thick of It and it’s spin-off film In the Loop.
You may also recognise Capaldi from the recent zombie film World War Z where he played W.H.O Doctor. What a coincidence! If you want to check out Capaldi in a genre role he is the Angel Islington in Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere TV series which is really worth a watch.
I’ve been trying to work out what sort of Doctor Peter Capaldi will be. His age means he will certainly be very different from the Eleventh Doctor. Capaldi is 55 years old, the same age as William Hartnell, the First Doctor, when he took on the role. Capaldi will only be 64 days younger than Hartnell on their respective debuts- that is if the regeneration does take place during the Christmas special and we are not given a surprise regeneration in the 50th anniversary special.
I initially imagined Capaldi’s Doctor to be a bit like Patrick Troughton’s incarnation but realised the Eleventh Doctor is quite Troughton-esque so that is unlikely. It seems very unlikely too that Capaldi will be much like the First Doctor because that would just be a step away from the character we know today. I imagine the Twelfth Doctor to be a bit like Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor but with a hint of the grandfatherly feel Peter Cushing gave in his film version of the Doctor. Then again maybe Capaldi will manage to bring something completely new to the role!
When Steven Moffat was asked what sort of Doctor Capaldi would be he had this to say:
“Magnificent! The truth is, we don’t know. I’ve seen him do ‘Doctor-ish’ stuff and it’s worked. I’ve seen him deal with the technobabble, I’ve seen him deal with the nonsense… I wrote scenes [for the audition] that were deliberately impossible -- deliberately impossible dialogue, just to see, ‘Can you do the impossible, even without gunk being poured on you?’ and now we’re going to pour gunk on you, and throw a lizard at you, and ask you to say all this stuff and explain the plot… So we don’t know [what he'll be like] yet, we’re going to work on that. Matt developed hugely as he approached the part over the first few episodes and we’ll do the same with Peter.
As for the outfit I’m stumped. Moffat answered the question of what will the twelfth Doctor wear by saying:
“Clothes. Anything else would be just really shocking!"
Having an older actor playing the Doctor will be interesting in terms of how it affects the Doctor’s relationships. River Song’s story is pretty much finished but I expect her to make an appearance or two with Capaldi’s Doctor and don’t imagine their relationship changing much. Alex Kingston is only five years younger than Capaldi so it will feel perfectly normal.
Clara’s relationship with the new Doctor will be interesting. Clara and the Eleventh Doctor have been quite flirtatious but we don’t really know how they feel about each other. It’s difficult to imagine Jenna Louise-Coleman being as flirtatious or even in love with Peter Capaldi’s Doctor. Now the Doctor is always hundreds of years older than his companion so technically it shouldn’t make much difference. But surely someone in their twenties in a relationship with someone in their fifties doesn’t feel right. I guess we will have to see how Clara copes with the regeneration- it should be pointed out that as she has been down the Doctor’s timestream she at least knows about the idea of regeneration and probably saw the Twelfth Doctor so it the process itself won’t be as much as a shock as it usually is to the companion!
In summary, lots to look forward to and Peter Capaldi is a fantastic choice for the Doctor!
