Peter Capaldi is The Doctor!

[Perry Vale]

It was hardly kept "under wraps" if bookmakers had actually stopped taking bets on the actor who eventually turned out to be the Doctor.

The surprise this time was that the eventual actor chosen was the one EVERYBODY expected. Hardly a success.

Si.

So much for only 10 people knowing, eh? I still believe they'd told Rufus Hound beforehand, which might explain his Peter Eccleston gaffe.

All this talk every time about someone being used as a smokescreen, perhaps they should have actually tried doing it for real...

[Stuart Wallis]

So much for only 10 people knowing, eh? I still believe they'd told Rufus Hound beforehand, which might explain his Peter Eccleston gaffe.

Or Rufus had seen him floating about backstage and made either a Freudian slip or a logical deduction.

[Dirk Gently]

When Rufus made his gaff I just assumed he'd been watching the previous segment with Peter Davison in it & I assumed he confused the next Doctor with a previous one that he both saw there & in his youth.

But of course in hind sight...

[Antony Cox]

Just to clarify my comment elsewhere regarding running round in circles and doing a little dance in the office if Peter Capaldi was cast, this statement was only valid for a week and as I was at home last week fitting a new kitchen and have only returned to work on Monday, unfortunately I will be unable to fulfil this now expired offer! :

Suffice to say that I am delighted at PC’s casting. I have been wanting an older actor to be cast each time the part has been up for renewal, and at last it’s happened and with such a decent actor to boot. That’s not to say that I haven’t enjoyed Matt Smith or his Nu-Who predecessors – undoubtedly all of the leading actors in the New Series so far have hugely contributed to its amazing success – but I can’t deny having been dismayed at the casting of a younger and younger actor each time, regardless of whether they were any good or not. I know this sounds irrational as there are good actors and bad actors however old or young they may be, but up until this point I just don’t think there’s been enough contrast between Doctors, particularly with DT and MS. Although different in appearance and style, they both had one particular trait to their performances which I felt was too similar, and that was the ‘jabbering away in a know-it-all kind of fashion’ which was prevalent through a lot of their scenes. In DT’s case this came across as a bit smug, almost unbearably so towards the end of his tenure, whilst in MS’s case I simply found it endearing if a little familiar. To me Chris Eccleston was quite different to his successors in this sense, and obviously physically very different, but although he was superb casting as the 9th Doctor and undoubtedly the success of that first series was greatly down to him, I think overall he’s had less impact than DT or MS.

Now just seems to be the right time for a Doctor with a few lines on his face and an experienced demeanour. I must admit that aside from his guest role in The Fires of Pompeii, I’ve only really seen Peter Capaldi in the last but one series of Torchwood – I’ve never seen The Thick Of It or anything else memorable which he’s been in – but based on his incredible performance in The Children Of Earth I feel certain that we have a superb actor in the role of the 12th Doctor. Whilst I can appreciate to some extent the concern in some circles that he’s too old for today’s core audience (if indeed the core audience is still children and young adults), I for one don’t see it as a problem. Stephen Moffat may be many things but he’s not a fool and I’m sure he has a plan to make this casting work. The New Series has unarguably presented itself as being cool and funky for the 21st century (and I think this was absolutely the right thing to do in order for it to be a success), but now it’s so well established that I don’t think it would be a mistake for the look and feel of it to change slightly.

Of course, there’s no reason why PC can’t be cool and funky, but there’s no way that the dynamic between the new Doctor and his companion can be the same – not if the companion remains as a younger female which I’m sure it will. We now live in an age where it wouldn’t be PC (pardon the pun) for an older man and a young girl to be running around together; not in the same ‘pally’ way as the last two Doctors have at any rate, their being of a physically similar age. Yes, Chris Eccleston was about twice the (supposed) age of Rose and of Billie Piper, but it took quite a while for their relationship to be established and the inevitable snog didn’t take place until right at the end of Series One (if my memory serves me correctly). And this brings up the biggest ‘no-no’ of an older Doctor and a younger companion – as much as I disliked all the snogging for reasons which I have already expressed elsewhere, in theory it’s been just about get-away-with-able up until now but I don’t think we’ll be seeing any of it for PC’s Doctor – not unless he eventually has a female companion much nearer his own age. Also, I’m thinking that PC will be a slightly ‘darker’ Doctor, regardless of any previous roles he’s had, so that should be enough of a contrast in itself.

Anyway, I’m really looking forward to seeing the next series, probably more than I had done since the New Series started. Oh, and being of reasonably close Italian descent albeit an English citizen, I can quite confidently say that his surname isn’t (and shouldn’t be) pronounced as Capaldi as in ‘baldy’, it most definitely should be Capaldi as in the cheapo supermarket name ‘Aldi’, which coincidentally enough is exactly the same as the last four letters of his name anyway!

[Ian Lethbridge-Stewart]

Just to clarify my comment elsewhere regarding running round in circles and doing a little dance in the office if Peter Capaldi was cast, this statement was only valid for a week and as I was at home last week fitting a new kitchen and have only returned to work on Monday, unfortunately I will be unable to fulfil this now expired offer! :

Wus!

[Dirk Gently]

Quite.

[Si Hunt]

The New Series has unarguably presented itself as being cool and funky for the 21st century (and I think this was absolutely the right thing to do in order for it to be a success), but now it’s so well established that I don’t think it would be a mistake for the look and feel of it to change slightly.

This is what it comes down to in a nutshell. It needed to be one thing to be a success in modern times, now it's established we can afford to go back to how it was.

Complacency! Time will tell.

SI.

[Perry Vale]

I think that anyone who thinks there'll be a (major) change of style just because we have an older Doctor will be in for a big disappointment, when the time comes. Which is quite a lot of people, from reading other forums.

[Darren]

There have been two occasions when I have read a piece of Who news and had a grin on my face. One was when Catherine Tate returned and this is the second. Apart from Pompeii and Torchwood (and two episodes of Vicar of Dibley), I have seen Peter Capaldi on stage in The Ladykillers, and he is a very chrasamatic actor with great prescence and physicality. He should be good.

[Dirk Gently]

Why can't I shake this feeling that Peter Capaldi isn't going to be around for long enough?
I just get this feeling of Eccleston all over again, brilliant in the role but gone too soon.




Sorry for bringing this thread up again, I guess I'm just writing this down in an attempt to rid the thoughts from my mind.

[Andrew Curnow]

I know what you mean, Tim - is it because Capaldi is more of an 'actor' who likes to get his teeth into lots of different roles? That was exactly my thought when Eccleston was cast, so I wasn't too surprised when he was off again so soon.

That said, although I don't watch it, I believe PC has done several years of The Thick of It, so he clearly isn't averse to playing the same character for a period of time - and he IS a Who fan, whereas Eccleston wasn't. One might also suggest that the hectic/chaotic first year may have partly made Chris' mind up, whereas I assume by now it's at least a little more organised!!

On the other hand, just to be really pessimistic for a mo, if they were planning to rest the show again after, say, series 8 it would be the perfect opportunity to cast a brilliant actor who up-front told the BBC he didn't want to do it for long.

[Rob McCow]

I'm starting to think that John Hurt isn't going to do a whole season either.