‘Doctor Who’: Peter Capaldi gets ready to bow out

As the Time Lord prepares to fire up his Tardis once again for season 10, fans of BBC’s hit show Doctor Who must prepare to bid farewell to 12th Doctor Peter Capaldi, who will hang up his Doc Martins come episode 13. The actor, who gained fame for his spin doctor stint on British comedy The Thick of It, joined the long-running science fiction show as the time-travelling doctor in 2014 and will leave after he completes his third season.

But the show’s not over just yet. A whole season of interplanetary adventure awaits as a new companion (Pearl Mackie playing Bill Potts) from outside the Doctor Who universe joins the ride. And according to longserving series showrunner Steven Moffat, who is also leaving Doctor Who this year, the show’s more or less beginning from scratch this season, making this a perfect entry point for newbies.

“Because, why wouldn’t you? The essential story of Doctor Who is, ‘Doctor Who — who is he?’ The name of the show isn’t named after the main character; it is named after the question that is asked of him. So, you want someone who doesn’t know him yet, someone like Bill. Because maybe they’ll find a different answer than everybody else. And who doesn’t want the story to start again? You always want that,” said Moffat, who along with Capaldi and Mackie, spoke to Gulf News tabloid! over email.

A lifelong fan of the show, Capaldi brought a distinctive power and pizzazz to an already rarely-subtle show. From playing an electric guitar atop a tank while duelling a monster to bringing a spoon to a sword fight, the 12th Doctor was a lesson in taking ownership. “The best part about working on Doctor Who is waking up in the morning and thinking, ‘I’m Doctor Who and today I get to go and blow up some monsters’,” said Capaldi. “If you walk into a room and there are a whole bunch of kids there and they gasp, that’s a rather beautiful experience. Because I know they’re gasping because Doctor Who just walked in. I just happen to be wearing his face from that period.”

Episodes such as the ‘Zygon Invasion’ from season nine were especially well-received for their political themes and what seemed like critical commentary on the current world order.

“It was interesting because I think the older show in the ’70s did more reflecting of the world around it than we do. But I think the show should reflect more of that. And with ‘Zygon Invasion’, what we were looking at really was extremism, and trying to do it in a way that children could understand, by creating a situation for the Zygon creatures that there were extremists operating within their race. We were trying to find a way to communicate that information, to try and make sense of the world. Cleaving to an enlightened morality is a good thing for it to do,” he said.

But Moffat has gone above and beyond to ensure Capaldi gets a fitting send-off, populating season 10 with monsters and friends brought back from the depths of the Doctor Who archives. “I’m very keen on the Mondasian Cybermen. I can’t explain how they show up, and I don’t know whether Steven did it as a particularly kind gift to me. But the Cybermen first appeared on the show in 1967 when technology was a little more [basic] or they had less money that we have, but they still were pretty terrifying. I think it’s quite hard to replicate that, so I think we are all a little bit concerned about it, but actually they look amazing, very haunting, really creepy. Steven and I love when we do really creepy things and give people nightmares,” said Capaldi.

Capaldi believes that fans can look to the show in troubled times for guidance and an assurance in a world that can still be redeemed. “The show holds within it tenets of kindness, intelligence and bravery and adherence to a kind of morality that should be listened to. In a time when the world is struggling to recognise values that are lasting, pure and good, the show says, ‘This is the right thing to do; this is the good thing to do. This is the kind thing to do,’” he said

Mackie, the 29-year-old Londoner who replaces Jenna Coleman, whose character Clara Oswald left the show in 2015, is over the moon about joining the British institution. “It has been absolutely insane. I cannot really compare it to anything because it has been such a sort of amazing rollercoaster. I think I am still kind of coming to terms with the fact that I am on the show. I think when I see my face on the screen I’ll probably be like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s me,’” said Mackie. “It is like being welcomed into a really weird, dysfunctional but wonderful family.”

And she’s a newcomer to the show in every sense — not only has she not grown up with the show, her character is a human who is completely unfamiliar with the Doctor’s universe-hopping ways. But Mackie received generous support, she says. “Jenna sent me a bunch of flowers on my first day which was lovely and she gave me a lot of advice, mainly of where to get healthy food and nice food delivered in Cardiff which is actually surprisingly useful. And things like, ‘Practise your superhero run to comedy theme music,’ which I have done. I did that in my flat.”

She also met 11th Doctor Matt Smith at Comic Con earlier this year and apparently he had lots of advice, none of which she can remember now. Having Capaldi at hand, of course, had its merits.

“Peter was like, ‘There are so many other elements to the show that aren’t just making the show. There are so many bits: being interviewed by lots of people, there are lots of fans, but remember you are here because you are a really good actress and our first job is to make the show and that is what we should remember; but if it does get too much, I am always at the end of a phone.’ Which I thought was really nice,” she said.

With confirmation of the news that Capaldi has filmed his regeneration scene — this is usually when one Doctor gives way to the next — speculation about who the new Doctor might be is rife. But Capaldi remains tight-lipped. “Well I’ve often said Frances de la Tour is a wonderful actress who I love dearly and she would be a marvellous Doctor Who. But it’s not up to me. I don’t really know. Whoever it is will be wonderful and I’m sure they’ll have a great time. I just wish them great luck and hope that they have as much fun as I had in it,” he said.

ALL THE DOCTORS PLEASE STAND UP

For a show that has endured for almost 50 years, on and off, it has been vital that a new Doctor take up the mantle every few years. But the show wasn’t always written that way. The moment of truth arrived in 1966 when the original Doctor, William Hartnell, had to leave the BBC show because of health issues. Showrunners Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis were averse to the idea of killing off a hugely successful show. So, the built-in conciet was that since the Doctor was an alien and there is a time travel angle to the show, Hartnell’s departure didn’t mean they had to kill off the main character. Instead of dying, the Doctor would “regenerate” into a different actor, and the series would simply move on.

Patrick Troughton, who played the second Doctor, was also allowed to put his own spin on the performance, making the character his own. Every since then,the rest of the doctors, including Capaldi’s 12th, has followed suit. The 12 Doctors, in consecutive order, were: William Hartnell (1963), Patrick Troughton (1966), Jon Pertwee (1970), Tom Baker (1974), Peter Davison (1981), Colin Baker (1984), Sylvester McCoy (1987), Paul McGann (1996), Christopher Eccleston (2005), David Tennant (2005), Matt Smith (2010) and Peter Capaldi (2014).

Don’t miss it

Doctor Who season 10 begins airing in the UAE on April 15 (Saturday) at 10pm on BBC First.