Doctor Who [6]

well, only 12 hours ....

ok. i was hoping for a black doctor a female doctor but.. i am gonna give this bloke a chance.

Indeed Norc- got to at least give him a chance- I was hugely underwhelmed when they announced Matt Smith to say the least- and he turned out to be one of my all time favourite Doctors.

"is this the last regeneration? I heard there are only 12 Doctors. "- NOrc

This question has been up for grabs since the Time War.
Personally I dont think it any longer applies.
Regeneration is not a natural species thing, its artificial, Time Lord medicine- previously, when there was still a Gallifrey and a High Council regenerations were awarded- The Master for example when he got to his last one cut a deal with the Time Lord High Council to get a whole new cycle of regenerations.
With no Time Lords left and just the Doctor there is no one to stop him giving himself as many regens as he wants as far as I can see.

"ok. i was hoping for a black doctor a female doctor but.. i am gonna give this bloke a chance."- Norc

I couldnt give two hoots about colour but I am glad its not a woman- not that I think a woman couldnt play the role but I think for such a major change the shows runners and the BBC would have to have a strong story led reason for doing so and a strong, clear idea of how they would do it- I got the feeling if they had cast a woman this time it would merely be to appease pressure for one- and thats not a good enough reason to do it.

I think casting a 55 year old in a show that has largely got popular on the back of a young female fan baiting lead is a risk, one Im surprised, and pleasantly pleased, they have taken.

Sorry Norc! Was Mrs Figg- I was dashing in and out at the time got mixed up!  

what about the BIG secret bit? how come he was the bookies favourite.

Probably because he was in the frame before- has previous connections to the show and everyone who knew him knew what a huge Whovian he was.
But the pattern of betting suggests that his name only really became seriously connected to the role in the last few days leading up to the announcement- which is exactly what happened with Matt, he was a long shot punt too right up until the last few days when he also suddenly became the favourite- bookies are good at getting the inside line on these things.



Further evidence of Capaldi's Who nerdiness of the highest quality- this is a piece he wrote for  a 1970's Doctor Whofan  fanzine-



The live announcement was the highest rated show on Sunday getting 6.2 million viewers on overnights (so just the live TV numbers)

And some media reactions to the news-

Mark Lawson of the Guardian said:
His primary quality as an actor is danger; during his most vicious riffs as the sewer-mouthed Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It, there frequently seemed a threat that his pulsing facial veins might burst. He was also memorably menacing as the new boss in the second series of the TV newsroom drama The Hour. In that sense, Capaldi might have seemed more natural casting for the Time Lord's nemesis, the Master. So the main interest in his portrayal of the Doctor will be whether show-runner Steven Moffat – who has previously cast the actor in supporting roles in both Doctor Who and the spin-off Torchwood – encourages him to maintain his signature screen-bursting energy or explore a gentler part of his range.

As Capaldi is not only in demand as an actor but also writes and directs, he is giving up a significant amount to fulfil the show's brutal shooting schedules in Cardiff. His casting confirms that, like James Bond, the Doctor has become a role serious actors are happy to take on.

Serena Davies of the Telegraph:
Capaldi is also immensely appealing as an individual, a crucial thing in this media saturated age: he is personable and outgoing to interview, as well as blessed with a wry sense of humour. ... It’s a match made in heaven - or Gallifrey.

Jon Cooper of the Mirror:
... He was announced, and boy did my two hearts leap. A moment of pure, unadulterated excitement – it felt like I was ten again. A new Doctor! Who looks awesome! I even got close to forgetting about the upcoming 50th anniversary celebrations (heck, I thought I had it good when they cast John bloomin' Hurt) because I literally can't wait to see what Capaldi's going to do with the role. ... Capaldi's a brilliant choice. Inspired, exciting and totally different. I can't wait to see what his take on the Time Lord is going to be like – hell, I'm even excited to find out what his costume's going to be, which is more than a man my age should really admit. This really is the year for Doctor Who – and with Peter Capaldi on board, the Time Lord's future is looking pretty rosy too.

James Legge of the Independent:
While we can safely assume Peter Capaldi will leave Malcolm Tucker's abrasion and hurled expletives in Westminster, he brings much more career baggage to the role than anyone else since the 2005 reboot. Despite the press's attempts to paint Capaldi's Tucker as a raging football hooligan, the new Doctor's performance over four series of The Thick of It and a feature film in In The Loop wove among the general horridness a pathos and occasional self-doubt which would put to shame any of his predecessors as the last Time Lord.


Moffat talking to SKY news-

When you realise one of the finest, most loved actors in the country is a huge Doctor Who fan, and a genius actor, and you think that maybe we could just give it a punt, ask him, I mean it's not a set thing, would he like to be the Doctor, so we contacted him and said would you be interested in it and he was very interested.
Asked if he’d had a short list, Moffat said: "Yes. The list went 'Peter Capaldi'. It was a very short list.

“When I was a kid, being a huge Doctor Who fan, I wrote numerous letters to the Doctor Who office largely inquiring about how the show was made.
It was 1972 and Doctor Who was entering its ninth season on BBC 1.
I was thrilled to have delivered to me a large package from the BBC containing two full studio scripts for the Jon Pertwee serial ‘The Mutants’, which they were making at the time.
The package also contained set designs and studio floor plans for these episodes and a delightful letter from [producer] Barry Letts giving me an idea what all this stuff was.
It was a fantastic exciting insight into both Doctor Who and television production generally. I had never seen a script in any form whatsoever before then and was immediately fascinated by the documents. And of course Barry’s kindness was a trigger to my ambition to work somehow (I didn’t know how) in TV. The scripts are still sitting on my bookshelf downstairs.” - Peter Capaldi

yo moffat when stephen hawking thinks it’s time for a female doctor with a male companion
it’s fucking time for a female doctor with a male companion

No its time for a female Doctor when the show has a proper reason for there being one- not to satisfy some here today gone tomorrow pc brigade who will move onto something else to mess up soon enough anyway.

If there ever is a female Doctor it has to be for proper story reasons, not to tick a check box.

I'd be a male companion in a heartbeat.

BTW what is the "proper story reason" for every Doctor being a white man?  Or for the Doctor spending 90% of his time on Earth?  Or speaking English?

but stephen hawking.

what is the "proper story reason" for every Doctor being a white man?- Eldo

There are very few (if any) black Gallifrians- its possible their planet never had any and unlike the human race they originally evolved in colder climes.

"Or for the Doctor spending 90% of his time on Earth?"

His original arrival on Earth was an accident- he couldn't actually pilot the TARDIS just set her in motion- he had no idea where they would go or when (he threw the manual into a supenova because he disagreed with it)
He had to stop of for a bit on Earth for repairs, but had no intention of staying, or having anything to do with humans- due to circumstances he ended having to kidnap two humans however- and they mellowed him considerably and gave him a new perspective on his life- going from someone who refused to interfere in any way or form with history (the code the Time Lords live by) to someone who interferes and contests evil.

He also uses human as his moral marker- as without them he tends not to know where the
lines are, or even see there are lines, and to go to far- humans help him define his own personal moral code.
Which is why he likes earth so much, and why he tends to have human companions.

Or speaking English?- Eldo

He isnt. He is speaking Galllifrean- and when they meet aliens, or go to foreign countries on earth, or different periods in history the Doctor and Companions are speaking the local languages.
The TARDIS (which is built on technology reliant on telepathy) gets in your head once your onboard and translates everyone to they hear what they expect to hear (the Sonic Screwdriver works on the same telepathic tech, it does have settings but mainly you 'point and think').

Those are the story reasons.  

So basically there's nothing stopping them from coming up with a story reason for having a female Doctor because it wouldn't be any more or less contrived than what they've done before.

But that's the point- they'd need to come up with a very good reason, it cant just happen because.
And especially not just because a small but vocal bunch of people are saying they want it to happen.


ps most of the above was set out in the first series in 1963- so its not something you can just undo with complete ease, no one else has tampered with those basic story elements since its creation.
It would be sad to only find out why not after the shows died on its arse!

I think they have made a superb and bold choice in Capaldi and cant wait to see what he will do with the role.

the Doctor spending 90% of his time on Earth?- Eldo

You must be thinking of the RTD era Eldo when that's closer to true.

Out of the last 39 episodes (Smiths run) 12 were set on earth at some point in its history.

petty wrote:
 what is the "proper story reason" for every Doctor being a white man?- Eldo

There are very few (if any) black Gallifrians- its possible their planet never had any and unlike the human race they originally evolved in colder climes.

that's a rubbish explanation. cold climate has nothing to do with skin colour. how much d-vitamin you can take up has.

And how much vit-D is dependent on sunlight isnt it? so if your further north your white, if your somewhere hot your darker- if your planet doesnt have a somewhere hot  the race could just be white- or if all but a white tribe had got wiped out and its was a cold planet- we dont know what Galifrey was like before the Time Lords remade it and took it out of Time.
That and they dont have physical sex- they are 'woven' on genetic looms.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:And how much vit-D is dependent on sunlight isnt it? so if your further north your white, if your somewhere hot your darker- if your planet doesnt have a somewhere hot  the race could just be white- or if all but a white tribe had got wiped out and its was a cold planet- we dont know what Galifrey was like before the Time Lords remade it and took it out of Time.
That and they dont have physical sex- they are 'woven' on genetic looms.

no. if you're dark you don't take up as much vitamin D as white people. little sun, less D vitamin, so they had to get rid of that nice tan. and anyway. time lords .. aren't they aliens ? maybe they don't need that shit.

Exactly- Im racking my brains to think if its ever been established that there are Black Time Lords- the most likely scene would be Tennants one with the brief return of the Time Lords- maybe in the background somewhere? But I certainly cant think off any who had prominant roles if there were in the shows history.
MMmm think I shall go check the TARDIS wiki pages.

Nope the closest I can find is

Spoiler:

Jump to 11.20 seconds for Capaldi in the excellent adaption of the Crow Road (I recommend it- book first of course) saying some sort of Doctory things-

Playing Guardian boss Alan Rusbridger in Bill Condon's take on WikiLeaks, out later this year-



And his previous appearence in Who in Fires of Pompeii-

that's just wrong why is he in a previous episode..loooooool