The New F**king Doctor

Peter Capaldi had landed the role of the Doctor and the web is going crazy. Now I’m not going to get into a wrong choice/right choice argument, but rather talk about what I think this means for the series and how it’s going to change. The Smith era saw the realism and science angle (of the 9^th and 10^th Docs) go out the window in favour of a more fairytale based look and storyline, so it only makes sense that the show will change again for Capaldi.

So first, things that the show has indicated so far. The Doctor is moving into darker places and actions. The Valyard was name dropped in “The Name of the Doctor” and he supposedly occurs around this time in the Doctor’s life. Could the 12^th entire storyline be based around a continual conflict with the darker parts of his personality? Is the manner of the 11^th death going to be so violent and traumatizing that it creates a serious and vengeful Doctor?

This brings us onto Capaldi himself and what we can try to ascertain about the show’s future based on his casting. First off, he’s older, with the grey hair and the wrinkles to prove it. He’s also a long-term fan of the show. One of the first things he did after stepping onto the stage of “The Next Doctor” was a William Hartnell impression. Now I’m not saying that means he’s going to play the character in the same way as Hartnell did, but that the more classic, older Doctors could inform his performance, in the same way that Peter Davison’s did Tennant’s.

With an older actor in the role, an increase in seriousness is a reasonable thing to expect. We don’t want it to go too far, like the sixth Doctor, given that Colin Baker was told play him as hyper serious and irritable to mix up the character from the juvenile and youthful days of the Peter Davison.

Whatever happens I’m confident that the Who writing team is up to the task.

Oh and there's always that chance that it'll be like this.