Peter Capaldi’s departure

So, for anyone who hasn’t heard the earth-shattering news, Peter Capaldi will be leaving Doctor Who after Series 10, to regenerate in the 2017 Christmas special. I wasn’t ready for the news to be honest, because it doesn’t feel that long ago that we welcomed Capaldi into the role. But, on the other hand, I was kind of expecting this. Peter’s not a young man, and the role inevitably takes its toll even on sprightly youngsters like Matt Smith and David Tennant. And three seasons, or four years, seems to have become the convention for an actor’s run as the Doctor these days. Anyway, here are some of the thoughts that have been running through my head since I heard the news.

On one level I’m disappointed. Peter Capaldi has been an absolutely fantastic Doctor and it was always going to be sad to see him leave. Although I admit it took me a while to warm to him after Matt left, over Series 9 I came to adore him, so much that I count him as my second favourite Doctor after Matt Smith, and Twelve and Clara have become my favourite Doctor and companion team after Eleven and the Ponds. Of course I knew that Peter had to leave eventually, but I thought (or hoped) that with Peter it would be different. I saw uniquely in Peter, unlike in Matt, the potential to become the next iconic Doctor Who, the show’s modern Tom Baker, if he stayed around for an extended run. I would have loved to have seen Peter establish himself in the role long-term. I would have loved to have seen his face and his name become synonymous with the Doctor, like Tom Baker was. Given how much Peter revered the show and loved the role, and given that he wasn’t a young actor like David or Matt with full careers ahead of them, I half expected him to do exactly that. But alas. It’s been a privilege to have had Peter at all, so I can’t complain that he didn’t stay for longer.

Peter has undoubtedly been the best actor ever to star in the role. He brought compelling gravitas, intensity and passion to the role. His Doctor was utterly bewitching to watch. Unlike most actors who take up the role, usually up-and-coming actors or relatively small names, Peter was a distinguished and widely-respected actor when he took the role. It’s probably not exaggerating to say Peter was (and is) one of the most distinguished British actors of his generation. The role was, frankly, below him, but he took it up anyway because he loved the show so much and it was his childhood dream to be the Doctor. Do we realise how privileged we are to have had him? Without at all detracting from Matt or David or Chris or any of the other actors who’ve played the role, Peter’s performances were just of a higher calibre than any who’ve come before him, as the tours de force of Heaven Sent, Hell Bent, Twelve’s speech in The Zygon Inversion proved. You could see how devoted to the role he was by the way he put everything into his performances, and it’s made for some of the best Doctor Who ever (in my opinion).

When Twelve regenerates we’ll get a new actor in the role, and that in itself is exciting, as sad as it is to see Peter go. The speculation has already started (and I’m going to join in soon—watch this space!) What’s already clear is that the calls for a female Doctor are louder than ever this time round. I’ve shared my reasons why I don’t want a female Doctor before, but since the topic has come up again I’m going to write another post on the topic soon reiterating my thoughts. I’m not sure what I would do if, come Christmas, Twelve regenerates and the Doctor is a woman, but I think I would keep watching, albeit begrudgingly. I would give it a chance, at least, but I can’t see it working.

In any case I think it’s unlikely that a female actor will be cast as the next Doctor. A new showrunner is taking over, and, with Peter (and probably Pearl, too) going at the same time, everything is going to be new. Like in 2010, it’ll practically be a reboot, and the show has to win its audience over all over again. I think, in those circumstances, Chibnall and the production team would consider that introducing a female Doctor would be too big a risk to take, because if the audience don’t take to a female Doctor and turn away from the show, the BBC might easily be tempted to make the decision that the show is finished and cancel it.

On the subject of Series 11, though, even though I would have loved to have seen Peter continue as the Doctor under Chris Chibnall and see a new showrunner’s interpretation of his Doctor, I’m also excited by the prospect of a 2010-style (soft) reboot. A totally clean slate. That means, I guess, Pearl would have to go, too. I realise it might be uncharitable to Pearl to advocate for her to leave before we’ve even seen her, but I have a feeling that she’s only staying around for one series anyway, since Series 10 is Moffat’s final series. Maybe Chibnall would have preferred to have some familiar faces around him when he started, maybe not, but the opportunity to totally reinvent the show, with a completely clean slate, is too good to pass up. I think Steven Moffat’s total overhaul of the show in 2010 was immensely successful in breathing new life into the show and ushering in an exciting new era. I’m looking forward to seeing how Chibnall recasts Doctor Who in his vision.

Now, let’s start preparing ourselves for another emotional regeneration. What am I saying? You know you’re going to cry, you may as well accept it. At least we’ll get to see Twelve with Clara again… *lip quivers*

Thoughts on: Heaven Sent

Warning: spoilers.

I normally review two-parters together, but I’m making a judgment call here and reviewing the two episodes of the finale separately, as they’re clearly separate scenarios and a lot more distinct than in a conventional two-parter, and it seems like it would be difficult and probably inappropriate to review them together. This one, in particular, feels like it could easily stand on its own. The formats this series are totally messed up anyway so I’ve got some discretion here.

There are times, after I’ve watched a Doctor Who episode — or indeed any film or television — that I just know, instinctively, that I’ve just witnessed something truly sublime. I’ve learnt to recognise the feeling now: it’s a strange feeling of disorientation, like you’ve been wrenched back to reality from another world. Your absorption in the world of the screenplay was so intense, so complete, that you forgot that the real world carried on around you. It leaves you reeling, thinking of little else for hours, if not days. That’s how I felt after watching Heaven Sent, and that’s how I knew, immediately, without even having to think about it, that I had just witnessed something really special. Thinking about it, though, I’ve no hesitation still in putting it up there with the very best of New Who—indeed, the best of Doctor Who, full stop. It was astonishing; sensational; phenomenal. I think that if there were any doubts about Moffat’s ability as a writer before now, they should have been conclusively exploded by this script, which I regard as nothing short of a masterpiece. It’s just pure art.

Steven Moffat has always been an unconventional, experimental writer, and he’s at his best when he’s pushing the boundaries of what Doctor Who can do. Under Russell T Davies he was responsible for that era’s most experimental, and memorable, scripts, most notably Blink and Silence in the Library (my all-time favourite). As showrunner there’s been, ironically, less opportunity for him to fully indulge in his creative impulses, but here Moffat returns to his roots. And isn’t it fantastic? It’s meaty, high-concept stuff that could easily have been a trainwreck, but, carried by the considerable combined talents of Peter Capaldi, director Rachel Talalay, composer Murray Gold, and Moffat himself, it’s some of the most enthralling and genuinely well-produced television around at the moment. In Heaven Sent, Doctor Who punches above its weight to rival any of the high-budget, award-winning prestige drama of our time.

The Doctor, alone, trapped, stalked relentlessly by a frightening creature. No baddie to beat, no one to save, just his own survival to think about, and finding a way out. Just reading the idea, the premise, makes you sit up, intrigued, no? As I said, there was broad scope for danger—at 55 minutes, this might have been a abject snoozefest like the last time Doctor Who subjected us to extended alone-time with the Doctor in The Deadly Assassin. However, it’s irresistibly thick with tension and suspense, rather because of, not in spite of, the more leisured and introspective approach. The mystery keeps the story beating along delectably, helped by the terrifying presence of the Veil, which, I found, at least, a seriously freaky, nightmarish creature. Aesthetically, it reminded me of the Dementors from Harry Potter, which basically have been my worst phobia since the age of eight. Additionally, an effective little addition to the dialogue was the way the Doctor kept talking to Clara, perhaps as a way of coping with his pain and his loss. I don’t know, but I found it physically painful, in the gut region, whenever he addressed Clara.

It’s a profoundly personal piece for the Doctor, not only because it’s set in the Doctor’s own personal hell, inhabited by his own nightmares and adorned with reminders of his loss, but, also, through the monologues spoken by the Doctor which punctuate this piece, his ruminations on life, death and loss, we’re given an intimate glimpse into the Doctor’s soul, the tortured soul of a man who’s known far too much of each. It’s screenwriting poetry, and Capaldi does justice to the material, delivering a stirring, brooding performance both physically and verbally. The production rises to the challenge of realising convincingly such an introspective and artistic piece, particularly with respect to the setting, which exudes the perfect atmosphere of spooky claustrophobia, weird otherworldliness and profound intimacy. To be honest, it’s difficult to articulate the specifics, but everything about this episode just feels finely, meticulously, lovingly crafted, like the most exquisite work of prose — I’ve found that the best episodes always convey this impression.

But we have to talk about that twist. The Doctor as bird, punching his way through a great wall of impossibly dense material for two billion years, dying and recreating himself endlessly. That was mind-blowing, and so, so exquisitely executed. The way it was done was fantastically clever; it was truly a rollercoaster of emotions, bringing us down to despondency and despair when, after the revelation that the Doctor’s been at it for 7,000 years, it seemed as though he would be stuck in that horror shop for eternity, going through the same motions in an endless cycle and never escaping — until the Azbantium wall was shown to be being imperceptibly chipped away by the Doctor’s relentless efforts, and it all turned into something invigorating and triumphal as the Doctor furiously punches progressively deeper into the wall, suffering an untold number of births and deaths over two billion years in the process. Capaldi played that so well, conveying so powerfully the Doctor’s fury, bravery and fierce resolve (in other words, hell bent).  The perfect finishing touch to that sublime sequence was the Doctor’s telling of The Shepherd Boy over two billion years:  “And when the entire mountain is chiselled away, the first second of eternity will have passed.” Really, properly spine-chilling, that. Oh, and the best thing? That it was Clara who pushed the Doctor on, who kept lifting him up and pushing him on, over all that time. “I let Clara Oswald get inside my head. Trust me. She doesn’t leave.”

Some final thoughts. It almost doesn’t need saying that Peter Capaldi was absolutely magisterial, and to a good extent this episode rides on the personal coat-tails of Peter Capaldi. If there is any justice in this world, Capaldi will win enough acting awards to melt down and make into a pure gold Mercedes, or something. Also deserving of praise is Murray Gold, who surpassed himself here with a majestic score in an episode where music was inevitably going to be especially prominent. Rachel Talalay has also, once again, delivered some of the best directing work this show has seen. This really is an exceptional piece of work from all involved, and I can honestly only make one criticism of any consequence, which is that the episode could have done a better job at explaining why the Doctor was forcing himself to punch through the Azbantium wall, why he couldn’t just yield up his confession to free himself… especially when it appeared that, after finally freeing himself, he promptly told his frustrated captors the very secret he had just spent two billion years trying to avoid telling them. Maybe I missed something, but it didn’t make sense to me.

That said, this is a tiny criticism with respect to an episode that is 99% perfect. This has been one of my most pleasurable, gratifying and exhilarating experiences watching Doctor Who. I’ve no hesitation in pronouncing it an all-time great. I only hope I’ve done the episode justice in this review.

Rating: 10/10.

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Quote of the week:

“I’ve finally run out of corridor. There’s a life summed up.”

An appraisal of the Twelfth Doctor

Well. We’ve had one series and a Christmas special of the twelfth* incarnation of our favourite Time Lord. That’s plenty of opportunity to have become familiar with the Doctor’s latest persona. So, what do we think? I know those who are singing this Doctor’s praises, who have been positively awed by Peter Capaldi and who have duly cleared a spot at or near the top of their personal “Best Doctors” list (all Whovians have one) for Twelvie. At the same time, I know others for whom Capaldi has failed to live up to expectations as the Doctor and have found it difficult to warm to Capaldi’s Doctor. The general consensus seems to be that Capaldi’s Doctor, and Series 8 in general, has been a success, and I think you’ll be hard-pressed to find someone who positively dislikes Capaldi’s Doctor, but certainly not everyone has taken to Capaldi’s interpretation of the Doctor with equal enthusiasm.

Which is where I come in.

Don’t worry, Whovians, I’m here. I’m going to provide you with an objective, definitive and completely authoritative appraisal of the Twelfth Doctor. There’ll be no need for any more arguments over Twelve’s behaviour in Kill the Moon. You can thank me later. So, without further ado, here’s my verdict on the Twelfth Doctor.

Expectations and predictions

First of all, it’s worth discussing what I expected of Peter Capaldi’s Doctor before I had seen him. Based on the casting of an older actor for the part, Moffat’s descriptions of him as a “darker”, more “abrasive”, less “user-friendly” Doctor, and the context of his regeneration (after having spent approximately a millennium defending a town on Trenzalore), I formed a picture in my mind of a more sober and solemn Doctor, much like the Fourth Doctor when he’s in his solemn, brooding moods. More humourless, more world-weary, more aloof, less patient with evil, and less equivocal about taking morally-questionable measures to deal with his enemies. Based on my expectations, or prophesyings, I was genuinely excited for Capaldi’s Doctor. It had been a while since a Doctor in the Hartnell-C.Baker formula had been done, a formula which, done right (as both Hartnell and Baker had succeeded in doing in various moments, although not consistently), can be the most compelling of all Doctor characterisations. I was also looking forwards to seeing New Who’s take on the Hartnell-Baker archetype. My predictions for Capaldi’s Doctor were broadly accurate. We got an abrasive elder Doctor in the Hartnell archetype, more morally ambiguous and certainly more alien (although Matt Smith’s Doctor was also very alien in his own way).

Where Capaldi’s Doctor differed from my predictions was in his energy and adrenaline. I foresaw a world-weary, increasingly cynical Doctor for whom saving the universe had become a nuisance and an intrusion into his peace and quiet. I saw Twelve helping people only reluctantly, and finding himself in the midst of trouble with an air of annoyance and impatience. I expected this more cynical incarnation as the most likely effect of his long stay on Trenzalore, a Doctor who had grown tired of saving people, who wanted only for the universe to finally leave him in peace. It would fall to Clara to help the Doctor in this respect, to reignite the spark and rekindle his sense of duty and his drive to pursue justice. What I didn’t expect was for the Doctor, upon leaving Trenzalore, to leap straight back into his old routine with the energy and zeal of a much younger, much less battle-scarred man. But that works, too, I guess.

Praise — what works

Capaldi is probably the most talented actor to play the role of the Doctor in the show’s history. He gives his all to the role, and one can tell he is supremely in his element playing the Doctor. One could expect no less of perhaps the biggest Whovian ever to be cast in the role. It’s also obvious that Capaldi has a very good idea of what he wants to do with the character, and, for the most part, executes this vision impeccably. After two incarnations of affable, youthful “good boyfriend” Doctors, Capaldi’s more unpredictable and abrasive approach makes for a refreshing change.

Certain elements of the Doctor’s character crystallise prominently in Capaldi’s portrayal: arrogance, charisma, leadership, curiosity, toughness, alien-ness, coldness. Elements of the Doctor’s character more recessive in Twelve include whimsy, warmth, humanity, moral compulsion, eccentricity (bar the obligatory alien-ness), vulnerability. In relation to previous incarnations, Capaldi’s Doctor draws most influence from Hartnell, in his abrasiveness and cantankerousness, Colin Baker, in his unpredictability, callousness and unwillingness to “suffer fools”, Pertwee, in his gravitas and hauteur, McCoy, in his darkness and manipulativeness, and Eccleston, in his straightforward, no-nonsense attitude. I particularly feel that Twelve and Nine would get on famously; both represent similar approaches to the Doctor’s character — the tough northern Doctor and the rugged Scots Doctor. Twelve also seems to bear a lot of similarity to the War Doctor (from what we’ve seen of him), a more sober, darker, morally ambiguous Doctor. Capaldi’s Doctor is least like the whimsical incarnations of Troughton and Smith, as well as the more human incarnations of Davison and Tennant.

Criticisms — what doesn’t work

While, all-round, I like Capaldi’s incarnation of the Doctor, there are certain aspects of his character which I think have not been portrayed well. For one thing, Capaldi’s Doctor seems to be very one-note. He’s the grumpy, abrasive, unpredictable one with the Scottish accent. Beyond this, there’s little more to Twelve’s character. Even the much-hyped “darkness” of Capaldi’s Doctor hasn’t come out like one would have expected it to, and seems limited to a lesser reluctance to undertaking morally questionable measures (providing they are in pursuit of a greater good). There’s potential there, to be sure, in exploring Twelve’s morally ambiguous side, as we saw in Mummy on the Orient Express, although for the most part it has not been tapped to the extent seemingly promised. The whimsy and eccentricity that has, to an extent, been part of every incarnation is markedly absent in Capaldi’s Doctor. Or, to be more accurate, on the few instances that Twelve does attempt to do whimsy it comes off as inauthentic and out of character. To be sure, Twelve can be convincingly humorous, but only when he’s deploying dry sarcasm (“She cares so I don’t have to”), which is more fitting with his character, rather than when consciously trying to make people laugh (“2DIS”).

Another aspect of Twelve’s character I would criticise is his alien-ness and general cluelessness about human things, e.g. his inability to understand human relationships and behaviour. This all comes off as very affected and unconvincing, as though it were a bad attempt at a joke on the Doctor’s part. I think the worst instance of this was in the final scene of Last Christmas, when Clara asked the Doctor if she looked young, to which the Doctor’s reply was “No idea”, promptly fetching her a mirror so she could see for herself. Cringe-inducing. Such cluelessness doesn’t necessarily bother me per se (Matt Smith’s Doctor was very clueless about human things in many respects, after all), but it just feels like sloppy writing.

Additionally, it somewhat feels like Capaldi is yet to carve out a unique take on the character. At the moment, Twelve feels a bit like a synthesis of bits and pieces of the incarnations that came before him: a bit each from Hartnell, Pertwee, C. Baker, McCoy and Eccleston. That, to an extent, is the curse of casting as big a Whovian as Capaldi in the role: when playing the Doctor he’s constantly conscious of all the actors who’ve played the role before him, and finds it hard to detach himself and forge something new. It has been suggested that Capaldi will peak late in his tenure, that it will take him time to flesh out his character. I very much hope that is the case, and I have no doubt that an actor of Capaldi’s calibre is fully capable of giving us one of the classic performances as the Doctor.

Conclusion

Capaldi’s Doctor is a refreshing new direction for New Who, and a compelling re-imagining of the character of the Doctor. However, his character needs further development and fine-tuning if he is to be convincingly a multi-dimensional character. At the moment, if the Capaldi era thus far can be taken as representing the whole of the Capaldi era in a historical sense, I would place the Capaldi Doctor somewhere near the middle of a “greatest Doctors” list; of the New Who Doctors I would rank him bottom. In my opinion, Capaldi hasn’t captured the character of his Doctor as convincingly in his first season as each of Eccleston, Tennant and Smith did in their first seasons. On the level of characterisation, there still needs some work to do on Twelve if Capaldi would be remembered perhaps as much as he’d like to be. That will, of course, come in time, and I look forwards to seeing what Capaldi will bring to the role in series 9.

* Well, thirteenth, really, or fourteenth, depending on how you look at it. But let’s not get into that.

Resurrection of the Roundels?

Are we going to see a new TARDIS for series 9? Peter Capaldi has remarked that he would like to see the TARDIS interior renovated, noting his preference for the minimalist roundel designs of the TARDIS in Classic Who.

“Roundels. I like the old Sixties roundels. That was the coolest look and I think it’s also appropriate for the way this Doctor dresses,” Capaldi said.

“It’s got a sort of Edwardian look about it  – not the actual console – it’s the bits and pieces lying around. Cricket bats, maps and odds and ends and things. There’s a Jules Verne quality to it – I would like to make it more Bauhaus.”

Should the TARDIS undergo a retro makeover? Although I personally prefer the modern TARDISes to the old minimalist designs (Matt Smith’s original design was my favourite), I think going a bit retro could work. Rather than bring back Troughton’s TARDIS lock, stock and barrel, though, what might be a good idea is to combine the look of the roundel TARDIS with more modern elements. The console room should be large, giving the sense of space that the modern TARDIS does, with the classic roundels lining the walls. The TARDIS should also have all the raised platforms and stairways that the modern TARDIS does, emphasising the spacey-wacey-ness.

In the 50th Anniversary, John Hurt’s War Doctor was given a TARDIS that attempted to be a mix of old and new: it had the roundels and the enclosed, circular console room, but also the organic coral and the console of Eccleston’s and Tennant’s TARDIS. I didn’t think it worked, the coral next to the roundels and the metallic quality of the rest of the console room just looked incongruous to me. It might have worked better if they’d chosen some other way to mix old and new — the coral was a bad choice. It just goes to show these things need to be done tastefully, with thought and care.