Peter Capaldi Unveiled As the New Star of Doctor Who 242
Dave Knott writes "After months of speculation since Matt Smith announced that he was exiting the long-running British SF show Doctor Who, the BBC has announced the latest actor who will be taking on the titular role. In a live television announcement, with several previous stars on hand, it was revealed that Peter Capaldi will be portraying the newest incarnation of The Doctor. Capaldi is 55 years old, ending a recent trend towards younger Doctors, and had been flagged by bookmakers as the odd-on favourite in recent days, to the extent that they had suspended betting on the issue. He is best known for his role as the foul-mouthed government bureaucrat Malcolm Tucker on the The Thick Of It and has in fact showed up on Doctor Who previously as a guest star. But now Capaldi is set to take his place in the iconic lead role. To help celebrate the 50th anniversary, and the naming of the next Dr. Who, an ice cream shop put up a 35ft straw Dalek sculpture."
Coincidence? (Score:5, Interesting)
IMDB says that in War World Z, he played the character of a Dr. from the W.H.O.
Coincidence?
Re:A new Doctor (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Doctor Who XII (Score:4, Interesting)
Now we have a Doctor Who, who has been a real Doctor Fan for a long time!
What, David Tennant doesn't count? Getting into acting was practically an accidental by-product of his life-long quest to be the Doctor.
Was hoping for a woman... (Score:2, Interesting)
I was hoping for a woman this time. Would make for some great antics.
More than just Tucker (Score:5, Interesting)
Okay, he is, now, best known for the Malcolm Tucker role but I remember him better in other roles; the Angel Islington in a BBC adaption of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere (although that show was really stolen by Paterson Joseph's Marquis De Carabas) and as Uncle Rory in the TV adaption of Iain Bank's Crow Road.
And it's kind of nice that the Doctor is portrayed by an actor older than me again. That hasn't happened for a while.
Re:GET READY.... (Score:4, Interesting)
I think people have come to respect that choices for the role of the Doctor are pretty much always excellent and second-guessing and pre-judging is useless. I say this as someone that loved Christopher Eccleston and didn't want to like Tennant. Then absolutely adored Tennant's portrayal and was definitely not going to accept the young goofy looking Matt Smith character... and then find myself sad to see Matt Smith go.
Doctor Who is all about the doctor and his companions. They have to be likeable, interesting, compelling. They're the entire point of the show and they realize this - they always choose pretty damn well, even if all of us watching approach every change with skepticism and distrust.
Personally, I'm really excited about Capaldi, even though I have no idea who he is. He looks like someone I won't mind seeing on screen for dozens of hours and I appreciate that they aren't just constantly skewing young. They didn't need to go older for older's sake, but I am really glad they are making a choice other than "twelve year old girls won't watch if we don't make it a semi-cute barely pubescent actor". Variety is the spice of the Doctor. I think I'm going to enjoy this incarnation. Good on them.
Re:GET READY.... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Who is this guy? (Score:4, Interesting)
I dunno, I admit Capaldi's a bit older than I would've liked; but then again, any younger than Matt Smith would've been just too young.
I started to wonder if they were going to make doctors younger and younger until at some point, the next regeneration resulted in a baby, fetus, or embryo.. which just immediately regenerated again and then the whole thing started over again somehow, with an old Doctor. Reset the cycle, so to speak. Hmm.. Benjamin Button, the next Doctor Who.
Well.. we'll see.. but to me, Tennant will always be THE Doctor. (I didn't really watch it when Baker was reigning, but he'd probably be my pick of the original Doctors) To each their own I suppose.
Re:Doctor Who XII (Score:5, Interesting)
*sigh* Not this again. It was his life long quest to be the Doctor, not to be the Doctor for 10 years and run the show into the ground. He had the best interests of the show in mind. The only reason Doctor Who has lasted this long is because of its continual reinvention, the re-casting of the lead being the most obvious (but no means only) change.
Patrick Troughton advised Peter Davison to only do four years. Peter Davison then passed this same advice on to his then-future-son-in-law David Tennant.
His last line as the Doctor was "I don't want to go," which was exactly how he felt about it. Some people just aren't entirely selfish.