Moffat on Tom Baker & Capaldi Surprise
Moffat explained to Anglophenia why Tom was the only classic Doctor asked to return to film new scenes: “I know I had all of the 11 Doctors there, but you can’t have a scene with 11—or even 12— people there. You can’t do it. To have the longest-standing Doctor make an appearance and show the current Doctor [Matt Smith] where to go, well, that’s irresistible, isn’t it? It’s important that you get to hear that voice again and get all his little mannerisms into one scene. It’s just wonderful.”
For anyone hoping to see Tom again, don’t hold your breath: “I have a slight paranoia about ‘it seems like every bugger is playing the Doctor, more or less all of Equity. It’ll have it’s own Spotlight section next.’ I think, quite soon, it’s going to go back to a militant ‘There’s one Doctor and that’s who he is.’ He’s one man with many faces, he’s not a committee of people with unusual hair. Because we had John Hurt as well. So very shortly, we’re going back to just one Doctor.”
Speaking about the scenes involving all the other Doctors and Capaldi: “It was the plan from the start. All the Doctors, all the Doctors would fly in to save Gallifrey and change the Doctor’s timeline – how could you not do that? I knew there was gonna be a new one [Doctor] so I wrote it with not knowing who would be doing that. We did manage to cast somebody where you can use half his face for less than a second and everybody knows who he is. He looks cross!”
Moffat also teased Capaldi’s entrance following Matt’s regeneration: “He’s brilliant. The energy, the vitality he brings to his performance. I mean, he works. He’s like Matt [Smith]. He works, he’s a worker. And he’s an extraordinarily vital and physical performer. People keep talking about this elderly Doctor, as if that’s something of an achievement. But this man is not at all elderly in style. He leaps around the place probably more than any other Doctor in that first scene. But that’s not how he’s going to play it. That’s just him in the post-regeneration madness. It’s something we’re still working at.”
