Why I Love the Twelfth Doctor Casting
Guest contributor Noah Fischel shares his thoughts.
Welcome to the beginning of a new era, fellow Who fans. As we await the “Fall of the Eleventh” in December, we have a couple months to warm up to the newest man to play the good Doctor. I, personally, was at first appalled to see the casting of Peter Capaldi. Mainly due to him playing a character in Doctor Who already AND appearing as a major character in Torchwood: Children of Earth. However, after watching a few television shows and movies in which he was featured, I began to accept him as Doctor number 12. More recently, I have begun to absolutely delight in his casting. And here’s why.
It will serve as chemotherapy
Wait… What? No, just hear me out. Here in America (I’m not too sure about all the other fans around the world) Doctor Who was quite “underground”, in terms of popularity. For many of us, we’d mention a Dalek, the TARDIS, or Gallifrey and we’d get the crap beaten out of us for being extreme nerds. Now, everybody and their grandmothers (well, the grandmothers seemed more likely anyway) seems to know about Doctor Who. You can’t walk into a store without seeing some kind of merchandise for the show. And now, out here, scene kids and the popular kids are starting to enjoy the show, or rather, seem to start liking the “cute guy in the bow tie.”
In a recent conversation with my friends Billie and Austin, Billie brought up a good argument. She stated, “With the arrival of an older man for the new Doctor, it would act as chemotherapy and cleanse the fan base of the leeches that only adore the show because they think the Doctor is hot.” And that is what began my appreciation of Capaldi. His casting will bring about the rise of the hardcore fans (like myself) that love the show for the true reasons like writing, character stories, monsters and all the things that make Who what it is.
Exhibit A:
More witty remarks and drama
Being only 16, my first Doctor was Matt Smith (I didn’t start watching ’till later in my life) and I was instantly hooked. I began to realize that the show spanned much longer than just 2005 and decided to delve deeper into the history of Doctor Who. I watched as many classic episodes as I could, and found a love of the Hartnell, Troughton, and Pertwee Doctors. And it wasn’t for their running around or anything like that. They had a way of making their enemies angry with words. They knew how to fight pen (or mouth/brain) to sword and that’s what made them so great.
With Capaldi the same age as Hartnell when they each started (though Capaldi is looking much better for his time in life), I know that there will be a lot of more clever solutions and battles of wits with the Twelfth Doctor, which is something I really wished for more with Smith’s Doctor. Don’t get me wrong, Smith is my favourite Doctor so far, and he did have great moments of using mind over matter, but 11 summed it up himself in A Good Man Goes to War:
“It’s all running about, sexy fish vampires, and blowing up stuff…”
With Capaldi’s previous acting credits and other roles, he could pull off quite well, a more sarcastic and witty Doctor (harkening back, with less rage and patronizing, to the Sixth Doctor era).
Less romance
…Enough said
Just kidding. I do actually like the romance, but there’s a point at which it gets overdone. Smith and Eccleston’s portrayal of the romance was perfect. 9 almost always denied advances and 11 was a chaste, child of the universe (unless River was added into the mix). But even still, there were times when those two would get tripped up and into trouble, and I know that Moffat will tone it down with the new Doctor, more than likely making it feel that he’s had his fun and is looking towards the future. Another “gentleman of the universe”, if you will.
All in all, I am very excited to see Capaldi at the end of the Christmas special and can’t wait to see Series 8 and everything that it holds. Any opinions? Let’s talk in the comments!
