5) Peter Capaldi Nailed The Classic Version Of The Doctor
In all this talk of Jodie Whittaker taking over as the Doctor, let’s not forget that Peter Capaldi’s tenure as the Twelfth Doctor still continues for another five or so months until Christmas. When he announced that he was leaving back in January, Doctor Who fans were heartbroken to see him go, as he was such an excellent casting choice. The perfect match of a lifelong fan and tremendous actor, Capaldi always seemed like the Doctor distilled.
And it’s Capaldi’s archetypal Doctorishness that makes it so right that the production team have decided to tread new ground by casting a woman as Doctor No. 13. The new Doctor has always been cast to contrast with the previous one. Patrick Troughton was a more playful, clownish Doctor to contrast with William Hartnell’s grouchy original. Young, fresh-faced Peter Davison was the opposite of Tom Baker’s eccentric uncle Doctor. And let’s not forget that Capaldi himself, the oldest Doctor, was deliberately chosen to break away from Matt Smith, the youngest ever.
This time around, the Thirteenth Doctor needed to be someone who was the opposite of the classic traits of the Doctor that Capaldi embodied. And seeing as his Doctor developed a lot over his three seasons (from cold and calculating to aging rocker to a wise old hero), that covers a lot of ground. Getting, say, another middle-aged male actor to try and basically replicate what Capaldi did and somehow find a way to match him would have been a tall task. It was a much better idea, then, to go with someone so different that they wouldn’t have to live in Capaldi’s shadow.