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Robot of Sherwood
Doctor Who:
The Complete
Eighth Series
is out on
November 19
you’ll find a legion
of teenaged girls
wearing Matt SmithT-shirts and/or a
fez – an audience that the classic series
had never reached. But will they
embrace an older Doctor?
Fortunately, both Capaldi and
Coleman are adamant that there is no potential
for romance between their characters. Instead,
Clara has been given a love interest this season
in the form of Danny Pink (Samuel Anderson),
a former soldier turned schoolteacher.
Not only is Capaldi’s Doctor older, he’s also
more alien, enigmatic and angry, once again
inviting comparisons with Hartnell’s original.
“He doesn’t quite understand human beings
or really care very much about their approval,”
Capaldi explains – a fact that frequently
exasperates travelling companion Clara Oswald
(Coleman). “In the scripts, the Doctor and Clara
think they’re ok, but the Doctor can change,”
Coleman notes. “Clara is still trying to
work out who the new Doctor is.”
Season Eight reflects the Doctor’s edgier,
unpredictable new persona, which Capaldi
describes as “more mysterious and not as
user-friendly”. The mood of opening episodes
Deep Breath
and
Into the Dalek
, directed
by British filmmaker BenWheatley (
Kill List
,
Sightseers
), is both ominous and grim; the jokey
and sometimes frivolous tone that flavoured
the Matt Smith adventures has been replaced
with a darker approach. It’s a welcome new
direction that highlights the programme’s ability
to continually regenerate itself.
“It’s unmistakably
Who
, but there are less
larks,” offers Capaldi. “Tonally it’s representative
of where the series is going, but you never
know with
Doctor Who
.”
Who is
Peter Capaldi?
Into the Dalek
It’s unmistakably
Who
, but there
are less larks.
Left:
Deep Breath
dino
072
TORCHWOOD
In
Children of Earth
he plays John
Frobisher, a civil servant assigned to
negotiate with a malevolent alien that
has sinister plans for our planet’s kids.
THE THICK OF IT
As Malcolm Tucker, the volatile and
foul-mouthed Director of Communications
for the British Government, Capaldi‘s
expletive-laden tirades are f–ing brilliant!
WORLD WAR Z
As a scientist with the World Health
Organisation, Capaldi assists Brad Pitt
in stopping the zombie apocalypse.
He’s credited as playing ‘WHO Doctor’ –
spooky coincidence or destiny?
THE FIRES OF POMPEII
Capaldi appears in this
Doctor Who
episode from the fourth season, as a family
man who is saved by David Tennant’s
Doctor prior to the eruption of Vesuvius.