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Peter Capaldi to leave Doctor Who after series 10

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TheCowboyPoet said:
Good riddance. Most of the episodes have been good but he's undeniably the worst modern Doctor. The show just hasn't been the same since Matt Smith left. Hopefully they bring in someone fun.
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Matt Smith is my absolute favorite. But Capaldi is a close second. Funnily, I hated both of their first seasons, and loved their second ones.

Also, Donna is the best companion. Just throwing that out there for anyone who wants to fight about it.
 
I lost a lot of interest in Doctor Who after the last season, not to say I hated it, but after the season was over I just had no urge to keep up with it.

When the last Christmas Special came out, I realized I had skipped the one last year too! I had gone a full year without realizing there hadn't been any new Doctor Who during 2016.

But watching the two most recent specials it did remind me that I liked his Doctor, I just don't remember much about his season's story arcs or episodes.
 
You know, one thing that I always wanted them to do is to make an episode where they show one character acting as a one time companion but always laughing like as if something was not explained to the audience in just one episode. And then in the last episode the doctor regenerates exactly into that person.

And then maybe they can do an episode that ends or begins with how that character first appeared or left.
Maybe in the first story the new doctor was always saving the old doctor from an unknown treat that would only be revealed in the later episode ?

You know, really play with the time travel/more than one doctor stories in a new way
 
BBC Worldwide must be very happy about this. Since they wanted a new doctor all because merchandise sales weren't as big as matt Smith and Tennant's time.
 
Boem said:
Yeah I agree immensely. I grew up with old Tom Baker tapes, tried to get into the show when it came back but despite loving the way they renewed it and the actors (I think both Eccleston and Tennant are great Doctors despite not loving their era's), I just couldn't enjoy it. It was basic, badly written (lot's of 'magic button'-solution at the end of episodes, or just plain weird stuff like Tennant turning into Dobby the Elf and the whole world wishing him young again, or the awful decision to develop a romance between a hundreds year old classic television character and the young teen girl he's travelling with, all the overly dramatic emotions and pouty faces in the rain - I could go on), and most damning of all: boring. Doctor Who can be bad, or weird, or taking too many risks, but Doctor Who being boring is the worst thing it can be).

RTD has confessed himself that he had a very improvisational writing style, often hammering out scripts way too close to the deadlines, often based on some vague visuals in his head he wanted to hit. I vastly prefer Moffat's more thought out approach. He wrote some stinkers but he also wrote some of the show's best for every single season he did. It's more nerdy and bookish, but frankly that's the kind of Who that speaks to me. He gets a lot of flack for repeating some ideas but he has done a lot of new things, and taken new risks every year. Every year had a different vibe and approach, and that needs to be applauded. RTD basically served up the same nonsense every time. I don't know anyone IRL that honestly prefers RTD outside of nostalgia, and it's pretty much the standard recommendation for new viewers to start with season 5, instead of watching the earlier 4 first.

But yeah, opinions and all that. I don't like how pessimistic this forum can be about Moffat's work. Too many people online keep going on about Tennant and RTD, and I just don't get it. It was just a bit crap most of the time. Even RTD (and I like him as a person, just not as a writer) admitted Moffat outshone him during his own time on the show and after. There was a noticeable leap in quality in every department when season 5 started. I'm still saying even Moffat's worst season (season 7 for me, which got way too close to the basic storytelling level of the RTD years) is better than any of the RTD seasons.

People will probably give me shit for it but seeing so many people here clamoring for RTD-style seasons and a Tennant-like Doctor (remember when people on Gaf kept going on about getting Sue Perkins as the Doctor just because she kinda looks like Tennant, even though she isn't really an actress?) feels like looking at an alternate universe to me.

Charlie Brooker (the writer of Black Mirror) explains my problems with RTD-era Who very well, even though he's kinder than I would have been: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79XAEN9gAx0

Mostly the constant mugging. Needless to say Donna wasn't for me.
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Hard to call for me between RTD and Moffat. RTD wrote some absolute, unmitigated crap and his sense of humour seemed pitched squarely at the slightly dim six year old audience, but also wrote Doctors and companions (Rose obsession aside) with very well defined personalities and character arcs, and produced some absolutely barnstorming episodes and moments when on top form. His love of melodrama meant the emotion was very outsized, but also keenly felt, making his characters feel very human even if many of them were rather insufferable a lot of the time (Jackie Tyler). He also ran the series extremely well, allowing viewers with no foreknowledge to enjoy it while throwing longterm fans enough tidbits to keep them happy, parsing out reveals for maximum impact and not getting bogged down in series lore.

Speaking of which... Moffat. My biggest criticism of him is that he seemed on an obsessive quest to make sure everything he wrote was The Biggest Event In Doctor Who History. He rewrote the regeneration limit, rewrote the Time War (badly), gave the Doctor a wife (but never bothered showing how or why they fell in love, just left it as assumed knowledge), gave the Doctor a slogan (never cruel or cowardly), gave him the Most Important Companions Ever (his mother in law! The woman who saved his entire timeline, told him which TARDIS to steal, and inspired him when he was a scared child!). Moffat's first season was far and away his best - and possibly the best of the revived show IMO - because, River Song apart, you could watch it like you did the RTD series: on its own terms, but enjoying the callbacks, with a great self-contained season arc.

As the series went on, Moffat sank deeper into tedious mythologising and contrived, convoluted plotting which left glaring plotholes in the individual and season-long story arcs. He seemed unable to deliver the show on time, pushing further back into the year (and the evening), with seasons chopped in half, spread across two different years, or just skipping a year altogether without so much as a special or two to fill the gap. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of very good stuff to be found in the Moffat years, and not just that stellar first season (officially season 5). It's just that as time went on, he seemed increasingly incapable of simply writing a good, self-contained episode. It was as though he had to always prove himself cleverer than his audience, to blow their minds with MAJOR SERIES DEFINING MOMENTS rather than just telling a good story in the moment. Last season was his best since S5, with the two-parter format being a nice touch and Capaldi coming into his own - although I'm one of the few who apparently found Twelve's initial dispassionate rationalism a really interesting direction, even if the season as a whole, Jamie Mathieson contributions aside, was lousy.
 
Damn shame. As the Doctor, I think he was a perfect choice -- I'd championed for him when Tennant left and was elated when he was announced as Smith's replacement.

I think he was severely held back by some of the shitty writing he was given -- not too dissimilar to McCoy and C. Baker -- but he knocked it out of the park as often as he could.

Maybe we can get him on some Big Finish audio dramas within the next few years. I doubt he'd say no to reprising one of his dream roles in some form.
 
He definitely got the rough end of the stick. Came in after Matt Smith, who was just an absolutely fantastic doctor in every way. The writing for his first season was also quite bad, the doctor was turned into this quite unlikable fellow
 
I understand a lot of the Moffat hate-but he wrote some of my favorite episodes and I'll be grateful for that. But yes he tends to try to want to one-up himself by making every season more important than the last.

Heaven Sent is just a masterpiece though.

But then he does stupid shit like my avatar. Just completely boneheaded crap.
 
I tapped out around Series 8, because nothing about Capaldi's Who really grabbed me the same way Series 5 did when Smith was introduced. Series 5 is pretty much perfection because it's a self-contained story that advances at a reasonable pace, the plot twists are ludicrous but fun, and the way the myth of the Pandorica is built is amazing.

Then, Series 6 got really wonky and Series 7 was just...weird at times. But, 5, man, Series 5 was phenomenal. Hopefully, Chibnall can make Series 11 just as good as 5 was, because Broadchurch S1 was amazing and then it kinda went of off a cliff.
 
Dalek said:
I understand a lot of the Moffat hate-but he wrote some of my favorite episodes and I'll be grateful for that. But yes he tends to try to want to one-up himself by making every season more important than the last.

Heaven Sent is just a masterpiece though.

But then he does stupid shit like my avatar. Just completely boneheaded crap.
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Heaven Sent is fan-fucking-tastic, and you'd have to be mental to disagree.

I think part of what made Cyber-Brigadier even more upsetting was that there was a loving painting tribute to him in the Presidential plane just before that.

It was also touching when Smith rang him up only to find out he'd passed.
 
He'll be missed. I've really grown to enjoy Capaldi in the role.

I think the world is ready...

46758282c2c4a3330b5399d4b8af338e.jpg
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Rahul Kohli from iZombie is my pick. I'd miss him there, but it's time.
 
Such a shame, he is probably my favourite of the new series.

Time for a woman? Or maybe something else new to breathe in the new beginning?
 
The new showrunner needs to go back to the hinchcliffe/holmes era of classic who and study that shit. Get rid of god of the universe doctor who and that stupid sonic screwdriver
 
So, the rumors were true, Peter Capaldi is leaving Doctor Who after series 10 and they will replace him by a dashing and a younger actor only to attract younger viewers.
 
Man, remember when Steven Moffat was the guy who wrote the best episode every season and we were all so excited he would be the showrunner? :-(
 
Toxi said:
Man, remember when Steven Moffat was the guy who wrote the best episode every season and we were all so excited he would be the showrunner? :-(
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Season Six took some wind out of those sails
Season Seven was like an asthmatic blowing em back into shape.

Eventually you just run out of breath and gasp
 
Expected around this time but still sad to hear. Unlike most here, I enjoyed the majority of Moffat's and Capaldi's run even if there were clearly some bad episodes here and there. I'd be down for a female Doctor or black Doctor, anything other than another young white man. Here's hoping series 10 gives Capaldi a deserving send off.
 
That's too bad, but could be expected. I thought he was a great doctor and a nice change from the previous one. Also think there were a bunch of great episodes last season.
 
GustyGardner said:
Expected around this time but still sad to hear. Unlike most here, I enjoyed the majority of Moffat's and Capaldi's run even if there were clearly some bad episodes here and there. I'd be down for a female Doctor or black Doctor, anything other than another young white man. Here's hoping series 10 gives Capaldi a deserving send off.
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We've gotta be getting a woman Doctor now. You kidding me? After all that foreshadowing and precedent in the last few seasons? And with the sympathy for outright misogyny leading the free world?
 
Toxi said:
Man, remember when Steven Moffat was the guy who wrote the best episode every season and we were all so excited he would be the showrunner? :-(
Click to expand...

Now to be fair he still wrote the best episode last season. It's just that his individual writing performance sure doesn't translate over to season arcs. They are so poorly thought out.
 
I watched the first few episodes of the Capaldi era, but I fell off... so it's kind of shocking to me that he's leaving, because it feels like he just got here. But I guess it's been a few years now...

I guess it's been typical for me to fall off the show and pick it up and binge years at a time.
 
xandaca said:
Speaking of which... Moffat. My biggest criticism of him is that he seemed on an obsessive quest to make sure everything he wrote was The Biggest Event In Doctor Who History. He rewrote the regeneration limit, rewrote the Time War (badly), gave the Doctor a wife (but never bothered showing how or why they fell in love, just left it as assumed knowledge), gave the Doctor a slogan (never cruel or cowardly), gave him the Most Important Companions Ever (his mother in law! The woman who saved his entire timeline, told him which TARDIS to steal, and inspired him when he was a scared child!). Moffat's first season was far and away his best - and possibly the best of the revived show IMO - because, River Song apart, you could watch it like you did the RTD series: on its own terms, but enjoying the callbacks, with a great self-contained season arc.

As the series went on, Moffat sank deeper into tedious mythologising and contrived, convoluted plotting which left glaring plotholes in the individual and season-long story arcs. He seemed unable to deliver the show on time, pushing further back into the year (and the evening), with seasons chopped in half, spread across two different years, or just skipping a year altogether without so much as a special or two to fill the gap. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of very good stuff to be found in the Moffat years, and not just that stellar first season (officially season 5). It's just that as time went on, he seemed increasingly incapable of simply writing a good, self-contained episode. It was as though he had to always prove himself cleverer than his audience, to blow their minds with MAJOR SERIES DEFINING MOMENTS rather than just telling a good story in the moment. Last season was his best since S5, with the two-parter format being a nice touch and Capaldi coming into his own - although I'm one of the few who apparently found Twelve's initial dispassionate rationalism a really interesting direction, even if the season as a whole, Jamie Mathieson contributions aside, was lousy.
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This

Aaaaaaall of this

1000x percent
 
Since I just recently started to watch Dr. Who (well I know. but it just never aired on german TV until recently), Capaldi is the only Doctor I ever knew, so it will be weird for me to see him get replaced.

I think he was perfect for the role, though.
 
In relation to the RTD perceived 'sillyness' of 1-4, I'd argue a lot of the sillyness made it appealing in relation to actually getting the family to sit down and watch it on a Saturday night.

'Great let's wind down and watch David Tennant ham it up against a situational event of the week. And Barrowman and Tate are always good for a laugh, Billie Piper's quite good in it'!

I say this entirely as a positive. Yes I adored the deeper ones like Family of Blood, Blink et al but it really felt like a good way to wind down broadly. The Smith run in 5 still felt a little hammy but the tone changed. I liked this change initially, but during 6 it felt like...It was becoming something you had to pay attention to more, and asked to care more about people like River because they ended up being a large part of the story.

I perceive this a point where a lot of families collectively stopped instinctively flipping it on, and it became more of a thing 'Doctor Who' fans sought out after the show. IDK
 
Boem said:
RTD has confessed himself that he had a very improvisational writing style, often hammering out scripts way too close to the deadlines, often based on some vague visuals in his head he wanted to hit. I vastly prefer Moffat's more thought out approach. He wrote some stinkers but he also wrote some of the show's best for every single season he did. It's more nerdy and bookish, but frankly that's the kind of Who that speaks to me. He gets a lot of flack for repeating some ideas but he has done a lot of new things, and taken new risks every year. Every year had a different vibe and approach, and that needs to be applauded. RTD basically served up the same nonsense every time. I don't know anyone IRL that honestly prefers RTD outside of nostalgia, and it's pretty much the standard recommendation for new viewers to start with season 5, instead of watching the earlier 4 first.
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I couldn't disagree more! Moffat wrote great individual episodes under RTD but he's an awful showrunner and Doctor Who has declined a lot under his leadership.

I agree that RTD was responsible for some stinkers, no one denies that not even RTD himself but his Doctor Who was so much more. It was at times over the top, bombastic, emotional, spectacular and yes, sometimes shit! But it was never boring! I was excited for the new episode every week, I felt for the companions who were fully realized characters with their own dreams, families, friends. Rose, Martha and Donna weren't just the chicks that the doctor kept around so that he has someone to explain.

RTD wrote about ordinary people who stumbled into the greatest adventures of their lifes.
Moffat writes crazy, timey wimey adventures and is so in love with his "clever" ideas that he neglects the characters. Amy and Clara were on the show a long ass time but what do we know about them? The feel like empty shells compared to Rose or Donna.
And for some reason Moffat feels the need to make his companions the most important people either in the universe or to the doctor. Amy and Rory are his in-laws and Amy remembered the universe back into existence, River is his wife, Clara fractured herself to save him or help a billion times over all of space and time and she also talked the timelords into giving him a new set of regenerations and then she became functionally immortal, got her own Tardis and will have adventures wirh her immortal friend forever.
At this point I wouldn't be surprised if Bill is impregnated by a god and lays an egg and the doctor declares "You know what that is, Bill? It's the universe, you are the mother of ALL OF EXISTENCE!!! HAHAAAA!"

And Moffat's clever ideas aren't even that clever most of the time, they're either easy to figure out or completely nonsensical and impossible to figure out for that reason.
 
xandaca said:
Hard to call for me between RTD and Moffat. RTD wrote some absolute, unmitigated crap and his sense of humour seemed pitched squarely at the slightly dim six year old audience, but also wrote Doctors and companions (Rose obsession aside) with very well defined personalities and character arcs, and produced some absolutely barnstorming episodes and moments when on top form. His love of melodrama meant the emotion was very outsized, but also keenly felt, making his characters feel very human even if many of them were rather insufferable a lot of the time (Jackie Tyler). He also ran the series extremely well, allowing viewers with no foreknowledge to enjoy it while throwing longterm fans enough tidbits to keep them happy, parsing out reveals for maximum impact and not getting bogged down in series lore.

Speaking of which... Moffat. My biggest criticism of him is that he seemed on an obsessive quest to make sure everything he wrote was The Biggest Event In Doctor Who History. He rewrote the regeneration limit, rewrote the Time War (badly), gave the Doctor a wife (but never bothered showing how or why they fell in love, just left it as assumed knowledge), gave the Doctor a slogan (never cruel or cowardly), gave him the Most Important Companions Ever (his mother in law! The woman who saved his entire timeline, told him which TARDIS to steal, and inspired him when he was a scared child!). Moffat's first season was far and away his best - and possibly the best of the revived show IMO - because, River Song apart, you could watch it like you did the RTD series: on its own terms, but enjoying the callbacks, with a great self-contained season arc.

As the series went on, Moffat sank deeper into tedious mythologising and contrived, convoluted plotting which left glaring plotholes in the individual and season-long story arcs. He seemed unable to deliver the show on time, pushing further back into the year (and the evening), with seasons chopped in half, spread across two different years, or just skipping a year altogether without so much as a special or two to fill the gap. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of very good stuff to be found in the Moffat years, and not just that stellar first season (officially season 5). It's just that as time went on, he seemed increasingly incapable of simply writing a good, self-contained episode. It was as though he had to always prove himself cleverer than his audience, to blow their minds with MAJOR SERIES DEFINING MOMENTS rather than just telling a good story in the moment. Last season was his best since S5, with the two-parter format being a nice touch and Capaldi coming into his own - although I'm one of the few who apparently found Twelve's initial dispassionate rationalism a really interesting direction, even if the season as a whole, Jamie Mathieson contributions aside, was lousy.
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Yeaaah. I was really excited by the Dalek episode, which hinted that Capaldi may be a 'bad doctor' - but they didn't seem to go anywhere with that premise.

Clara's relationship with Dany aka airlflip, really bogged down the first season.
 
StifflersMum said:
Since I just recently started to watch Dr. Who (well I know. but it just never aired on german TV until recently), Capaldi is the only Doctor I ever knew, so it will be weird for me to see him get replaced.
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The sixth and seventh doctors had all their episodes aired in germany although that was a long time ago and all of modern who starting with Eccleston aired here as well. You might have missed it but it happened (in 2008 when the Eccleston season premiered on Pro7).

You should definitely check out the earlier seasons (all available on DVD in Germany if you want to watch it dubbed).
And please don't listen to people telling you to not watch seasons 1-4 and the 2009 specials (set between seasons 4 and 5), there's so much good stuff in there even if it cna look horribly cheap from ammodern perspective especially early on.
 
Can you imagine if we don't see the regeneration?

But then in series 11 we're watching this new person swan about doing doctor things but is a little more abrasive and makes some odd choices. Then in the finale we meet this new person who says they're the doctor and it is revealed that we've been following the master (or another timelord) who stole the tardis off screen.

Yeah... that idea is too crazy for the BBC to ever try.

I'm excited to find out who will be our new Doctor, didn't they announce Peter Capaldi before Matt Smith's final few episodes?
 
Vincent Alexander said:
Also, Donna is the best companion. Just throwing that out there for anyone who wants to fight about it.
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I've only watched Eccleston, Tennant, Smith, and a few episodes of Capaldi (didn't really like what I saw and wasn't a huge fan of Smith either tbh), but I couldn't disagree with this any more if I tried. I hated Donna. Might just be the actress though, I couldn't stand her in the Office either.

Best Doctor for me would be Tennant, best companion is Martha Jones.

Smith's introduction was also the introduction of a new show runner, right? Since I didn't really like Smith or Capaldi, I'm hoping the next guy is better.
 
Can't say I've watched much Who post Matt Smith's tenure, but everything I saw and heard about subsequently suggested to me a show on a rapid backslide.
 
Capaldi made me quite watching Doctor Who, until boredom got me hooked again. Hated him on his first season, he gets much better by the second.

Still, can't beat Matt Smith for me. Maybe for being the first doctor, maybe for the sex appeal.
 
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