It hasn’t happened in years. We haven’t waited like this for ages. The words of one man have not been so eagerly anticipated since I don’t know when. And just a couple nights ago, we finally got our answer. At approximately 8pm GMT last night, households across Britain witnessed something that they will not forget for a long time. In this moment, babies were left to cry, pans were left to boil over, car engines were left running. The only thing that anyone wanted to know was about to be uttered and when it happened, it was certain that all hell was going to break loose.
SHUSH.
One word. A single syllable. One second to speak and an entire nation relaxed. The first word of the latest Doctor, Peter Capaldi, was surprisingly brief and yet, entirely in keeping with the underplayed wittiness of the Doctor Who franchise. For the few out there who have managed to miss it, Doctor Who is back and this time, it’s legendary actor Peter Capaldi helming the ship. After the decidedly sprightly runs of both David Tennant and Matt Smith, Capaldi seemed to represent a marked change in the programme and for some, that wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
For months, the reaction to Capaldi’s move to the Doctor Who franchise had been a surprisingly mixed bag. Much like Marmite, it seemed that whilst some couldn’t think of a move more genius than placing Capaldi in the Tardis, others thought a little differently. Tennant and Smith’s runs expanded the show to a younger audience; not only were children and their parents enjoying the fruits of Doctor Who but also, many teens and young adults who could relate to both previous actors. What of Capaldi, then, who, despite extended runs in a slew of British television programmes, seemed to be unheard of to a large majority of the younger audience?
Well, it seems that their worries were entirely fictitious. From his opening line, it was more than clear that Capaldi will fit right into the Doctor’s boots, which had been left so gapingly open by Smith. Reeling off the unfathomable dialogue of the Doctor as if he had been playing the role for all of his life, Capaldi is beyond wonderful in the part. Somehow managing to balance the sniffs of offbeat lunacy with the effervescent energy of his predecessors, Capaldi made it very clear to us last night that the Doctor is back and he’s here to stay.
While Capaldi calmed the fears of the unsure by staying true to the Doctor’s playful side, there were also hints that he might choose to take the character in different, darker directions. From time to time, Capaldi channeled the inner rage of Malcolm Tucker, the infamous ‘enforcer’ from the BBC’s hugely successful The Thick of It. In a particularly wonderful moment, which will henceforth be known as Eyebrowgate, Capaldi’s Doctor cornered a quivering tramp and lectured him on the terror of his fuzzier facial features. Whilst recovering immediately from his outburst, this brief flash of blind fury hinted to us of more to come from the Doctor later.
Indeed, there is something in Capaldi’s facial features which seem inherently at odds with the placid, kind Doctor. Whereas Smith’s face seemed naturally to rest in a smile, Capaldi’s is furrowed into a deep-set frown. And yet, this apparent anger only lends more to his mercurial charm. Behind the lined face of the Doctor lies a vulnerable, terrified man, so unsure of his situation that he is afraid to face his own reflection in the mirror. Capaldi’s darker approach seems to suggest that his Doctor will harbour a great deal more complications than those in recent history. And whilst, for some viewers, this will spend the end of their affair with the Doctor, for many, many others, it marks the start of something new. For the first time in a long time, we have a Doctor who has pain written all over his face, who is already known and has amassed a lot of experience. And yet, he is so clearly in the throes of something brand new, something which shakes him to the core and reduces him to the size of a small boy. In Capaldi, the Doctor loses his pin-up, hero status. But because of that, he gains so much more and if the first episode is anything to go by, we should expect great, groundbreaking things from Capaldi yet.