# Peter Capaldi as Doctor Who: Questions and Opinionations **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 7, 2013, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-capaldi-as-doctor-who-questions-and-opinionations/665620 "2013-08-07T19:25:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-capaldi-as-doctor-who-questions-and-opinionations/665620/21 "2013-08-07T21:28:08Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > My bad: he’s the Glasgow born son of an Italian father and Irish mother. (Think of all the jokes that must offend him.) But, as with his fellow Scot Tennant, he sounds English in most of the film clips I’ve seen in the past few days. Which ones? _The Thick of It_, \* In The Loop\*, _The Crow Road_ are his best known performances and they are all in a Scottish accent. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-capaldi-as-doctor-who-questions-and-opinionations/665620/22 "2013-08-07T22:12:30Z")
I don’t watch Doctor Who, I’m just here to laugh at the confused 18 year old tumblr fangirls who are going EWWWWW HE’S ALMOST AS OLD AS GRANDPA. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-capaldi-as-doctor-who-questions-and-opinionations/665620/23 "2013-08-07T22:28:03Z")
I’m not sure if I’ll keep watching. Still haven’t seen the Clara episodes of Smith’s doctor. Moffat’s direction with the show after Davies’ departure just really let me down. There have been some individually fantastic episodes, but I kind of hate how it sort of became a Pond/Riversong/Doctor soap opera with a bunch of bullshit cliffhangers and drama. The writing just isn’t clever any more. There’s no subtlety in the connective threads that brought a season together really, like there used to be. There’s a lot of cliffhangers and unanswered questions, and that just kind of turned me off. That being said, everything I’ve seen Capaldi in (and it hasn’t been much), has been great. I think he’ll make a great Doctor, regardless of whether or not I watch. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-capaldi-as-doctor-who-questions-and-opinionations/665620/24 "2013-08-07T23:36:57Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > And does anybody know if any other actor in the Who-niverse has ever appeared on the series prior to becoming the Doctor? Several, including a prior Doctor: Nicholas Courtney: first appeared as security agent Bret Vyon opposite the First Doctor, later cast as the Brigadier Alison Gorden Lethbridge-Stewart who got to play opposite most of the other Doctors. Colin Baker: first appeared as commander Maxil of the Chancellory Guard, later cast as the Sixth Doctor. He’s been known to joke that he got the role of Doctor by shooting his predecessor. Lalla Ward: first appeared as princess Astra, later cast as the Second Romana Freema Agyeman: first appeared as Adeola Oshodi, later cast as Martha Jones, companion of the Tenth Doctor. Karen Gillian; first appeared as a priestess in “Fires of Pompeii” (she’s under a LOT of make-up the whole time), later cast as Amelia Pond, companion to the Eleventh Doctor. There might even be others, those are just the ones I remember. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-capaldi-as-doctor-who-questions-and-opinionations/665620/25 "2013-08-07T23:42:54Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > > [@Sampiro\[/quote](#): > > > > My bad: he’s the Glasgow born son of an Italian father and Irish mother. (Think of all the jokes that must offend him.) But, as with his fellow Scot Tennant, he sounds English in most of the film clips I’ve seen in the past few days. > > Which ones? _The Thick of It_, \* In The Loop\*, _The Crow Road_ are his best known performances and they are all in a Scottish accent. He also speaks with a Scottish accent in _Local Hero_. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-capaldi-as-doctor-who-questions-and-opinionations/665620/26 "2013-08-07T23:46:54Z")
> [@LawMonkey](#): > > I quite hope he decides to take the accent off in another direction. Tennant followed Eccleston’s accent to give the character some continuity; Smith has, so far as I know, kept it in the same general area. (Pardon if I’m forgetting the seismic accent shift between 10 and 11, or if there’s some subtlety my Yank ears are missing.) I’m not even sure how I’d react to a Doctor who sounded like a Scot! Eccleston’s Doctor had a Northern accent (“Every planet has a north!”) while Tennant’s Doctor had an Estuary accent. They don’t sound that much alike to me (beyond both being English), and I am also an American. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-capaldi-as-doctor-who-questions-and-opinionations/665620/27 "2013-08-08T00:10:36Z")
Black Caribbean would have been fantastic, or a ginger woman even better. I put yet another skinny white guy. I will watch it, and think he is a workmanlike actor so it will be well made - I will decide if I like him or not based on his body of work as The Doctor rather than anything else he did. My Doctor is Eccleston, though I grew up watching Pertwee and Baker. ---
**Author:** ![stui\_magpie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stui_magpie/32/11010_2.png) [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-capaldi-as-doctor-who-questions-and-opinionations/665620/28 "2013-08-08T00:20:26Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Your poll is missing the “Who the fuck is Peter Capaldi?” choice, so I wasn’t able to answer. Snap. I had to google him. All I see are photos of a skinny old Scot with a head like a bashed crab. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-capaldi-as-doctor-who-questions-and-opinionations/665620/29 "2013-08-08T00:35:48Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > Eccleston’s Doctor had a Northern accent (“Every planet has a north!”) while Tennant’s Doctor had an Estuary accent. They don’t sound that much alike to me (beyond both being English), and I am also an American. Ah, I had things a bit confused–there was apparently some cut line about him “imprinting” on Rose’s accent. Which I sorta parlayed into him keeping Eccleston’s. Hey, like I said, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen Eccleston (or Tennant, for that matter). ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-capaldi-as-doctor-who-questions-and-opinionations/665620/30 "2013-08-08T01:34:31Z")
I’m sure he’ll be great. It’ll be interesting to see if he keeps his own accent. However, I found the last half-season of _Doctor Who_ to be awful (I only liked the episodes in the submarine and the haunted house - _Cold War_ and _Hide_) and I’m not especially enamoured by Clara, I really miss Amy and Rory, so my general enthusiasm level for Doctor Who has been somewhat diminished of late. So… I passively await developments. ---
**Author:** ![Werekoala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7993a0/32.png) [@Werekoala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Werekoala)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-capaldi-as-doctor-who-questions-and-opinionations/665620/31 "2013-08-08T01:45:22Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > After three consecutive ‘damn sexy’ Doctors, each a decade younger than the one before, I’m not surprised they went with an older fellow to avoid more of the same, but I am curious if it will affect the ratings. I’m guessing the next male companion is going to be young and good looking (though personally I’d like to see Bernard Cribbins return). God yes and why not? Cribbins showed in 2-3 episodes that he could not only be a great Companion, but a steadying influence on the young-and-getting-younger Doctor (physically at least - but becoming more erratic as he gets older… some kind of Time Lord Dementia perhaps?). If the producers think they need some female sexay to spice up the show, they can have a few alien hotties as Monster of the Week, but I loved every second that Bernard was on screen. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-capaldi-as-doctor-who-questions-and-opinionations/665620/32 "2013-08-08T02:07:15Z")
I’m stoked! Of all the rumored folks I think he was the best choice. I don’t care that it’s another white guy- that’s how it’s always been for 50 years. I love Malcolm Tucker so much, I hope they let Capaldi play a more snippy Doctor! ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-capaldi-as-doctor-who-questions-and-opinionations/665620/33 "2013-08-08T02:59:50Z")
Peter Capaldi is a brilliant choice. I hope we get this kind of Doctor: “You know, I’ve come across a lot of psychos, but not a fucking boring as you. I mean, you are a real boring fuck. Sorry. Sorry, I know that you disapprove of swearing, so I’ll sort that out. You are a boring F-star-star-cunt!” ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-capaldi-as-doctor-who-questions-and-opinionations/665620/34 "2013-08-08T03:13:26Z")
> [@John\_Bredin](#): > > Until this casting, I thought that’s what they were **going for** with the New Doctor: that the Doctor regenerates as a younger-bodied person each time. It would still be one or two more regens before you’d get to a teenager, though. 🙂 Yes. I hope we’re meant to believe that Eleven aged a lot offscreen. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-capaldi-as-doctor-who-questions-and-opinionations/665620/35 "2013-08-08T10:40:10Z")
I remember him from _Lair of the White Worm_; that’s an entertaining little horror/comedy movie directed by Ken Russell and is worth seeing. Capaldi was also Valmont’s servant in _Dangerous Liaisons_ and was in one of the early hour-long episodes of _Poirot_. I thought he was kind of cute back then, but really haven’t kept up with his more recent career. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-capaldi-as-doctor-who-questions-and-opinionations/665620/36 "2013-08-08T12:16:58Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > …I watched it and remembered really liking it, but that was 20 years ago. The only really clear memory I have is of Burt Lancaster’s office ceiling. That wasn’t his office ceiling. That was the slanted windows on the top of [Pennzoil Pllace](http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.pennzoilplace.com/files/5113/5723/7721/ppbldg.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.pennzoilplace.com/&h=239&w=211&sz=1&tbnid=Z8egFqU9Wos5ZM:&tbnh=160&tbnw=141&zoom=1&usg=__S4AvMWcoOKCBvIFmQz04c1D_eU0=&docid=BSeWbjsf_zNWZM&itg=1&sa=X&ei=hYoDUrK2Aoig2AXouYHgDw&ved=0CKUBEPwdMAo), seen from the inside. Across the street, the former [Texas Commerce Tower](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPMorgan_Chase_Tower_(Houston)) was he exterior of Knox Oil. That was _my_ Houston & the faroff Scottish village was such a magical alternative. I’ve liked Capaldi since then… I think he’s a fine choice. I wish the Tumblr chicks would channel some of their anti-Moffat venom into real political activity. Are they actually working to support their oh-so-elite opinions? Surely there are Teabag (or UKIP) pols in their area who need opposing. Although I’d love a non-white or female Doctor some day; we’ll another one in a couple of years. From _The Hour_ (how sad it only got 2 series), how about Anna Chancellor? Bernard Cribbins is a fine guy but I doubt he’s up to running around… ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-capaldi-as-doctor-who-questions-and-opinionations/665620/37 "2013-08-08T13:08:13Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > I think he’s a fine choice. I wish the Tumblr chicks would channel some of their anti-Moffat venom into real political activity. Are they actually working to support their oh-so-elite opinions? Surely there are Teabag (or UKIP) pols in their area who need opposing. While I’m not a Tumblrite, hearing about these distraught fangirls is nearly enough to make me go become one. Care to share a link or two so I can have a little bit of innocent schadenfreude? (Incidentally, I have plenty of anti-Moffat venom myself, but it’s for actual problems w/ the show (or imagined ones, depending on your opinion), not taking away my hunky heartthrob of a Doctor.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-capaldi-as-doctor-who-questions-and-opinionations/665620.md?page=1)