From Tumblr: Anon Ask - What do you think of Peter Capaldi as the Doctor?

[nym_wibbly]

I know you weren't a fan of Matt Smith. What do you think of PC as the Doctor now?
~ Anonymous

Heh, where to start? I didn’t have any issues with Matt Smith (other than being moderately unnerved by the fact that the Doctor, this lifelong fictional presence in my living room, was finally being played by someone younger than me! David Tennant is very slightly older than I am.) It wasn’t any reflection on Matt Smith, rather that I was flummoxed by Steven Moffat’s arc storytelling, and lukewarm about his idea of the Doctor-Companion(s) relationship. I have to say that I’m glad I stepped away when I did and took a break, before coming back with fresh eyes and catching up from Season 6 to the start of Season 9 in one great long, eager binge. Moffat’s paradoxical timey wimey story arcs work much better for me as a boxset experience than they do as episodic telly. I still don’t love a lot of what he did with Eleven, but at least on the second try I “get it”.

I always say, of the modern show, that the Doctor isn’t the Doctor until he’s made me cry. Christopher Eccleston got me in Dalek. David Tennant got me in School Reunion. Matt Smith didn’t get me until right at the end, when he spoke to Clara about being the Doctor just before he regenerated, and Murray Gold’s genius musical score did a crescendo callback to The Rings of Akhaten.

As for Peter Capaldi… I mean, we are not worthy! I’m so sad that he’s leaving the show so soon, and if I ever find out that he was pushed to make way for someone “young and pretty” because demographics, rather than choosing to jump for artistic or personal reasons, I may actually eat someone at the BBC. Feet first.

I love that his Doctor has changed so much over time, that he’s more still and less harsh. I love that he’s gone from being so impatient with people as to delete them from his memory because they bored him, to lecturing with enthusiasm to a room full of college kids. I love that he was willing to try out Clara’s “be nicer to people” flashcard system. I love that he almost broke the universe in order to save her, and that he forgave her for an ultimate, calculated betrayal because he valued and loved her too much to do otherwise.

I love that he was the Doctor who finally saw River’s struggle, saw her pain and how sure she was that their relationship was one-sided, and chose to give her his open affection, and his ‘little’ time. I love what (I think) he’s doing with Bill, and the total pickle he’s got himself into with Missy. I loved that he begged Clara to “see him” after he regenerated, knowing that even a timely phone call from his previous-self might not be enough to help her recognise him, her best friend. I love that he admitted that he needed her to do that, and that he told her he was in pain. I love that he talks to himself when he’s alone in the TARDIS, and that he lets other people pilot her without shitting a brick, and that he’s more forgiving of a calculated murder attempt than he is of someone throwing up in his home. I love that he’s so intractably alien.

Twelve didn’t actually manage to make me cry until Heaven Sent, at which point I more than made up for lost time, and blubbed so hard I missed the rest of the ep.

Love him. Miss him already. I really think that Capaldi’s “fanboy” knowledge of the show adds a wealth of extra depth and meaning to the performance, as was the case with David Tennant. Matt Smith didn’t lack for gravitas, and he was already a past master at playing young men with old eyes before he took the role, but the in-universe references, the fanservice moments, the weight on the Doctor’s shoulders, didn’t always resonate, when Smith (or Eccleston) delivered them. Whoever comes next, I hope they share Tennant and Capaldi’s easy familiarity with the character and the mythology of the show. Their love for it shows.

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This post originally contained several reaction gifs, a Tumblr thing that doesn't work so well here.