Capaldi Might Stay

OK, Chibnall needs to replace the guitar.

What about a drum kit?

I liked the electric guitar idea. I'm not aware Capaldi's Doctor has any other 'gimmicks.' Apart from the shades, and they're gone now.

There's plenty of spare space in the console room, it could replace the glass drafting table to the right of the main doors on the upper level.

For when he goes out he could have a pair of tom-toms. Sonic ones, obviously.

I liked the sonic shades (more pratical and easier to hide than the sonic, it's a cheap way for kids to pretend they are playing as the Doctor and it suited Capaldi's alien aged rockstar persona...I'm fairly sure Smith's Dr used something similar in one episode...it's no sillier a gimmick than the celery or fez i.m.o) and I'm very much hoping Capaldi sticks around, great actor and doctor, and a wonderful ambassador for the show, it feels like he's only just got started...

There's a few petitions going around voicing support for Capaldi to stay, including this which I signed:


www.change.org/p/charlotte-moore-at-the-bbc-keep-peter-capaldi-as-the-doctor

At least if he does step down we know it will have been 100% his decision, their were a few nasty rumours circulating on G.B suggesting he was being forced out...

I wouldn't be so quick to assume that either of those were Capaldi's fault or idea, unless perhaps he's said as much and I'm not aware.

I'm fairly sure having no chemistry with Jenna wasn't his idea

As a former rock star, I've an awful feeling the guitar was his idea. I would have liked it if it hadn't been for the inital axe battle, which I hated so much I nearly stopped watching, for the first time since Time and the Rani. No, sorry, Delta and the Bannermen.

Remember, there is still a full series with Moffat in charge. I expect more of the same. Viewers were switching off during series 9. The fans may not want Capaldi for series 11.

But the decision to renew his contract needs making months before season 10 will air, hence I presume why they've already asked him to stay.

It's a good point. While there will be the instinct to shuffle off and have a new Doctor take over for a new administration as has happened in the past, a part of it is and will always be a public relations debacle. Whether you adore, like, loathe or feel indifferent to him, the truth of the matter is that fewer people (both fans and common audience goers) have tuned in to watch the show over the past year. Now, some may argue that a lot of it may be sublimated by online viewings as well, but I'm inclined to believe that if you're really invested in a series, you'll switch on at the earliest opportunity; i.e. when it's broadcast on television. What eventually brought audiences back (and saw a huge spike upwards in viewing figures) wasn't Gallifrey, the Zygons or the Daleks, it was actually a Christmas special with River Song.

I've heard a lot of reasons why the last two seasons haven't quite worked; viz. the Doctor was too grumpy, the style of the stories didn't match the characters, Clara became a Mary Sue (always right and disgustingly arrogant is never a good combination), the Moffat era formula has been wearing thin, etc. I personally think it was a case that the audience focus has shifted away from where it needed to be. A huge part of "Deep Breath" was the Doctor convincing Clara that he wasn't her boyfriend and showing that this new incarnation was capable of murder, even if it was an assisted suicide. These are things longtime viewers would have seen before in other incarnations before him. I'm talking Nine and Ten here, it's not that far back, that kind of naivety is just baffling. You flash forward to Capaldi's second year and the beginning of "The Magician's Apprentice" almost feels stark, like an attempt to draw whoever is still watching into this new/old classic series aesthetic that tries for both and ends up achieving neither.

He's not the Eleventh Doctor, nor is he a simulacrum of the Fourth. This is a mistake they made with the Sixth Doctor by trying to turn up the Tom Baker bombast without giving it any kind of depth beneath. He's not a mystery, he's a cipher. If Capaldi comes back and I'd still love him to, then they really need to pin down who this man is, because in the hands of the current chaps and chapettes they really don't know what to do with him.



Can you imagine it though?

"Martians! I bring to you, the sound of Earth!"