Capaldi Leaving Doctor Who

[kirk55555]

Clara is the only modern companion that's honestly tried to kill The Doctor, which I think puts that selfish psychopath at the bottom of the list by default. Honestly, I think she's the only outright bad companion in NuWho (Martha would be the closest to second bad, but she wasn't bad so much as really bland).

 

[Starkers]

Frankly there aren't enough companions who try and kill the Doctor

 

[Timewalker]

Clara is the only modern companion that's honestly tried to kill The Doctor, which I think puts that selfish psychopath at the bottom of the list by default. Honestly, I think she's the only outright bad companion in NuWho (Martha would be the closest to second bad, but she wasn't bad so much as really bland).

The only Classic-era companion I can think of who tried to kill the Doctor was Turlough, but he was being coerced by the Black Guardian. In the end, his conscience wouldn't let him go through with it.

Clara didn't have that excuse - she just wanted what she wanted, NOW.

 

[kirk55555]

The only Classic-era companion I can think of who tried to kill the Doctor was Turlough, but he was being coerced by the Black Guardian. In the end, his conscience wouldn't let him go through with it.

Clara didn't have that excuse - she just wanted what she wanted, NOW.

Yeah, I think Turlough's actions are forgivable. But Clara was being selfish, to the point of murder, over a death The Doctor had no connection to. Its not like Danny died because of the Doctor. At least then Clara's reaction would be at least a little understandable, but no. She almost murdered The Doctor, and by extension everyone he would go on to save, because she is a selfish, homicidal moron. There are villains who have tried to kill The Doctor that didn't get as close as Clara did, and a couple that probably had more understandable motivation. I didn't think much of Clara before this event, but I didn't hate her. After what she did, she took the spot as my most hated companion, even if the show did manage a few good episodes during her run with Capaldi (but none of the ones focused on her).

 

[Starkers]

Yeah it's not like she was grief stricken and not thinking straight or anything.

I'm not Clara's greatest fan but she's clearly not some psychopath. She tried to coerce the Doctor and he called her bluff (mainly 'cos he knew something she didn't)

 

[kirk55555]

Yeah it's not like she was grief stricken and not thinking straight or anything.

I'm not Clara's greatest fan but she's clearly not some psychopath. She tried to coerce the Doctor and he called her bluff (mainly 'cos he knew something she didn't)

If your reaction to grief is trying to murder someone, especially someone you pretend is your friend, you're a psychopath, plain and simple. She also wasn't bluffing, because she went through with it. So, yeah, unless people all over the world frequently kill people when their significant others die in accidents and I've just never heard of the phenomena, I'd say Clara is a legitimate nutjob.

 

[Starkers]

A psychopath wouldn't feel grief though in the first place surely?

 

[Shaka Zulu]

They're not going to let it rest. The fandom for Who, like Trek and Star Wars, has traditionally been predominantly male. In the case of Who, especially when the show came back in 2005, older middle aged males. Then Tennant comes along, and soon there are the Tennant fan girls. And there's a *lot* of them. It's the first time I've ever seen a fandom once thought of as almost exclusively the domain for nerdy men get overrun by the ladies. Enough to make the BBC take notice.

Smith had a crap ton of fan girls here in the States. Seems like I recall seeing more fan girls when it came to Who, especially when they were showing the stuff on the big screen, than guys. Also, keep in mind, that most fans who discovered Who through the newer iteration are more familiar with the Doctor being younger. The only reason we had an older Doctor was because of Moffat and his nostalgia for Classic Who. Like it or not, I don't think we'll be seeing an older Doctor like Capaldi again.

For myself, I'm less concerned with the Doctor's age these days, than I am with the quality of stories.

In that spirit, I say that the next Doctor should be..... Daniel Craig!

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Though Capaldi still has a dozen episodes in his tenure, GQ pens a post-mortem to his time as the Doctor. It's honestly not that far off, though briefer, than The Atlantic's post-mortem on Matt Smith's tenure. In short, Capaldi was let down by his stories. He was an actor of gravitas and caliber wasted in the role.

 

[kirk55555]

A psychopath wouldn't feel grief though in the first place surely?

I'm not a mental health person obviously, but I think that would be a sociopath. There are a bunch of crazy people with powerful emotions. Turning homicidal because of an accidental death of a loved one makes a person officially crazy in my book.

 

[StCoop]

Though Capaldi still has a dozen episodes in his tenure, GQ pens a post-mortem to his time as the Doctor.

God that read like a post copied and pasted from DigitalSpy.

Honestly, the moment anyone starts talking about the Doctor as a character who needs "gravitas" like the Good Old Days, that's when I think of Jon Pertwee in drag (or a hundred other examples) and tune out.

 

[Timewalker]

I don't remember Jon Pertwee in drag on Doctor Who.

 

[Mr Soak]

As a cleaning lady in The Green Death , at least. Troughton cross-dressed a few times, too.

http://www.cultbox.co.uk/features/lists/doctor-who-pics-gallery-doctors-best-disguises

 

[Garak]

Probably a good thing he's leaving, he actually decreased my interest in Dr Who rather than increased it.

Very mediocre Doctor - lacked the "wow!" of Tennant and the cool quirkiness of Smith.

He'll forever exist as "oh yeah, that guy was a Doctor or something." and not enjoying the deserved accolades that Tennant, Smith and even Eccleston get.

 

[Jedman67]

eh, Eccelston I liked, he did a good job with some unworkable material. Smith I liked, more or less, although his "flamboyance" and "coolness" turned me off on occasion. Capaldi was just batshit crazy...my favorite after Tennant.

 

[Mr Pointy Ears]

It took awhile for me to get used to the doctor having a Scottish accent ,be sad to se him go,it seems all actors only stay in the role for about 3 years(except the legendary tom baker)

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I know Adric returned a couple of times after his death, but he wasn't really there - both times were hallucinations, once when the Master was trying to influence Tegan and Nyssa, and the other when the Doctor was regenerating and obviously still feeling guilty about Adric's death. He wasn't magically zapped back to life or given many improbable chances at cheating death.

Didn't a novel or an audio retcon Adric's death by having the Master pluck him off the ship before it crashed?

I know, "not canon".

 

[The Wormhole]

it seems all actors only stay in the role for about 3 years(except the legendary tom baker)

That's largely because of the fabled "Troughton Rule." Basically Troughton told Peter Davison to leave after his contract expired, which just so happened to be after his third year, and since it's been considered a tradition. In fact a twisted interpretation of it was used by the BBC as grounds to fire Colin Baker. These days, Tennant, Smith and Capaldi all had three year contracts which none have chosen to renew, though Tennant did take a brief extension for the 2009 specials.

 

[Timewalker]

Didn't a novel or an audio retcon Adric's death by having the Master pluck him off the ship before it crashed?

I know, "not canon".

Yep, not canon. I don't own any of the audio adventures, and most of the novels I own are adaptations of the Classic episodes.

Having the Master save him would have mucked up a later episode ("Time-Flight") in which the Master used a fake vision of Adric to try to manipulate Tegan and Nyssa. His mistake was in showing an Adric who still had his star-shaped badge on his jerkin, when they knew that the Doctor had used the badge to kill the Cyberman in the TARDIS (it had gold on the edges). So they knew the vision was a fake.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I'm one that adored Series 7. Everyone else hates that season because of the Clara story. I love it precisely because I love Clara, AND the fact that we had a great cliffhanger that led into the 50th Anniversary, AND an awesome, emotional Christmas Special.

I don't hate Season 7. In my book, it automatically ranks above anything that RTD did. But I would say that it's the worst of Moffat's seasons. Not so much because of the Clara story, although her Season 7 story works better in theory than in execution. Mostly, I think there just weren't any episodes in either half of Season 7 that really WOWED me. The other seasons all had some flashes of pure genius. Season 5 was almost entirely pure gold. Season 6 had "The Impossible Astronaut," "The Doctor's Wife," & "The God Complex." Season 8 had "Listen," plus the restaurant scene in "Deep Breath." ("Nothing is more important than my egomania!") Season 9 had "The Zygon Inversion" & "Heaven Sent." I'm also a huge fan of "Under the Lake"/"Before the Flood." (Man, I'm bummed out that Toby Whithouse turned down the show runner job! At least tell me he's written an episode this season!)

Who knows, maybe he had a chat with Chibnall and they realised they weren't on the same page, maybe potential other jobs have come up that he wanted to take, hell maybe Hurt's death was a salient reminder that he's on Earth for a finite amount of time. He did say he's never stayed in a job for any great length of time, even his dream job might grow wearying after a while

How long was he on The Thick of It? Didn't that last 4 or 5 seasons?

With Hurt's passing, I feel like we've lost two Doctors.

Agreed. As Whovians, we haven't had such a bad time since 2012 when Caroline John & Mary Tamm both died in quick succession.

May this Doctor live long and prosper in Big FInish. For soe reason I can see Capaldi doing a ton of those (if and when BBC will let him do it), not just for a paycheck, but because he's arguably the biggest DW fan ever to take the mantle.

Considering the audios would be a lot easier on his knees, why not?

I really hope the BBC isn't forcing him out to replace him with a younger Doctor. I've seen that Capaldi hasn't gotten the same kind of merchandising support as Tennant & Smith did.

This is the first time I've heard about a regeneration and don't even want to think about the next guy. I'm actually in mourning this time. Capaldi's been my favorite of the new series by far!