Yesterday was a big day for Doctor Who fans. It was officially announced that Peter Capaldi would be playing the 12th Doctor, taking over for Matt Smith on the 50 year old sci-fi series. Writer and executive producer Steven Moffat is known for his secrecy, but shared a good deal of information about casting Capaldi in a recent interview.

 

via What's On TV- When did Peter Capaldi come on the radar for you?

"Quite a while back actually. I happened to know he's a very big fan of the show and there's something rather seductive about knowing that an utterly arresting-looking leading man actor is such a fan, so I'd started to think maybe we should do something about that. My shortlist consisted of Peter Capaldi and that's it! It was a very short shortlist. There was only one audition this time, and it wasn't an audition really. He just came around to my house and we put him on video to see what he'd look like as the Doctor and gosh, he was terribly good."

Most fans have been positive and really seem to think Peter fits the bill as the Doctor...

"He had flicked through my mind when we were replacing David Tennant and he hadn't felt right then. But there's something that's right about the way Matt's Doctor paves the way for Peter's Doctor. It's one character going through his life played by a succession of different actors - so you can believe the strange 'Old/Young' Matt Smith will turn into the strange 'Young/Old' Peter Capaldi.

Peter will bring the same brilliance as Matt I believe, but let's let Peter do that job. I'm going to write The Doctor, but I'm not going to tell him how to play The Doctor, and you'd be surprised how similar the Doctors are on paper when written. He's just going to have a new face and a new voice."

Was there a conscious decision to go older with Peter's Doctor?

"Not particularly. The apparent age of the Doctor makes no narrative sense at all as he's been anything from his 20s to his 70s. Obviously he doesn't care, he just sort of gets a face off the rack and goes with it. I think it's good we've got a different age Doctor just because I cannot imagine what someone in their 20s could do with the Doctor after Matt Smith showed us how to be a 20s Doctor. I don't know what you'd do after that because he was so perfect. He'd have to be a total contradiction and it wouldn't work I don't think. So it makes life easier I suppose that Peter is different, but that wasn't the reason. The reason simply was when Peter turned up 'The Doctor was in the room'."

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To hear his thoughts on the casting leaking early and why they didn't go with a female doctor, you can read the rest of the article at What's On TV. To view our previous article on Peter Capaldi's casting and read the official announcement from BBC, visit:

Source: What's On TV
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