The Doctors Who's Who (26 page)

Some of the most noteworthy moments in Matt Smith’s tenure as Doctor Who were Vincent van Gogh’s reaction to how his paintings were appreciated by future generations (‘Vincent and the Doctor’) and of course the showing-off of his teenage football skills (‘The Lodger’).

Smith readily accepted the mantle of the 50th Anniversary Doctor Who. A new companion was introduced, Clara Oswald, played by Jenna-Louise Coleman, who was apparently picked by series producer Steven Moffat because she could talk even more quickly than Smith.

In the run up to the second part of the 2012 season (March–May 2013, to create a long season of adventures for US distribution), there was heavy criticism of the BBC for not doing enough to celebrate the show’s most significant anniversary. The BBC made statements and even Smith himself gave television interviews to reassure fans that there would be much to enjoy. A special feature-length drama about the genesis of the programme had been commissioned with David Bradley (of
Harry Potter
fame) as William Hartnell. There was also a 50th anniversary story that would be shown in 3D. Then it was announced shortly before the first story of 2013 (30 March) that David Tennant and Billie Piper would return for the special 50th anniversary adventure, but fans were still keen to hear if other former Doctors had been approached to take part in the festivities. However, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy had had nothing to say when interrogated by Chris Evans earlier in the month when the former
Doctor Who
stars bade farewell to Television Centre during its last-ever live broadcast.

When attention turned to the obligatory
Doctor Who
Christmas Special, rumours began to spread about Matt
Smith’s departure from the show. This started more speculation about how long the programme would endure after Smith’s demise as the main character. The Doctor was only meant to have 13 lives, which meant that only two more actors could take up the mantle. And who would be next? Yet again the guessing game was suddenly underway.

But was Smith in a rush to leave? Like David Tennant, some slack was built into his busy
Doctor Who
schedule in order for him to take on other parts. Three dramas released during his first couple of years as the Doctor (before the 50th anniversary) were quite diverse:
Womb
(2010),
Christopher and His Kind
(2011) and
Bert & Dickie
(2012).

Smith starred alongside the sensual Eva Green in
Womb
, playing Green’s lover who suddenly dies, but she finds that he can be cloned and decides to have the resulting baby. The years pass and, as the child grows up, he comes to terms with the fact that she has only nurtured him in order to have her lost love back.

There is something alarmingly predictable about the plot, but Green’s character is absorbing and Smith’s performance is powerful.

Christopher and His Kind
is a film documenting writer Christopher Isherwood’s trip to Berlin 1931 to partake of free love in a poor man’s
Cabaret
-style story. Smith takes his part well, donning an appropriate upper-class accent and carefree abandon in what is an inevitable story of unrequited love and in complete contrast to his role in
Doctor Who
.

To coincide with the 2012 Olympics, Smith appeared in
Bert & Dickie
(2012). The story was based partly on a true tale about the last British Olympics staged in London shortly after the Second World War. Smith plays Bert Bushnel, a working-class oarsman who is desperate for Olympic success,
but he is teamed with an over-privileged journalist who irritates him beyond compare: Richard ‘Dickie’ Burnell, played by Sam Hoare.

In the end Bushnel and Burnell find common ground when discussing modifications to their boat, which could place them in a winning position and fulfil their joint Olympic dream.

The film is gentle and nicely made, but as short interviews with Smith and Hoare showed, filming had its hiccups: Smith and Hoare managed to capsize their boat during rehearsals. Although the camera crew maintained straight faces throughout the whole process, the leading actors felt slightly deflated.

Back to
Doctor Who
, and series seven was one of the most anticipated by the fans because it led up to the 50th anniversary story, with a cliffhanger end that introduced veteran actor John Hurt as the Doctor (another twist in the huge cliffhanger that promised the true identity of the Doctor on 23 November 2013).

Smith
did
announce his departure from the show at the end of the season (prior to the 50th anniversary story), citing Hollywood’s need for English actors of some eccentricity. Regardless of what he does next, he will be forever known as the Doctor who took fans through the 50th anniversary. So, did he make it a success? Were the fans eventually happy with the stories?

No hardened fan would be totally happy with a
Doctor Who
season. There is too much variety nowadays, something for everyone rather than one-size-fits all. Some fans – more so than the critics who loved series seven – believed the end of certain stories to be a little rushed. This is probably a fair observation, because although the return of the Martian Ice Warriors (‘The Cold War’) was popular with everyone, the last third of the story hurtled to a quick conclusion with a Martian rescue vessel
saving the day and a very poor line about hitching a lift to the South Pole.

Perhaps more unforgiveable was the obvious comparison to the
Alien
movie; another heart-on-sleeve influence from the production team. Throughout Moffat’s era there were obvious comparisons to various
Star Wars
scenes. Mature fans would pass this off as him perhaps wanting to tie in with familiar American themes in order to encourage greater kinship with US fans (hence a Wild West theme in the 2012 part of the season). But despite some frustrations, the 2013 portion was a triumph. Stories such as ‘Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS’ and ‘Nightmare in Silver’ created lots of thrills, while the season finale, ‘The Name of the Doctor’, brought us a colourised William Hartnell to delight young and old fans alike. But after such a high-profile season, Smith knew he had reached his peak and so went onto pastures new.

He had managed to fit in a Hollywood movie,
How to Catch a Monster
, directed by Ryan Gosling, and had taken other interesting parts on British TV, as we have witnessed, so it was time to move on and make way for the twelfth Doctor…

‘I think we have to give children more credit. Children are always going to engage with the story in a slightly different way to adults, but I tell you this, I bet you they pay more attention. The science is mad and complicated and brilliant. It’s
Doctor Who
! If it’s too easy, what’s the point?’

Matt Smith
 
From
‘Who’s a Clever Boy Then?’ Radio Times, 30 March–5 April 2013

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

PETER CAPALDI

‘Like the Doctor himself, I find myself in a state of utter terror and delight.’

Peter Capaldi on becoming Doctor Who

IN A SPECIAL TV SHOW
hosted by Zoe Ball on Sunday, 4 August 2013, Peter Capaldi was announced as the 12th Doctor Who. By that weekend Capaldi had already been made the hot favourite to land the part by the bookmakers and, by the Monday morning, every national newspaper had him on their front page. ‘Peter Capaldi is the latest actor entrusted with the sonic screwdriver and keys to the TARDIS,’
The Times
declared.

It seemed that, with every regeneration, more hype and anticipation has gripped the nation. To have a programme dedicated to the naming of the new Doctor Who was unprecedented. When Patrick Troughton took over there was no fanfare – only confusion about the new idea. But, in 2013, during the 50th anniversary year of the programme, the event was an acceptable and exciting part of the
Doctor Who
legacy.

And what of Peter Capaldi himself?

It was as if time was repeating itself; the older man was back. At 55, Capaldi was the same age as William Hartnell when he started the show all the way back in November 1963.

Even the very conservative newspaper
The Times
let its hair down to greet the new Doctor (its leading article carried the subtitle ‘Ooo Ooo Ooo, Wee Ooo Ooo’) and proclaimed: ‘If James Bond represents how Britain is seen by the world, perhaps Doctor Who represents how the country prefers to see itself.’

The comparison between the two greatest of Britain’s fictional exports is an interesting one; they both have ways of reinventing themselves – changing their leading actors – and it is always with quite some fanfare. Of course, both the Doctor Whos and James Bonds are influenced by their times as far as the story content is concerned; but none of them, no matter how long ago, look dated. Like the rock star David Bowie, they each have a certain way of looking timeless. For James Bond this is somewhat easier, as evening suits will never go out of fashion; but celery and an over-long multi-coloured scarf is a completely different issue.

Peter Douglas Capaldi was born in Glasgow – he is to become the third Scot to take the controls of the TARDIS – on 14 April 1958, the day after Peter Davison’s seventh birthday. As his surname suggests, his father came from Italian stock (his grandfather had moved to Scotland between the two world wars of the 20th Century), while his mother hailed from Killeshandra, County Cavan, Ireland.

Peter was educated at Teresa’s Primary School in Glasgow’s Possilpark district, north of the River Clyde. From there he moved to Bishopbriggs in East Dumbarton, where he attended St Matthew’s Primary School. His love of performing shone through even at this early age as he put on a puppet show for
his peers. He stated in interview that he was taken to the theatre at a young, impressionable age and marvelled at all the blood and make-up; and that’s when the acting bug got him.

Peter later attended St Ninian’s High School in Kirkintilloch, where he became a member of the Antonine Players, who performed at the Fort Theatre, Bishopbriggs. Around this time he found time to write to the
Radio Times
about a favourite TV show of his –
Doctor Who
. His sweet letter expressed his wish that the show could have a special edition to celebrate the 25th anniversary. He was 15 years old at the time, and how could he imagine that he would be invoved in the culmination of the 50th anniversary of the world-famous TV show he so admired? But, like his Scottish predecessor David Tennant, his
Doctor Who
dream would come true.

While attending the Glasgow School of Art, he became the lead singer in a punk rock band called Dreamboys – the drummer was future comedian Craig Ferguson. The assumed quiet, young
Doctor Who
fan, clearly had something of a rebellious side, as interested as he must have been in rock, but he was also becoming more serious about a career as an actor.

Capaldi’s first role was in
Living Apart Together
(1982). This 1980s Scottish comedy film featured pop star B A Robinson as Ritchie Hannah, a second-rate musician who returns to his native Glasgow only to have his wife walk out on him. Capaldi’s part is small, as a love interest to Ritchie’s wife in a small selection of scenes. An underwhelming debut it may be; but the movie is something of a Scottish cult classic, now available on DVD in a lovingly restored edition by Park Circus.

The second movie that Capaldi was involved in was much more impressive. Again with a very strong Scottish connection,
Local Hero
(1983) has the honour of starring Holywood legend Burt Lancaster in one of his last great roles, and it also
has the luxury of an iconic theme tune by Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits), which has been used relatively often on television over the years.

Calpadi plays the gangly and awkward Oldsen, whose job it is to assist a Texan oil billionaire’s scout (Mac, played by Peter Riegert) to build a refinery along the beautiful Scottish coastline; but when the Texan turns up (Burt Lancaster) he changes his mind, sending Mac home and sharing a dream of a scientific institute with Oldsen, who has fallen under the spell of a beautiful scientist called Marina (Jenny Seagrove). The final moments of the film sum up the message of the film completely: Mac, now home in America, looks out at skyscrapers in the night, with their lights on and business still being done at all hours. Then we cut to the beautiful highland village, in the daytime, with nobody answering the telephone: money isn’t everything.

Local Hero
was written and directed by Bill Forsyth, whose earlier movie
Gregory’s Girl
won a BAFTA.
Local Hero
would also win a BAFTA and, although a light comedy, it was a much more important movie than
Gregory’s Girl
. Forsyth was good at finding home-grown talent (both films being shamelessly Scottish) and John Gordon Sinclair and Peter Capaldi respectively were excellent choices of leading actors.

In 1984 Capaldi took a role in the very straight ITV series
Crown Court
. The episode he was in was called ‘Big Deal’ and Capaldi plays Eamonn Donnelly, a flame-haired rockabilly artist who gives evidence to support his manager. The result is hysterical, as Eamonn is clearly out of his depth and of no use whatsoever to his frustrated manager. Looking more like Eddie Tenpole Tudor than a quality witness, this one is well worth searching the internet to watch.

A year later Capaldi appeared in long-running TV series
Minder
, which starred George Cole as small-time conman Arthur Daley and Dennis Waterman as Arthur’s minder Terry McCann. Capaldi’s episode (Series 6, Episode 2) was called ‘Life in the Fast Food Lane’, where he plays a larger-than-life Scot called Ozzie, whose personality Arthur finds unnerving: ‘I can see why they built Hadrian’s Wall,’ Arthur says dryly, when confronted with the prospect of having Ozzie as a passenger in his car.