Doctor Who fans have shared their thoughts on what showrunners need to do following a comment from Peter Capaldi.
Capaldi, who portrayed the titular Time Lord from 2013 to 2017, believes the series is taken much too seriously by fans. Some fans were critical of Capaldi’s successor, Jodie Whittaker, and the most recent actor to portray The Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa. But Academy Award-winner Capaldi believes fans should take the show much less seriously. Capaldi said: “It reflects its times and it’s a good thing in the world, though it’s become a bit too big, too important for the BBC or whoever. When I was a kid and watched it, it was just a monster show in the corner of the room. I don’t know why people take it so seriously.”
Some fans did not respond well to Capaldi’s comment on the show needing a lighter tone and being a reflection of modern times. One person wrote on X: “The problem wasn’t with their castings but that they played silly doctors when their best moments was when (Mostly Ncuti) they were catty and serious. I think Jodie had some good moments when she was lighter too but 13’s character needed more flaws. 15 should’ve been meaner.
Another added: “Ncuti Gatwa’s the only Doctor in the series history who I’ve thought was miscast, and that’s only on reflection. Nothing to do with his demographics. I just get a feeling of ‘false’ from his acting. Sort of like when someone smiles, except for the eyes, and it doesn’t ring true.”
A third shared: “We need fresh blood in the show, nobody connected to Russell T. Davies, nobody a part of that weird cult shit they got going on, we need fresh young blood who’s willing to step away from this garbage, take me back to fucking alien planets with aliens and real villains.
“Honestly, I don’t care about the companion and their day-to-day or their family issues, fuck that. I want to watch an episode on an alien planet with monsters, aliens and mad scientists screaming and laughing, none of this fucking modern earth shit, it’s old, it’s stale.”
Others observed that the problem is not the casting but the writing. One person wrote: “Jodie was good. The guy overseeing the writing was just shit. There was nothing wrong with Ncuti or his run. People just hated for the sake of it.”
Another added: “The issue now is it feels written for five-year-olds, the best thing about Doctor Who growing up was it appealed to me at every age, as a young kid, then a teenager, and the writing never felt like it was made for kids, now it feels entirely made for young children, and no one else.”
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