By Any Doctor Who fans out there who aren’t into Peter Capaldi’s take on the time-traveling alien – first of all, what’s your problem, and second, tough luck; the Scottish actor will return for the revived show’s 10th series, showrunner Stephen Moffat confirms.
The show, currently in its ninth season, features Capaldi in the semi-titular role as the Doctor, an alien Time Lord who adventures through space and time and occasionally changes his appearance (AKA, they have a built-in mechanism for changing the lead actor when they want to move on to other things). Capaldi is the fourth actor to lead the series since it was first resurrected in 2005 (then with Christopher Eccleson at the helm), and the 12th since the series first debuted in 1963. The show’s ratings have been suffering this year, but Who‘s fervent fanbase needn’t worry, Moffat says.
“It is definitely going to last five more years,” Moffat said in an interview with Variety. “I’ve seen the business plan. And I think we can go past that. It’s television’s own legend. It will just keep going.”
Of course, whether that’s a guarantee Moffat’s been given by the BBC or just informed speculation on his part is anyone’s guess, but that’s got to be reassuring to fans of the show…not that Doctor Who was terribly on the bubble, considering its proven longevity. At this point, it seems unlikely that anything could ever truly kill Who.
“Doctor Who is the all-time perfectly evolved television show,” Moffat said. “It’s a television predator designed to survive any environment because you can replace absolutely everybody. Most shows you can’t do that with. Most shows have a built-in mortality.”
That Capaldi is sticking around a little longer comes as welcome news – he’s been able to evoke the grumpy cantankerousness from Doctors of old while still managing to infuse his performance with a huge amount of depth, warmth and pathos. The longer he sticks around, the better, as far as I’m concerned.
[via Variety]