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It’s not exactly a secret that Doctor Who isn’t doing so hot right now. On the plus side, the show will officially return for a Christmas special later this year. But the franchise’s much-vaunted production deal with Disney has collapsed, the show doesn’t actually have a current Doctor at the moment, and pretty much everyone hated the season 15 finale that saw Billie Piper return to the TARDIS in an undisclosed role that no one understands. It’s hard out here for a Whovian, and it’s unclear what the best path forward is for the show as it heads into its next era. But a former Doctor has some suggestions.
Peter Capaldi starred as the franchise’s Twelfth Doctor from 2013 to 2017 and is no stranger to the endless debate surrounding the show’s quality. (Just compare the reviews of his first season in the TARDIS to his final one.) But he’s also a lifelong Who fan, and seems convinced that the series’ current woes are related to the fact that the show’s international success has changed both its scope and the expectations surrounding its performance.
“The show became very, very big. And it was never like that when I loved it. So it became a different thing,” Capaldi said during an appearance on the Half the Picture podcast. “I think the responsibilities of playing the part became more. There were more of them.”
The actor pointed out that in the modern reboot era, the show has transitioned from a more niche U.K. sci-fi property into a global brand, which has shifted expectations for everyone involved with the show.
“There were more things that you had to do rather than just, I mean, I think in the old days, if you were John Pertwee or Tom Baker or something like that, you probably, you know, you spend most of your year making it and then a bit of your year promoting it,” he said. “But it wasn’t this in-your-face kind of thing that suddenly was really important to the BBC, or suddenly really important to a brand that had to be maintained.”
Before Capaldi’s first season as the Doctor, the show embarked on a global world tour that spanned seven cities across five continents and featured exclusive previews and fan meet-and-greets. He’s not wrong that it’s hard to imagine anything of that scope or scale occurring during the show’s classic era.
The actor also rightly points out that Doctor Who used to be more overtly targeted towards a children’s audience than the adults of today, who are increasingly likely to buy merchandise, but also much more prone to writing long screeds complaining about some aspect of the show online.
“It was just a show that some kids really loved, and other kids didn’t care about, but wanted to watch football, or you grew out of, you know,” Capaldi said. “It became this sort of very important thing. I think less in a cultural way and more in an economic way.”
While the former Doctor doesn’t specifically reference any storylines from recent seasons or the behind-the-scenes woes the show is currently facing, he certainly seems to feel that the show’s global success has perhaps become more of a hindrance than a help.
“I think the show is a little bit of a victim of its success. You know, the show that I loved was a tiny thing, a little small thing that survived. It just survived, but nobody knew that it was warming its way into the culture in such a deep way. And I think that’s what I have an affinity with.”
The post Peter Capaldi Says Doctor Who Has Become a Victim of Its Own Success appeared first on Den of Geek.
