But for Christmas, River has something new and rather unusual to be ‘sonic’d’ (mind you, so is a screwdriver).
Drum roll please for the …. SONIC TROWEL!
How fitting for an archaeologist to be carrying a trowel (just in case you’ve forgotten what her job was).
In the images released so far from the BBC, River seems to be brandishing it like a weapon against both the disembodied head of a crazy giant robot and the head of King Hydroflax – played by The Inbetweeners’ Greg Davies.
We wonder if she also does the gardening with it too? Sonic-ing the odd bush here and there.
Given Doctor Who fans’ propensity for enjoying change (*coughs*), we’re sure they’ll enjoy another hilarious twist on the classic, but equally ridiculous, Sonic Screwdriver.
Showrunner Steven Moffat recently remarked, after some Whovians saw fit to voice their displeasure at the Sonic Shades, that the notion of the Sonic Screwdriver has always been fantastically silly, a point some diehards have forgotten.
The Doctor Who 2015 Christmas Special also stars comedian Matt Lucas (Little Britain) as one of River’s little helpers Nardole, who manages to get the Doctor mistakenly involved in their heist.
Amusingly, for the Time Lord, his wife doesn’t actually recognise him, with hilarious consequences!
When River Song, played in Doctor Who by Alex Kingston, faded away in a ghostly fug at the end of 2013’s The Name of the Doctor, most people expected that would be the last we saw of the character. Not least, Kingston herself.
“No, no I didn’t expect to be back,” she tells the Guardian and other assembled media on a brief shooting break from this week’s Christmas special, The Husbands of River Song. The festive adventure sees her return to the show’s Cardiff studios for the first time since her apparent swansong. That was when we saw a hologram/ghost/hallucination/download/whatever version of River help usher Matt Smith’s version of the Timelord towards his (not-so) final destiny. The Doctor finally admitted that, in his own awkward way, he loved her back, and that looked like it for River. But as fans know, endings are something the Doctor does not like.
“I thought that was it for me,” says the actor, in costume and looking like a record executive from Sunset Strip circa 1983 (apart from a vortex manipulator on her wrist). Kingston is as alluring, mischievous and big-hearted as any of her admirers might hope for.
“I mean, it was never officially discussed, and I was never officially told, ‘That’s it.’ But enough time had passed for me think, ‘Well, that’s that.’ They’d done a season with a change of Doctor and there was no mention at all of my character coming back. And then I heard – through the fans, actually – that Steven [Moffat] had mentioned it, and Russell [T Davies] had mentioned what fun it might be if they were to explore River with Peter Capaldi’s Doctor. And I thought: they’re both men who keep things so incredibly close to their chests; they wouldn’t even entertain an idea like that unless there was some seed germinating somewhere.”
Conversations about putting the pair together on screen involved the phrase “sex storm”, and while the episode remains resolutely a family show, Kingston admits that an in-joke on set has become “Doctor Ooh.” To the uninitiated, her character was conceived to explore the awkward potential of giving a “wife” to the most pointedly sexless character in all of time and space. David Tennant and Billie Piper might have spent their days mooning at each other, but the dynamic with River was more in the tradition of show runner Moffat’s roots in awkward romantic comedy. Their relationship, such as it is, had him on the constant back foot. In homage to Niffinger’s The Time Traveller’s Wife, their meetings took place in the wrong order, and River, a gun-toting archaeologist with a love for innuendo and the loosest of moral compasses, intimidated the Doctor in ways that only a wife can. But her love was unconditional and, eventually, he would come to reciprocate. The tragedy was that the first time we met her, in 2008’s Silence in the Library, was the day of her death.
River’s story got heavy towards the end, and her last appearances plumbed impossibly dark depths. So it’s a festive treat to see her restored to her mischievous best, paired with Capaldi, for what is, in the better sense of the word, a romp. Together, they share what Kingston calls a “Spencer Tracy/Katherine Hepburn dynamic.” And though we’ve been here before, if it does mark River’s final appearance, it would make a fitting farewell.
And yet when it was confirmed that Jenna Coleman would be leaving her role as companion, Clara, some corners of fandom raptured at the possibility that perhaps Kingston might signing up for a full series.
“I don’t know whether they would do that because in a sense I think what the fans love is she’ll come in for an adventure but then goes off again – so one can sort of spend one’s time imagining what she does when she’s not with the Doctor. I think if she were a constant companion I’m not sure whether the fans would enjoy that so much; it would take away from the opportunity for someone else to be a companion. I’d like it if she came back again but, yeah, I think it works best the way Steve [Moffat] has always interpreted their relationship.”
She’s surely telling the truth when she says she has no idea if she’s ever coming back. But as an actor who’s in demand all over the world, she has shown remarkable loyalty to Doctor Who. She even recently recorded a series of audio adventures for Big Finish, which pit her opposite Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor. That’s surely a less lucrative payday than her rumoured next role, Lady Macbeth in Martin Scorsese’s take on the Scottish play.
What might earn Kingston fewer fans is her position on the increasingly intense debate that rages, not least on these forums, over the Doctor potentially being played by a woman. On this, she is firm. “It’s difficult, I don’t know quite why, but I would imagine, if anything, the Doctor might be of a different race than a different gender. I can’t imagine, myself, the Doctor being a different gender. I just think that too many men have played that role [already].”
Of course, this is nothing on the scale of the Kate Winslet’s claim that the debate over the Hollywood gender pay gap was “vulgar”, but she is certain of her own mind, however these comments might play out across the echo chamber of social media.
“Essentially, if one goes back historically, really it’s been a little boys’ show, and girls have been brought on to it. Certainly, when I was a girl I loved it as well. But I just feel – I hope that women aren’t going to hate me for this – the Doctor has to be a guy, actually. I do.” And then she leans across the table with the delicious cackle that has made her character so beloved. “Although it would be very interesting for River if it were a woman!” (Guardian)
I still say it’s Political Correctness if the 13th Doctor or Later is a Woman. Period.
“I had sort of thought we were done with River,” says Moffat. “But Russell [T Davies] and I had been emailing about River. He was always saying, ‘You can’t not bring her back because she’s got to be together with [Peter] Capaldi [who plays the Doctor] – it will be a sex storm!’ ”
Kingston, speaking in a break during filming, reiterates the theme: “There have been moments on set where we’ve started to call it ‘Doctor Blue’. Say no more.”
Quite how this “sex storm” will fit in with the Christmas episode’s 5.15pm time slot remains to be seen. But the other elements that make up “classic” Who are all present and correct. River and the Doctor form a likeable couple with a different dynamic to the usual master/companion pairing.
“They’re equals,” says Kingston, who is wearing a leather jacket and some kind of gadget on her wrist. “River is never somebody who is asking him questions in the way that companions might. The interaction between the two is something like Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn – there’s a fast-paced screwball quality to it.”
The pair find themselves being chased across space and time in the established manner by a very big, very nasty robot, played by Greg Davies. The BBC have taken two entire casts of his head in order to create a character called King Hydroflax whose body and brain are detachable.
When I meet Davies he is wearing a large smile and an even larger prosthetic scar on his left cheek. “He’s a petrifying – yet deluded – nine-foot cyborg,” says Davies, who is himself 6ft 8in. Davies is best known as a comedy performer – the addition of both him and Matt Lucas to the cast in guest roles suggests that the Christmas special is intended not only to be fun but to be funny too, a welcome shift in tone following a series that was criticised for being too dark and on too late (post 8pm on Saturdays).
One of the running gags is that, for a large part of the episode, River Song doesn’t recognise the Doctor – a pardonable error given that the last Doctor, to whom she was married, was Matt Smith, an actor nearly 25 years Capaldi’s junior.
In the story it’s played for laughs but it’s also recognition that Capaldi, 57, is a very different Doctor to the two young bucks who preceded him. When I meet him a few weeks later he is walking with a stick and looks tired. He is recovering from a knee operation caused, he says, by all that running down corridors he has had to do. A sign, perhaps, that these days the Doctor is a role for a younger man?
Peter Capaldi and Alex Kingston in the Doctor Who Christmas Special
“It’s the same operation Matt Smith had!” he counters. “I took him for lunch the first time I met him and he was on crutches. I said, ‘What’s happened to you?’ He said, ‘This f—— show, mate!’ I never believed him – and now I’ve got exactly the same injury. You tend to twist your knee when you’re being chased by a monster and then you swivel around to present yourself to camera. It’s the curse of the Doctor…”
Capaldi says that he doesn’t read reviews but he admits that comments about his appointment and performance over the last two years have filtered back.
“Some feel good and some feel bad. I always think that if you’re Doctor Who, somebody somewhere’s going to love you. That’s comfort. But if people don’t like me there’ll be another one along in a minute. It’s only Doctor Who – and I say that with the greatest of respect and affection. It’s not a life-threatening illness.”
Does he mind the criticisms about his age? “No, because every Doctor should be different from the last one. If you want exclusively young, sexy guys, to me that’s not Doctor Who. You want occasional ones like that – but then some other eccentrics.”
Capaldi has already committed to a third year in the role, but nothing is set in stone after that.
“This could be my final year – it’s terrifying. I love Doctor Who but it can be quite an insular world and I do want to do other things. There will come a time when this is over. But I knew that when I started. I was thinking about my regeneration scene from the outset. That’s my terrible melancholic nature. When you accept the job you know there’ll come a day, inevitably, when you’ll be saying goodbye.”
For now, though, he is delighted to see the show back in the schedules where it belongs: the tea‑time slot.
“It’s a very festive, light‑hearted Christmas afternoon show,” he says. “Although a lot of adults really like it, at its heart Doctor Who is designed to entertain children as well. I like the idea of families watching together. That’s what I did when I was a child.” (UK Telegraph)
It’s Christmas Day on a remote human colony and the Doctor is hiding from Christmas Carols and Comedy Antlers.
But when a crashed spaceship calls upon the Doctor for help, he finds himself recruited into River Song’s squad and hurled into a fast and frantic chase across the galaxy.
King Hydroflax is furious, his giant Robot bodyguard is out of control and coming for them all! Will Nardole survive? And when will River Song work out who the Doctor is?
All will be revealed on a starliner full of galactic super-villains and a destination the Doctor has been avoiding for a very long time.
Writer – Steven Moffat
Director – Douglas Mackinnon
Executive Producer – Brian Minchin
Producer – Nikki Wilson
Cast – Peter Capaldi, Alex Kingston, Greg Davies, Matt Lucas, Rowan Polonski, Robert Curtis, Chris Lew Kum Hoi.
Here’s a few of the things the Who showrunner had to say about the special:
“The Doctor is an all new man and has been for a while. It may have slipped his mind that out there, in a very tangled and complicated way, is his wife that has never seen this face before and doesn’t even know about this incarnation. We’re about to stand with the Doctor and see what River is like when she doesn’t know he’s looking. We’re about to see what River thinks of Matt Smith turning into Peter Capaldi.”
As for the reason he decided to write River back into the Xmas special after a (painful) two-year absence from Doctor Who, Moffat said:
“River Song meets the Capaldi Doctor, that’s got to be fun – I’d like to write that. That’s what made me want to write. I knew it had to be a big romp for Christmas day and there’s nothing like River Song to make that evident – River brings a whole storm of camp glamour to it.”
He also had a few choice things to say about the villain of the piece, King Hydroflax, played by Greg Davies (The Inbetweeners): “King Hydroflax is a very bad King, who as it turns out is mostly cyborg — in fact only his head has remained. He’s a vicious, terrible and deeply stupid man and a dreadful tyrant.” Gotta love those.
After losing (and forgetting) his beloved companion Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman) in the Season 9 finale, Peter Capaldi explained where we find Twelve in “The Husbands of River Song.”
“Well the Christmas special is very Christmassy, which I’m sure everyone will be relieved to hear. It finds the Doctor in a Dickensian kind of world, in a Christmas card sort of world which he’s been brought to in order to do a favour for a king. So there’s quite a festive spirit to the episode. But the favour is more complex and isn’t exclusively for the benefit of the king, but more for the benefit of the king’s consort.”
Capaldi also explained who is the character of Nardole, played by Brit favorite Matt Lucas (Pompidou): “The character of Nardole is played by Matt Lucas, so you can expect a lot of laughs and pathos. He is, as ever, a hugely lovable personality, a little naïve, a little out of his depth and quite cosmic.”
Describing the special as a “wonderful slapstick caper,” adding, “There’s a lot of great laughs, there’s a lot of fabulous River one-liners. The fans are going to love the things she says and there’s a lot of play,” Alex Kingston also revealed that River had a lot to do in the special episode:
“I’ve been really lucky in this episode as River gets to do an awful lot. She gets to run around in snow, I’ve been flying and have done harness work against a green screen. She’s got quite a few husbands in this episode and there’s a lot of fabulous quick-fire dialogue between her and the Doctor. She gets to snog the most handsome man in the work, his character name is Ramone. It’s all going on!”
However, her favorite thing about filming the Christmas special had nothing to do with River’s scenes, but more about stepping back into the TARDIS once more:
“The favourite moment so far for me was stepping back on to the TARDIS, because the interior of it has changed yet again. I’ve been on two different TARDIS incarnations, and to walk into this one and know it’s a familiar space but at the same time it’s different, was great. I love this one – everything works which is really fun, I stand there pressing all the buttons, it’s great!”
Below is the official synopsis for “The Husbands of River Song”:
It’s Christmas Day on a remote human colony and the Doctor is hiding from Christmas Carols and Comedy Antlers.
But when a crashed spaceship calls upon the Doctor for help, he finds himself recruited into River Song’s squad and hurled into a fast and frantic chase across the galaxy.
King Hydroflax is furious, his giant Robot bodyguard is out of control and coming for them all! Will Nardole survive? And when will River Song work out who the Doctor is?
All will be revealed on a starliner full of galactic super-villains and a destination the Doctor has been avoiding for a very long time.
Written by Steven Moffat and directed by Douglas Mackinnon, the Doctor Who Christmas special stars Peter Capaldi, Alex Kingston, Greg Davies, Matt Lucas, Rowan Polonski, Robert Curtis and Chris Lew Kum Hoi. It is set to air on Christmas Day. Are you excited about “The Husbands of River Song”?
Strictly Come Dancing Does Doctor Who (the week it’s not on after it):
Did you spot these hidden gems dotted throughout the Twelfth Time Lord’s second series of adventures in space and time?
(Radio Times)
Saturday should mean Doctor Who but now that series nine is over there’s no more new Who due on our TV screens until Christmas Day – of course, that doesn’t mean there’s no fun to be had.
In fact, there’s never been a better time to look back over the last few months, rate all of the episodes from the series, and remember just how clever the little sci-fi show can be.
Take these excellent Easter eggs dotted about this year’s series, for instance…
Star Trek boldly went Under the Lake
From the Starfleet uniforms in the mural on the wall, to the shuttle-like spaceship and design of the whole underwater base, Under the Lake was basically an homage to the sci-fi classic.
And the nod to the Starship Enterprise (above) was particularly clever.
The Doctor apologised to Sarah Jane
*sobs* It was SOUTH CROYDON.
The Doctor FINALLY apologised for abandoning his companion in the wrong city.
Star Wars made an appearance Before The Flood
May the remorse be with you too, undertaker Prentis. Pity the poor alien didn’t live to share more of his brilliant business cards after those nasty dealings with the Fisher King.
The Clockwork Squirrel had a whirl on The Doctor’s Magpie amp
In Under the Lake, Clara mentioned that the Doctor had dismantled the TARDIS radio to make a clockwork squirrel and in Before the Flood, up he popped.
And he WOULD be sitting atop a Magpie Electronics original…
The Face of Boe met The Woman Who Lived
Ashildr asked if she’d ever meet Jack Harkness, but she basically already had.
If you believed Jack was the Face of Boe anyway. Actor Struan Rodger, who played her manservant, was the original voice of the Face of Boe.
Five Doctors popped up in the Zygon Invasion
Did you manage to spot them all?
One was hiding on a UNIT safe house wall, and the rest were dotted throughout the episode, which saw The Doctor and Osgood joining forces once again.
James Bond joined the Zygon Inversion
At least that’s what it felt like when The Doctor channelled Roger Moore with that parachute.
Torchwood Faced the Raven
Did someone say they were Retconned on the Trap Street that was home to Me and her alien refugees?
We’ve heard that one somewhere before, haven’t we Captain Jack?
And Star Wars, Back to the Future and Doctor Who met for the BEST Easter egg of all time
Who doesn’t love a bit of obscure Star Wars writing on the wall in the back of a scene?
Yep, there was another hidden message scribbled on the wall of the mysterious mechanical castle prison.
We’ve ZOOMED IN so you can see that the Doctor’s opening monologue was right there, if you wanted to recite it with him.
And when the Doctor came home, he took a familiar route…
Now, where have we heard THAT one before?
…before telling the truth about Missy’s lies in Hell Bent
You might remember Missy telling Clara three things about the Doctor when asked when she’d started caring for him: “Since always. Since the Cloister Wars. Since the night he stole the moon and the President’s wife. Since he was a little girl. One of those was a lie – can you guess which one?”
During their time in the Cloisters in Hell Bent, the Doctor tells Clara that the claim he “stole the moon and the president’s wife” is utter rubbish, meaning that if we’re to believe Missy was only telling ONE lie, the Doctor was, in fact, once a little girl.
Mystery solved. Maybe.
That second TARDIS that looked a LOT like the very first
What an homage to days gone by, eh?
Even if the colour scheme was a little off. (the original was green because that looked ‘whiter’ on a B&W TV.
And finally, that very important song played in a very important diner…
We can’t fail to mention how wonderful it is to be back in that fateful diner, first frequented by Matt Smith’s Eleven.
But could Don’t Stop Me Now hint that we haven’t seen the last of Clara Oswald just yet? It wouldn’t be the first time…
And it’s an actual Diner in the Cardiff Bay Restaurant District.
Honourable Mention: Leandro the Bread Lion
Because even The Doctor loves a nod to The Great British Bake Off.
See also, “Warrior’s Gate” (1980) for another Lion inspired Race.
LONDON, Dec. 11 (UPI) — British actress Alex Kingston has described the upcoming Doctor Who Christmas special — for which she reprises her guest role of River Song — as “a wonderful slapstick caper.”
“The Husbands of River Song,” the holiday edition of the sci-fi series, will air on the BBC in the United Kingdom and on BBC America in the United States on Dec. 25. Written by Steven Moffat and directed by Douglas Mackinnon, it features series regular Peter Capaldi as the time-traveling Doctor.
“It’s a wonderful slapstick caper. There’s a lot of great laughs, there’s a lot of fabulous River one-liners. The fans are going to love the things she says and there’s a lot of play. They’re also fighting a very interesting alien played by Greg Davies. It’s a really great episode and Steven has done my character proud,” Kingston is quoted as saying in press notes provided by the BBC.
“I’ve been really lucky in this episode as River gets to do an awful lot. She gets to run around in snow, I’ve been flying and have done harness work against a green screen. She’s got quite a few husbands in this episode and there’s a lot of fabulous quick-fire dialogue between her and the Doctor. She gets to snog the most handsome man in the world, his character name is Ramone. It’s all going on!”
“It’s Christmas Day on a remote human colony and the Doctor is hiding from Christmas Carols and Comedy Antlers,” a synopsis said. “But when a crashed spaceship calls upon the Doctor for help, he finds himself recruited into River Song’s squad and hurled into a fast and frantic chase across the galaxy. King Hydroflax is furious, his giant Robot bodyguard is out of control and coming for them all! Will Nardole survive? And when will River Song work out who the Doctor is? All will be revealed on a starliner full of galactic super-villains and a destination the Doctor has been avoiding for a very long time.”
The BBC have released interviews with Peter Capaldi, Alex Kingston and Steven Moffat to promote the forthcoming Christmas special, The Husbands of River Song.
Interview with Peter Capaldi:
What can you tell us about the Doctor Who Christmas special this year? Well the Christmas special is very Christmassy, which I’m sure everyone will be relieved to hear. It finds the Doctor in a Dickensian kind of world, in a Christmas card sort of world which he’s been brought to in order to do a favour for a king. So there’s quite a festive spirit to the episode. But the favour is more complex and isn’t exclusively for the benefit of the king, but more for the benefit of the king’s consort.
What is your favourite scene from this episode? I have lots of favourite scenes from the Christmas episode, but I think being met by Matt Lucas on a wonderful wintery Dickensian street with the TARDIS covered in snow was delightful, because it was like a Doctor Who Christmas card. Matt is such a fabulously funny person to have around, so I loved that!
Do you like filming Christmas episodes? Yes I do like them – last year’s was a bit scarier than this one, this is more openly festive. I like the idea of ghost stories at Christmas and frightening things seem to work rather well in the festive environment.
Would you like to see River Song return? Yes of course, because Alex is fabulous and it’s always lovely to work with her.
Who is Nardole? The character of Nardole is played by Matt Lucas so you can expect a lot of laughs and pathos. He is, as ever, a hugely loveable personality, a little naïve, a little out of his depth and quite cosmic.
Interview with Alex Kingston:
What was it like to come back? I was quite surprised when I was asked to come back, but I was happy to because I just thought it would be great fun. It’s such a great character, she’s become so beloved by lots of fans and I’ve had them saying it would be so great for her to come back and to see her interacting with Peter Capaldi’s Doctor. I was actually thrilled when Steven decided he wanted to explore that too.
What did you think of the script? It’s a wonderful slapstick caper. There’s a lot of great laughs, there’s a lot of fabulous River one-liners. The fans are going to love the things she says and there’s a lot of play. They’re also fighting a very interesting alien played by Greg Davies. It’s a really great episode and Steven has done my character proud.
Has this episode been challenging? I’ve been really lucky in this episode as River gets to do an awful lot. She gets to run around in snow, I’ve been flying and have done harness work against a green screen. She’s got quite a few husbands in this episode and there’s a lot of fabulous quick-fire dialogue between her and the Doctor. She gets to snog the most handsome man in the work, his character name is Ramone. It’s all going on!
What were your favourite moments during filming? The favourite moment so far for me was stepping back on to the TARDIS, because the interior of it has changed yet again. I’ve been on two different TARDIS incarnations, and to walk into this one and know it’s a familiar space but at the same time it’s different, was great. I love this one – everything works which is really fun, I stand there pressing all the buttons, it’s great!
Interview with Steven Moffat:
Can you give us an introduction to the episode you’ve written this year? The Doctor is an all new man and has been for a while. It may have slipped his mind that out there, in a very tangled and complicated way, is his wife that has never seen this face before and doesn’t even know about this incarnation. We’re about to stand with the Doctor and see what River is like when she doesn’t know he’s looking. We’re about to see what River thinks of Matt Smith turning into Peter Capaldi.
What made you want to write this episode? River Song meets the Capaldi Doctor, that’s got to be fun – I’d like to write that. That’s what made me want to write. I knew it had to be a big romp for Christmas day and there’s nothing like River Song to make that evident – River brings a whole storm of camp glamour to it.
Is it any different writing a Christmas episode of Doctor Who? Yes, you need to have a bit of Christmas in it, but that’s never felt to me like a tremendous impediment, it’s a hook to hang it on. Sometimes we go very Christmassy – ‘A Christmas Carol’ was incredibly Christmassy, so was ‘The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe’ and ‘The Snowmen’ had the appearance of Christmas without being very Christmassy. Last Christmas is actually the least Christmassy episode we’ve ever done, except for the fact it actually had Santa Claus in it – I rather loved last Christmas. This year’s episode starts Christmassy and has a comedy romp!
Do you enjoy writing a Christmas episode? I like Christmas specials – I know some people don’t. Some friends of mine don’t like Christmas specials very much and they’re always complaining about all the tinsel, the goodwill and the twinkly stars, and the lovely snow on the rooftops. I love all that, I love Christmas as a day and as a festival. I love that it’s dark, twinkly and rich red, all those things I adore so it’s no hardship for me at all.
Who is King Hydroflax? King Hydroflax is a very bad King, who as it turns out is mostly cyborg – in fact only his head has remained. He’s a vicious, terrible and deeply stupid man and a dreadful tyrant.
Obama? 🙂 (sorry, couldn’t resist).
The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine is on general sale today (10th December).
Publicity Shot for “The Husbands of River Song”, The 2015 Christmas Special. Notice anything different in this picture?
They BOTH have new Sonics. 🙂
CNET sat Down with Peter Capaldi…
“Doctor Who” has been a part of British pop culture for over 50 years, but it was the show’s 2005 revival that saw it skyrocket to mainstream popularity. Now, as Series 9 draws to a close and fans eagerly await the 2015 Christmas special, the Doctor is even making his Lego debut.
The second wave of figures for the toys-to-life game Lego Dimensions is now on shelves (and the Tardis kit isn’t far behind), which means fans of BBC’s iconic sci-fi series can for the first time pick up The Doctor and his time-travelling Tardis in brick form.
CNET sat down with Peter Capaldi, the Twelfth incarnation of the Doctor, late last month as he wraps up his second year wearing the mantle of the world’s most famous Time Lord.
The “Doctor Who” pack is out for Lego Dimensions. How does it feel seeing yourself in Lego?
It’s great fun, especially because it’s so tiny. I’m always shocked to see that I’ve got gray hair because I don’t think of myself as having gray hair, but I’ve got to get used to the idea now because it’s official. It’s Lego. But also the game is extraordinary, particularly because you can move back through all of the other Doctors and all of the other Tardis and stuff, and I think that’s amazing.
You’ve got the Doctor shoulder-to-shoulder with these mainstays of pop culture like Batman and Gandalf in the game. The show has this massive crossover appeal now.
And do you think that? Do you feel that that’s what’s happening?
I think it does, especially since [reboot showrunner] Russell T. Davies first brought it back a few years ago. It’s just exploded in popularity. It’s almost like I’m answering the question. I’m sorry.
(Laughs.) No, I’m asking because it’s often mysterious to us because we’re in the middle of making the show. And to make the show I never have any thoughts about the scale of it, or the show as a brand. Or where it is. I just have thoughts about the scenes, and the Doctor and the time and space and all that stuff, so it’s interesting to see what’s happening to it and what’s going on with it. And certainly, doing Lego was very weird because I had to go in and do all the voices for it. But with no game there, just with this script and all of these variations of their situations. ‘Doctor Who’ appears in official Lego form…
All 13 Doctors appear in Dimensions, you can cycle through all the regenerations. When did being part of that 50-year legacy really dawn on you?
Well I’ve always been a huge fan of the show, so I knew that was what I was joining. It was a thrill for me to become part of that. Sometimes I’m not even sure I have become part of that because I’m in the day-to-day business of trying to make the show. I guess I always think they’re the real Doctors.
You’re just the imposter?
Yeah, I am a bit of an imposter, really. But that’s because I love them, so I remain a bit of a fan about them all. I met Sylvester McCoy recently, which was great, I’d never met him before.
Was he your favorite Doctor?
You know, they’re all my favorites. I think they all bring their own particular talents and gifts to the role. And I’ll always feel deeply grateful to them because I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for every one of them.
I read something quite lovely that you said not too long ago, that you don’t just play the Doctor, you represent him.
I think anybody who plays the Doctor does that. That’s part of the job. You sort of have to look after the Doctor for the time that you’re playing him and leave him in good shape, so he can be passed on to the next actor and to the next generation really. It’s a character now who almost exists in folklore. He’s actually exists in the imagination more powerfully. And he exists on the screen. So you have to handle him with care. Warner Bros. Interactive
Well you’re now involved with Dimensions, and David Tennant and Catherine Tate are about to do some radio plays. It’s not just a regular acting role, it’s kind of cross media. How do you deal with that?
I don’t know really because it’s all new to me. I’m used to being an actor showing up and trying to do that as best I can. To be honest that’s sort of where I am most comfortable. On the set as we try and tell the stories and film the episodes.
So all the rest of it is new and rather big. The scale of it as much larger than I quite realized. And also you know there’s all this [doing the media circuit]. I’ve got nothing to hide behind here. It’s great when you relax and you can hide behind great lines that somebody else has written. And great stories, and great special effects and stuff. But when it’s just you, it’s harder.
The Doctor Who Lego Dimensions Level Pack is out now, and the Fun Pack containing a Dalek and Cyberman will be out on January 20.
What’s your favourite episode of the ones that you’ve done?
Oh gosh. I have to say I’m very shocked at how fast it’s going. I’ve done 26 episodes of “Doctor Who” now, which is terrifying to me. I don’t like to isolate any one and say, “This one is better”… because I think they are all remarkable. I could say episode 12 of this season is very special. I think that’s one that’s particularly potent.
And your favorite episode all-time, growing up watching “Doctor Who”?
Oh god. I can’t say that. Because I have a different favorite every five minutes. I love things like The Ark in Space and I love the last episode of Frontier in Space. So I don’t know if you’ve ever seen that, but it’s a great episode because it’s got the Doctor, the Daleks and the Tardis telepathic circuits which we have on the show now, but I think it might be the first time they were ever mentioned. Dalek Invasion of Earth is fantastic. But there was a charm to the older episodes, made to be watched once and never again.
Jenna Coleman is leaving the show at the end of the year. How was working with her?
She’s a great girl. She’s a wonderful, wonderful actress. She looked after me. I arrived a fresh-face 56-year-old into this show. She’d already been in it for a year. So she knew the ropes a little bit more than I did, and that relationship between the Doctor and the companion is absolutely crucial to the show.
So everybody’s always a little bit nervous about whether or not those guys are going to get on. Luckily, because she’s such a great person, we did. So I was really sad when she left. She wanted to leave last year, but we persuaded her to stay. I mean, it was her own decision, and she’ll do what she wants anyway. But I was thrilled that she stuck around. More on Doctor Who
You’ve said before you see the Doctor and Clara’s relationship as platonic, but some of the writers, [showrunner] Stephen Moffat especially, have said quite the opposite, that there’s a romantic entanglement there. How do you approach that kind of creative difference?
Well, I always feel one of the key things about The Doctor is that he’s not human. So to constantly weigh up how he conducts himself in human terms is not quite accurate. But we tend not to — We disagree very little. And what you know, you can hold an opinion. The material is so robust that we can both disagree and both be satisfied on what we do.
The thing about acting is the lines are one thing, and then there’s always spaces in between the lines, which is where a lot of the acting goes on. So an actor has to be constantly in flux, has to constantly be changing. So it’s good that we have different ideas. It’s about how it should be. Because if it was just my ideas, it would be dumb. So it’s the combination of lots of different ideas that make it better.
I think there’s a lot of people that have been in the show already who would make a wonderful companion. And that may even be where we go. I don’t know. I like to see the show reflect the world. So I would like to see someone who reflected the world as it is now. And I don’t quite know what that is. Yeah. But yeah, we shall find out soon enough.
You’ll probably hate me for bringing this up, but I came across the LP you released with Craig Ferguson.
Oh, yeah? That was only a self-made — We were enthusiastic youths.
We had to make the record ourselves because no one would give us a record deal. (Laughs.) So we went nowhere fast. But we had a wonderful time. You know. It was also the ethos of that time. You just had a go. And I’ve always been like that.
I went to art school originally. So I’m just the kind of person that thinks oh, something new comes out. I’ll have a go at that and see what happens. And so music seemed like a good idea. But I don’t think I’m musical.
You’ve played guitar on “Doctor Who.”
Yeah, it’s quite easy to pick up a guitar and play a few chords and a few licks and stuff. I mean, I know people who are musicians. They can make things and they can create sounds and melodies and I just sort of laugh.
You have brought back elements of classic “Doctor Who” through your performance. Are there other elements of classic “Who” you’d like to see back? Are there any classic villains you haven’t seen yet that you’d like to go up against?
I always liked the idea of new technology rendering some of the old creatures who were, you know, at best, enthusiastically delivered, but not necessarily as effectively as we could do now. But creatures like the Axons I think were great fun, because they were sort of very elegant, Grecian kind of creatures that were suddenly transformed into killer blancmange. I love the Mondasian Cybermen mostly because I love saying “Mondasian Cybermen” and people always look confused as to what that is. Those are the Cybermen who were the first ones to appear. You could see their hands, they had real human hands that were very much more kind of Frankenstein-y than these kind of “Metropolis” robots that we have now.
It’s quite expensive as we spend nine months doing the show. And you’re talking a bundle just making the program. So to come out into the world, literally out into the world, and be reminded of the audience, and what that constituency is very useful. [At the convention] in London we were getting little kids. And you know, old people, middle-aged people. And…the show’s got to entertain all of those people.
The BBC have released the story synopsis for this year’s festive special.
It’s Christmas Day on a remote human colony and the Doctor is hiding from Christmas Carols and Comedy Antlers. But when a crashed spaceship calls upon the Doctor for help, he finds himself recruited into River Song’s squad and hurled into a fast and frantic chase across the galaxy.
King Hydroflax (Greg Davies) is furious, and his giant Robot bodyguard is out-of-control and coming for them all! Will Nardole (Matt Lucas) survive? And when will River Song work out who the Doctor is?
All will be revealed on a starliner full of galactic super-villains and a destination the Doctor has been avoiding for a very long time.
It is said that in River time it’s just after “The Angels Take Manhattan” and the loss of her parents to 1930’s New York and the Weeping Angels.
It doesn’t really matter, but for those who care, it’s immediately after The Angels Take Manhattan [2012]. River’s just seen Matt Smith’s Doctor lose Amy and Rory, and obviously before The Name of the Doctor [2013] because she’s dead in that.”
Doctor Who boss Steven Moffat told the Radio Times the Christmas episode would be a “great romp”, but has warned fans there is “not a lot of Christmas in it”.
“The big deal is Doctor number 12 encountering River and vice versa,” said Moffat. “It’s strange because they’re now, in our human terms, the perfect couple. They’re both sexy older people.
“It’s always been slightly strange before with Matt Smith. Now they could actually be married. It works.”
Moffat said River provided a nice bridge for fans mourning Clara Oswald, played by Jenna Coleman, who was killed off last weekend.
“We’ve just lost Clara, so I didn’t want to go straight into a new companion,” said Moffat.
“I’ll be honest, I brought River Song back in because I thought there was a possibility I’d never write [Doctor Who] again, so that’d be my goodbye.
“But also, I really fancied it. I hadn’t written River for a couple of years, and I’d missed her.”
The special is expected to air Christmas Day with the time to be confirmed.
Then in The US you can watch it again in the Theaters on Dec 28th and 29th.
Peter Capaldi and Alex Kingston together on the big screen?
For the first time, the Doctor Who Christmas special, which will premiere Christmas Day on BBC AMERICA, will also hit U.S. cinemas, with BBC Worldwide North America and Fathom Events announcing a two-night special theatrical event. The event will be in theaters December 28 and 29 at 7:30 pm local time and feature an exclusive interview with Alex Kingston, who is returning as River Song for the special, as well as a 15-minute behind-the-scenes “making of” featurette starring Peter Capaldi, Steven Moffat and more.
The theatrical event is expected to screen in nearly 300 theaters, according to a press release. Tickets can be purchased starting Friday, November 13 by visiting the Fathom Events website or a participating theater’s box office. For a complete list of theater locations, visit the Fathom Events website (theaters and participants are subject to change).
Here’s the description of the Christmas special as announced:
It’s Christmas Day in the future and the TARDIS is parked on a snowy village street, covered in icicles, awaiting its next adventure. Time traveler River Song meets her husband’s new incarnation, in the form of Peter Capaldi, for the first time this Christmas.
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