Peter Capaldi complains modern Doctor Who is different to ‘show I loved’

Like David Tennant before him, Peter Capaldi was a fan of Doctor Who before he was officially given the keys to the Tardis.

Indeed, the 67-year-old actor earned the ire of the sci-fi series production team when he tried to become the secretary of the official DW fan club despite the fact that he was just 14 years old.

In fact, young Peter was so enthusiastic in his correspondence that Sarah Newman, a BBC secretary, reportedly wrote to the fan club where she wished that the Daleks would exterminate him.

Ultimately, though, Peter would have the last laugh when he was cast as the fan favourite Twelfth Doctor – replacing Matt Smith.

However, just because he loves the iconic series doesn’t mean he can’t see the flaws, and while he still enjoys the show Peter does think modern Who has a problem.

‘The show became very, very big,’ he told the Half the Picture podcast. ‘It was never like that when I loved it. So it became a different thing.’

He then explained how, back when John Pertwee or Tom Baker were playing the titular Time Lord, they’d spend most of the year making the show and then promoting it.

Now, actors are expected to be brand ambassadors for the BBC.

‘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.

‘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. It became this sort of very important thing – I think less in a cultural way and more in an economic way.’

In that way, Capaldi believes the show has become a victim of its own success, noting that the show ‘he loved’ was a tiny thing that ‘just survived’ until it didn’t.

During the same interview, Peter admitted to being ‘scared’ by his growing profile while playing the Doctor, explaining how David Tennant had warned him this would be the case.

‘David said to me, “You’ll just be much more visible,” and I didn’t know what he meant, but I quickly learned…

‘It was scary because I knew life would change, and it’s a genie that once it’s out of the bottle, you can’t put it back. If you lose your privacy to that degree, it’s an extreme feeling; it’s [makes you] quite vulnerable.’

Despite that, Peter admitted he found the experience ‘wonderful’ and enjoyed interacting with fans, and he praised Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor.

Doctor Who’s future has been the subject of intense media speculation in recent months. The show has been plagued by bad ratings and fans’ dissatisfaction with the direction the series was going in.

Things seemed to come to a head late last year when Disney, which had a co-production deal with the BBC for the last two series, decided not to continue their partnership.

Thankfully, the BBC put fans’ minds at ease when they announced that the Docotr’s story would continue in2026 when the show would return with a Christmas special.

Doctor Who is available to watch now on BBC iPlayer.

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