The New Doctor Is… Not a Woman! But We’ll Probably Be Ok

The new Doctor has been announced and it’s… Peter Capaldi!

Back at the Nerd HQ Panel at Comic Con Matt Smith let it slip that Moffat is the “only person who knows who the next Doctor is.” We tweeted this and many people were surprised that he’d already been cast as there was absolutely no press about it. Perhaps Smith had misspoken. Turns out the slip up was genuine and Moffat was sitting on the secret for who knows how long. On Thursday the BBC dropped a bombshell that the unveiling would be done on Sunday and broadcast simultaneously around the globe.

Many of us have been hoping for a female and the special certainly teased us in that regard during the half hour broadcast. Deep down I knew it wouldn’t be a woman, but the amount of allusions to this desire made me believe for all of 30 seconds that it’d actually happen. But then we had this gem from Moffat himself.

“”I like that Helen Mirren has been saying the next doctor should be a woman. I would like to go on record and say that the queen should be played by a man.”

I suppose that sounded pretty funny in his head. But ouch, that felt like a stab to the gut for those of us hoping it’d be a female. If they already knew they’d cast a man, I’m not sure why they felt the need to mention it “could be a woman” and that it was “time” for a woman Doctor? Unless they were just doing it for dramatic purposes. Which is likely I suppose.  This is Television.  Dramatic tension is the name of the game.

When I saw a clearly masculine hand twitching with excitement in the wings of the studio I knew they’d been pulling our leg and I almost let it taint my experience. All the teasing seemed downright offensive when they clearly had no intention of following through. but I promised myself I’d go into this with open arms for the new Doctor and those who know Peter Capaldi seem very confident in his abilities so overall I’m pleased. Capaldi seems like a huge fan of Doctor Who.  He wrote to a local newspaper at the age of 15 about Doctor Who and that won me over almost as much as Coleman’s avacado story.  He has a quirky enough personality that he will probably bring a lot of interesting things to the roll and from what my friends are telling me he is quite an astounding actor.  So I’m actually feeling pretty good about this.

As I’m unfamiliar with him, many of my close friends have already begun bombarding me with links to his work so you all don’t have to do so, but thanks! I expect to be a Peter Capaldi expert by the end of the day. My friends have definitely filled me with a lot of confidence over this choice and I look forwarding to seeing what the new Doctor brings.

Author: Angel Wilson

Angel is the admin of The Geekiary and a geek culture commentator. They earned a BA in Film & Digital Media from UC Santa Cruz. They have contributed to various podcasts and webcasts including An Englishman in San Diego, Free to Be Radio, and Genre TV for All. They identify as queer.

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