Doctor Who s08e91 Episode Script
Doctor Who-The Ultimate Time Lord
1 I'm Peter Davison, and I played the fifth Doctor in the British television hit series, Doctor Who.
As you may know, the man on my left is actor Peter Capaldi.
No, after you.
No, no, after you.
Davison: He's about to step onboard the TARDIS and take on the role of a lifetime.
Now, I have an understanding of what it's like to become one of Britain's most successful television characters.
This man, he's just finding out what it's like to play the mighty Time Lord.
Thankfully, it's in his DNA, look.
Actually, that's just one row.
He watched the show as a child and he's even been here before, and now he's about to take on the role of a lifetime.
I'm interested to find out what Peter's Doctor will be like.
Intriguing.
The Doctor: Clara, be my pal.
Tell me, am I a good man? [ Laughing .]
I'm muttering with you in the background.
Ooh, exciting stuff.
It looks like Peter's doing extremely well.
It takes me back.
It's over 30 years since I stepped off the TARDIS, but now I'm off on a new adventure.
I've set myself a bit of a challenge.
I want to find out what it takes to create the ultimate Time Lord.
Can it be done? Is there even such a thing? I'm about to start my journey to find out.
Doctor Who - The Ultimate Time Lord Coming up in my search for the ultimate Time Lord, I catch up with Jenna Coleman and hear how she's getting along with the new twelfth Doctor.
Coleman: He's having a great time.
There's been days on set where he'll come in early to watch Daleks being blown up.
Davison: I find out what David Tennant thought of his life-changing times onboard the TARDIS as the tenth Doctor.
Everyone who's played the Doctor has brought something significant and unique to it, and everyone has succeeded.
Howdy.
I travel to the U.
S.
A.
and track down doctors number six, seven, and eight.
I take a walk and talk at the BBC drama studios with Doctor who showrunner Steven Moffat.
He's sort of restless.
He's an adrenaline junkie.
He blunders into situations where a hero is required, and because he's a good man, he sort of gets involved.
Davison: And I get to speak exclusively with actor Peter Capaldi to find out about his new twelfth Doctor.
I wanted to kind of put some mystery into him, and I think that's really difficult when you have a character that's been around for 50 years.
There are things this Doctor can do we haven't seen the other doctors do.
I literally wake up in the morning and go, "I'm Doctor Who.
I'm still Doctor Who!" Davison: So where exactly do I start in my search for the ultimate Time Lord? There have been so many doctors, all with their own different personalities.
Eleventh Doctor: I have a new destination.
My journey is the same as yours, the same as anyone's.
It's taken me so many years, so many lifetimes, but at last, I know where I'm going, where I've always been going -- home, the long way round.
Davison: This could be tougher than I thought.
I suppose the challenge of creating the ultimate Doctor starts with the writers' imagination, and a certain Mr.
Moffat has a few ideas.
Many, many years ago, William Hartnell, the first Doctor, or, as he was then, the Doctor, became very ill and they had to find a way to continue the show, and in one of the great strokes of invention ever in television, I think, instead of just getting somebody else to wear William Hartnell's wig and try and pass himself off as William Hartnell, they came up with this Jekyll and Hyde idea that he would actually transform into somebody else, and not just transform his face, but transform his personality as well.
Now, that was an act of genius, 'cause it allowed not merely for a new actor to play the part, but for a new actor to play the part with a blank canvas, to say, "I'll make it the star vehicle that suits me.
" It has gone from being a clever solution to a desperately difficult situation to being a central part of Doctor Who.
The Doctor is not merely one hero, he's twelve.
Davison: 50 years on, and the Doctor's regenerations are still as important today as they were at the very beginning.
Please don't change.
Davison: With all these regenerations and so many doctors to choose from, it's a lot of personalities to get your head around, so I've had a brain wave.
I thought I should come along and ask the academics.
After all, they should know something about what it takes to be a 750-year-old -- actually, 900-- could be over a thousand-year-old Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey.
It's time to give the Doctor a thorough examination.
I'm meeting Dr.
Mike Aitken, who is an expert in psychology and risk-taking, to help me pinpoint a few of the Doctor's character traits.
So, Mike, here I am, I'm designing the ultimate Doctor.
Where do I start? From a psychology point of view, he's almost unique in that he has 12 well-established personalities.
He has some core traits -- agreeable, he always wants to understand and to bring everyone with him.
And he's an extrovert.
He enjoys the company of others.
You're saying that those are the ones that are common to -- those personality traits are certainly common to identifying the Doctor Who has been.
I think one of the most important attributes, really, is the Doctor's ability to think calmly under pressure, and we've got a clip here, I think, that shows that really well.
Eleventh Doctor: Jump.
Jump where? Just jump, high as you can.
Come on, leap of faith, Bishop, on my signal.
What signal? You won't miss it.
Angel: Sorry, can I ask again, you mentioned a mistake we made? A big, big mistake, really huge.
Didn't anyone ever tell you there's one thing you never put in a trap if you're smart, if you value your continued existence? If you have any plans about seeing tomorrow, there's one thing you never, ever put in a trap.
Angel: And what would that be, sir? Me.
So, risk-taking.
But risk-taking in a desperate situation.
There was also an element of ego there, wasn't there, 'cause he said, "that's the one thing you shouldn't do, it's me, get in my way.
" Only when it matters does he really tell people who he is.
We've got a clip here that would show that quite nicely.
Hang on a minute.
Who put you in charge? And who the hell are you, anyway? I'm the Doctor.
I'm a Time Lord.
I'm from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous.
I'm 903 years old, and I'm the man who's going to save your lives and all six billion people on the planet below.
You got a problem with that? No.
In that case, allons-y! Obviously, is the whole thing driven by kind of ego? He's often almost sort of reserved, but really, when a crisis emerges, when a leader is really required, that's the point at which he can turn back on his ego and rely on it when he needs it.
That's great, that's excellent, okay, fine.
Davison: I'm now armed with a list of the Doctor's character traits that could go towards making the ultimate Time Lord.
Coleman: He's having a great time.
I think, you know, there's been days on set where he'll come in early to watch Daleks being blown up.
I think he's just, you know, enjoying every single minute of it, and just loving being Doctor Who.
On paper, the doctors resemble each other more than you'd think, and then you start to get a sense of in which direction you're going to push it.
Now, Matt's Doctor was charming, loopy, affable, probably the maddest of the lot.
At the core of him is that essential doctorness that they all have.
That's how he goes out in the world.
But in the very beginning with Matt's Doctor, I wrote two, three episodes before knowing who we were going to cast, so I simply wrote generic Doctor.
The traits vary from day to day and the Doctor's fundamental traits -- his restlessness, his desire to zoom round the universe -- those things remain the same, they remain in place all the time.
I think one thing that I've noticed about my relationship with the Doctor is he can kind of be -- he can kind of be the granddad, the brother, the annoying toddler, the wise man, the idiot, the fool.
I'm sorry.
But also the hero as well, so it's having to find that kind of -- that quality of having all those things all at once, happening all at the same time.
So, once you've got the script and the Doctor's character sorted on paper, it's time to send in the troops to kick the whole thing into shape.
That's where we come in.
Yes, it's time to bring on the actors.
I thought I'd pay a visit to a man who knows everything about finding a new Doctor -- casting director Andy Pryor.
So, Andy, here's the big moment.
It happens only every two or three years.
Casting a new Doctor.
I've cast everyone since Chris Eccleston came to the show, and it's always a process that I slightly dread because it's such a huge piece of casting, but actually, when you get into it, it's the most fun you can have as a casting director.
So there's not thousands of people queuing up and down the street in an open audition for who's going to be the next Doctor.
No, no, we don't open it up.
I mean, you know, very -- most of the time, we sort of -- we're doing it in a covert way.
So there's presumably not just looking for the best possible actor.
You're also looking for an actor with big personality, a spark of something that sets them apart.
There's so many elements that go into casting the perfect Doctor, and really, you do need them to be a brilliant actor, a superb leading man, albeit a fairly unconventional one.
So when it comes to the latest casting, Peter Capaldi's Doctor, was it then a case of change of direction? It just felt like an exciting change after Matt to have somebody so different.
It just felt like, to all of us, the perfect thing to do.
Would you say the ultimate Doctor? I would say that every time we've done it, I feel I've found the ultimate Doctor, though I'm not certain it doesn't belittle the ones that have gone before.
Well, thank you.
Thank you.
Well, meeting Andy Pryor was really useful, and I am still on my quest to design the ultimate Doctor.
Mind you, right now, Peter Capaldi is looking good.
I didn't know where they were going to go next, but I think like Steven says, it's -- it's not really -- it's just about the actor and the person and, you know, rather than -- we get loads of questions about should it be a woman or should it be a younger guy or an older guy, and actually, again, it's kind of going back to this quality in somebody, and I think that's what -- that's what Peter has.
When you cast a new actor, you're wanting to exploit what they bring, their star value.
Now, oddly enough, Doctor Who is a star vehicle, and it remakes itself around a different actor playing the same part.
So the first thing you look for is somebody you can't take your eyes off, somebody who's carved a solid star, because anything less than that won't work.
What's so wonderful is you have somebody who knows the show inside-out and also has -- has a great love for the show and at the same time is this incredibly instinctive, bold, brave actor, kind of taking all of it onboard and taking the show in a completely different, new direction.
It very much feels like it's totally new territory.
He was having a great time.
I think, you know, there's been days on set where he'll come in early to watch Daleks being blown up, and I think he's just, you know, enjoying every single minute of it and just loving being Doctor Who.
Where do you start with the Doctor's outfit? It was a very close collaboration.
I mean, we worked very closely from the initial concept of giving out sort of ideas and mood boards, but we sort of seemed to be on the same wavelength.
Actor David Tennant spent three series playing the tenth Doctor, and with so much experience both on and off the screen, I want to find out from him how much it changes your life.
I might also find out a little what's in store for Peter Capaldi.
Well, David, thank you very much for joining me.
In your private cinema.
Yeah, my private cinema.
I wondered if you could help me, because I'm seeking a design for the ultimate Doctor, but there's something I wanted to ask you.
Was Doctor Who really an offer that you just couldn't refuse? Well, yes, it was, although I hemmed and hawed a little bit about it, because it was still -- it hadn't quite established itself as the cultural phenomenon that it was about to become.
This was before the first series had broadcast.
So I was being offered a job that may not exist.
Had the first series not gone well, there wouldn't have been a second series and I would never have taken over.
Did you secretly have an idea of how you were going to play the part? I didn't think I did.
From an acting point of view, it starts with whatever script you've got, and that presumably will come with those kind of doctorish qualities that are inherent in the character, but then quite -- it's quite nebulous, quite difficult to grasp, because all the doctors have been so different.
I think the Doctor needs to have a swagger.
And that can mean many different things.
That can just be a sort of internal swagger, it can just be a sense of self, but there's something -- there's something in the -- just a whiff of anarchy, the whiff of -- certainly the self-confidence in the Doctor.
I like the word "swagger," because it also covers the slightly -- the fun of the character as well, yes, exactly.
The humor of the character.
In a way, the faults that he has and a the failings, maybe headstrong, maybe sometimes too tentative, are they almost as important as the positive qualities? Yes, they are -- oh, I think they definitely are, and I think that's what makes any sort of heroic character interesting, isn't it, the flaws and the little glitches and the things that make him not perfect.
Are you looking forward to Peter Capaldi's Doctor? Very much so.
I mean, he's -- the thing is, Doctor Who, everyone who's played the Doctor has brought something significant and unique to it and everyone has succeeded.
One of the great pleasures of being a Doctor Who fan is that, you know, people want to debate and compare, "I prefer this one, I like that," and each Doctor appeals to different people in different ways, and every Doctor that comes along is going to be different and unique and successful in their own right.
Excellent.
Anything else? Uh, a nice coat is always important.
A nice coat.
Yeah.
That could be a great into to another part of the program.
Brilliant, okay.
Right, we're done.
Thank you very much.
Yeah, thank you.
So, following David's sound advice, the next stop on my travels is at Cardiff, to meet Doctor Who costume designer Howard Burden.
So, Howard, you've worked with the last two numbered doctors, that is number eleven and now number twelve, Peter Capaldi, but also, of course, the unnumbered Doctor, John Hurt, from the 50th anniversary special.
Where do you start with the Doctor's outfit? It's a very complex process, because obviously everyone has an iconic look, each one has their own identity, and it was quite difficult with John because he was an unknown sort of quantity in the process, so we had a very short turnaround with him, that we had to sort of, you know, try and pull in elements from all the different characters in the past so he would sort of fit in with -- between the two, as it were.
How much input does the actual new Doctor have? Oh, he's -- it was a very close collaboration.
I mean, we worked very closely, from the initial concept of giving out sort of ideas and mood boards, but we sort of seemed to be on the same sort of wavelength.
The shoes are great.
I like the trousers, too.
I like it all, I have to say.
The shirt is absolutely beautiful.
I've never had a shirt made for me.
And there was one scene that we had to shoot pre- his look, and we had to put a look together, literally in a day, and I pulled some stock and I found a coat and it was only going to be a head shot, but it was rather strange, because on our journey, we tried hundreds and hundreds of different looks because we didn't want to miss a trick, and it was trying to sort of nail that.
It was a very sort of complex process, but in a funny way, we almost came full circle back to this sort of dark coat and the severity of his look.
The Doctor must be able to sail into the background, take command and be taken seriously, he must be all those things.
In the end, he's a Time Lord.
Just a little bit of formality has to be there.
He's the senior man in the room, and if you forget and amidst all the warmth and charisma that he's also the senior man in the room, not just a medical student, a senior consultant, then you've lost something, so a hint of formality's very important to him.
To design the ultimate Time Lord, of course, one has to consider his enemies.
Adversity is character-forming, apparently, and he does have an awful lot to contend with -- the Sontarans, the Cybermen, the Master -- the list goes on and on, poor chap.
The Daleks, the Silurians, the Silence Right, here we are.
And I was about to get closer than I hoped to these scary creatures That's the right one, okay.
Is someone coming? Thanks to the voice of the Daleks himself, Nick Briggs Right, this is very secret.
Who had the keys to the secret storeroom.
Ah, you see? Ah.
What a wonderland.
Say hello to the Daleks.
Hi.
So why are these covered up with sackcloth and Well, I could show you-- Mmm, no.
Okay, so, Nick, you are now, I think it's true to say, the iconic voice of the Daleks.
Emergency! Locate the TARDIS, find the Doctor! Do you think that that with regard to the Daleks in particular, they have sort of shaped the Doctor's personality? Well, yes, certainly for all of the time we've known him, and they are, well, the most evil of the evil, really, and they really define the Doctor for us viewing him as someone who defeats alien menaces.
Evil, evil to the utmost degree, and yet, in a sense, we kind of like them when they return.
We look forward to the Daleks coming back, don't we? Well, that's because they're reassuringly evil.
So it's quite nice in our stories to have something that is so definitely evil.
Also something about the design, a sort of iconic, strange design that looks like a collection of kitchen utensils and radiators.
So in terms of my quest, then, my search for the ultimate Doctor, we can't really have the ultimate Doctor unless we have his ultimate enemies onboard as well.
Precisely, they define him.
Oh, the TARDIS.
You've got to love the TARDIS.
The Doctor certainly does.
She's a woman and she's the TARDIS.
Did you wish really hard? Shut up, not like that.
You know, I really think I've lost the knack of flying this thing, if I ever had it.
Oh, the TARDIS.
You've got to love the TARDIS.
The Doctor certainly does.
In fact, it's a very close relationship.
Give us a hug.
Eleventh Doctor: Amy, this is, well, she's my TARDIS.
Except she's a woman.
But she's a woman and she's my TARDIS.
She's the TARDIS? And she's a woman.
She's a woman and she's the TARDIS.
Did you wish really hard? Shut up, not like that.
Hello, I'mSexy.
The Doctor: Oh Still shut up.
Davison: To find out just what gadgets and gizmos the ultimate Doctor would need, I've invited Doctor Who script editor Derek Ritchie onboard my old TARDIS to help me create a short list.
How important is the TARDIS to the Doctor, and would it be possible in any circumstances for an ultimate Doctor to do without his TARDIS? I think, by the way, I know the answer to this, but go ahead.
Yes.
Well, the answer is no, the Doctor absolutely vitally requires a TARDIS.
It isn't just his access to the universe and all of time and space.
It is, in the Doctor's way, his best friend, his ultimate companion, if you like.
I think this is a great example of what we're talking about.
[ TARDIS engine .]
Doctor! The Doctor: I got lost in a time vortex.
The TARDIS brought me home.
Oh! Ritchie: The TARDIS brought him home.
Okay, we've established that the Doctor needs his TARDIS, but what about his gadgets? Now, I've very torn on this one, because this, for a while, was my sonic screwdriver -- trusty sonic.
Yes, but I lost it fairly early on.
Could he do without that and maybe use -- find ways out of problems by his own wits, or -- yeah, I think the doctors can.
I think the sonic's very useful because Doctor Who is a program built so like it has an incredible narrative pace.
And the sonic will allow you not to be trapped in a room for three scenes but to get out and get on with the story.
[ Laugh .]
Davison: So it's clear -- as I thought, you can't have the ultimate Time Lord without the ultimate in gadgets, and the sonic screwdriver is certainly one of those.
When it comes to theme tunes, Doctor Who's is one of the most recognizable in television.
It signifies that another adventure with the Doctor is about to begin, so to discover how important music is to the Doctor's and our journeys, I'm here to meet the show's composer, Murray Gold.
Murray Gold, thank you very much for joining us.
So you're dealing with Doctor Who here, and of course Doctor Who has this iconic theme that's been around since 1963.
How on earth do you manage to find the variations of that theme when you redo it for a new Doctor? Well, you know, you more or less keep your baseline and the melody the same and the chord progression the same, so it is fundamentally the same piece of music.
We just tinker around -- there aren't that many elements to it, you know? It's a fairly simple piece of music.
You can still play any version to any member of the public and they instantly say, "that's Doctor Who.
" Absolutely, yeah.
Now, I don't suppose, has each Doctor had a theme, as such, or is it simply a style of music that evolves to fit that particular Doctor? They've all had their theme, yeah.
I mean, Doctor nine had one right from the get-go.
Ten had his song at the end of "The Christmas Invasion" in 2006, and then he had a sort of fighting Doctor theme, and then Matt Smith had "I am the Doctor," which was probably the best-known of them.
I'm the Doctor.
Basically Run.
Doctor twelve has a theme, too.
Right, now, I'm interested, because obviously we've had since the program returned a succession of younger doctors, with Matt Smith being the youngest, and now we've gone in a completely different direction.
How has that affected the way that you approach this Doctor's music or this Doctor's theme, number twelve? Well, he's quite rock and roll, Peter Capaldi.
Oh, right, okay, that's interesting.
Well, when you look at him, he wears his clothes well and he likes music a lot, and, you know, he's from a certain generation, but probably a generation that really adored music.
He sat in, actually.
He was in the orchestra area when we recorded his theme and when we played it for the very first time, and we were just all staring at his face on the monitors, and he was smiling, so that was good.
Yeah, I mean, it's a lovely thing to happen, to see it there and be at the first performance ever of your own theme.
I hadn't even heard it, so luckily it didn't sound like an orchestra falling down a staircase.
Is it a different sort of music that you're writing for these episodes as a whole than you wrote for the Matt Smith or previous doctors? Well, it's interesting.
It is a little bit darker, and in that context, the lighter moments, which are obviously still there because it's Doctor Who, they sort of -- they sound a little bit brighter for being in amongst a lot of darkness, yeah.
So these things -- so even the stuff that's the same sounds different, if you see what I mean.
So I suppose the ultimate Doctor would need an ultimate theme.
Can you give me any idea of what you would put in the ultimate Doctor's theme? Well, it would have to have adventure and romance and comedy and braininess and nerdiness and bravery, and, you know, I don't know.
I think it would be the most intricate piece of music ever written or the longest.
Or very long, it would have to be a very long piece, yeah.
Here we have doctors six, seven, and eight.
Oh, we have to sit in the right order.
Let's move round.
Davison: Oh, not just an unpredictable bunch.
Like the Doctor himself, this lot can't sit still for two minutes.
Howdy! That's, um, Texan for hello.
And welcome to the good old U.
S.
of "A.
" Both: Welcome to America! Davison: To help me discover what would make the ultimate Time Lord, I've traveled to Houston in Texas to meet up with some of the previous doctors, who are appearing at a science fiction convention.
What's this? I don't know, really.
We're wanted.
Wanted for what? And what does it have to do with John Barrowman? Great, guys, great, you're all here.
We don't need these anymore.
All right, thanks very much.
Um, listen.
I've been set this sort of mission, okay, to see if I can find a design for the ultimate Doctor, and I just wondered if you have any suggestions about what qualities you think an ultimate Doctor might have.
I think he should be small, really, 'cause he represents the small man battling against great odds.
He should be a big man to encompass the enormity of space and time.
Here we have doctors six, seven, and eight, and I just wonder if there are any qualities -- Six, seven, eight, no, you got that wrong.
He's eight, and you said six, seven, eight.
You're five.
I'm five.
I'm five, you're six -- so you're just sitting in the wrong order to confuse me.
Oh, we have to sit in the right order.
Let's move around.
Davison: Hmm, not just an unpredictable bunch.
Like the Doctor himself, this lot can't sit still for two minutes.
Are there any qualities from the previous doctors that you'd like to -- that you wanted to bring into your particular portrayal of -- going away, really.
Going away so we could come in.
Just leaving.
That's the favorite characteristic for me.
I obviously resuscitated the whole thing.
Yes, I know.
Baker: You did resuscitate it.
Davison: So any particular qualities that you enjoyed playing when you were the Doctor? Spoons.
I enjoyed playing the spoons when I was the Doctor.
Would you suggest that the other doctors play the spoons? I think that is -- yes, it's very important.
Musical instrument.
So what advice -- I played an organ.
I played Tocatta and Fugue by Bach.
Shh! Thanks very much for your help.
You've really been wonderful.
I'll rather miss you.
Who is he? Who was that? Do you know who that was? Jim Davison.
Ah.
What a fat lot of good they were.
I think it's time to meet the new kid on the block.
I'm off to Cardiff.
Hopefully.
Safely back in Cardiff, I'm hoping to meet the new twelfth Doctor, Peter Capaldi, but first I know just the man who might be able to give us a few ideas about what it takes to create the ultimate Doctor.
Come with me.
So, Steven, I feel as if I'm at the end of a very long road, a quest to discover if it's possible to create the ultimate Doctor, and while I understand that each Doctor in his own way is the ultimate, if it was possible to cherry-pick certain ideas, certain attributes from various doctors, what do you think the essential point is? The first thing is he is always the same person.
I mean, we can get carried away with talking about how different they are -- they are different, you are different, but there are certain things that are absolutely there all the time.
He's not particularly heroic, which is an odd thing to say about a hero.
He's sort of restless, he's an adrenaline junkie.
He blunders into situations where a hero is required, and because he's a good man, he sort of gets involved.
He doesn't stick around and sort out the government's problems or starvation or -- there's no post-- there's no post-trauma care with the Doctor, but he's a restless, fantastic enthusiast.
Yes, yes.
Of course, I've got this list.
You see, I went to see a psychologist and he gave me this list.
Unfortunately, he wrote it in rather large writing, but here, this is the list he came up with.
Wisdom, optimism, leadership, sense of fun, unpredictable.
Well, gee, that's interesting, isn't it? Wisdom, kind of, but he's a deeply unwise man.
In a way, yes.
Blundering into insane situations, overestimating what he can do.
I also kind of think the Doctor flings himself out a window and works out what to do about that on the way down, and if he had a sandwich in his hand, he would finish it.
Optimism, well, he would finish the sandwich, absolutely.
Leadership, again, kind of.
He's got that -- he never leaves the Time Lord behind, does he? As sweet as he is and man of the people though he is, he sort of thinks everyone should listen to him 'cause he's cleverer and more important.
Never loses that.
Sense of fun, huge sense of fun.
You see, what you're doing is confirming what I suspect, and that is that the ultimate Doctor's not the same as the perfect Doctor.
As a writer, isn't it more interesting to write about the Doctor's flaws, and Well, the flaws are what make the show.
I mean, he's funny because he's deeply flawed.
No one has ever suggested he's morally perfect or that he's particularly rational.
I don't think he's even marginally sane.
It's all these flaws that make up the story.
If he had really -- if he was so concerned about all the goodness in the universe, why didn't he stay on Gallifrey and make the Time Lords better? But he didn't.
Essentially, he's a man who stole a car and drove off into the night and never agreed to stay anywhere for more than one night.
What we love about him is the fact he never, ever grew up.
We are about to get another Doctor, so is he the ultimate Doctor? Is there anything you can tell us about him? Well, he's very Peter Capaldi, and no one does Peter Capaldi better than Peter Capaldi, so thank God we cast him.
Excellent idea.
Yes, it is, it's spot on.
What's he like? He's a much more difficult to control, uncontrollable madman than he was before.
We're going back to that sort of Doctor, the Doctor as someone who's a bit off their leash.
I know that Peter used to watch the show as a child, so this must be a dream come true.
To follow in your footsteps.
Well, of course mine particularly.
We have the same name.
So how's he coping with it? I think he's actually loving it, but the quickest way to find out will be to, well, go and ask him.
When you do, specify you're not here to get his job, all right? He gets nervous.
I get nervous myself.
I'm about to meet a Doctor.
This Doctor is a little less user-friendly.
You know, I think he's quite alien.
I think he's -- somewhere in the regenerative process, I think his social skills may have become a little blunted.
Well here I am nearly at the end of my journey, and I'm about to speak to the man himself, Peter Capaldi.
It's time to find out how he's feeling about becoming a Doctor and what he thinks makes the ultimate Time Lord.
Um, so, Peter, thank you for joining us.
When this part came along, had you been preparing for it for about 40 years? Well, the truth of the matter is I haven't, really, because I never really attained the idea of playing him, you know, as a professional actor.
I mean, obviously, at school I played it in the playground, you know, and I played all those early doctors.
It just didn't occur to me that they would go for somebody like me.
Loved watching it, loved seeing it all happening, but never really considered that I would be in the frame for it, particularly, you know, as the series went on, you know, and I loved Chris and I loved David and I loved Matt, but the direction they were going in was getting younger and younger and younger, so I never for a second thought that they would come after somebody like me.
The Doctor: Clara, be my pal.
Tell me, am I a good man? I don't think I know who the Doctor is anymore.
Even if I did not think that I was ever going to be Doctor Who, probably Doctor Who in some way made me the actor I am.
I probably had a whole pile of Doctor Whos in my head when I first wandered onstage, so I think they probably fed into how I act, for better or worse, so there's a whole kind of bit of me I guess that sort of knows how to -- I think I know how to do it, and I think this is one of the difficult things about the part, is you have to be sort of sometimes quite funny and sometimes quite light, sometimes quite somber, but also an alien.
Was there anything that you wanted to bring, any essential qualities of the Doctor -- and not necessarily that haven't been there before, but something you wanted to focus on with your Doctor? I wanted to kind of put some mystery into him.
I think that's really difficult when you have a character that's been around for 50 years and people are so devoted to and very familiar with all the minutiae of his various regenerations.
And I sort of wasn't -- you know, not really sure how you do that.
Sometimes I've been helped by the writing.
There are things this Doctor can do that we haven't seen the other doctors do.
And there are things that only an alien can do.
But they're sparing.
You know, we don't use them very much.
But there are occasions you will see something that the other doctors haven't done.
Dalek: I see into your soul, Doctor! I see beauty, divinity, hatred! I think sometimes he's sort of fairly unpredictable, which is another way of sort of making someone unknowable.
But I think he is also struggling to find himself.
And mystery, actually, is something that hasn't really come up before.
I think it's very difficult because there's an appetite to know, and the program has become very adept at satisfying that appetite and telling you more about the back story and linking up the past to the present, and there's something at the heart of the program that is powerful and potent but you can't quite put your finger on what it is.
I think anything with monsters in it is fun, especially when you're a child.
This Doctor is a little less user-friendly.
You know, I think he's quite alien.
I think he's -- somewhere in the regenerative process, I think his social skills may have become a little blunted.
And certainly his understanding of human beings and their needs, their day to day emotional needs, if you like, escape him.
Kidneys! I've got new kidneys! I don't like the color.
Of your kidneys? What's happening? We're probably crashing.
Oh! Into what? Stay calm.
Just one question.
Do you happen to know how to fly this thing? So is the love affair with the human race slightly less? I think he respects them very highly.
I think he thinks -- he sees the best of them and the worst of them.
But it's such a quite dramatic end of the scale.
He can be very sensitive.
He's sort of -- he has to kind of relearn how to deal with humans, because he keeps putting his foot in it and messing it up.
He's quite funny, and of course, Steven's writing, so his great one-liners.
It's very -- he doesn't -- his intellect is not quite as available to him so instantly.
I think it's hard for him to -- he knows the solution is in his head somewhere.
I remember talking to Steven Moffat at the time, when it had just been announced when you were playing the part, and he said to me, in the end, he just couldn't resist the opportunity to make someone so happy.
[ Laugh .]
Well, it's true.
I mean, he has made me incredibly happy.
Has it lived up to your expectations in the making of the -- Oh, yeah.
It's just extraordinary and I can't -- you know, I literally wake up in the morning and go, "I'm Doctor Who! I'm still Doctor Who.
" And I go to work and I get dressed up as Doctor Who and I go in the TARDIS and I fight monsters and all that kind of stuff.
It's been extraordinary.
You clearly have been planning this for the last 40 years.
I can't wait.
Thank you very much indeed.
You're very welcome.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
That was lovely.
Well, here I am at the very end of my journey, and this is where I should be presenting to you the definitive formula for the ultimate Time Lord.
Except I can't.
You see, as I've collected and collated the data, I've come to realize that each and every Doctor is the ultimate Time Lord.
It's just a matter of balancing the equation.
The pros and the cons, the good and the bad, the good traits with the occasional bad trait.
In the end, it balances perfectly.
Now, you might well say, and quite rightly, how can you have twelve ultimate doctors? But you'd be overlooking the obvious truth -- he's a Time Lord, he travels in time.
It's all about that one moment when you create the Doctor, and at this precise moment in time, there's no doubt the ultimate Time Lord is Peter Capaldi.
Bet you didn't see that coming, did you?
As you may know, the man on my left is actor Peter Capaldi.
No, after you.
No, no, after you.
Davison: He's about to step onboard the TARDIS and take on the role of a lifetime.
Now, I have an understanding of what it's like to become one of Britain's most successful television characters.
This man, he's just finding out what it's like to play the mighty Time Lord.
Thankfully, it's in his DNA, look.
Actually, that's just one row.
He watched the show as a child and he's even been here before, and now he's about to take on the role of a lifetime.
I'm interested to find out what Peter's Doctor will be like.
Intriguing.
The Doctor: Clara, be my pal.
Tell me, am I a good man? [ Laughing .]
I'm muttering with you in the background.
Ooh, exciting stuff.
It looks like Peter's doing extremely well.
It takes me back.
It's over 30 years since I stepped off the TARDIS, but now I'm off on a new adventure.
I've set myself a bit of a challenge.
I want to find out what it takes to create the ultimate Time Lord.
Can it be done? Is there even such a thing? I'm about to start my journey to find out.
Doctor Who - The Ultimate Time Lord Coming up in my search for the ultimate Time Lord, I catch up with Jenna Coleman and hear how she's getting along with the new twelfth Doctor.
Coleman: He's having a great time.
There's been days on set where he'll come in early to watch Daleks being blown up.
Davison: I find out what David Tennant thought of his life-changing times onboard the TARDIS as the tenth Doctor.
Everyone who's played the Doctor has brought something significant and unique to it, and everyone has succeeded.
Howdy.
I travel to the U.
S.
A.
and track down doctors number six, seven, and eight.
I take a walk and talk at the BBC drama studios with Doctor who showrunner Steven Moffat.
He's sort of restless.
He's an adrenaline junkie.
He blunders into situations where a hero is required, and because he's a good man, he sort of gets involved.
Davison: And I get to speak exclusively with actor Peter Capaldi to find out about his new twelfth Doctor.
I wanted to kind of put some mystery into him, and I think that's really difficult when you have a character that's been around for 50 years.
There are things this Doctor can do we haven't seen the other doctors do.
I literally wake up in the morning and go, "I'm Doctor Who.
I'm still Doctor Who!" Davison: So where exactly do I start in my search for the ultimate Time Lord? There have been so many doctors, all with their own different personalities.
Eleventh Doctor: I have a new destination.
My journey is the same as yours, the same as anyone's.
It's taken me so many years, so many lifetimes, but at last, I know where I'm going, where I've always been going -- home, the long way round.
Davison: This could be tougher than I thought.
I suppose the challenge of creating the ultimate Doctor starts with the writers' imagination, and a certain Mr.
Moffat has a few ideas.
Many, many years ago, William Hartnell, the first Doctor, or, as he was then, the Doctor, became very ill and they had to find a way to continue the show, and in one of the great strokes of invention ever in television, I think, instead of just getting somebody else to wear William Hartnell's wig and try and pass himself off as William Hartnell, they came up with this Jekyll and Hyde idea that he would actually transform into somebody else, and not just transform his face, but transform his personality as well.
Now, that was an act of genius, 'cause it allowed not merely for a new actor to play the part, but for a new actor to play the part with a blank canvas, to say, "I'll make it the star vehicle that suits me.
" It has gone from being a clever solution to a desperately difficult situation to being a central part of Doctor Who.
The Doctor is not merely one hero, he's twelve.
Davison: 50 years on, and the Doctor's regenerations are still as important today as they were at the very beginning.
Please don't change.
Davison: With all these regenerations and so many doctors to choose from, it's a lot of personalities to get your head around, so I've had a brain wave.
I thought I should come along and ask the academics.
After all, they should know something about what it takes to be a 750-year-old -- actually, 900-- could be over a thousand-year-old Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey.
It's time to give the Doctor a thorough examination.
I'm meeting Dr.
Mike Aitken, who is an expert in psychology and risk-taking, to help me pinpoint a few of the Doctor's character traits.
So, Mike, here I am, I'm designing the ultimate Doctor.
Where do I start? From a psychology point of view, he's almost unique in that he has 12 well-established personalities.
He has some core traits -- agreeable, he always wants to understand and to bring everyone with him.
And he's an extrovert.
He enjoys the company of others.
You're saying that those are the ones that are common to -- those personality traits are certainly common to identifying the Doctor Who has been.
I think one of the most important attributes, really, is the Doctor's ability to think calmly under pressure, and we've got a clip here, I think, that shows that really well.
Eleventh Doctor: Jump.
Jump where? Just jump, high as you can.
Come on, leap of faith, Bishop, on my signal.
What signal? You won't miss it.
Angel: Sorry, can I ask again, you mentioned a mistake we made? A big, big mistake, really huge.
Didn't anyone ever tell you there's one thing you never put in a trap if you're smart, if you value your continued existence? If you have any plans about seeing tomorrow, there's one thing you never, ever put in a trap.
Angel: And what would that be, sir? Me.
So, risk-taking.
But risk-taking in a desperate situation.
There was also an element of ego there, wasn't there, 'cause he said, "that's the one thing you shouldn't do, it's me, get in my way.
" Only when it matters does he really tell people who he is.
We've got a clip here that would show that quite nicely.
Hang on a minute.
Who put you in charge? And who the hell are you, anyway? I'm the Doctor.
I'm a Time Lord.
I'm from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous.
I'm 903 years old, and I'm the man who's going to save your lives and all six billion people on the planet below.
You got a problem with that? No.
In that case, allons-y! Obviously, is the whole thing driven by kind of ego? He's often almost sort of reserved, but really, when a crisis emerges, when a leader is really required, that's the point at which he can turn back on his ego and rely on it when he needs it.
That's great, that's excellent, okay, fine.
Davison: I'm now armed with a list of the Doctor's character traits that could go towards making the ultimate Time Lord.
Coleman: He's having a great time.
I think, you know, there's been days on set where he'll come in early to watch Daleks being blown up.
I think he's just, you know, enjoying every single minute of it, and just loving being Doctor Who.
On paper, the doctors resemble each other more than you'd think, and then you start to get a sense of in which direction you're going to push it.
Now, Matt's Doctor was charming, loopy, affable, probably the maddest of the lot.
At the core of him is that essential doctorness that they all have.
That's how he goes out in the world.
But in the very beginning with Matt's Doctor, I wrote two, three episodes before knowing who we were going to cast, so I simply wrote generic Doctor.
The traits vary from day to day and the Doctor's fundamental traits -- his restlessness, his desire to zoom round the universe -- those things remain the same, they remain in place all the time.
I think one thing that I've noticed about my relationship with the Doctor is he can kind of be -- he can kind of be the granddad, the brother, the annoying toddler, the wise man, the idiot, the fool.
I'm sorry.
But also the hero as well, so it's having to find that kind of -- that quality of having all those things all at once, happening all at the same time.
So, once you've got the script and the Doctor's character sorted on paper, it's time to send in the troops to kick the whole thing into shape.
That's where we come in.
Yes, it's time to bring on the actors.
I thought I'd pay a visit to a man who knows everything about finding a new Doctor -- casting director Andy Pryor.
So, Andy, here's the big moment.
It happens only every two or three years.
Casting a new Doctor.
I've cast everyone since Chris Eccleston came to the show, and it's always a process that I slightly dread because it's such a huge piece of casting, but actually, when you get into it, it's the most fun you can have as a casting director.
So there's not thousands of people queuing up and down the street in an open audition for who's going to be the next Doctor.
No, no, we don't open it up.
I mean, you know, very -- most of the time, we sort of -- we're doing it in a covert way.
So there's presumably not just looking for the best possible actor.
You're also looking for an actor with big personality, a spark of something that sets them apart.
There's so many elements that go into casting the perfect Doctor, and really, you do need them to be a brilliant actor, a superb leading man, albeit a fairly unconventional one.
So when it comes to the latest casting, Peter Capaldi's Doctor, was it then a case of change of direction? It just felt like an exciting change after Matt to have somebody so different.
It just felt like, to all of us, the perfect thing to do.
Would you say the ultimate Doctor? I would say that every time we've done it, I feel I've found the ultimate Doctor, though I'm not certain it doesn't belittle the ones that have gone before.
Well, thank you.
Thank you.
Well, meeting Andy Pryor was really useful, and I am still on my quest to design the ultimate Doctor.
Mind you, right now, Peter Capaldi is looking good.
I didn't know where they were going to go next, but I think like Steven says, it's -- it's not really -- it's just about the actor and the person and, you know, rather than -- we get loads of questions about should it be a woman or should it be a younger guy or an older guy, and actually, again, it's kind of going back to this quality in somebody, and I think that's what -- that's what Peter has.
When you cast a new actor, you're wanting to exploit what they bring, their star value.
Now, oddly enough, Doctor Who is a star vehicle, and it remakes itself around a different actor playing the same part.
So the first thing you look for is somebody you can't take your eyes off, somebody who's carved a solid star, because anything less than that won't work.
What's so wonderful is you have somebody who knows the show inside-out and also has -- has a great love for the show and at the same time is this incredibly instinctive, bold, brave actor, kind of taking all of it onboard and taking the show in a completely different, new direction.
It very much feels like it's totally new territory.
He was having a great time.
I think, you know, there's been days on set where he'll come in early to watch Daleks being blown up, and I think he's just, you know, enjoying every single minute of it and just loving being Doctor Who.
Where do you start with the Doctor's outfit? It was a very close collaboration.
I mean, we worked very closely from the initial concept of giving out sort of ideas and mood boards, but we sort of seemed to be on the same wavelength.
Actor David Tennant spent three series playing the tenth Doctor, and with so much experience both on and off the screen, I want to find out from him how much it changes your life.
I might also find out a little what's in store for Peter Capaldi.
Well, David, thank you very much for joining me.
In your private cinema.
Yeah, my private cinema.
I wondered if you could help me, because I'm seeking a design for the ultimate Doctor, but there's something I wanted to ask you.
Was Doctor Who really an offer that you just couldn't refuse? Well, yes, it was, although I hemmed and hawed a little bit about it, because it was still -- it hadn't quite established itself as the cultural phenomenon that it was about to become.
This was before the first series had broadcast.
So I was being offered a job that may not exist.
Had the first series not gone well, there wouldn't have been a second series and I would never have taken over.
Did you secretly have an idea of how you were going to play the part? I didn't think I did.
From an acting point of view, it starts with whatever script you've got, and that presumably will come with those kind of doctorish qualities that are inherent in the character, but then quite -- it's quite nebulous, quite difficult to grasp, because all the doctors have been so different.
I think the Doctor needs to have a swagger.
And that can mean many different things.
That can just be a sort of internal swagger, it can just be a sense of self, but there's something -- there's something in the -- just a whiff of anarchy, the whiff of -- certainly the self-confidence in the Doctor.
I like the word "swagger," because it also covers the slightly -- the fun of the character as well, yes, exactly.
The humor of the character.
In a way, the faults that he has and a the failings, maybe headstrong, maybe sometimes too tentative, are they almost as important as the positive qualities? Yes, they are -- oh, I think they definitely are, and I think that's what makes any sort of heroic character interesting, isn't it, the flaws and the little glitches and the things that make him not perfect.
Are you looking forward to Peter Capaldi's Doctor? Very much so.
I mean, he's -- the thing is, Doctor Who, everyone who's played the Doctor has brought something significant and unique to it and everyone has succeeded.
One of the great pleasures of being a Doctor Who fan is that, you know, people want to debate and compare, "I prefer this one, I like that," and each Doctor appeals to different people in different ways, and every Doctor that comes along is going to be different and unique and successful in their own right.
Excellent.
Anything else? Uh, a nice coat is always important.
A nice coat.
Yeah.
That could be a great into to another part of the program.
Brilliant, okay.
Right, we're done.
Thank you very much.
Yeah, thank you.
So, following David's sound advice, the next stop on my travels is at Cardiff, to meet Doctor Who costume designer Howard Burden.
So, Howard, you've worked with the last two numbered doctors, that is number eleven and now number twelve, Peter Capaldi, but also, of course, the unnumbered Doctor, John Hurt, from the 50th anniversary special.
Where do you start with the Doctor's outfit? It's a very complex process, because obviously everyone has an iconic look, each one has their own identity, and it was quite difficult with John because he was an unknown sort of quantity in the process, so we had a very short turnaround with him, that we had to sort of, you know, try and pull in elements from all the different characters in the past so he would sort of fit in with -- between the two, as it were.
How much input does the actual new Doctor have? Oh, he's -- it was a very close collaboration.
I mean, we worked very closely, from the initial concept of giving out sort of ideas and mood boards, but we sort of seemed to be on the same sort of wavelength.
The shoes are great.
I like the trousers, too.
I like it all, I have to say.
The shirt is absolutely beautiful.
I've never had a shirt made for me.
And there was one scene that we had to shoot pre- his look, and we had to put a look together, literally in a day, and I pulled some stock and I found a coat and it was only going to be a head shot, but it was rather strange, because on our journey, we tried hundreds and hundreds of different looks because we didn't want to miss a trick, and it was trying to sort of nail that.
It was a very sort of complex process, but in a funny way, we almost came full circle back to this sort of dark coat and the severity of his look.
The Doctor must be able to sail into the background, take command and be taken seriously, he must be all those things.
In the end, he's a Time Lord.
Just a little bit of formality has to be there.
He's the senior man in the room, and if you forget and amidst all the warmth and charisma that he's also the senior man in the room, not just a medical student, a senior consultant, then you've lost something, so a hint of formality's very important to him.
To design the ultimate Time Lord, of course, one has to consider his enemies.
Adversity is character-forming, apparently, and he does have an awful lot to contend with -- the Sontarans, the Cybermen, the Master -- the list goes on and on, poor chap.
The Daleks, the Silurians, the Silence Right, here we are.
And I was about to get closer than I hoped to these scary creatures That's the right one, okay.
Is someone coming? Thanks to the voice of the Daleks himself, Nick Briggs Right, this is very secret.
Who had the keys to the secret storeroom.
Ah, you see? Ah.
What a wonderland.
Say hello to the Daleks.
Hi.
So why are these covered up with sackcloth and Well, I could show you-- Mmm, no.
Okay, so, Nick, you are now, I think it's true to say, the iconic voice of the Daleks.
Emergency! Locate the TARDIS, find the Doctor! Do you think that that with regard to the Daleks in particular, they have sort of shaped the Doctor's personality? Well, yes, certainly for all of the time we've known him, and they are, well, the most evil of the evil, really, and they really define the Doctor for us viewing him as someone who defeats alien menaces.
Evil, evil to the utmost degree, and yet, in a sense, we kind of like them when they return.
We look forward to the Daleks coming back, don't we? Well, that's because they're reassuringly evil.
So it's quite nice in our stories to have something that is so definitely evil.
Also something about the design, a sort of iconic, strange design that looks like a collection of kitchen utensils and radiators.
So in terms of my quest, then, my search for the ultimate Doctor, we can't really have the ultimate Doctor unless we have his ultimate enemies onboard as well.
Precisely, they define him.
Oh, the TARDIS.
You've got to love the TARDIS.
The Doctor certainly does.
She's a woman and she's the TARDIS.
Did you wish really hard? Shut up, not like that.
You know, I really think I've lost the knack of flying this thing, if I ever had it.
Oh, the TARDIS.
You've got to love the TARDIS.
The Doctor certainly does.
In fact, it's a very close relationship.
Give us a hug.
Eleventh Doctor: Amy, this is, well, she's my TARDIS.
Except she's a woman.
But she's a woman and she's my TARDIS.
She's the TARDIS? And she's a woman.
She's a woman and she's the TARDIS.
Did you wish really hard? Shut up, not like that.
Hello, I'mSexy.
The Doctor: Oh Still shut up.
Davison: To find out just what gadgets and gizmos the ultimate Doctor would need, I've invited Doctor Who script editor Derek Ritchie onboard my old TARDIS to help me create a short list.
How important is the TARDIS to the Doctor, and would it be possible in any circumstances for an ultimate Doctor to do without his TARDIS? I think, by the way, I know the answer to this, but go ahead.
Yes.
Well, the answer is no, the Doctor absolutely vitally requires a TARDIS.
It isn't just his access to the universe and all of time and space.
It is, in the Doctor's way, his best friend, his ultimate companion, if you like.
I think this is a great example of what we're talking about.
[ TARDIS engine .]
Doctor! The Doctor: I got lost in a time vortex.
The TARDIS brought me home.
Oh! Ritchie: The TARDIS brought him home.
Okay, we've established that the Doctor needs his TARDIS, but what about his gadgets? Now, I've very torn on this one, because this, for a while, was my sonic screwdriver -- trusty sonic.
Yes, but I lost it fairly early on.
Could he do without that and maybe use -- find ways out of problems by his own wits, or -- yeah, I think the doctors can.
I think the sonic's very useful because Doctor Who is a program built so like it has an incredible narrative pace.
And the sonic will allow you not to be trapped in a room for three scenes but to get out and get on with the story.
[ Laugh .]
Davison: So it's clear -- as I thought, you can't have the ultimate Time Lord without the ultimate in gadgets, and the sonic screwdriver is certainly one of those.
When it comes to theme tunes, Doctor Who's is one of the most recognizable in television.
It signifies that another adventure with the Doctor is about to begin, so to discover how important music is to the Doctor's and our journeys, I'm here to meet the show's composer, Murray Gold.
Murray Gold, thank you very much for joining us.
So you're dealing with Doctor Who here, and of course Doctor Who has this iconic theme that's been around since 1963.
How on earth do you manage to find the variations of that theme when you redo it for a new Doctor? Well, you know, you more or less keep your baseline and the melody the same and the chord progression the same, so it is fundamentally the same piece of music.
We just tinker around -- there aren't that many elements to it, you know? It's a fairly simple piece of music.
You can still play any version to any member of the public and they instantly say, "that's Doctor Who.
" Absolutely, yeah.
Now, I don't suppose, has each Doctor had a theme, as such, or is it simply a style of music that evolves to fit that particular Doctor? They've all had their theme, yeah.
I mean, Doctor nine had one right from the get-go.
Ten had his song at the end of "The Christmas Invasion" in 2006, and then he had a sort of fighting Doctor theme, and then Matt Smith had "I am the Doctor," which was probably the best-known of them.
I'm the Doctor.
Basically Run.
Doctor twelve has a theme, too.
Right, now, I'm interested, because obviously we've had since the program returned a succession of younger doctors, with Matt Smith being the youngest, and now we've gone in a completely different direction.
How has that affected the way that you approach this Doctor's music or this Doctor's theme, number twelve? Well, he's quite rock and roll, Peter Capaldi.
Oh, right, okay, that's interesting.
Well, when you look at him, he wears his clothes well and he likes music a lot, and, you know, he's from a certain generation, but probably a generation that really adored music.
He sat in, actually.
He was in the orchestra area when we recorded his theme and when we played it for the very first time, and we were just all staring at his face on the monitors, and he was smiling, so that was good.
Yeah, I mean, it's a lovely thing to happen, to see it there and be at the first performance ever of your own theme.
I hadn't even heard it, so luckily it didn't sound like an orchestra falling down a staircase.
Is it a different sort of music that you're writing for these episodes as a whole than you wrote for the Matt Smith or previous doctors? Well, it's interesting.
It is a little bit darker, and in that context, the lighter moments, which are obviously still there because it's Doctor Who, they sort of -- they sound a little bit brighter for being in amongst a lot of darkness, yeah.
So these things -- so even the stuff that's the same sounds different, if you see what I mean.
So I suppose the ultimate Doctor would need an ultimate theme.
Can you give me any idea of what you would put in the ultimate Doctor's theme? Well, it would have to have adventure and romance and comedy and braininess and nerdiness and bravery, and, you know, I don't know.
I think it would be the most intricate piece of music ever written or the longest.
Or very long, it would have to be a very long piece, yeah.
Here we have doctors six, seven, and eight.
Oh, we have to sit in the right order.
Let's move round.
Davison: Oh, not just an unpredictable bunch.
Like the Doctor himself, this lot can't sit still for two minutes.
Howdy! That's, um, Texan for hello.
And welcome to the good old U.
S.
of "A.
" Both: Welcome to America! Davison: To help me discover what would make the ultimate Time Lord, I've traveled to Houston in Texas to meet up with some of the previous doctors, who are appearing at a science fiction convention.
What's this? I don't know, really.
We're wanted.
Wanted for what? And what does it have to do with John Barrowman? Great, guys, great, you're all here.
We don't need these anymore.
All right, thanks very much.
Um, listen.
I've been set this sort of mission, okay, to see if I can find a design for the ultimate Doctor, and I just wondered if you have any suggestions about what qualities you think an ultimate Doctor might have.
I think he should be small, really, 'cause he represents the small man battling against great odds.
He should be a big man to encompass the enormity of space and time.
Here we have doctors six, seven, and eight, and I just wonder if there are any qualities -- Six, seven, eight, no, you got that wrong.
He's eight, and you said six, seven, eight.
You're five.
I'm five.
I'm five, you're six -- so you're just sitting in the wrong order to confuse me.
Oh, we have to sit in the right order.
Let's move around.
Davison: Hmm, not just an unpredictable bunch.
Like the Doctor himself, this lot can't sit still for two minutes.
Are there any qualities from the previous doctors that you'd like to -- that you wanted to bring into your particular portrayal of -- going away, really.
Going away so we could come in.
Just leaving.
That's the favorite characteristic for me.
I obviously resuscitated the whole thing.
Yes, I know.
Baker: You did resuscitate it.
Davison: So any particular qualities that you enjoyed playing when you were the Doctor? Spoons.
I enjoyed playing the spoons when I was the Doctor.
Would you suggest that the other doctors play the spoons? I think that is -- yes, it's very important.
Musical instrument.
So what advice -- I played an organ.
I played Tocatta and Fugue by Bach.
Shh! Thanks very much for your help.
You've really been wonderful.
I'll rather miss you.
Who is he? Who was that? Do you know who that was? Jim Davison.
Ah.
What a fat lot of good they were.
I think it's time to meet the new kid on the block.
I'm off to Cardiff.
Hopefully.
Safely back in Cardiff, I'm hoping to meet the new twelfth Doctor, Peter Capaldi, but first I know just the man who might be able to give us a few ideas about what it takes to create the ultimate Doctor.
Come with me.
So, Steven, I feel as if I'm at the end of a very long road, a quest to discover if it's possible to create the ultimate Doctor, and while I understand that each Doctor in his own way is the ultimate, if it was possible to cherry-pick certain ideas, certain attributes from various doctors, what do you think the essential point is? The first thing is he is always the same person.
I mean, we can get carried away with talking about how different they are -- they are different, you are different, but there are certain things that are absolutely there all the time.
He's not particularly heroic, which is an odd thing to say about a hero.
He's sort of restless, he's an adrenaline junkie.
He blunders into situations where a hero is required, and because he's a good man, he sort of gets involved.
He doesn't stick around and sort out the government's problems or starvation or -- there's no post-- there's no post-trauma care with the Doctor, but he's a restless, fantastic enthusiast.
Yes, yes.
Of course, I've got this list.
You see, I went to see a psychologist and he gave me this list.
Unfortunately, he wrote it in rather large writing, but here, this is the list he came up with.
Wisdom, optimism, leadership, sense of fun, unpredictable.
Well, gee, that's interesting, isn't it? Wisdom, kind of, but he's a deeply unwise man.
In a way, yes.
Blundering into insane situations, overestimating what he can do.
I also kind of think the Doctor flings himself out a window and works out what to do about that on the way down, and if he had a sandwich in his hand, he would finish it.
Optimism, well, he would finish the sandwich, absolutely.
Leadership, again, kind of.
He's got that -- he never leaves the Time Lord behind, does he? As sweet as he is and man of the people though he is, he sort of thinks everyone should listen to him 'cause he's cleverer and more important.
Never loses that.
Sense of fun, huge sense of fun.
You see, what you're doing is confirming what I suspect, and that is that the ultimate Doctor's not the same as the perfect Doctor.
As a writer, isn't it more interesting to write about the Doctor's flaws, and Well, the flaws are what make the show.
I mean, he's funny because he's deeply flawed.
No one has ever suggested he's morally perfect or that he's particularly rational.
I don't think he's even marginally sane.
It's all these flaws that make up the story.
If he had really -- if he was so concerned about all the goodness in the universe, why didn't he stay on Gallifrey and make the Time Lords better? But he didn't.
Essentially, he's a man who stole a car and drove off into the night and never agreed to stay anywhere for more than one night.
What we love about him is the fact he never, ever grew up.
We are about to get another Doctor, so is he the ultimate Doctor? Is there anything you can tell us about him? Well, he's very Peter Capaldi, and no one does Peter Capaldi better than Peter Capaldi, so thank God we cast him.
Excellent idea.
Yes, it is, it's spot on.
What's he like? He's a much more difficult to control, uncontrollable madman than he was before.
We're going back to that sort of Doctor, the Doctor as someone who's a bit off their leash.
I know that Peter used to watch the show as a child, so this must be a dream come true.
To follow in your footsteps.
Well, of course mine particularly.
We have the same name.
So how's he coping with it? I think he's actually loving it, but the quickest way to find out will be to, well, go and ask him.
When you do, specify you're not here to get his job, all right? He gets nervous.
I get nervous myself.
I'm about to meet a Doctor.
This Doctor is a little less user-friendly.
You know, I think he's quite alien.
I think he's -- somewhere in the regenerative process, I think his social skills may have become a little blunted.
Well here I am nearly at the end of my journey, and I'm about to speak to the man himself, Peter Capaldi.
It's time to find out how he's feeling about becoming a Doctor and what he thinks makes the ultimate Time Lord.
Um, so, Peter, thank you for joining us.
When this part came along, had you been preparing for it for about 40 years? Well, the truth of the matter is I haven't, really, because I never really attained the idea of playing him, you know, as a professional actor.
I mean, obviously, at school I played it in the playground, you know, and I played all those early doctors.
It just didn't occur to me that they would go for somebody like me.
Loved watching it, loved seeing it all happening, but never really considered that I would be in the frame for it, particularly, you know, as the series went on, you know, and I loved Chris and I loved David and I loved Matt, but the direction they were going in was getting younger and younger and younger, so I never for a second thought that they would come after somebody like me.
The Doctor: Clara, be my pal.
Tell me, am I a good man? I don't think I know who the Doctor is anymore.
Even if I did not think that I was ever going to be Doctor Who, probably Doctor Who in some way made me the actor I am.
I probably had a whole pile of Doctor Whos in my head when I first wandered onstage, so I think they probably fed into how I act, for better or worse, so there's a whole kind of bit of me I guess that sort of knows how to -- I think I know how to do it, and I think this is one of the difficult things about the part, is you have to be sort of sometimes quite funny and sometimes quite light, sometimes quite somber, but also an alien.
Was there anything that you wanted to bring, any essential qualities of the Doctor -- and not necessarily that haven't been there before, but something you wanted to focus on with your Doctor? I wanted to kind of put some mystery into him.
I think that's really difficult when you have a character that's been around for 50 years and people are so devoted to and very familiar with all the minutiae of his various regenerations.
And I sort of wasn't -- you know, not really sure how you do that.
Sometimes I've been helped by the writing.
There are things this Doctor can do that we haven't seen the other doctors do.
And there are things that only an alien can do.
But they're sparing.
You know, we don't use them very much.
But there are occasions you will see something that the other doctors haven't done.
Dalek: I see into your soul, Doctor! I see beauty, divinity, hatred! I think sometimes he's sort of fairly unpredictable, which is another way of sort of making someone unknowable.
But I think he is also struggling to find himself.
And mystery, actually, is something that hasn't really come up before.
I think it's very difficult because there's an appetite to know, and the program has become very adept at satisfying that appetite and telling you more about the back story and linking up the past to the present, and there's something at the heart of the program that is powerful and potent but you can't quite put your finger on what it is.
I think anything with monsters in it is fun, especially when you're a child.
This Doctor is a little less user-friendly.
You know, I think he's quite alien.
I think he's -- somewhere in the regenerative process, I think his social skills may have become a little blunted.
And certainly his understanding of human beings and their needs, their day to day emotional needs, if you like, escape him.
Kidneys! I've got new kidneys! I don't like the color.
Of your kidneys? What's happening? We're probably crashing.
Oh! Into what? Stay calm.
Just one question.
Do you happen to know how to fly this thing? So is the love affair with the human race slightly less? I think he respects them very highly.
I think he thinks -- he sees the best of them and the worst of them.
But it's such a quite dramatic end of the scale.
He can be very sensitive.
He's sort of -- he has to kind of relearn how to deal with humans, because he keeps putting his foot in it and messing it up.
He's quite funny, and of course, Steven's writing, so his great one-liners.
It's very -- he doesn't -- his intellect is not quite as available to him so instantly.
I think it's hard for him to -- he knows the solution is in his head somewhere.
I remember talking to Steven Moffat at the time, when it had just been announced when you were playing the part, and he said to me, in the end, he just couldn't resist the opportunity to make someone so happy.
[ Laugh .]
Well, it's true.
I mean, he has made me incredibly happy.
Has it lived up to your expectations in the making of the -- Oh, yeah.
It's just extraordinary and I can't -- you know, I literally wake up in the morning and go, "I'm Doctor Who! I'm still Doctor Who.
" And I go to work and I get dressed up as Doctor Who and I go in the TARDIS and I fight monsters and all that kind of stuff.
It's been extraordinary.
You clearly have been planning this for the last 40 years.
I can't wait.
Thank you very much indeed.
You're very welcome.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
That was lovely.
Well, here I am at the very end of my journey, and this is where I should be presenting to you the definitive formula for the ultimate Time Lord.
Except I can't.
You see, as I've collected and collated the data, I've come to realize that each and every Doctor is the ultimate Time Lord.
It's just a matter of balancing the equation.
The pros and the cons, the good and the bad, the good traits with the occasional bad trait.
In the end, it balances perfectly.
Now, you might well say, and quite rightly, how can you have twelve ultimate doctors? But you'd be overlooking the obvious truth -- he's a Time Lord, he travels in time.
It's all about that one moment when you create the Doctor, and at this precise moment in time, there's no doubt the ultimate Time Lord is Peter Capaldi.
Bet you didn't see that coming, did you?