Doctor Who News – Peter Capaldi Is The 12th Doctor

Yesterday, the BBC announced that Peter Capaldi will be the next Doctor in Doctor Who. Capaldi is probably best known for his work as Malcolm Tucker on The Thick Of It. He also was most recently seen on the big screen in World War Z as W.H.O. Doctor (ha!).

Capaldi’s casting is a departure from the recent trend of casting much younger actors to the role of The Doctor in order to court the demographic. Indeed Capaldi is 55, the same age as William Hartnell when he was cast as the very first Doctor back in 1963. Reportedly, Capaldi was the only person show runner Steven Moffat was interested in for the role. As of the Doctor Who panel back at San Diego Comic-Con back in July, Moffat had said that there had been no casting decisions made with regard to the 12th Doctor. Nice to see Moffat continue his streak of being upfront and transparent with the show’s fans.

Check out the video of Peter Capaldi’s introduction to Doctor Who fans from the BBC television special that aired yesterday, after the jump.

#TheFourth – New Tom Baker-centric Doctor Who Promo Clip

Bleeding Cool has posted about a new video from BBC Worldwide. It features camera panning over illustrations of the fourth Doctor’s companions, with audio clips from selected companions and Tom Baker. While it could be that the video is a promo for an upcoming Doctor Who DVD box set Doctor Who: the Doctors Revisited 1-4, which will be released on July 16, it could also be as simple as BBC Worldwide being a bit tongue in cheek – it was released on July 4th. Probably not directed at us Americans for our nation’s birthday, but who knows? The series’ massive popularity of late here in the United States is why Stephen Moffat remains still employed, to the eternal bafflement of many fans of the classic series and the earlier Russell T. Davies reboot episodes.

Rory Kinnear – The New Doctor Who?

Bleeding Cool is reporting that UK paper The Telegraph is running a story that the BBC has offered the part of the 12th Doctor to Skyfall‘s Rory Kinnear.

According to the Telegraph article’s author, Richard Eden:

“He has been offered the part and we are waiting to hear if he will accept,” says my man in the Tardis. “He is the perfect choice.”

The 35-year-old alumnus of St Paul’s School, George Osborne’s alma mater, is the son of Roy Kinnear, the celebrated actor.

He played the MI6 officer Bill Tanner in Skyfall and Quantum of Solace, the James Bond films, and won acclaim for his stage performances in productions of Othello, Mary Stuart and Hamlet.

However, tweets Dr. Who producer, Ed Starling:

Don’t believe what you read about the new #doctorwho being announced this weekend. I think it must be Starburst getting a bit over-excited!

— Ed Stradling (@edstradling) June 8, 2013

Steven Moffat says this morning “I haven’t a clue who it is, we’ve barely started.” So no #doctorwho announcement this evening I fear!

— Ed Stradling (@edstradling) June 8, 2013

Hmmm. A vote in Kinnear’s favor, at as far as I’m concerned, is that he’s at least a bit older than Matt Smith. As an old school Doctor Who fan, I worry that the rampant fan growth among the 18-25 set under Smith will lead to a series of increasingly younger casting choices possibly resulting in the eventual casting of Justin Bieber or a fetus.

However, Stradling did have some interesting things to say about how Smith was cast in Doctor Who in the first place.