Doctor Who: Peter Capaldi is Up for Doing More Episodes Each Year

Peter Capaldi is full of enthusiasm for making as many Doctor Who episodes a year as possible if they let him.

Doctor Who Magazine Issue #494 (Christmas), credit: doctorwhotv.co.uk

In Doctor Who Magazine‘s latest Christmas issue (number 494), Peter Capaldi expressed how he has plenty more energy to devote to making Doctor Who than he has already provided. “I’m shocked at the speed at which it’s going. I’ve done 26 episodes already, and I don’t know how that happened.” Time flies when you’re having fun, as they say.

Also, according to Capaldi, some fans say the damnedest things:

"“I’m amazed that people ask me all the time, when I am going. It makes you feel very unwelcome! ‘Please, when are you leaving?’ Or… someone said this morning, ‘You’re only doing six episodes next year because you’re too tired?’ I don’t know where they’ve made this stuff up from. Six episodes?! That’s not what I’m contracted to do.”"

It sounds like they are “Harriet Jonesing” him. (Ha, I think that I just coined a verb!) Regardless of how one feels about an actor’s incarnation of the Doctor, it is rather rude to say such things. And Capaldi is right to be confused. I am not sure where they are getting their information, either. Certainly not from Doctor Who Watch! Well, I love him and do not think that he seems tired. I will be happy with him being active in the role of the Doctor as long as he wants to continue doing us the honor. Are these fans the reason for his being nervous about a companion possibly taking over most of the action? I don’t think that the folks working on the show have the same attitude toward him, although I can’t say for sure.

Capaldi went on to say, “And I would do twenty episodes if they let me. I could do Doctor Who all the year round, quite happily.” Now that is what I like to hear! If only the other folks working on the show could make this happen. I realize that it is difficult due to things like creative effort and scheduling. One roadblock is Steven Moffat’s commitment to the fantastic show Sherlock (which also has the problem of episodes being few and far between). In terms of quality, Moffat really redeemed himself during Series Nine of Doctor Who. Perhaps for the sake of both programs, however, a new Doctor Who showrunner should come on board soon.

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Another solution may be to occasionally follow the Classic Doctor Who format of doing a bunch of serials consisting of shorter episodes. There would not be more individual stories, but they would be more drawn out, with a longer runtime total. Even having just one of these serials a year would be a cool way to do a special. In any case, producing these serials would be a nice addition to all of the Classic nods that we have already seen with Capaldi’s Doctor. If even that would be too much to ask, how about a few more webisodes?

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Next: Doctor Who Series Nine Was the Best of NuWho

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