Doctor Who: How Heaven Sent shows that Peter Capaldi was the best Doctor of the New Series
By James Aggas
Heaven Sent isn’t just one of the greatest Doctor Who stories ever made. It’s also a story that shows how brilliant Peter Capaldi was as the Doctor.
Earlier this week, we looked at how in one BBC News article, a writer claimed that Capaldi’s Doctor “certainly wasn’t universally loved”. While this is technically true of any Doctor – opinions vary, and the universe is a big place, after all – the implication was that he was less popular than other Doctors. Perhaps even that he wasn’t as great as others.
Now we all know that that’s not true. Not one bit. Especially when you look at some of Capaldi’s best performances. His intense obsession shown in Listen. The speech he gave in The Zygon Inversion. Standing up for one small community in The Doctor Falls.
But his greatest performance, as I’m sure many of us will agree, will always be Heaven Sent. Across the entire episode, he gets to show off a considerable range. Anger. Rage. Sadness. Grief. In just one episode, he portrays all of these extreme emotions and more. And, aside from a silent, moving monster, he did it with no other actors, too.
Is Heaven Sent the best example why Peter Capaldi is the best Doctor of the New Series?
(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.
Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)
A huge risk
This last point is perhaps the most crucial, and a key reminder of what makes Capaldi so special. Steven Moffat specifically wrote an episode just for him to really show off what he could do. Something that hadn’t been attempted with any previous Doctor before.
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Oh, don’t get me wrong, all of them have been brilliant in their own way, especially in the New Series. But Capaldi was the first Doctor where a writer felt confident enough in them to believe that they could carry an entire episode on their own.
And it was a risk that paid off. Aided by one of Steven Moffat’s strongest ever scripts, Capaldi took that bold risk and made it work. He ensured that it paid off in a big way.
More importantly, he made it his own. When you watch Heaven Sent, can you imagine Tennant or Smith making it work quite as well as Capaldi was able to? Maybe, but I doubt it. They’re both exceptional actors, but I can’t see them making a single-hander like that story work as well as Capaldi was able to. (I will admit, I can imagine Eccleston doing a good job of it, at least.)
Regardless, we hadn’t had anything like Heaven Sent before, and I doubt that we ever will again. The episode is arguably one of the most popular stories, not just of Capaldi’s era, but of the New Series at least. And that’s for quite a few strong reasons. Steven Moffat’s great script. Rachel Talalay’s excellent direction. Murray Gold’s amazing soundtrack.
But the biggest by far is Capaldi’s performance. Only he could have made that episode work as well as it did. And that’s what makes him the best Doctor of the New Series.
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Do you agree? Is Capaldi your favorite Doctor of the New Series? Is Heaven Sent one of your favorite episodes? Could you see it working as well with any other Doctor? Let us know in the comments below.