My evening routine during lockdown is to watch an episode or two of Doctor Who, making up for years of not being able to access BBC iPlayer in Togo. I’ve just finished plodding steadily through all forty episodes of the Peter Capaldi years, giving a second chance to this dark, troubled, emotionally cold Doctor. Like many others, I had a strong reaction against the 12th Doctor when he first appeared in 2013 because he seemed like such a jarring contrast to his predecessor. And I never did like electric guitars. But with hindsight, I think I wrote Capaldi off too early. He is an outstanding actor, and has created one of the most memorable and persuasive incarnations, if not the most immediately likeable. Nonetheless, I still think that history may judge Michelle Gomez as Missy to be the brightest star of series 8, 9 and 10.
As I watched these episodes, I found myself asking again whether new Doctors really do improve over time as they get rooted into their character, or whether we viewers just need time to gradually adjust to radically different incarnations. It’s a lot for the BBC to expect of us, after all, and I have been doing it since I was four.
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