Peter Capaldi was announced last week as the 12th incarnation of TV ratings stalwart Doctor Who.
Thing is though... he’s quite... old... isn’t he?
Although the bookies had already closed their tomes well beforehand, the much-hyped announcement of Capaldi who-vering up the job as the iconic TV Timelord did actually startle me quite a substantial amount, although not nearly as much as finding something is bigger on the inside probably would.
The fact that it was done via a reality-TV-styled spectacular, with 30 minutes of wacky celeb superfans gushing about their love of all things Who-ey, fronted by a hugely over-enthusiastic Zoe Ball, was certainly a very ‘now’ way of doing it.
That both the show’s current supremo, Stephen Moffat, and outgoing Doctor, Matt Smith, only appeared in pre-recorded form, spoke volumes about the whiff of tackiness to the whole thing. And yet, this still didn’t detract from the wow-factor when Capaldi appeared, nor (for me, at least) the follow-up thought of “Hey – he’s actually quite old to be playing Doctor Who, isn’t he?” Smith was in his 20s when he first appeared with bow tie and Fish Finger Custard, whilst the new/old actor taking up the part is 55. Both of the other recent Doctors, Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant, were over a decade younger at minimum.
A quick crawl through the interweb reveals that Capaldi is the oldest actor to play the part since William Hartnell, all the way back at the beginning of Timelord time in 1963, picked up the keys to the Police Box at the same age.
Since its much-applauded return, the mad man in a box has been reasonably youngish, even if the character portrayed is well over 900, making the Dalek’s No.1 enemy roughly the same age as Bernie Ecclestone. You never see them in the same room, do you?
Whilst Matt Smith’s very young take on the Doctor has been a physical, jerky, running, jumping, dangling incarnation, are we now heading towards a more sedate Doctor?
Does that even matter? I guess that all depends on ratings, but in terms of the character, and the brilliant idea that you can keep on replacing your lead actor with someone completely different, no, it certainly doesn’t.
For a rare change, someone taking over a senior position is actually older than me (even if it is ‘just’ a TV show). Once you hit middle-age, it seems everyone, from police officers, colleagues, and shop assistants to your earthly Doctor, is irritatingly youthful. So, this one is a science fiction character – I’ll take it. The cult of youth has been gloriously dented.
How long before the Doctor starts complaining that they don’t make Daleks like they used to, that Cybermen never say ‘please’ and ‘thank-you’, and how terrible it is that Weeping Angels just don’t dress smartly any more.
I think it’s great the new Doctor is the old Doctor. Would anyone like a Werther’s Original?
This column was written for my "Thank grumpy it's Friday" column in the North West Evening Mail, for the 9th August 2013 issue. I'd offer you a link to the version they published, but unfortunately it's not up on their website yet.
There seems to be a bit of a problem with their Blog section right now - my Royal Baby story is still the newest one on the Blog home page, whilst last week's one went straight into the Archive section, along with everyone else who writes for the paper. If you want to keep an eye out for it appearing, head here
There's actually no guarantee that this one has even appeared in the paper; As previously mentioned, I live in a village that doesn't actually sell the NWEM, so I receive my copy in the post on a Monday usually - they haven't yet failed to publish one I've submitted, but I keep expecting them to eventually realise I'm an illiterate berk, and quietly drop me.
The most recent two columns have garnered some online comments. The wedding fashion one received two - a nice one (which I later discovered was actually by Mrs G) and one suggesting I was a self-absorbed monster. The Royal Baby one did get a nice comment from someone. That's one nice, independent, comment this year so far! Woohoooo! Winning!
(In a week where I got retweeted by the splendid Midge Ure, I'm currently listening to Weird Al Yankovic. Obviously.)
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