Peter Capaldi feels Doctor Who has been 'diminished'
Peter Capaldi thinks Doctor Who has been "diminished" by the number of regenerations the Time Lord has undergone in recent years.
Peter Capaldi thinks Doctor Who has been "diminished" by the number of regenerations the Time Lord has undergone.
The Scottish star was the 12th actor to play The Doctor on the show - which first aired from 1963 until 1996 before being rebooted in 2005 - but since his departure in 2017, Jodie Whittaker, returning Timelord David Tennant, and Ncuti Gatwa have all taken on the role, and with the show's future up in the air, he admitted the excitement of a new lead cast member has faded somewhat.
Speaking on 100 Questions with Tom Simons, he said: "To be perfectly honest, I think there are too many regenerations. I love all the Doctors, but I've lost count now of how many of them there are, so the weight of this kind of regeneration is diminished.
"Whereas when I grew up as a kid, the first time it happened it was: 'What just happened there?' It was mysterious and strange. It holds the mystery of the show, the regeneration."
Peter noted regeneration is "one of the key tenets of the show" and attracts people in an "almost subconscious" way, because it sees the lead character die and be reborn.
He added: "That doesn't happen in any other show. But they have to be taken right to the edge, so it's a very, very powerful death motif."
When the interviewer suggested that was surprisingly morbid by a show watched by many generations, he said: "It is, but it's magical. It's magical, and that's wherein lies the magic of the show."
The 68-year-old star decided to leave because he wasn't convinced by the direction show bosses wanted to take Doctor Who in at that time.
He said: "I just wasn't sure that it was going to go in the direction that I... everybody was leaving that I'd worked with.
"Everybody was leaving. Jenna [Coleman] had gone, and Steven [Moffat] was going, and Brian [Minchin], the producer, was going, and those are the people that make it work for you.
"We'd had some talks about the direction. I wasn't sure that that was where I wanted to go with the show. And I also thought, I’m not sure I could come up with anything new."
