Hey youtubers it’s Charlie congrats to everyone who’s made it to one of the Doctor Who World
Tour stops. As I’m posting this video they’re headed to Seoul South Korea. Some of you even
sent me some selfies you got with them. Which is totally awesome.
The official Doctor Who team actually made a special request for a very specific video
from me. I’ll explain that at the end of this video because it will be something different.
The biggest news is that Peter Capaldi just signed on for series 9. Which makes me very
relieved. I think you can tell an interesting story in one series. Christopher Eccleston
only did one, but now Capaldi has two full years to develop his character.
This video is mostly going to be about what Moffat has been saying and not saying about
the current run. But I will mention things I’d like to see in series 9. The biggest
things aside from Capaldi returning were him being pretty upfront about a big villain being
dead and gone and there’s a new spinoff that he’s trying to slip through the cracks
in the universe.
If you’re just finding me for the first time I do weekly Doctor Who videos, I’m
even doing a weekly giveaway all you have to do to enter is be a subscriber and leave
a comment on this video.
So most important stuff first. If you have seen the screenings of episode 1 at Cardiff
or London or you watched the leak, please use spoiler tags when commenting about it.
There is a brand new title sequence and it is glorious. It’s way different from Matt
Smith’s intro.
Peter Capaldi’s Doctor is the end to Matt Smith’s fairytale era. So anyone who quit
the show because of that will probably enjoy the new series. Until they find something
else to complain about.
Because he’s coming back in 2015 expect the same themes to continue from series to
series. It’s still Moffat running the show so using Matt Smith’s run for comparison,
the tone of the show didn’t change too much between series 5 and 7b. It was always a fairy
tale relationship comedy. You just noticed it more whenever River Song was around.
I know a lot of you guys are asking about her. She wasn’t the person Moffat was talking
about last week, but previously he’s said Name of The Doctor was her finale. As fans
we can have some fun and theorycraft, but for all intents and purposes, do not expect
to see her in series 8. When we do get to the episodes I’ll mention anything I think
is a potential easter egg for her though.
Capaldi’s Doctor into Darkness as the trailer implies is going to have the same tone from
series 8 to 9. Even if a lot of the characters and plots get shuffled. We kind of have to
wait to see episodes before we get a solid idea of how they’re going explain the darkness
in his soul.
Spoiler people please remember to use tags if you’ve read ahead in the scripts.
They actually did release a clip from Episode 2. I didn’t want to flat out post it without
a spoiler warning so careful if you don’t want to know anything about episode 2. Just
skip forward in the video 30 seconds. I’ll wait just a sec….okay, here we go.
The episode 2 clip is of them messing with a broken Dalek. I haven’t read the script
but the footage was from a promo cut with a generic capaldi interview on BBC One. These
promos don’t run in the United States so if you’re a UK person let us know in the
comments if they normally use footage from new episodes ahead of time in promos.
The trailers are usually less spoilery. But whatever, into the Dalek is a very literal
way to view Capaldi’s journey into Darkness. Even though it’s implied in the clip that
In the past usually when The Doctor has messed with Dalek innards he’s trying to access
their data core to get information. Physically traveling inside a Dalek is a whole other
thing. It’s like taking a magic school bus ride to Hell.
I think one of the biggest complaints against series 8 so far has been the re-use of old
characters and villains. For the most part that’s true, we’ve all seen the Cybermen
from the finale, the Daleks in the trailer and the Paternoster Gang. It’s even implied
that the Clockwork droids from Girl in the Fireplace are back, that was from Russell
T Davies run, but Stephen Moffat wrote the episode. So he created the clockwork droids.
I don’t mind the idea of seeing familiar characters as long as they’re done in a
very different way. The only time I think it takes you out of the episode is when it’s
something or someone you just saw in the previous episode. If there were Daleks everywhere in
the Series 8 premiere I’d be disappointed. But I don’t mind Daleks in episode 2 given
that we’ll see it in a way we never have before.
You guys let me know, is there anything from Matt Smith’s run that would really make
you upset if it showed up in series 8?
Just based on previous comments you’ve made it seems like the most polarizing is River
Song. It’s like half the fandom really hated her and half really loved her. But if there’s
anything besides her that you feel very strongly about just write it in the comments.
The longer Doctor Who as a series continues, the harder it is for them to do something
completely new. Something that’s never been done.
From the early reports I’ve been seeing, people are saying that Capaldi is a very thoughtful
if not welcome analog to the third and fourth doctors. Which totally makes sense, John Pertwee
was his childhood Doctor. During that run he even wrote his own fan fiction scripts
and sent them to the Doctor Who offices. He did it so much it impressed Barry Letts, the
producer at that time, who invited Capaldi to the BBC offices to meet Pertwee and Terrence
Dicks. Dicks was the script editor during those years so he would have probably read
Capaldi’s fan scripts.
It would be so amazing if the BBC organized a cast reading of his scripts with all the
actors roleplaying the parts. They could even get Sean Pertwee from Musketeers to play his
father’s role. I think it would be too on the nose to have Capaldi play the third doctor.
I think he would have been somewhere between age 13 and 16 when he wrote all of them. I
don’t know which year he actually visited the offices. But to all you teenagers writing
fan fiction on tumblr keep it up. If it’s good someone will notice.
A lot of times actors like Peter Dinklage on Game of Thrones stay away from the source
material just so it won’t influence their take on the character too much, but in Capaldi’s
case I think it totally works. Doctor Who is meta science fiction, it totally makes
sense that a 2000 plus year old person would mix and match references and affectations
from previous lives.
Let me know if you agree, will a superfan of Doctor Who make a better Doctor than someone
who never watched it before in their life?
The other big takeaway from the early Episode 1 talk is the Paternoster Spinoff. It’s
felt like every time Moffat uses them it’s a backdoor spinoff but supposedly he’s really
pushing for it in series 8. We’ve all seen the pictures from episode 1 but I think I
mentioned in an older video that the characters are going to be featured at the end of series
8 too.
I don’t know how they’re involved, only that I think they appeared on a casting sheet
for somewhere in the last few episodes. That would make sense if Moffat is really trying
to get another spinoff going.
Sarah Jane and Torchwood were the last successful ones. I didn’t watch Sarah Jane but I was
a huge fan of Torchwood. To anyone hoping to see Captain Jack again, I think you’re
going to be dissapointed. John Barrowman has said that he was never contacted at any time
during Moffat’s run to appear in the specials or any of the episodes. He said he doesn’t
ever expect to see Captain Jack on screen again at all.
Just because Captain Jack was Russell T Davies baby and Moffat wants to do his own thing.
Even though the Clockwork droids were both his and Russell T Davies.
That’s just John Barrowman talking himself, it’s up to Moffat who comes back.
Here’s an interesting question though, would you watch a Paternoster series?
Think about it in terms of the characters, Doctor Who is a series marketed to children
and millennials, so you get mature themes with a lot of humor and morality. Torchwood
was designed for an older more mature audience. So you get more mature subject matter.
The Paternoster characters read like they’re meant for a younger audience, like a paternoster
spinoff would be more for children. Just re-watch any scene with Strax in it. Madam Vastra and
Jenny could go either way, but I feel like Strax is there for children.
During series 7 the BBC even produced some bonus strax videos with him visiting children’s
classrooms.
I’ll go on record as saying I’ll watch anything produced under the Doctor Who umbrella.
Good or bad. But Game of Thrones is my jam, so if we get a Paternoster Spinoff I’d like
to see Vastra disembowel someone with her teeth on occasion.
Either way, the Paternoster Gang are here to stay Spinoff or no Spinoff. The big character
Moffat said was definitely gone for good was The Master. I know huge bummer.
Earlier this year it was reported that the BBC was testing new actors for The Master,
right now John Simm is still the Master, an amazing Master. But he’s busy with his new
series Intruders. So he wouldn’t be able to return even if Moffat wanted him. Which
he doesn’t.
His comment was that he felt Russell T Davies did such a good job with the character, Moffat
didn’t think he had anything he could add to it.
Thus we shall have no Master in series 8.
I don’t know anything about the villain teased in the first episode or how it plays
into the finale. But there have been reports that it seems like someone familiar. I’m
going to wait to talk more about that till after Episode 1 premieres.
So if you have seen the first episode let me know what you think, be sure to use spoiler
tags if you’re going to get really specific. I know I haven’t mentioned much about Samuel
Anderson. He’s been traveling with them on the world tour. He’s not set to debut
till the third or fourth episode I think. He seems like he’ll be a lot of fun.
So real quick congratulations to last week’s giveaway winner. Congratulations to Wobberston
and Simply Maya Beautiful. You guys both win Amazon giftcards. I know I said the giveaway
is only for one but I’m so happy the BBC is giving me shoutouts that I’m doubling
it. If I’m super happy I will double or triple the giveaway randomly just because.
usually I don’t announce that thing. I’ll just pick a few extra people week to week.
Just to explain the BBC request I got. They saw my Beginners guide video and thought it
would be fun to do the same thing for Classic Who. So that’s going to be my next video.
Mostly it’s going to draw from The Third and Fourth Doctor’s runs, but it will be
a big list. Be sure to subscribe to get that.
If you haven’t seen it, click here for that Series 8 Beginner’s Guide with a list of
essential episodes and you can click here for my top 10 people I’d like to see as
companions in series 9.
Thanks for watching, see you guys tonight. High fives!