The Doctor Who World Tour, which spans five continents and seven cities, invaded NYC yesterday for a main event fan screening of the Season Eight premiere Deep Breath on the big screen at the Ziegfeld Theater.
I had the opportunity to attend a BBC America event earlier in the morning in midtown where select members of the press were treated to breakfast with a Cyberman before an early viewing of the highly anticipated premiere episode. The Doctor Who stars joined us later, who flew in from Australia the night before, and we had to pleasure to chat with our new Doctor Peter Capaldi, returning companion Jenna Coleman and Who Executive Producer Steven Moffat in a casual post-screening Q&A followed by a photo-op.
To keep this a spoiler free zone, I’ll sit tight on my detailed thoughts about Capaldi’s debut episode until it makes its broadcast and theatrical world premiere on August 23rd. I was able to squeeze in one question towards the end of the Q&A and asked Mr. Capaldi to share what he’s always wanted to bring to the role of the Doctor, himself being a life-long Whovian, and if at any point so far into production, has he had a fan boy moment.
Here are highlights from the half-hour Q&A (with edits to avoid potential spoiler sensitive material):
JOANNA WALTERS (The Guardian) …I’d be interested to know what American things you’ve experienced in filming this season, if any, and any other thoughts about America… Are there any American angles in the upcoming season?
STEVEN: No.
PETER: No.
JENNA: Sorry.
STEVEN: Unless I’m lying. Could be lying.
JILL PANTOZZI (The Mary Sue): “The Girl in the Fireplace” is obviously a fan favorite from before your run started. How long ago did you decide to sort of touch back on that thread and what was the decision-making in that?
STEVEN: I wanted a quite simple menace for the first episode. I didn’t want it to be wildly complicated as it were because obviously the grandstanding at the center of it is a new Doctor and a new relationship with a companion, so you really just want the villains to be lurching around offing people now and then with quite a simple backstory, but I also just quite liked the idea. I think I actually stole this joke from Colombo that the doctor’s completely forgotten a previous adventure. Because you would. You just would. I remember there’s a lovely moment in one of the Colombos where somebody – one of the later ones where somebody is recounting one of his previous cases, and Colombo just says, “I’m sorry, I’ve got absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.” [laughter] Because you would! He’s 2000 years old, he’s forgotten the whole thing. Just that, just that. He forgot one of my episodes so I’m very cross with him!
QUESTION: I know introducing a new Doctor is always difficult but I feel like this episode made an especially strong effort to sell him to us. Do you feel like there’s maybe more of a job that you have to do to get us sold on Peter — absolutely not a judgment or reflection on you at all – but just because we’ve had the trend of younger Doctors, we’ve had a trend of – he’s new. He’s very new in different ways. Did you feel like we needed to be sold?
STEVEN: Not particularly. I think it’s just fun. I mean that’s just the truth. It’s just fun when the doctor’s new and you’ve got a new – I think you shouldn’t – it’s like there are certain things that always happen in Doctor Who. Like people will always walk into the TARDIS and say, “It’s bigger on the inside.” You never get bored of that! You could do it once an episode. It’s like James Bond introducing himself. You want to see it happen again. So a new Doctor is just exciting, so no, it’s not a sales job.
JENNA: I have to say as well, I feel like he doesn’t sell, actually. I feel like he withholds more and that’s what I found really intriguing about it, is that I wanted to know more because he wasn’t telling me everything. And I couldn’t quite – there was so much more going on that you couldn’t quite access, so that’s how I felt. I felt working is like, he drew me in because I wanted to know more, rather than him coming out to me, is how I felt about it.
STEVEN: Not so much a charm offensive, just an offensive.
SUSAN RASCOE (Vanity Fair): I’d like to know for Peter when you made your earlier appearance, [in 2008 episode The Fires of Pompeii] were you thinking at that point how much you’d like to stay on set and be the next Doctor and had you considered that at all at that point?
PETER: I wasn’t thinking about being the next Doctor. I mean, I was just delighted to be in the show because I love the show. I just remembered the other day when I turned up and I met David, I knew him before – but when I went to the set I said, “Where’s the TARDIS?” I was really [laughter] excited, where is the TARDIS? He said it’s over there and it was a great cloth in this – because we were in a Roman chamber. I just went over and I remember touching it. You know, the box, the police box. And I thought this is, and I got a little bit teary looking at it! But that’s because I love the show. I never really thought, I mean, first of all, I was surprised even to be in that episode. Because although I had enjoyed Doctor Who when it came back, I hadn’t really worked with the people who were involved with the show, and I didn’t really feel that it was something that I would ever be in, in any way, shape, or form. So I was thrilled to be in that episode. And I always thought anyway, you know, I was always interested when they were changing Doctors. But I never really thought they would come to me. It seemed to be something that was not a direction they would be going in.
SCOTT JOLLY (Vanity Fair): Can you talk a little bit about how the relationship between the Doctor and Clara has changed in that the Doctor says I’m not your boyfriend? And Clara, I’d also like – Clara, excuse me, Jenna. [laughs] You had mentioned, I’ve seen the interviews with you before. You said it was very kind of jarring on the set, especially when there were regeneration scenes where Matt leaves and Peter walks in. How has that been for you to kind of change from season to season?
JENNA: I don’t know if jarring is the right word. I think what I realized from – I mean, literally my face in the regeneration scene is literally me watching Peter throw about 1000 options at the wall, and try and explore everything. And my face is literally I think for about 30 minutes of watching Peter do this entire routine. And thinking, this is great, because change is amazing. And actually having to start again and reevaluate and figure out how – I mean, it’s kind of what the story is as well. It’s the two things happening together, of working out how this dynamic is now gonna work and expecting a reply from maybe what the 11th Doctor would say and suddenly this new Doctor does not respond in the same way, and I suppose that’s what’s jarring, is then realizing, how – okay, what are the rules now? And how does this dynamic work? So that was as an actor, that was a great, great thing. And I think that was happening at the same time as we were telling that story. But within the first episode, I loved the restaurant scene. Because you know it’s gonna work. Because it slips into this whole, the Doctor and companion, and you see the history there. And then suddenly he’ll do something incredibly unpredictable. Something that 11 might not have done. And so it really takes us off in a new direction together.
PETER: But you sort of see I think as the show unfolds, Jenna and I getting to know each other because we didn’t know each other when we started. So as the Doctor and Clara get – because the Doctor really, although he’s the same character, he’s also brand new. He’s also unfamiliar with his own personality, I think, so he’s discovering things about his own personality that are not necessarily welcome. But he has a very, very deep bond with Clara. And he finds it difficult to express that. But it’s there. And also she’s one of the few people who I think can actually push him around.
JENNA: Try to.
PETER: Well, I think she succeeds in dominating him, telling him what to do. But then she can get so far with that. Then he’ll turn, he often turns. I think what we’ve all tried to do is not get into a groove where we know exactly who this character is, and what he’s going to do. I mean, the great thing to me about the Doctor has always been that there is an unknown Doctor. That’s the character who presents himself to the people around him. But there’s always this sense that there’s another aspect to him, which is untouchable and unreachable. And I never really quite know how you play that. But the only way you could – that I thought you could try and evoke it was by being ungrabable. That you can’t actually predict what it’s gonna do.
CHARLES POLADIAN (International Business Times): Throughout the episode, there’s a lot of discussion about identity and this kind of concept of looking inward. For this season are you going to be more reflective as the Doctor and as Jenna with Clara, are you looking at more of an internal struggle with both of these characters? Obviously you’re dealing with this new Doctor that you don’t know whereas with you, this is a totally new doctor that the previous doctors don’t even know. Was this something that you thought about ahead of time before casting Peter or during working with Peter? Is this kind of what you were going through?
STEVEN: Well, so identity crisis – well… first of all I don’t think we’re gonna put in the poster, “It’s more of an internal struggle this time.” [laughter] Because you know, there are monsters in corridors, I promise. And explosions. But yeah, I mean, the Doctor’s quite a complicated character, actually. For a melodramatic hero, he is quite complicated. And I think you’re wasting an opportunity with every generation if you don’t do a bit of that, because we know that he doesn’t just change his face. He changes – things about him aren’t the same. Things he reaches for aren’t there. Things are – he has feelings he didn’t have before. I think that must be awfully alarming. It must make you wonder who you are. And I think there’s an element that runs throughout Doctor Who, and which was why Doctor Who is so much better than everything else in the world, is that the Doctor doesn’t know he’s a hero. He doesn’t really. He doesn’t really know he’s in that shell. He knows that some other people think he is and he knows that sometimes he seems like a legendary warrior, but he knows and we know because we’re watching him, he’s just a man who can’t drive a time machine properly. So he’s got – just having that, the difference between how people see him and how he is, is always exciting.
PETER: But I think it’s interesting, the way that people are terribly interested. And we talk – spend a lot of time talking about the character when in fact in the episodes they are so full of incident and drama and adventure that there’s barely any time to talk about the character. We just sort of get on with dealing with whatever threat has to be dealt with, and yet there’s something enigmatic and appealing about the character that makes me want to talk about it all the time.
STEVEN: In the episode “Listen,” my impulse starting in that was just the idea, what does he do when he’s got nothing do? Because he defines himself by – he’d throw himself off a building if he thought it’d be interesting on the way down. You know, he’s fascinated by anything. And here he’s with nothing to do so he just goes out and poking things with a stick until something bites it. And I think that’s quite interesting, isn’t that? Sort of, there’s a thrill seeker aspect.
AARON SAGERS (Blastr): I would like a weigh-in from all of you, but Peter, when you’re crafting this character that has been embodied by so many other actors, it’s a new guy but it’s also a familiar guy, how important is it to incorporate the quirks or the characteristics of the preceding actors? Is that important, and if so what were some of those tics or little things that you incorporated in your actor?
PETER: I think it’s always exciting when Doctor Who touches its past. I mean, for me, as a kid, that was always an exhilarating moment when they made contact with the past. But I – for me personally, I don’t consciously try to emulate any of the previous doctors but I would say that I’ve been watching the show since I was 5. I absolutely grew up with it. So all of those Doctors probably made me, even if I hadn’t been cast as the Doctor, my acting would probably have been influenced by William Hartnell or Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, and all of the other guys. Because those were the actors that I really watched every moment of as opposed to Laurence Olivier – these were the guys I was watching and who I wanted to be. So they probably, I think, my own tics as an actor have probably been influenced by them already. So I have no need to specifically pull them out of the bag, although occasionally sometimes in the show, in the season, there are some little specific things that are very directly references to previous Doctors. But I love when the show does that.
STEVEN: I think for me when you’ve got a new Doctor, you really want the actor to lead the way actually. So in a way you’re stripping it – unconscious – the most conscious thing you do is to call in this case the Matt Smith-isms out and see what is gonna start moving in in place. I knew certain things we wanted to do with the character were already there and what we wanted to do with the show, but really, it’s a question of – lead actors have to lead – sorry, Peter, you have to actually see what they do and it becomes a kind of dialogue with the rushes and the rating and all that. You say – I see what Peter’s likely doing. I don’t tend to – I mean obviously, I’m a ridiculous list-making fan boy. I can never stop thinking of everybody. I try as far as possible [inaudible 18:44] to resist that apart from the fact that I’ve devoted and ruined my entire career around it. Apart from that, it’s fine.
PETER: But anyway, you can’t as an actor conduct yourself by making constant references to other people. And the day to day working of the show is so forlorn and so challenging that you just have to —
JENNA: You don’t really have time to be conscious, I suppose, of that.
PETER: No. You just do your best as an actor and try and get on with it.
JENNA: I feel like Peter came in with such a strength and idea and was really brave. I always remember some days, you know, we have those certain directional days of – because normally when you read the script at this point, the doctor would embrace this scene or dance or be running around the console or and actually – there was times when I think, especially in the early days when Peter was finding his Doctor, would say “Actually, no, I’m just gonna stand here.” It’s that thing where instead of going to the room, the room coming to him. And I feel like he was really bold and brave and made those changes, and that was because that was Peter fine doing it his way. And fine doing, you know, his path.
JIM KIERNAN (Nerdy Rotten Scoundrel): Is there something that you were able to bring to the Doctor, being a Doctor Who fan for so long, that you hadn’t seen in the other Doctors and you’ve always wanted to bring to the character that you finally were able to, and is there something specific that you can reveal from behind the scenes, a particular scene that brought out the inner fan in you.
PETER: Well, the thing I always wanted to bring to it was me. [laughter] So I got lucky with that one. [laughter] Well, the thing is, every day it’s like, it’s full of moments that you go, “Oh wow, I’m The Doctor, this is amazing.” But think of the first time you make your escape through a ventilation shaft! [laughter] It’s quite special.
STEVEN: I know the moment, Peter, I know the moment when you felt it, it was, I think –
PETER: What was that?
STEVEN: Just from watching the rushes is when you go, “Cyberman!” [laughter] Oh yes, this man is happy.
PETER: Well, I have to say, the moment when the Daleks – when I heard my first conversation with a Dalek was extraordinary. Because you sort of think you know all about Daleks and you’ve watched them since you were a kid, and also the guys – it’s not giving anything away to say there’s a man inside a Dalek. [laughter] And also there’s another man with a little control box controlling all the lights and then there’s another man who does the voice who stands around the corner, and you think they’re sort of all over the place here and the man who’s inside the Dalek, Barnaby, who’s our top Dalek man, who like most of our monster people – they tend to be ex-dancers. So they have an elegance about them, “Would you like to run the scene?” He said. And I would say, “Yeah – but there’s no Dalek here.” And he said “No, but my eye is at the exact same height as the Dalek’s eye, so if you look into my eyes, you’ll be looking into the eye of a Dalek.” [laughter] So I looked into his eye and we did this – so that was great. But then finally they brought the prop and Nick who’s a sort of amiable big nice man got this microphone out and then the man started off the switch. And so they went, “Doctor!” like that.
JENNA: That was good!
PETER: Yeah. It was really something. I thought – wow. I actually swore with delight. [laughter] It’s pretty amazing when it comes together. And then it goes off and it bumps into the wall. [laughter] Stuff like that.
STEVEN: I do not want to see Dalek outtakes.
PETER: No, no.
JENNA: There’s a comedy beneath the scenes, I think.
PETER: Yeah.
JENNA: You call “cut” and then you’re just taking to the alien, like, “So plans this weekend?”
STEVEN: Do you remember the mummy in the casket – I remember going over to him and – and they do all this great stuff like that – and he says “Was that okay, was that all right, was that lovely?” “I could do a little bit more out there if you like.” [laughter]
PETER: And then the monster once was very tall and very, very scary. And I said, “What have you been doing recently?” And he said, “I’m a white walker from Game of Thrones.” I go “Wow! Tell me about that.”
PETE PACHAL (Mashable): There’s so much online discussion now from the fans in Doctor Who, just in the last few years. It’s risen tremendously especially as it’s gotten more popular in the States. Has that affected your perception of the show at all? Do you interact, do you see this stuff, and how does it change your perception of Doctor Who and how it’s received?
STEVEN: You know, when you read newspapers online, I’m sure you do, and there’s a comments section beneath it, and you read some perfectly reasonable news story and then a whole lot of insane people comment on it, saying “I’ve hated everybody since the dawn of time and my mom!” You think – it’s a story about a rescue dog, why are you so angry? [laughter] I think trying to assess Doctor Who’s audience from its online community would be like trying to assess world affairs from the comment sections below newspapers. I had this conversation, – name-dropping, Gale Anne Hurd – about you can’t mistake Twitter for the voice of the audience. I warn you now, Jenna. So – I’m aware of it. And it can be a difficult thing. But let’s look at the positive side of it. Let’s look at the amazing response – our new title sequence. Beautiful new title sequence which I think is stunning is online Doctor Who fandom. Billy Hanshaw, just decided to make a Doctor Who title sequence. He put it up on YouTube. And I happened across it and I thought it was the only new idea for a Doctor Who title scene since 1963. And we got in touch and we said “Okay, we’re gonna do that one.” So I suppose when we talk about Doctor Who fandom online, that’s what we should be talking about. Not all the random madness and hate-filled nonsense that goes on but we should be talking about the extraordinary creative response that there is to Doctor Who that we give them a show and they give us our show back, sometimes better. That’s amazing because so many times, and there’s a couple of examples sitting in front of you, there’s something magical about Doctor Who that makes the people, some of the people who watch it actually want to do it, actually want to make it, actually want to go and make Doctor Who or make another show, or even more bizarrely, this is the one I can’t get my head around, it makes some people and it has succeeded in this – it makes some people want to be scientists, presumably so they can look back at Doctor Who and think, “Wow. They made that shit up didn’t they?” [laughter] But that is – I wish I’d not done the first part of my answer, I wish I’d done the second part of my answer. The most important thing is that an extraordinary creative response to Doctor Who that is almost unique to Doctor Who and that’s all we should look at. It has turned people into actors, it has turned people into writers, it has turned people into scientists. That’s an extraordinary thing. And that title sequence which I’m so proud of is a result. That’s online Doctor Who. That’s the real part of it, that’s the real story.
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