Doctor Who came back to San Diego Comic-Con after a two year absence, and we had the pleasure of speaking with the cast before the panel. Here are a few of our favorite things we learned.
Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss, Peter Capaldi, Pearl Mackie, Michelle Gomez and Matt Lucas all hit San Diego to promote the final episode of the Moffat era, “Twice Upon a Time,” the Doctor Who Christmas Special.
Check out our coverage of the Doctor Who Comic-Con panel, where they released the trailer along with a heartwarming goodbye to Peter Capaldi as the Doctor. That morning we also got to speak with the cast and showrunners, and we’ve picked our favorite quotes to share with you!
- Despite marking the end of the Moffat era, the Christmas Special will focus specifically on the culmination of Capaldi’s run as the Doctor. Moffat said, “The Doctor changes, that’s in the story. Me leaving? That’s not in the story. There’s nothing to write about.”
So no, the Christmas Special isn’t going to have references to Amy Pond or any other Moffat-era companions (unless, of course, the Doctor reminisces about his companions again as he regenerates).
- So what part of the Doctor’s past will come into play? His emotion. According to Moffat, “He thinks he’s keeping all his emotion bottled up inside, but he’s actually (probably) the most emotional Doctor there’s ever been. He’s a raw nerve of exposed emotion at that angry moment. He is the one who erupts and finally tells the Master what he thinks.”
- And what made them choose the first Doctor to help Twelve? It wasn’t the commonalities, that’s for sure! “It’s the total opposite of that, actually,” Moffat answers. “If you’ve got two Doctors meeting, what the hell are you going to talk about? It’s the same man twice. So you’ve got to find different moments you can have.
“The first Doctor, he’s on his way to being the swaggery hero of the universe. He does not know he’s the protector of the Earth, he has no idea how much of the universe revolves around him. He meets the man, the almost monstrous man he’s going to become. People remember the first Doctor as a grouchy old man, but he was actually quite jolly. He doesn’t yet know he’s sailing towards this epic heroism and his being confronted by it by rock-star Capaldi is moving for him.”
On William Hartnell’s performance as the Doctor, Gatiss adds, “There’s a twinkle there, rather than a grumpy old man, which [David] Bradley brings out wonderfully. There’s some really funny stuff.”
- A lot of fans are happy to see Moffat leave, and a lot of fans are sad to see him go. We had to ask, will he ever return for another quick episode? “I don’t think so,” Moffat replied.
“I’ve written so much of it for so long. I’ve never written so much of anything. I’ve never had a job this long. I’ve been doing Doctor Who since 2004, I’ve done 42 scripts. The show needs a fresh take. I need a fresh take. I was really pushing through that last finale, but I was able to write it because I could see the finish line. And at that point I was dragging myself along!”
- We talked to Matt Lucas about his portrayal of Nardole, and we asked how it was playing such a loyal, alien/robot/human hybrid companion. “It was interesting playing Nardole because a lot of the companions automatically look at the Doctor in awe, whereas Nardole has been with the Doctor for decades by the time you see him again in the last Christmas special. We missed a lot of the wonder he might’ve had, but also he’s not from Earth, so some of the stuff that’s mystical about the Doctor, Nardole isn’t really interested in.
“Sometimes people think Nardole is being a bit petulant or overly challenging, but he has a job to do. You have to guard the vault and Nardole wants to protect the Doctor. He doesn’t always protect himself.”
- One of our favorite quotes we got was from Peter Capaldi himself. We asked him if the Doctor has learned anything from his experience with Bill and everything he’s gone through this generation? His response?
“[He’s learned] nothing. Because he’s not human. The Doctor has a knowledge of past and future, he feels echoes and ripples through time and space. He knows what’s going to happen, he knows what human beings are, what they do and what becomes of them. He play-acts being surprised, he play-acts being present in that moment. He knows, so he doesn’t learn. He knows already. He has nothing to learn.”
- At the end of our roundtable interviews, we asked what we can expect from the Doctor meeting his first self this Christmas.
Capaldi replied, “The fun thing we’ve got going on is that they come from very different Earth times. So the first Doctor comes from the ’60s… and my Doctor comes from the 21st century. There’s a lot of fun in the different attitudes they’ve got.
“It’s also playful with the fact that it’s a television character, and one from a certain time. We don’t shy away from the fact that we’re at different ends of the Doctor Who program’s life.”
And we can’t wait to see how these characters work together this Christmas! With how much work is being put into bringing Hartnell’s Doctor back to life in such an amazing way, we expect this might be one of the best Doctor Who Christmas Specials yet.