Capaldi On Excessive “Doctor Who” Backlash

Former “Doctor Who” star Peter Capaldi, who played the lead role in the series form 2013 to 2017, tells The Times of London he doesn’t understand the severity of the ‘anti-woke’ backlash against the show.

Capaldi exited the role with his twelfth Doctor regenerating into a thirteenth incarnation that saw Jodie Whittaker taking over – the first woman to play the Doctor. A few years later, she left with Ncuti Gatwa, the first openly queer Black actor in the role, taking on the part.

Backlash against the series has been fierce during both Whittaker and Gatwa’s runs, with claims of the series being ‘too woke’ – especially when the series moved to Disney+ and back under the control of former showrunner Russell T. Davies.

Capaldi thinks people are taking the series way too seriously:

“It reflects its times, and it’s a good thing in the world, though it’s become a bit too big, too important for the BBC or whoever. When I was a kid and watched it, it was just a monster show in the corner of the room. I don’t know why people take it so seriously.”

The comments follow on from showrunner and writer Russell T Davies saying during a recent masterclass that in the era of social media, it’s easy to “fall into the trap of talking about fans and assuming that means the online voice” which he says “are different things”.

Disney+ ended its partnership with the BBC in October. The main series will return with a one-off Christmas Special this year, but it’s not clear where the franchise will go beyond this. In addition, Disney+ has remained surprisingly quiet regarding an international release for “The War Between the Land and the Sea” spin-off mini-series.