Peter Capaldi: The verdict from a Who Mastermind For the second time in three Doctors we have a Scottish actor who is a longtime fan of the series (as was David Tennant). Like Peter Davison, he's strongly associated with another television role when cast (in Davison's case Tristan Farnon in All Creatures Great and Small; in Capaldi's, Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It). And like Colin Baker he's appeared in the series before, as Roman sculptor/merchant Lucius Caecilius Iucundus in The Fires of Pompeii, as well as appearing in Torchwood as civil servant John Frobisher on the Children of Earth miniseries. Indeed the series has a long tradition of actors appearing in the series who have previously played other characters in it, going all the way back to 1965, when Peter Purves was cast as new companion Steven Taylor having played American hick Morton Dill a few episodes earlier in the same story in The Chase. Given this precedent, the fact that Capaldi has already appeared in the series is unlikely to have much effect on how he plays the role. After the youngest Doctor, and another youthful one before that, it was probably time to go to somebody older, and the selection of Capaldi, the second-oldest by a matter of months, means that we are likely to get an utterly different Doctor from recent ones. The contrast he is likely to bring to his portrayal of the role, one which I suspect will be informed by his love of the Doctor Who series over its 50 years, from an actor of his ability and experience, will make watching his debut series next year fascinating.