Doctor Who Stars Materialise In Sydney

A new Doctor and a renewed place for “the Impossible Girl” for Season Eight. As for spoilers, sweetie, all we can tell you is three words from each actor.

“Good Versus Evil” from Jenna Coleman (Clara Oswald).

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“Tiny, Listen, Beware” from Peter Capaldi (the Doctor). And we think that’s what he said, given he will be keeping his Scottish accent for the role. “I felt it was important to that I brought The Doctor to myself, rather than bringing a lot of acting technique to The Doctor. We did try some other accents, but I was clear I wanted it to be me”.

The Thirteenth (or so) Doctor Capaldi and companion Coleman launched the Australian leg of the Doctor Who World Tour this morning in Sydney, following an early morning screening of new episode, Deep Breath. Capaldi and Coleman took questions about the new series, the new relationship and looked remarkably upright despite what must be a punishing schedule.

“I was thrilled, although perhaps a little hurt [the press and public] didn’t guess it might be me.”

“We found out [Peter] had been cast on the day Charles and Camilla came to visit the set”, Coleman explained. Joking that she and Matt Smith had been taken upstairs and told while the future king was “playing with a Dalek voice”, for Capaldi the fun of the transition from Malcolm Tucker to Time Lord was more public. “I was thrilled, although perhaps a little hurt [the press and public] didn’t guess it might be me”. The actor and long time fan also confessed to having watched people in the Forbidden Planet chain go through Doctor Who comics and figurines before his casting had been announced. “They don’t even know they’re standing next to the new Doctor” he laughed.  

While all details of the new episode are strictly embargoed until August 24 (when the episode will be televised and screened in theatres), what we can tease out is the type of Doctor and companion that a new regeneration has allowed. The big release BBC trailer saw Capaldi’s New Doctor ask Coleman’s Clara “am I a good man”? Does that mean, Clara, now past the hype of the 50th anniversary, the  new face and impossible girl, will also be a good woman? She has been a soufflé making lady dalek, after all.

“I think Clara’s always been a good girl, but I think there’s new rules now, and there’s more danger”, Coleman said. “And she’s quite scared now, it’s like starting again, a new dynamic and pace. And regeneration’s interesting and complicated because he is a new man, the relationship is different. As an actor I was conscious of supporting Peter in the best way that I could to allow him to explore. The regeneration scene had so many different options and takes- including singing and breakdancing in one of them.” Despite the floor’s best efforts to get extract spoilers, Capaldi was mysterious as well, “There’s a new groove, but I don’t really know what this Doctor is like either. We can move from genre to genre from week to week.”

“It’s actually not bigger on the inside at all, but tight and dark."

Both actors gave glowing praise to Steven Moffat and His Infinite Wisdom. The showrunner/writer/epic story arc man has been both loved and loathed by fans for his cryptic clues, but his vision has obviously got these two on the hook. “Steven did run me through the whole season at his house, which ended up being a two hour standup routine …  but I’m in the dark [about the specifics of what will happen] because I like to be kept in the dark, I’m not sure if knowing what’s going to happen will help my acting”. As for pacing and the style of the show, Coleman described a slight change in the approach, “Steven’s writing what seems like a lot longer scenes at the moment, sometimes 10 pages long”.

On the first day of filming Capaldi found his feet in the Tardis while Matt Smith’s linger was still in the air. “It’s actually not bigger on the inside at all, but tight and dark. I was looked back nervously at Steven [Moffat], he looked at me, I gave him a salute and then just got on” he said.