To be honest, I think so. As with the 6th Doctor, I think the plan was always to make him more approachable and warm over time. However, to me, it's happened much sooner than I would have hoped, and rather suddenly, as opposed to gradually.


Don't get me wrong, I still love the 12th Doctor. I love him as he is now, what with the guitar and the hoodies, and even the sunglasses. It's just that I would have liked to have seen all of this further down the line, and brought in gradually rather than all at once. Of course, he's had some "dark" moments this series, but I'd have liked at least one more season of the 12th Doctor as he was last year- with his uptight, cold attitude.


This isn't me saying that I dislike the 12th Doctor. The opposite is true. I think he's brilliant. But they've changed him quite drastically, quite quickly.

I liked him better last series. The moody, doesn't care about anyone type. Now he just seems to be turning into a mix between the 10th & 11th doctors.
His clothes have got too casual, the glasses are silly & the guitar just is so out of place.

I just can't get used to this version. He should have stayed as he did last year. Now he's just an old man trying to be young. It just doesn't work for me. It seems too try hard.

They got rid of the wrong character, Clara should have gone rather than the moody Doctor.

They could have given him more of a "kitten" companion, someone to care for. This would have allowed him to gradually loosen up in a realistic way.

Clara is basically indestructible and never ever genuinely afraid or concerned.

Frankly they have ruined the 12th Doctor this year, I loved the version we got last year, that Doctor who said she care's so I don't have too is gone and that's a massive shame, go back and watch series 8 especially the beginning when they were pushing the new approach the most and Capaldi was brilliant, Into the Dalek is a solid episode but The Doctor in it is excellent and is what we should be getting, its what Capaldi wanted to do (as indicated by his interviews last year) and at that point Moffat was with him delivering this fresh version of the Doctor, a much needed contrast from the previous two Doctors.

Unfortunately Moffat and probably other PTB lost their spaceballs and caved in and now we've got a watered down Doc with forced quirky clownish stuff that falls flatter than a 2D creature from another dimension, they are trying to mould 12 back into a Doc that's like the previous two but it doesn't work, Capaldi was right for The Doctor we saw in series 8, he's not right for The Doctor we see in series 9.

It also doesn't help that Moffat flare and fire has clearly gone out and is just going through the motions at this point, and that has a big impact on the show. Capaldi needed a new head writer to kick of his second year and find his own unique way instead he has a tired writer who is giving him re-heated MS doctor stuff to work with.

Much preferred the 12th doctor last series, I am not enjoying him this year at all. I feel like they're trying to shove it down our throats that he is hip and fun with the sunglasses and the guitar playing every episode. Last year he was different and stood out from 10 and 11 suddenly he has completely changed, it would've been nice to see him a little wrner this year but not completely change.

Is it not likely that his mellowing is so that when/if Clara dies as part of Jenna Coleman's departure the effect on the Doctor and his personality is more dramatic? I'd like to think this series has been planned that way.

I disagree. Even though I can't stand the guitar or the sonic sunglasses, Capaldi has only started to truly grow on me as the Doctor in the past few weeks. Pretty much since the Donna flashback.

I agree that his character development has happened too quickly.
I would have preferred to have a Hartnell-like softening over three years.

Just in case you forget that he's the Doctor, he'll probably mention it a few times each episode just to remind you I'm really hating what they've done to The Doctor this year, they've turned him into a drinking game. Take one drink whenever he plays the guitar, one drink when he states his name and/or mission objective e.g. "I'm the Doctor", "I save people", take one drink when he whips out the shades. Mind you, if you did try this drinking game then you'd be hammered by the end of an episode

I also preferred Capaldi last series. There's been no mellowing of the character, no character growth, Capaldi is simply playing a different version of the Doctor this year. It's just weird.

Yep way too quickly. Its possibly whats causing my dislike of this series. Capaldi was so good last year. The intensity, the brooding. He had real presence and poise. Even his physicality was toned down to an almost stillness after the manic limb flailing of Eleven but he still dominated every frame. That marvelous granite face and eyes. Watch the last scenes of Deep Breath and then watch anything from this season and the change is tangible and not for the better.
I would argue that they havent just softened him...they are at times turning him into a betrayal of the man Twelve was/should be. Even some of the humour is miles out. Yes Twelve could be funny but in a dry and acerbic way. Its what Capaldi excels at. Silly references to Peter Andre and question marks on his underpants and Dr Funkenstein? They dont ring true coming from the lips of the actor or character. In fact its bordering on the embarrassing, You hire one of the best actors in the country and then shoehorn him into a piss poor Matt Smith imitation? All because a few simple minded fans/production staff cant cope with the concept of a challenging or flawed hero? Theres no point being brave and casting Capaldi then spending an entire season showing great character development and even telling the audience 'this is the same man! open your minds and embrace this new Doctor' only to do a total volte face and tone him rifght back down again. How stupid!
Capaldi is still excellent when hes allowed to be but every stunning moment is overshadowed by the pointless idiocy of flicking the Vs like the drummer from a Rolling Stones tribute band as he boards the plane. What the hell was that for? Oh yeah,,,it was for Eleven, A Doctor that left two years ago.

They risk doing exactly what they did to Matt- reducing him to a series of tics, catchphrases and props. The writing is all over the place with any attempt to create a believable and rounded character being chucked out at the expense of cheap jokes. Witness the whole Cue Cards thing in the Whithouse story. In and of itself it was very funny and amusing. But it doesnt work when the next minute you have the Doctor spitting out sarky and savvy pop culture references. The two dont mix. Hes either out of touch with human culture and sensibilities and a bit old fashioned or he isnt. You cant have it both ways otherwise it just becomes a comedy sketch. There is no authenticity to the character of the Doctor and he becomes a mouth piece for Whithouse/Moffat to make sassy smart arse jokes. Its awful.

It just demonstrates that Moffat is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.

Many people on his very forum were criticising the 12th Doctor we saw in series 8 because he was grumpy and acidic. Now he's been softened, and people don't like the change.

Personally, I've liked him in both series 8 and series 9. People are known to mellow over time. Given that the Doctor had 100 years fighting an impossible war, expecting to die, then suddenly got a brand new regeneration cycle, it was probably expected that his new persona would be a little bit all over the place. Over time, he's softened. You saw it happening in series 8, it continued in the Christmas Special, and it's continued again this series.

You know, thinking about it, perhaps they have mellowed him this quickly on purpose. What generally happens to the Doctor when he loses a companion? Well, Ten went on to 'Time Lord Victorious' and Eleven threw his toys out of the pram and shacked up on a cloud above Victorian London. With speculation rife that his current companion, the one that pulled him out of a rut this time, will actually DIE later in the series, perhaps the mellowing has been allowed to happen at this rate so that we may see him return to his cold ways once Clara has left; perhaps he will even be worse than before? Just a thought.

I much preferred him last season I'm against the matt smithisisim o fCapaldi

I think they are he seems so random and all over the place like hes trying to impersonate a doctor than be one I liked the grumpiness it defined him like when someone would die he'd just be like get over it D

But an interesting thought. My own feeling Is that they've mellowed him so fast, not so much that he can thereafter be seen to revert to his old cold ways, but so that Clara's death can actually be seen to affect him when it happens. I think this is a bad mistake, if so.

I know that she's leaving but I hope that's not a spoiler?

I preferred him last season, though I think he's fantastic anyway he was absolutely someone who had fought on his own for hundreds of years thinking he was going to die at the end of it then suddenly given a new lease of life and understandably off balance and cautious with everyone and everything as a result
They seem to be setting him up for a crisis, presumably losing Clara and dealing with "'the hybrid' whatever that turns out to be. I think this year things like the cue cards jar badly, whereas last year 'hello, barely sentient local' was just enough out of kilter to be believable things he might say.
I do like the guitar though

I never found him to be that cold to be honest. Very early on last season it looked like they were giving him a big push in that direction, thinking specifically about 'Into the Dalek' but he moderated very quickly. And it felt very forced in that episode. He was just rude or thoughtless mostly, not cold or unapproachable. And even then in a mostly humourous way, such as his inadvertent insults to Clara ('You look nice; have you had a wash?') that was a result of lack of inter-personal skills rather than actual antipathy to other people.

I don't think you'll ever see him stray far from the Moffat template because that's Moffat's version of the character; it's how he sees him. Imagine asking one of the Doctors to play the part like another actor had played it. They're going to always end up defaulting back to their own version because that's them; it's that element of themselves they've put into the character. It's the same for the writer.

This. I've seen a ton of people criticising how he was in Series 8, parents getting upset that their kids could no longer gel with their hero etc. Honestly, I think they bowed to public pressure. Funnily enough, a similar thing did happen with Colin Baker, he was a lighter character in Trial of a Time Lord compared to his debut season.

Personally, I like the lightened up Twelve, he's fun, but still capable of the drama when the situation calls for it. (The talk with Davros in Witch's Familiar, the talk and subsequent investigation of Ashildr in The Woman Who Lived).

I totally disagree with him being made more like Matt Smith. If anything, comparisons can be drawn between S9 Capaldi and the Season 16/17 Tom Baker, who Capaldi is clearly modelling himself off, right down to the voice!

I don't think they've bowed at all. The last season was defined (in fact, burdened) by a question, and that question was answered in Death In Heaven. He's got nothing to prove.

I suspect people's memories are being shaded by the lasting impression they got from the last series, rather than by what it was actually like. Revisiting it will show a Doctor that, was far from being uncaring or cold. He imposed his will by argument and authority, not by persuasion and niceness. That's still the case.

I think the characterisation of the 12th Doctor in season 8 was a massive misstep for the show. Capaldi possibly could have carried off an older, grumpier Doctor and still remained popular with the audience, but not someone as callous as the 12th Doctor proved to be last year. His flippant attitude towards the death (or impending death) of others was not funny, it was appalling.

The moment he asked "Am I a good man" I knew he was going in the wrong direction. For me, there should never be any doubt. But I think the characterisation of the Doctor in season 8 is indicative of the poorly judged writing of the show over the past few years. It feels as though the writers/producers are pleasing themselves rather than thinking whether they are delivering something that will please a wider audience.

And the wider audience is moving away from the show. Season 7a (autumn 2012) averaged almost 8m viewers per episode. Season 7b (spring 2013) was 7.1m and Season 8 (autumn 2014) was 7.2m per episode. Season 9 is currently averaging 6.4m.

I’m not sure the 12th Doctor can be saved, if I am honest, and I fear he is now a major turn-off for viewers. Not Capaldi’s fault, but a problem none-the-less.

Personally I quite like him, much more this year than last. But I think he hasn’t resonated with the wider audience and - like it or not – the show has lost 20% of its viewers in three years. Something isn't working, and although some of that may be down to scheduling, I think some of it is down to the current incarnation of the Doctor.

I'm glad they did. They took it too far last year. It too often came across as just horribly rude for the sake of it. This wasn't the Doctor who had great affection for humans, it was the Sixth Doctor all over again. Which was crap. Or First Doctor but without Ian and Barbara to make it work.

I enjoyed Capaldi last year, on the whole, but guessed they'd realise they'd have to tone it all way down.

I like this year. The sunglasses work well - at least we've got away from the Doctor waving the sonic around as if it were grafted to his hand. The guitar can go, but I don't mind it. The humour is OK and he plays it well. Loved the Richard Nixon pose on the aeroplane steps. He's about the right balance now.

The S8 "I'm his carer...." joke was good and perhaps too good to not use, but they could have played even that with a twinkle and left out a lot of the "pudding brain" stuff.

Yes - I had that "uh oh" moment too. I certainly didn't want a performance like the 10th and 11th Doctors, but neither did I want a script that took him far too Sixth Doctor-ish. And as you say - flippancy towards death. It doesn't have to be all "I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry", but it needn't be callous either.

The various causes of rating drop are too complicated for this thread. But I can't help feeling a major mistake was to keep Clara on. She had a very good exit in the Christmas episode and I think the audience might have enjoyed seeing the current Doctor take on a new companion - this series could have been all about the joy of introducing a new companion to the universe. (An actual character with a life and flaws and a family etc - not one of Moffat's arc-plots-in-human-form.) Instead we're trudging the slow plod to Clara's doom. I like Clara's getting-too-Doctorish arc, but it's not so good that I wouldn't swap it for something fresh.

I think a new companion, cleverly done, could have been used as the eyes of the audience in re-introducing us to this Doctor following last years misstep.

Yes, agree 100%. I was left feeling quite deflated at the end of the Christmas episode when Clara stayed on at the last minute. I don't think she is particularly liked by the audience, if I am honest (just my opinion) and I certainly agree that a new companion would have given season 9 a much needed boost. At least we'll get that with season 10!

Looks like he will go back to his roots a bit more in series 10, judging by a recent interview with Capaldi.