Last year's trailer was just as exciting as 2015's offering but instead of running with rumours of a possible davros return etc, attention was focused on what kind of character Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor would turn out to be. There were mutterings before Matt Smith's first series of a darker doctor to come, somewhat in the vein of the then in vogue Twilight franchise. Yet despite the one moody publicity image, this couldn't have been further off the mark. So when the series eight trailer hinted at a Doctor with questionable morals, fans were quick to speculate that the zany and gregarious Eleventh Doctor would be succeeded by a very different personality. As it turned out, this question was a constant undercurrent in a series where the viewers side with Clara in trying to determine whether or not the new Doctor could be trusted. In the end he was still just a madman in a box.
Paul Driscoll is a freelance writer and author across a range of subjects from Cult TV to religion and social policy. He is a passionate Doctor Who fan and January 2017 will see the publication of his first extended study of the series (based on Toby Whithouse's series six episode, The God Complex) in the critically acclaimed Black Archive range by Obverse Books. He is a regular writer for the fan site Doctor Who Worldwide and has contributed several essays to Watching Books' You and Who range. Recently he has branched out into fiction writing, with two short stories in the charity Doctor Who anthology Seasons of War (Chinbeard Books). Paul's work will also feature in the forthcoming Iris Wildthyme collection (A Clockwork Iris, Obverse Books) and Chinbeard Books' collection of drabbles, A Time Lord for Change.
