Doctor Who: 10 Essential Changes To Make With Peter Capaldi's Doctor

7. Navigation

12thdrchanges 7 Tardis The Doctor needs to start losing control of the TARDIS again. Knowing where he's going and that he's almost always going to end up where he intended takes away everything that made classic Who so much fun! When did he learn how to control the TARDIS properly anyway? Yes it happened a few times in the classic series, but aside from an uncanny ability to keep putting her down in the exact same spot at UNIT HQ, it was almost always the exception rather the rule. Back in Logopolis, the fourth Doctor boasted that the TARDIS and he were getting "rather better at these short hops", but it was never a given. In Paradise Towers, the seventh Doctor intended to take Mel for a swim in the Towers' much-vaunted pool and while he managed to get the right place, he certainly didn't get the right time. These days, he virtually always gets to exactly where he wanted to be and at more-or-less when he wanted to be there. Although, saying that, for a man who knows so much about the universe and its history - and, presumably, about the places he wants to get to - he does have an odd habit of miscalculating the nastiness that the TARDIS will materialise in the middle of. Perhaps it's more a case of him getting where he wants to go, rather than when he wants to be there, but even that's gotten boring. I want the next Doctor to start popping up in totally unexpected places. I want him to not know what he's about to get himself embroiled in. I want him to have no idea whatsoever about the language, the culture or the history of the places he goes to. And I want him to have to make repeated excuses for his poor navigational skills €“ the rigours of the regenerative process could be the perfect explanation for it! Every so often he could reference some passing knowledge of a place, or do a bit of random - if ineffectual - name-dropping, or recall a previous visit in the far distant past, whether related to a broadcast story or not. It'd certainly restore a bit of the mystery and a sense of unpredictability, both of which have been absent for a while now. Capaldi's Doctor €“ please make getting where you want to go the exception, rather than the rule. It'll be more fun for all of us!
Contributor
Contributor

I'm just a guy who loves words. I discover vast tracts of uncharted enjoyment by chucking words together and coming up with stuff that talks about the things I enjoy and love most. I'm also a massive listaholic, so I'm probably talking about a list, looking at a list or banging away at another What Culture list as you read this. My tone's pretty relaxed and conversational, with a liberal sprinkling of sparkling wit, wilting sarcasm and occasional faux-condescension - with tongue almost always firmly planted in cheek.