Doctor Who Season 8: 10 Ways They Could Screw It Up

With its August start date fast approaching, the slow drip feed of news on Doctor Who series eight is intensifying. Yet for all the anticipation surrounding it, maddeningly little is really known about Peter Capaldi€™s first season. Those scraps that the production team have thrown us, like the Twelfth Doctor€™s costume and the announcement that Ben Wheatley (Sightseers, A Field in England) will be directing Capaldi€™s inaugural outings, have been well received. But what if that€™s not enough? What if, when it comes to our screens, series eight is a little less than stellar? Impossible, you might think! And you€™d probably be right. For the sake of argument, however, here are ten ways the production team might screw things up:

10. Can Peter Capaldi Really Live Up To Expectations?

Honestly, the answer is probably yes. He€™s one of our best actors, even in complete dross like The Musketeers. What€™s more, he loves Doctor Who to an almost embarrassing extent. The chances of him fumbling his dream job are practically nil. If anything might count against him, it€™s that this is now a young man€™s show- produced at such a breakneck speed, it nearly exhausted the youthful likes of David Tennant and Matt Smith. Let€™s not forget either the backlash from the younger end of the fanbase when Capaldi was cast. The idea that a 55 year old man could make for a believable Doctor has somehow become marginally unlikely. It will be interesting to see the adjustments Moffat makes in order to sell his newly aged protagonist. On the other end of the scale, the hardcore- the types who frequent message boards and own all versions of The Five Doctors on VHS and DVD- have already begun to speculate what combination of past Doctors the Twelfth will reference. Much of the reasoning goes that because he wears a similar jacket, he€™ll be a bit like Pertwee. Or because he looks mental, he€™ll be like Tom Baker. What do these fans do if Capaldi ends up nothing like any of them? Obviously they complain. So as good as Pete may well (almost certainly) be, he€™s going to struggle to please everyone.