Doctor Who: 10 Characteristics Peter Capaldi’s Doctor Should Have

9. Elevated Diction

This is the first of several items, tailored to thinking about ways Peter Capaldi's version of the Doctor can break away from Matt Smith's version. While I appreciate the occasional wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey cropping up, much of the Eleventh Doctor seemed to revolve around making everything something-y or relying heavily on catchphrases. Both the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors tended toward plain speech and I think a naturally more verbose lexicon is needed for the Twelfth Doctor. Alternatively, we could just have him stand in front of a stack of books continually. But somehow, I think the stories might get a bit dull. The Doctor has, of late, been concerned with not being taken seriously, and a greater command of language would give him a more authoritative image. I find that each Doctor in some way responds to the principal frustration of their successor, and thinking about Capaldi's Doctor from a position of building authority would do that nicely. Of course, the Doctor will always be dumbing down that which we mere humans cannot understand and that calls for a silly word or two, and the broad audience of Doctor Who means he can never sound too buried in a thesaurus. All I am saying is we could use a few spacio-temporal hyperlinks instead of magic doors in our future.