Doctor Who: 10 Qualities That Made Peter Capaldi's Doctor Great
6. The Grumpy Old Man
Matt Smith was not hugely different in style to David Tennant, many of his speeches would have worked equally well on the lips of the Tenth Doctor. Not so, Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor. The contrast with the Eleventh Doctor is huge. Both Doctors are uncomfortable with human interaction, but for the Eleventh it’s not for want of trying. His was the Doctor who wanted to be cool and with-it, who wanted to be one of the lads kicking a football in the park. He had a particular affinity with children, sharing their curiosity and sense of play. The Twelfth Doctor is neither a fan of banter or of little people.
The children the Twelfth Doctor warms tend to be the misunderstood and the different – Maebh (In the Forest of the Night), and Ashildr (The Girl Who Died). He becomes a pal of Grant Gordon, but only because of his own irresponsibility in giving the boy superpowers (The Return of Doctor Mysterio). This Doctor is more often than not rude, abrupt and standoffish.
This dour side of the Doctor’s personality is partly facilitated by the stereotypical Scotsman:
“Oooooh... It's good I'm Scottish. I'm Scottish. I am Scottish. I can complain about things. I can really complain about things now.”
But it’s also fair to say that his previous high profile role as Malcolm Tucker has been deliberately bled into the Twelfth Doctor, rather like Peter Davison’s Tristian Farnham had with the Fifth Doctor. In place of the swearing we have “Shuttity, shut up up,” but this is Tucker for a family audience.