Doctor Who: Ranking All 12 Doctors From Worst To Best
6. The Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi)
STORIES: 10
ALIENNESS: 11
HEROISM: 9
LIKABILITY: 2
LEGACY: 1
OVERALL SCORE: 33
It is quite possible that in years to come, Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor will be celebrated as being up there with the best. He might even leapfrog to the top of the pack.
At the moment, he isn't there. This is not only because it is too early to judge what his legacy will be. So far, little has been added to the mythology of the character that will make any discernible difference to the future direction of the show. Instead Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor is past-facing. He is a nostalgic celebration of some of his predecessors, a winning combination of the First Doctor’s cantankerousness, the Third Doctor’s suaveness, and the Fourth Doctor’s eccentricity.
The stories are of a consistently high quality and the Doctor, as has been the case since the revival, is very much the archetypal hero. But so far the Capaldi years have not yet been sufficiently well defined, in comparison say to the fairy tale style that typified the Eleventh Doctor’s stories, or the discernible three stages of Tom Baker’s run.
As with William Hartnell, Capaldi cannot rely on his characterisation alone to draw out the alienness of the Doctor. Fortunately, Steven Moffat and the other writers have provided plenty of excellent dialogue for the Twelfth Doctor to tell us just how different he is from his human companions and associates.
Capaldi himself argues that his Doctor is “more alien than he has been in a while.” The point is highlighted in his frequent complaints of not understanding human affairs and emotions with Clara being both the foil and victim of his ignorance.