Was Capaldi forced out?

The more I think about it, the less plausible it seems that Peter Capaldi left of his own accord. He strikes me as a very gentle-natured guy and likely isn't going to speak out anytime soon, but I wouldn't be surprised if, in a decade or so, we find out that the circumstances surrounding his departure weren't so rosy behind the scenes.

Here we have a lifelong, hardcore fan of the show who's finally landed his dream job aged 55. He's visibly enthusiastic, frequently going above and beyond to be an ambassador for the show. When asked in a late 2016 interview when he thought he'd be stepping down, he responded "not for a long time, I hope". Little over a month later, he suddenly announced his departure.

During the radio interview in which he made the announcement, he sounds a little shaky, as though he's struggling not to break up. When pressed on his exact leaving date, his choice of words was interesting: "I think Christmas 2017 I've just been told."

As I mentioned earlier, Capaldi was a huge ambassador for the show. Not the sort of person who'd miss something as important as the launch event for his very last episode, and yet he did just that, sending a brief farewell letter in his place.

Chibnall initially claimed that he tried to convince Capaldi to stay, only to contradict himself by stating that he felt so strongly about casting a woman that he made it a "condition of employment". Those scenarios are mutually exclusive, and given that Chibnall had the nerve to promise us "ten compressed slices of everything [we] love about Doctor Who" and claim that his intention was to recreate the wonder of the Tom Baker years, the cunt clearly isn't averse to brazen dishonesty.

It's impossible to say with 100% certainty, but when one factors in the sudden intrusion of identity politics from Series 9 onward, the introduction of the infamous Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, comments from BBC bigwigs slagging off Monty Python and David Attenborough for being too white and male, the unexpectedness of Capaldi's departure and his surrounding out-of-character behaviour, followed by the emergence of a horrible reinvention of the show seemingly tailor-made to suit the BBC's agenda, an unsettling picture begins to emerge.

Of course he was. Chibnall got the job by promising Charlotte Moore - who'd ordered the creation of Missy to pave the way - to castrate an iconic male character.
There was never any way Capaldi was going to be kept on.

Great post. I don't think there is any question that Capaldi was forced out.

I feel bad for Capaldi. I think the way the BBC mistreated him is absolutely appalling. In some ways its worse than Colin.

Both were basically fired, both were forced to put up with a hiatus for no reason in their time, both were made the fall guy for the falling viewers, in face of laughably poor and unprofessional decisions from the BBC, and both were sabotaged in the role by stupid decisions.

However Colin was at least given a proper chance in his two seasons to be the Doctor, and when he was in the role the focus was put on him.

Right from the start from when Missy pranced onto screen, the focus was clearly on whether Capaldi's successor would be a woman or not.

I reckon in about 10 years we'll hear some more bitter behind the scenes stuff from Peter and I wouldn't blame him.

Its a shame as he would have been an amazing Doctor. I liked his no nonsense attitude and the fact that he brought a lot of physical aspects to his Doctor like Pertwee.

iank wrote:Of course he was. Chibnall got the job by promising Charlotte Moore - who'd ordered the creation of Missy to pave the way - to castrate an iconic male character.
There was never any way Capaldi was going to be kept on.

Didn't know that. I still blame Moff and Chibbers for going along with it, and for the appalling way Mofftwat wrote Missy wanting to shag the Doctor. Still that Charlotte Moore sounds like a spiteful piece of work. Hope her name becomes notorious among Who fandom in years to come.

There's no way they would have allowed another year with an old white guy in the lead.y Chibnall did say that the show would have been behind the times if they had not made the decision to change the Doctor's gender. Capaldi, very much like Baker, was never allowed to develop his Doctor properly after his first series. His balls had been taken away from him in Series 9 which was no doubt a sign of what was to come.

If the rumors are true that Capaldi has no interest in doing Big Finish, I would say that his experience working on the programme has soured his love for the character.

I've come to truly despise the BBC over the last decade.

I welcomed the casting of Capaldi but even then I realized the formula of modern Doctor Who would not be conducive to the type of Doctor he aught to be. Even I underestimated quite how much Moffat would systematically denigrate Capaldi's Doctor into a figure of ridicule.

For Capaldi to have thrived in the role you would really have needed a complete overhaul of NuWho and a series with a very different tone. One where ideas take precedence over emotions, where love cannot override immutable natural laws and a titular character who is unapologetically 'alien', unreadable and quite ambivalent about humanity. We saw a hint of this alien Doctor in series 8 and occasional flashes of brilliance after but it was never going to last with Moffat at the helm.

Under very different circumstances both Capaldi and quite possibly Christopher Eccleston could have been the best Doctor's. Unfortunately modern Doctor Who has always been incumbered by head writers who care too much about 'the human story' and have a distrust of anything which is too earnest and emotionally reserved.