Monday, 14 October 2013

Steven Moffat at Cheltenham Festival: Clothes, Crossovers, Caginess

An outfit we can be almost positive Capaldi isn't buying
Paul Jones of the good RT has written up three comments of Moffat's at the Cheltenham Festival into independent articles (it was sponsored by the Radio Times, doncha know). They're all fairly interesting.

Apparently, Peter Capaldi's busy right now trying to decide on his planned outfits as the Doctor (is this a hint that Capaldi's not going to be in the Christmas special at all, a double-bluff to make us think he won't be in the special, or a reward to the actor for waking up in a bow tie and a fez? Be nice to see a fez again before Smith leaves.)

"He was texting me ‘I’m out with [the wardrobe stylist] at the moment, it’s going quite well’ and some descriptions of clothes I did not understand. If it’s not a suit…I’ll just let them get on with it and it’ll be ‘yes’ or ‘no’ at the end. He likes his clothes, he’s got very strong opinions about clothes, he’s very dashing."

Moffat also indicated he was interested in the prospect of a crossover with Star Trek, with the general enthusiasm of a man who knows he's answering a fanboy question and probably won't be called upon to pull off this messy legal and technical tour de force in reality.

“Star Trek and Doctor Who together? It would be brilliant fun, but I can’t imagine us little lot in our leaky shed in Wales and a mighty [Hollywood] studio – can you imagine the meetings alone?! I’d do it – I can’t imagine they would. I can’t imagine they would do it, because they’re too protective. I would do it in a shot – of course I would!”

Finally, and most intriguingly, he's saying that while the Doctor can only regenerate twelve times, that's not the end of the story. “I think you should go back to your DVDs and count correctly this time," said Moffat, "there’s something you’ve all missed.”

That's it. That's all we've got. Obviously, it's open season trying to figure out what he's on about, and the Radio Times comments thread for the article has already gone through most of the obvious possibilities. These include "does he still have leftover regenerations from River Song from 'Let's Kill Hitler', then?", "the Time Lords didn't call it a regeneration when they changed Troughton's face, maybe that one really doesn't count after all", and "didn't Matt Smith already say he had 507 regenerations on SJA?". The oddities of the Time War and "Brain of Morbius" don't explain a word of this (the one isn't on DVD and the other compounds the problem), but you do rather have to mention them in a discussion of mysterious regenerations. And that's before people started on about the Valeyard, and pocket watches, and the "complete new life cycle" line from "The Five Doctors", and What About Zygons, They Imitate People, and several other entertaining lines of discourse. We could probably keep this up until Smith's regeneration.

Unless Moffat simply meant to indicate that Capaldi is going to be the last Doctor because of Hurt's existence making him the Thirteenth Doctor after all, and not the Twelfth (except when he's not the last anymore when the show has to keep going, but that's a side point). Either that or the River Song Saves The Day explanation probably accounts for matters, but speculation's such fun anyway.

9 comments:

ialex91 said...

"is this a hint that Capaldi's not going to be in the Christmas special at all"

well, he doesn't need the new costume for a 1 minute regeneration scene

BlackButterfly said...

“I think you should go back to your DVDs and count correctly this time," said Moffat, "there’s something you’ve all missed.”

I'm just thinking : Eleven restarted the universe with is Big Bang 2, didn't he ?

Ingold Inglorion said...

Hm...something "everybody has missed" in the 50 years of doctor who but ONLY Stephen Moffat got? Please get off that pedestal.

J-Biz said...

It will just be something like 'The Master was given extra lives, so we can give the Doctor more' he never said it's something only he knows.

ZBW said...

There's also a ganger doctor out there. I really hope this doesn't play into it but it's possible...

PaulAspel said...

Didn't River use all her remaining regenerations on him? She'd had at least three so that gives him nine more, also in SJA the Doctor said he had hundreds of regenerations. I guess is makes no real difference as it's just a TV show and as they made up regeneration in the first place they can do what ever they like...

Joe said...

That's what I was thinking -- regenerations typically happen at the end of an episode, with the only appearance of the next Doctor still wearing the predecessor's clothes. They don't really need to settle on an outfit for Twelve until they're ready to film the first episode of the next series.

Christoffer Grandin said...

Why does everyone keep forgetting that Tennant regenerated twice? Once when he was shot by a Dalek in The Stolen Earth and then when he turned into Smith. Yes, that first regeneration didn't change his face, but that's just because he took enough energy to keep himself from dying and shifted the rest to his hand. You can't get around the fact that it was an actual regeneration. That makes Tennant into Doctor 10 and 11 with Smith being number 12. Or 11 and 12 with Smith being 13 depending on how John Hurt fits in.

Mercy Reborn 2 said...

yes he did