Peter Capaldi Slams Doctor Who For One Unfortunate Reason
Peter Capaldi has turned his famous acid tongue on his old gig at Doctor Who, but it is not for the reason you might think.
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Scottish actor Peter Capaldi often portrays characters who do not have much of a filter. While he is currently best known in the United States for his portrayal of the villainous, plug-headed Thinker in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, he is equally as well known in the United Kingdom (and around the world) for playing the 12th incarnation of Doctor Who in the long-running BBC science fiction show. Capaldi has turned his famously acid tongue on Doctor Who to Digital Spy, and very unfavorably contrasted them with his new gig in Warner Bros’ DCEU. His main gripe? Naturally, it is about the money.
But not in the way you might think. While many actors complaining about money would doubtlessly be referring to the size of their own paycheck, Peter Capaldi’s issue with Doctor Who is that he thinks it looks cheap. The Paddington and Paddington 2 star described the venerable show (which has been running in some form or another since 1963) as having a B-movie quality, with props held together with velcro and duct tape. He was comparing Doctor who unfavorably to The Suicide Squad in particular, saying that the latter film had the budget to actually make their monsters look scary (presumably referring to how jacked John Cena is as Peacemaker). He did also spend a bit of time being nice, specifically referring to Idris Elba, Margot Robbie, John Cena, and David Dastmalchian as “a sensational group of people to be around.” We can only assume Sylvester Stallone was not included as he was recording audio dialogue for King Shark somewhere on a private island.
To make a mild counterpoint to Peter Capaldi’s point about the comparative budgets of Doctor Who and The Suicide Squad, the former television show is a production of BBC Cymru Wales. That is a British taxpayer-funded network, whose annual budget for all television programs production is £31 million (or about $40 million). In comparison, The Suicide Squad is a production of Warner Bros, one of the oldest and biggest film studios in the world, and had a budget of $185 million. So, yes, Mr. Capaldi, Doctor Who probably does look a little cheaper than The Suicide Squad. It could even be argued that the hokiness and B-movie qualities of Doctor Who are one of its selling points, as it hearkens back to a slightly more analog version of science fiction than we normally see on the big screen.
Peter Capaldi has previously made it pretty clear he has no plans to return to the franchise, including for any episodes that have different versions of The Doctor meeting each other. The series is currently between productions, with Jodie Whittaker just having finished her tour of duty as the Thirteenth (and first female) incarnation of the time-traveling alien. It is currently unknown who will be up next to play the role, while Capaldi himself is preparing to star in The Devil’s Hour, a limited series thriller from Amazon Prime Video. Considering Amazon’s current numbers, the budget probably will be up to his liking.
