‘Doctor Who’ Gets a New Teaser Featuring Peter Capaldi [Video]

A new short teaser video was released this week for the upcoming eighth season of Doctor Who. Season eight will star Peter Capaldi as The Twelfth Doctor. Jenna Coleman will return as the Doctor’s companion, Clara Oswald. The new season of Doctor Who rockets to the stars in less than two months, starting August 23 on BBC America.

The new teaser is only a short 15 second clip, but the images of the video are still dark, ominous and foreboding. The video begins with a darkened silhouette of the Doctor standing not far from the main controls of the TARDIS. The TARDIS appears to be exploding and going up in flames around the Doctor. Then, a voice-over plays as the camera zooms in closer to the Doctor’s face. The Doctor says, “Clara, be my pal. Am I a good man?” The camera pushes right into the Doctor’s eye, where the viewer sees an image of Clara. Clara says, “I don’t think I know who the Doctor is anymore.” The camera then zooms straight through the Doctor’s eye to a shot of the Doctor Who logo over the sound of the TARDIS’ engine.

Based on the new teaser released for Doctor Who with Peter Capaldi, the Doctor’s companion will challenge his beliefs and philosophies. On many occasions, the Doctor has been faced with emotional, ethical and moral dilemmas. Sometimes this forces the Doctor to make choices that will favor the good of the many over the good of the few (credit, Star Trek: Wrath of Khan). In the legendary Time War, the Doctor apparently destroyed his home planet of Gallifrey, the Time Lords and most of the Daleks in order to end the war for good.

In 50th anniversary special for Doctor Who, “The Day of the Doctor,” Matt Smith’s Eleventh doctor was paired up with David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor and John Hurt’s War Doctor to ultimately spare Gallifrey from extinction. Gallifrey was saved, but ultimately lost in some sort of wayward pocket universe that was incredibly hard to find. The special ended with the Doctor realizing that Gallifrey was still somewhere in outer space, waiting to be saved by the Doctor. The episode ended with a coda of the Doctor saying, “I have a new destination. My journey is the same as yours. The same as anyone’s. It’s taken me so many years, so many lifetimes, but at last, I know where I’m going. Where I’ve always been going. Home. The long way round.” The obvious expectation is that one of the Doctor’s next journeys would be to find and save Gallifrey.

In Matt Smith’s swan song as the Doctor, “The Time of the Doctor,”  Gallifrey and the Time Lords were actually stuck in the infamous “crack in the universe,” first introduced in the fifth season of the rebooted series. Unfortunately, due to the events of the Time War, the Doctor could not safely save Gallifrey or remove the Time Lords from the pocket universe without restarting the Time War anew. The Eleventh Doctor essentially spent the rest of his days guarding the crack from his greatest foes. However, at this point the Doctor had used up all of his regeneration cycles, so he could not be revived again in another form. However, the Time Lords opted to help their savior, granting the Doctor a new regeneration. This led to the introduction of the Twelfth Doctor (Capaldi).

Unfortunately for the Doctor and Clara, it looks like much tougher times remain ahead for the duo. The Doctor will likely make choices that will cause Clara to doubt him. However, since the Doctor is the hero of this story, it does not take a genius to figure out that he will somehow redeem himself. This new teaser released for Doctor Who season eights promises to whet the appetite of fans.

By Jeffrey Harris

Sources:
io9.com
BBC America