Doctor Who Showrunner Says Peter Capaldi’s Regeneration Will Be Something Different

For Doctor Who fans, the Doctor’s regeneration is a changing of the guard that’s occurred nearly a dozen times over the series’ history, but those fans shouldn’t expect the same old routine when Peter Capaldi bows out at the end of the show’s tenth modern season.

Outgoing showrunner Steven Moffat says that he’s been working with incoming showrunner Chris Chibnall on making Moffat’s exit something special.

“You all know that the mighty Peter Capaldi will be bowing out, but we’re gonna do it slightly differently this time and I’ve been working with Chris [Chibnall] about how we do the changeover in a new way,” Moffat tells Front Row. “I’m not going to tell you what that is. I’m excited by it, I think it’s gonna work well. Every regeneration is different, but we are playing it slightly differently this time. I think we’ve got a good idea.”

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Capaldi’s final episode will be the 2017 Doctor Who Christmas Special. That means that Moffat has the tricky task of balancing the holiday festivities with the Twelfth Doctor’s final farewell.

“I kind of do the angst in the series finale,” Moffat explains. “You’ll see how this pans out when you see the show, but finales are better at ‘last falls,’ and moments of reflection, and anguish, and bloodbaths – which it certainly bloody is! Whereas, Christmas Day isn’t a great day to kill off a children’s favorite. It can be sad – and it is – but to actually kill off lovely old Doctor Who is not what you want to see on Christmas Day. So it will be a tale of redemption and hope, and deciding to carry on, instead of being a tale of the Doctor falling.”

Capaldi took over as The Doctor in Season 8, after Matt Smith’s departure. After three seasons, he will depart the show alongside showrunner Steven Moffat, who has steered the series since Season 5. Moffat was a breakout writer during the Russell T. Davies seasons of Doctor Who.

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Moffat will be handing the reins over to Broadchurch creator Chris Chibnall for Doctor Who Season 11. Chibnall is a longtime Doctor Who fans who also wrote for the series during the Russell T. Davies era and was head writer on the Doctor Who spinoff series Torchwood.

Doctor Who Season 10 also introduces Pearl Mackie as the new companion, Bill Potts, replacing the previous companion, Jenna Coleman’s Clara Oswald, who left after Season 9. Whether she will join the new Doctor in Doctor Who Season 11 is still unknown

Doctor Who Season 10 is currently airing Saturdays at 9 p.m. ET on BBC America.