'Doctor Who' Season 8 Spoilers: Steven Moffat Dishes on John Hurt's Past and Peter Capaldi's Future VIDEO
As Doctor Who fans prepare for the regeneration of Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor, Whovains are simultaneously curious about the Time Lord's next incarnation and his recently revealed Time War iteration.
Luckily for viewers, showrunner Steven Moffat has the scoop on John Hurt's 8.5's past and the future of Peter Capaldi's 12.
Considering fan's saw nothing of John Hurt's Doctor between his creation and his dilemma at the end of the Time War, Moffat was generous while explaining the character's story and why he felt the need to include the warrior Doctor.
"I assume what's been happening during the John Hurt years that we never saw, is that he battled hard and fiercely in a way that the other Doctors would not have done, and that he was a dangerous and difficult man. But in his view he was not living up to the standards. I mean, by involving himself in an ongoing war - I always thought that sounded odd," the writer/producer explained to Doctor Who Magazine.
"I remember when David Tennant said, 'I fought in the Time War.' I thought, 'The Doctor in a war?' I mean, the Doctor may be saving people at the fringes of a war, or stopping a war, but I could never imagine him being in one. But John Hurt's Doctor is the one who was."
Meanwhile, there are some viewers who are wondering if Doctor Who will manage to separate Capaldi from his swear-heavy Malcolm Tucker from The Thick Of It.
"If you look at that publicity photograph he did for us, with the hand to the face, he's instantly not Malcolm Tucker. He just banishes that, and you think 'He's the Doctor," Moffat told The Independent.
"I'm confident that we'll sell this Doctor to our existing audience and he will be different enough that people won't just be miserable that they're missing Matt. And there will be people who will come and have a look just because it's Peter Capaldi. We'll tell them, 'You never thought this would be your show, but it is your show.'"
Smith will exit the BBC series in "The Time of the Doctor" on Christmas Day.
