Doctor Who: Peter Capaldi’s 12 Greatest Moments As The Doctor

Earlier this month, Doctor Who's tenth season came to a close. It's always sad for fans when the latest season ends, but this one is more traumatic than ever. That's because it was the last season to star Peter Capaldi as the Doctor, ahead of his regeneration into his currently unknown replacement in the 2017 Christmas special. The character journey of the Twelfth Doctor has been a bumpy one, it has to be said, as he's gone through some extreme changes over the years. But Capaldi himself has never been less than exemplary. A lifelong fan of the show, the actor has relished the part with gusto and has clearly given it his all. Your personal favourite version of the Doctor is up to you, but there's no denying that Peter Capaldi is one of the finest actors to take on the role of the Time Lord to date. Now that we've seen three complete seasons with him in the part - and only one episode still to come - let's look through twelve of the finest moments of the Twelfth Doctor in chronological order. As always, if we've left out one of your favourites, let us know in the comments section. 12) "No Sir, All Thirteen!" The Twelfth Doctor might just have the honour of possessing the single most exciting introduction of a Doctor ever. Though Peter Capaldi had been announced as the next Time Lord in August, he wasn't scheduled to make his first appearance in the show until Christmas. So, it was a massive surprise when a familiar pair of eyebrows frowned their way into the big birthday celebration that was the 50th anniversary special "The Day of the Doctor." Finally having found a way to save Gallifrey, the Eleventh, Tenth and War Doctors unite all their past and future selves together for the big finale. "All twelve of them - I didn't know when I was well off," complains the Time Lord General. "No, sir - all thirteen!" his assistant corrects him. Cue a brief cut to Capaldi in his TARDIS. In an episode that was stuffed full of fan-service, the shocking early appearance of Doctor #12 was one of the best. 11) How Did The Half-Face Man Die? When the Twelfth Doctor properly entered the show in time for 2014's season 8, it quickly became clear that he was a very different man from his predecessors. Gone was the youth and affability, and in their place were crankiness and a much darker personality. The best example of this came in "Deep Breath," when the Doctor confronts the villain-of-the-week, the so-called Half-Face Man - a very old android which has kept itself operational with human transplants. For the Doctor's friends to be saved, the Half-Face Man needs to die. And he does, as he ends up impaled on the spire atop Big Ben. But how did that happen? Did the android give into its guilt? Or did the Doctor break his "basic programming" and commit murder? It's a brilliantly dramatic scene and one that fans will likely be debating forever. 10) Sword... Spoonfight With Robin Hood That's not to say that the Twelfth Doctor was always a misery-guts, though. His third episode "Robot of Sherwood," which saw him team up with Robin Hood, gave us one of his best comedy moments. In a recreation of the classic scene where Robin fights with Little John on a log over a river, the dashing archer challenges the Doctor to a swordfight. Having not come prepared, though, the Doctor puts on a show of being fearless and presents his own deadly weapon - a dessert spoon. Somehow, thanks to his adventures with famous historical sword-fighters ("Richard the Lionheart, Cyrano De Bergerac, Errol Flynn), he's able to come out on top. Though not without an unwanted dip in the lake. The scene offers a great bit of swashbuckling fun and also gives us the immortal line: "I am the Doctor and this... is my spoon!" 9) "Scared Is A Super Power" "Listen" will go down as one of the finest episodes of Peter Capaldi's era, largely due to its chilling, ambiguous threat. The Doctor discovers that there might potentially be a race of super-evolved hiders, beings who wait under our bed and hide in the shadows. When one of these creatures is possibly discovered hiding under a bed sheet in a young boy's bedroom, the Doctor tries to lift the kid's spirits. "Scared is a superpower," he tells him, explaining that being scared heightens your senses. "Do you think he's scared?" the Doctor says of the creature. "Nah, loser!" This is a terrific example of the Doctor's kindness, to children in particular. Despite the Twelfth Doctor's prickly exterior, he'll still help out a terrified child and make him feel powerful in the face of what is likely, a horrible monster. 8) Arriving On A Tank For the Twelfth Doctor's second year, he underwent a massive transformation. Out went the grouchy sourpuss and in came a kind of aging punk rocker. Like a kind of cool, kind of embarrassing uncle who uses the word "dude" and plays the guitar. This revamped Doctor needed a big entrance to reintroduce himself and he definitely got that in season 9 premiere, "The Magician's Apprentice." Locating the Doctor in Medieval England, we watch as he rides into an arena on a tank while playing the guitar and rocking some Ray Bans. It's a brilliantly memorable and audacious re-entrance for this Doctor, and from that point on, the character would be totally different from what we'd seen before. 7) "Who Frowned Me This Face?" Fans made a lot of the fact that Capaldi had previously turned up in Doctor Who when he was cast as the Doctor - he'd appeared as Roman family man Caecilius in David Tennant episode "The Fires of Pompeii." Showrunner Steven Moffat promised that this wouldn't be ignored in the show itself, and it was eventually addressed in this dramatic scene. After the death of plucky Viking girl Ashildr (Maisie Williams), the Doctor has had enough of letting people die in order to uphold the rules of time travel. This reminds him of the time in his tenth incarnation when he broke the rules to save Caecilius and his family from Mount Vesuvius. The Doctor realizes that he chose this face subconsciously to remind him to always save people. It's a big moment for the Twelfth Doctor and a nice explanation for Capaldi's dual roles. 6) The Anti-War Speech If we had to pick the single greatest moment of Peter Capaldi's Doctor, it would be this. The Doctor's aversion to violence and belief that compassion should come first has always been his best trait and that really comes to the fore in this scene. In "The Zygon Inversion," humanity and the Zygon race are at the brink of war...until they change their minds and draw up an armistice. What swayed them? Simply the Doctor giving an impassioned speech about the horrors of war and the importance of talking problems through before lashing out. The writing is excellent here, with a clear, very pertinent message to be absorbed by the viewer, but it really comes to life thanks to Capaldi's simply breathtaking performance. 5) Breaking The Wall... Over Six Billion Years A very close second best is "Heaven Sent," one of the finest episodes of recent years which literally only features Peter Capaldi (well, and a silent marauding monster) for the whole 45 minute episode. Not many actors have the skill to keep us enraptured by just talking to themselves for three quarters of an hour, but Capaldi definitely does. The highlight of the episode comes at its sad yet triumphant climax. The Doctor can't escape the strange castle he's been teleported into because an unbreakable diamond wall is blocking the exit. With all options seemingly exhausted - the Doctor still finds a way out. Simply put, it involves him punching the wall with his bare hands until it cracks... which takes four billion years! It's a fantastic, moving, timey-wimey scene that's a testament to the Doctor's unbreakable spirit. 4) The Last Night On Darillium The Twelfth Doctor is the least romantic Doctor for a long while, but he still shared this one bittersweet moment with River Song, otherwise known as his wife. The tragedy of the Doctor and River's relationship is that, as time travellers, they always meet in the wrong order and at some point the Doctor knew he was going to meet River for one last time at the Singing Towers of Darilium (shortly before she dies, as seen in David Tennant's "Silence In The Library.") In 2015 Christmas special "The Husbands of River Song," we finally see this moment play out. In typical grouchy Capaldi fashion, the Doctor talks about "happily ever after" being an illusion - before revealing that the two of them have a whole 24 years left to spend together. 3) "Human Progress Isn't Measured By Industry" We could fill this whole list with speeches the Twelfth Doctor has made, as nobody pontificates about right and wrong like Peter Capaldi. Though there wasn't one as grand as his anti-war speech, season 10 has still featured a couple of classics. First up is this one from "Thin Ice," which ostensibly is criticizing Victorian values but really has something to say about our modern lives as well. The Doctor confronts a rich, greedy industrialist whose schemes have led to a young urchin boy dying. "Human progress isn't measured by industry," the Doctor tells him. "It's measured by the value you place on a life. An unimportant life. A life without privilege." And, if you prefer your stands against injustice to be less articulate, the Doctor also punches a racist in this episode. It's a bit violent for him, but you still can't help but applaud. 2) Pleading With Missy To Be Kind Even better than his "Thin Ice" speech is the Doctor's mologue in "The Doctor Falls" - his final attempt to get his old frenemy Missy to join him in the fight against evil. With an army of Cybermen about to arrive and harvest a farmhouse full of orphans, the Doctor pleads with Missy - and her previous self, the Master - to help him out. To finally do some good. "I do what I do because it's right," he cries. "Because it's decent. And, above all, it's kind. Just that. Just kind... It's who I am. Where I stand is where I fall... Stand with me." It's a hugely emotional scene, as the Doctor gives it his all to convince his enemy to see things as he does and to save some lives. It also acts as one last mission statement of the Doctor's courageous and compassionate nature before he meets his end... 1) "I Don't Want To Change Again!" Later in the same episode, the recent season finale, the Doctor stands alone against the Cybermen and, just as he predicted, he falls. But this death hits him harder than most. Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor laments the fact that he's about to regenerate once again. It seems that this time is just one too many. "Never again, " he says. "I can't keep being somebody else." The Doctor's reluctance to give up his current life has been touched on before, back when David Tennant left, but this devastating scene here suggests that the emotional idea is going to be mined more than ever in the Twelfth Doctor's swan song this Christmas. While we have faith that the next incarnation - whoever it is - will great, we'll always remember when the Doctor was Peter Capaldi.