Former Doctor Who star and the British actor behind the 12th incarnation of the titular character has recently compared the production values of James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad to the BBC’s long-running sci-fi series.
After the departure of Matt Smith’s Eleventh in The Time of the Doctor, Capaldi came on as the Magician through seasons 8 to 10, which still ran under showrunner Steven Moffat with roughly the same crew as in Russell T. Davies’ era. When Chris Chibnall came onboard, though, the network substantially increased the show’s budget, especially in the VFX department.
Over the past few years, there have been no complaints about Doctor Who‘s budget, but back when Chibnall’s predecessors ran the shop, the crew continually criticized the network for not taking their popular series as seriously as they should. Capaldi, in particular, has recently had the chance to work in an AAA production with the upcoming Suicide Squad, and he compared the differences in production between the two IPs during a new interview to promote the flick.
In his own words:
“Everything about [The Suicide Squad] was bigger. And also, you know, we had this incredible cast. Also, there was more money. Doctor Who, we don’t really have enough – everything on Doctor Who falls to pieces, all of the props fall to pieces and the costumes have to be stuck together with duct tape and velcro and stuff.”
Of course, the Academy award-winning director also went on to note that there was something to the B-quality circumstances of the show that he enjoyed, saying:
“I like the kind of B-movie, kind of cobbled together, quality of it. You know that there’s never really quite enough money, but the ideas are often very special – that’s what I like.”
Indeed, while many argue that Doctor Who often falls short of imitating industry giants in terms of visual aesthetics, it’s an undeniable fact that the writers more than make up for it through their brilliant ideas that have, in essence, gave birth to some of the most compelling narratives in sci-fi in the last two decades. That being said, Capaldi would still love it if they’d had the budget to actually make the monsters “look scary.”
“But it’s also nice to be somewhere where they do have enough money to make the monsters look scary,” he remarked.
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