We attended an event for the new Doctor Who levels of Lego Dimensions, as well as chatted with Peter Capaldi.
News“I’m the most scowling Lego ever,” Peter Capaldi exclaimed with a decidedly Scottish laugh. Indeed, despite his outgoing and even gregarious personality that could fill two ballrooms in a San Diego hotel on Wednesday night, he still is most known for being the Twelfth Man in a Police box…the Twelfth Doctor Who.
And it is that role which brought him to the Hard Rock Hotel on the eve of San Diego Comic-Con. The next day, he would be in Hall H to surprise fans with a new trailer for Doctor Who season nine—the tenth anniversary of “NuWho”—however he was here along with Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat, and co-stars Jenna Coleman and Michelle Gomez to take part in a preview event for Lego: Dimensions, a new Mad, Mad World styled imagining of geeky IP titles..including Doctor Who, which would be making its debut in the Lego-verse with both Peter Capaldi and Jenna Colemans’ vocal talents and likenesses added to the game.
The preview included video of how the Doctor and eventually Clara are introduced into this gaming universe. Incidentally, the worlds collide when the Kevin Conroy-voiced Batman (note: not Will Arnett’s infamous The Lego Movie Batman, who is also in the game) is teamed with Wild Style (Elizabeth Banks), Gandalf and Scooby-Doo as they accidentally warp into the TARDIS…At that point, Batman has real trouble understanding that he has met a time traveler (or the fact that they have apparently met before in the Doctor’s timeline, at least).
But the main attraction of the event was watching Capaldi, Coleman, Gomez, and Moffat reflect on being in a Lego game. Capaldi, who by his own admission is no gamer, seemed particularly amused with his trouble at placing a Lego version of himself on a gamepad.
Moffat, meanwhile, mostly seemed curious, and maybe a bit stunned, at some of the ideas the Lego creators could come up with for the game, including the Doctor riding a Dalek like he’s an eight-second cowboy at a bucking rodeo. When it was suggested by attendees that this game should be considered canonical or that it’s great that children would be introduced to the Doctor via this game, Moffat, replied, “Is it?”
Still, Moffat gave Batman and the Doctor meeting a thumbs up, and even was receptive to the idea of the Doctor and another famous investigator of British pop fiction also meeting up—if at least in Lego form.
“I’m the nice one!” Moffat deadpanned. “I say yes! Sure, Capaldi, Coleman, [Benedict] Cumberbatch, [Martin] Freeman…you have to convince the other people.” So, if the BBC and Lego game developers are keen, we may finally see when the Doctor meets Sherlock Holmes on the same screen…so to speak.
A personal highlight though was when I talked exclusively to Capaldi about the role and how it has allowed him to reconfigure certain aspects on the show. Indeed, as his first time in the U.S. for Comic-Con, he was seeing first-hand the new international power of his childhood dream related to being the Doctor.
“You don’t walk through every day of your life saying, ‘Oh no, I’m not Doctor Who! How miserable life is!” Capaldi quipped. “I just never really entertained the idea, because I didn’t think they were ever going in that direction again. I thought they’d always go for younger guys and that kind of thing. But I think it was really interesting to have that contrast.”
Capaldi further elaborated in our discussion about how this informed a new relationship with his companion costar, Ms. Coleman, as well as what direction it might take in the future.
When considering my suggestion of how he and Clara are more equal-footed than any other Doctor/Companion relationship, Capaldi said, “I think it’s because the Doctor that I play is less socially adept. He’s not good with other people. So, very quickly, it became clear that because we wanted to make him not good with people, we have to expand Clara’s character to help him. So in a way, she became more of his mentor. But the thing of Doctor Who is the Doctor knows everything. So, he knows what’s going to befall Clara, and what’s going to happen to Clara.”
That last statement was especially curious since he and Coleman head back to England next week to shoot the finale for Doctor Who season nine. So, when it’s posited what this could spell for their relationship in the future, all Capaldi could say after some thought is “where I’d like it to go is where it’s going to go.”
Wherever that might be, fans soon be able to play as both Capaldi and Coleman in Lego Dimensions—or any other Doctor too, as the game allows all 13 (including John Hurt’s War Doctor) to be played along with their replicated TARDIS’.
And for those who can’t wait to see Capaldi pick up the Sonic Screwdriver again, you’re in luck since the release date, as well as the season 9 trailer, were confirmed at another Comic-Con panel. So hold on to your eyebrows come Sept. 19!
