Photo: BBC
Peter Capaldi Becomes Doctor Who: The Complete IMDb Prophecies
Yes, he played 'W.H.O. Doctor' in World War Z. But that was only the latest and most obvious clue as to the role he was destined to book.
Yesterday (actually, last night, since it happened in England), the BBC announced that the twelfth Doctor in the immortal TV franchise Doctor Who would be the great Peter Capaldi. The sadly ignorant responded to this news by making "who" puns (watch The Thick Of It, you guys! It's free and full of swears!), but some noted a seeming coincidence in the man's CV: earlier this summer, Capaldi played "W.H.O. Doctor" in World War Z. But his Z role is not just a coincidence: it's a capper on a career's worth of roles that led Capaldi, inexorably, to Doctor Who. Behold, the incontrovertible evidence.
Living Apart Together
Role: Joe.
How It Presaged His Playing The Twelfth Doctor: "Living Apart Together" is pretty much what the Doctor does with all his Companions.
Local Hero
Role: Oldsen.
How It Presaged His Playing The Twelfth Doctor: "Old" and yet a "son" (almost)? These sorts of inherent paradoxes regarding age and chronology are what The Doctor is all about!
Travelling Man
Role: [The internet doesn't say.]
How It Presaged His Playing The Twelfth Doctor: More like "TIME-Travelling Man," right?
John And Yoko: A Love Story
Role: George Harrison.
How It Presaged His Playing The Twelfth Doctor: The composer of "Within You Without You" could have written it about the confusing portrayal of space-time in Doctor Who.
God's Chosen Car Park
Role: Everard.
How It Presaged His Playing The Twelfth Doctor: A car park with a "police box" in it, probably.
Selling Hitler
Role: Thomas Wade.
How It Presaged His Playing The Twelfth Doctor: Duh.
The Cloning Of Joanna May
Role: Isaac.
How It Presaged His Playing The Twelfth Doctor: Honestly.
Early Travellers In North America
Role: Robert Louis Stevenson.
How It Presaged His Playing The Twelfth Doctor: How many more times did he have to play "[time] travellers" before we would pick up on the theme? Extra points for playing early sci-fi author Stevenson.
Delta Wave
Role: Dinsdale Draco.
How It Presaged His Playing The Twelfth Doctor: Sounds space-y.
Fortysomething
Role: Dr. Ronnie Pilfrey.
How It Presaged His Playing The Twelfth Doctor: Another doctor. So obvious.
Sea Of Souls
Role: Gordon Fleming.
How It Presaged His Playing The Twelfth Doctor: This was a two-parter episode titled "Seeing Double" -- clones again, presumably.
Passer By
Role: Defence Barrister.
How It Presaged His Playing The Twelfth Doctor: Passing by, sort of like how The Doctor is always "passing by" various events in time and space during his adventures.
Donovan
Role: Dr. Angus Baldwin.
How It Presaged His Playing The Twelfth Doctor: Now it's getting ridiculous.
Aftersun
Role: Jim.
How It Presaged His Playing The Twelfth Doctor: "I'm burning up a sun just to say goodbye" was kind of a big moment on the show.
Waking The Dead
Role: Lucien Calvin.
How It Presaged His Playing The Twelfth Doctor: Waking the dead is more or less what happens whenever there's a new Doctor.
Bloody Foresigners
Role: Narrator.
How It Presaged His Playing The Twelfth Doctor: Who's more "foreign" than a Time Lord?
The Nativity
Role: Balthazar.
How It Presaged His Playing The Twelfth Doctor: Every new Doctor is immaculately conceived, as far as we can tell.
The Field Of Blood
Role: Dr. Pete.
How It Presaged His Playing The Twelfth Doctor: It's like he was begging us to figure it out already!
The Hour
Role: Randall Brown.
How It Presaged His Playing The Twelfth Doctor: Clearly, a British cousin of time-travelling technologist Doc Brown of Back To The Future, the end.