Peter Capaldi has criticised Doctor Who fans who take the show 'so seriously', defending Jodie Whittaker and Ncuti Gatwa against backlash they faced over their casting as the Time Lord. In an interview with The Times, the 68-year-old actor who played the Twelfth Doctor addressed claims that the series had gone 'woke'.
'[Doctor Who] reflects its times and it's a good thing in the world, though it's become a bit too big, too important for the BBC or whoever,' Capaldi said. 'When I was a kid and watched it, it was just a monster show in the corner of the room. I don't know why people take it so seriously.'
Capaldi noted that the show has grown significantly since his childhood. 'The show became very, very big. And it was never like that when I loved it. So it became a different thing,' he said, adding that it had become 'a little bit of a victim of its success'.
Whittaker, the first female Doctor, faced sexist backlash during her tenure, while Gatwa, the first Black Doctor who played the character as openly queer, was regularly criticised by a section of fandom as being 'woke'. Capaldi refused to engage with such criticisms, instead defending the series' evolution.
