{"id":1030981,"date":"2026-06-16T21:22:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T21:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1030981\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T21:22:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T21:22:18","slug":"exclusive-doctor-who-legend-peter-capaldi-defends-the-show-in-wake-of-russell-t-davies-departure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1030981\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: Doctor Who legend Peter Capaldi defends the show in wake of Russell T Davies departure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi has shared some hopeful words on the future of the sci-fi show following the news that the planned Christmas special has been cancelled. Last week, the BBC announced the decision to pull the plug on the festive episode<\/a> as the show has been put out for competitive tender.<\/p>\n

The Criminal Record star played the Twelfth Doctor for three seasons of the show airing between 2014 and 2017 and showrun by Steven Moffat. Speaking with Digital Spy<\/strong>, Capaldi weighed in on Russell T Davies’ exit as showrunner<\/a>, assuring that the show “will be the same but different” once it returns.<\/p>\n

“Doctor Who has been great to Russell, and it has been great to everybody who’s worked any of it and it will continue to be great. It’s not going anywhere,” Capaldi said.<\/p>\n

\"peter<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n

Related: <\/strong>Best streaming services<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

“Maybe it will disappear for a while in time and space, that’s what the Doctor does.”<\/p>\n

The latest episode of Doctor Who aired in May last year and saw Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth regenerate into an unnamed character played by Billie Piper, who previously portrayed Rose Tyler. It seems no one truly leaves Doctor Who as the show could bring back more past actors \u2014 whenever it returns to our screens, that is.<\/p>\n

“You can never say never,” Capaldi agreed about a possible return to Doctor Who. <\/p>\n

He continued: “You never know what happens in the future, anything can happen in the future, [Capaldi’s Doctor] can do that, he can’t do it. You just never know in the universe, and if he’s going to do that, he can do that.”<\/p>\n

\"peter<\/p>\n

Simon Ridgway\/\/BBC<\/p>\n

Moffat also recently addressed the Christmas special cancellation<\/a>, though he was adamant that the show would “very definitely” return.<\/p>\n

“I don’t like the fact there’s not gonna be a Christmas special. There should always be a Christmas special,” he told the audience at the Utopia fan convention. “There’s not going to be that, but the show will return. Very, very definitely.”<\/p>\n

Doctor Who<\/strong> airs on BBC One in the UK,<\/strong> with classic episodes available via BBC iPlayer. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Take our interdimensional Doctor Who quiz!<\/strong><\/a>
<\/p>\n

Interested in talking about <\/strong>Doctor Who<\/strong>? Visit our dedicated sub-forum<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Read more <\/strong>Doctor Who<\/strong> news on our dedicated homepage<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Visit our Streaming Guide<\/a> now to see at a glance where you can view ALL your favourite shows and movies.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The new edition of Living Legends, a collector’s edition exploring the royal family, is here! Buy The Royals in newsagents or online<\/a>.<\/strong>
<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Reporter, Digital Spy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stefania is a freelance writer specialising in TV and movies. After graduating from City University, London, she covered LGBTQ+ news and pursued a career in entertainment journalism, with her work appearing in outlets including Little White Lies, The Skinny, Radio Times<\/a> and Digital Spy<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her beats are horror films and period dramas, especially if fronted by queer women. She can argue why Scream is the best slasher in four languages (and a half).\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi has shared some hopeful words on the future of the sci-fi show following…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1030982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3937],"tags":[238361,218934,215877,1380,284566,1331,77,258961,1330,284565,382,16,15],"class_list":["post-1030981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-collection-doctor-who","tag-collection-exclusives","tag-collection-latest-news","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-6cddc6d9-8794-413c-9e14-d1bfe4d622e0","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-entertainment","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-gb","tag-shorttitle-exclusive-doctor-who-legend-peter-capaldi-defends-the-show","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116761891290348922","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1030981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1030982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1030981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1030981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1030981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}