re: Peter Capaldi leaving Dr Who

I thought they took a slightly strange approach from Capaldi's first episode. I wondered how much influence he had on the writing, and if it had to do with him personally being too much of a fanboy and wanting to firmly establish himself as The Doctor, instead of just jumping right into the roll. It's as if they tried to go back to an earlier version of the Doctor as an eccentric, mysterious old man. Which is tough to do when a significant loyal portion of the audience has seen the character evolve and expand over the years.

I thought Matt Smith was pretty natural from the beginning, and did a great job of conveying the kind of lunacy and goofiness you might expect from a nearly-immortal time traveller.