During Peter Capaldi’s run as the 12th incarnation of everyone’s favourite time lord, the Doctor often opted for an electric guitar over his trusty sonic screwdriver (which he replaced with “sonic sunglasses”- freeing his hands for chords and strumming!). Growing up, Capaldi was briefly in an art collage post-punk band, The Dreamboys, with Craig Ferguson. Peter Capaldi has noted that the punk explosion began when he was 18 so he’s a huge fan of new wave music and rock’n’roll. Bowie, Lou Reed, Talking Heads and Sex Pistols were Peter Capaldi’s early & lifelong influences. He got into Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen later in life. It wasn’t until he was 63 that Peter Capaldi debuted his first solo album- St Christopher. Music runs in the Capaldi blood as his 2nd cousin, Lewis Capaldi, is a world-renowned singer-songwriter and musician. Peter Capaldi even utilised his acting talents for the music video of Lewis Capaldi’s most popular hit “Someone You Loved” which is a song that’s notable for being the longest-running top 10 UK single of all time by a British Artist. In an alternate timeline, perhaps “Pete’s world”, Peter Capaldi would surely be a professional musician rather than making his name through his incredible acting chops.
A notable trait of the 12th Doctor, besides grumpiness, is his affinity with his electric guitar. Since the very first moment of the show (Delia Derbyshire’s immensely iconic 60s synthetic theme tune) music has been the blood of Doctor Who. Talents such as The Radiophonic Workshop, Murray Gold and Segun Akinola have scored the show over the years with some of the most beautiful and nostalgic songs one could possibly conjure. And the Doctor himself has been no stranger to the odd instrumental performance. Patrick Troughton’s 2nd incarnation of the Doctor is known for playing the recorder at any given opportunity- his action figure comes with a tiny recorder accessory!- and Sylvester McCoy’s 7th Doctor plays the spoons everywhere he goes.
The Killers
In a BBC Radio 2 interview with Jo Whiley, Peter Capaldi disclosed that there were several songs that directly influenced his portrayal of the Doctor. These are the songs he performs inside of his trailer and on set in order to get in character for the role. Humans by ‘The Killers’ is the first of these songs (and a go-to karaoke song for Capaldi!). When talking about Humans, he states:
“I think there’s something otherworldly about that. I’ve never really figured out what the lyrics mean, buts it’s certainly some kind of discourse about human beings. Which an alien could be making.”
Existential and vague lyrical questions about humanity’s operation within social structures are asked by Humans. It’s clear to see how this song would inspire an objective detachment and perspective upon human beings as if they weren’t Capaldi’s own species.
In the fictional Doctor Who universe, Lucie Miller (the 8th Doctor’s companion) once claimed that ‘The Killers’ are one of her favourite bands!
Craig Armstrong
The other song to have the privilege of triggering Capaldi’s transformation into the Doctor is A Strange Kind of Love by Craig Armstrong. Peter Capaldi told Jo Whiley that he chose this song:
because the Doctor has a weird relationship with human beings and with his companions. And he loves them, but not in a human way.
There is a melancholic warmth to this soft, slow song. It presents a sense of pure aromantic comforting love with tragic undertones. Being a time lord, the Doctor is incapable of having typical human relationships. This fact is presented during the 12th Doctor’s run through his convoluted heartwarming/heartbreaking dynamics with Clara Oswald and River Song. However, due to his thousand-year lifespan, the 12 Doctor holds a wealth of other heartbreaks carried over from his past lives.
David Bowie
David Bowie is the closest thing real life has ever had to the Doctor. Songs like Starman and Changes exude the essence of the character! Capaldi has even been known to provide a guitar rendition of Starman to fans at comic conventions and has stated that “David Live” is one of his favourite records. Being a lifelong musical influence upon Peter Capaldi, Bowie’s fashion sense is also strongly echoed through the 12th Doctor’s costuming (alongside some David Lynch). The Bowie persona replicated by the 12th Doctor is ‘The Thin White Duke’. This was a controversial figure and Bowie would go on to describe this period as “the darkest days of my life”, akin to how the 12th Doctor is the darkest regular incarnation of the Time-Lord.
In 2015, Peter Capaldi announced publicly that he wished for David Bowie to be a guest star on the show- alongside an episode focused upon Jimi Hendrix! David Bowie had actually already had a near-miss from Doctor Who when he was set to play Sharaz Jek in the 5th Doctor’s 1984 story The Caves of Androzarni until it clashed with his Serious Moonlight tour. Bowie would have been a perfect addition to Doctor Who & I’m sure, in a future episode, the Tardis will go back in time to the 70s for an adventure with this music legend!
Though never performing any of Bowie’s work in the show, the 12th Doctor does have a habit of quoting Davie Bowie lyrics. In series 9’s The Magician’s Apprentice, the Doctor introduces the world to the English language “Dude” several centuries early. He has a crowd chanting the word after every expression he says. One such expression is “All the Young!” shouted to the cry of “Dudes!” in reference to Bowie’s 1972 release- All the Young Dudes. Furthermore, in series 10’s Smile, the Doctor says to an emojibot “I’m happy, hope you’re happy too” which is a lyric from David Bowie’s Ashes to Ashes (1980).
A pair of comic covers for Titan Comics’ run of the 12th Doctor are pastiches of David Bowie album covers. The Twelfth Doctor Year 2 #3 is inspired by Bowie’s Heroes album wherein a black and white Doctor poses in a way that mirrors David Bowie. Also, The Twelfth Doctor Year 2 #9 replaces the album cover of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust but with an added Tardis and Cybermen.
Van Halen
In the most audacious introduction of all time, the 12th Doctor’s guitar is first seen during his debut scene in series 9 (The Magician’s Apprentice). The Doctor blasts onto our screens as he stands atop a military tank that drives through a fighting arena in the Middle Ages! Equipped with a Yamaha SGV-800 “Black Sparkle” guitar, the Doctor first shreds some Eruption by Van Halen before breaking the 4th wall with a spin on the Doctor Who theme tune with transitions into Queen’s Tie Your Mother Down. Upon acknowledging Clara and Missy in the crowd, the Doctor smoothly plays the iconic opening riff of Van Halen’s Pretty Woman where he leaves both women smitten.
An electric guitar-playing Doctor was a character trait conjured by Capaldi himself. He initially wanted a Fender Stratocaster but, in his words, it looked like he was having a mid-life crisis every time he tried one on. Therefore, he chose the Yamaha guitar which Peter Capaldi claims looks “like someone had described a Fender Stratocaster to somebody else & made it without ever seeing a picture of it”.
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd’s relationship with Doctor Who is worthy of an entire blog post of its own. Pink Floyd have sampled and referenced Doctor Who in their music on several occasions- notably in the song One of These Days (1971) which contains the Doctor Who theme song. They are a favourite band of Capaldi’s predecessor, Matt Smith. In the expanded universe, the 6th Doctor reveals that he is a fan of Pink Floyd- particularly their The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967) album.
In series 8’s The Caretaker, the Doctor mockingly whistles the antiestablishment (and anti-school) tune “We don’t need no education” from Pink Floyd’s The Wall (1979) whilst working as a caretaker for the same school Clara teaches at. In series 9’s The Woman Who Lived, the Doctor plays a segment of Wish You Were Here 1975 on his guitar.
Ludwig van Beethoven
The 12th Doctor strummed the opening bars to Beethoven’s 5th Symphony when explains the ‘Bootstrap Paradox’ in Before the Flood and, again, as Bill Potts enters his office in The Pilot. Perhaps jokingly, the 12th Doctor strongly implies that he went back in time and accidentally became the classical composer, Beethoven, himself before describing the real Beethoven as a “nice chap, very intense” and a man who “loved an arm wrestle”.
During Before the Flood, the Doctor erupts the 4th wall by performing the Doctor Who theme music which bridges into the time vortex title screen with an electric guitar mix.
Conclusion
The 12th Doctor’s music angle kicked into full swing from his initial scene in series 9. Series 8 had no electric guitar as it debuted iconically being played above a tank in the Middle Ages in series 9’s first episode. It was an intrinsic aspect of the reinvention of the 12th Doctor’s character. Having written this blog, I believe a portion of this reinvention worked to make the 12th Doctor’s personality more akin to his actors as Peter Capaldi evidently has a rich passion for music; and talent when it comes to performing.
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