Ranking each Doctor Who based on who you’d get a pint with

Twelfth Doctor // Peter Capaldi

After the more light-hearted eras of the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors, Peter Capaldi’s time in the TARDIS feels distinctly different. The current Twelfth Doctor feels a bit more like some of his earlier predecessors – specifically William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton – than any of the more recent incarnations. Because Twelve is pretty dark, as Doctors go.

He’s curmudgeonly and snarky. He’s irascible and abrupt. And he doesn’t feel much like someone you’d necessarily want to be casual friends with, let alone travel through time next to. But Twelve’s rude old man demeanor masks a multitude of intriguing personality quirks. This is Doctor rejects hugs and is openly rude to his first companion, Clara. But he also gave himself the same face as a man he rescued in Pompeii so he’d remember to always try and save people. He spends four billion years literally punching a wall to work through grief. He’s incredibly complicated and super interesting.

And that’s before we even get to his obsession with playing the guitar. (Though I suppose I did always think David Bowie was a Time Lord. This kind of make sense in a way.)

Since Twelve is the oldest incarnation of the Doctor – clocking in at somewhere around 2,000 years old at this point – that he often seems ancient is natural. Capaldi himself is the oldest person to play the role since Hartnell, and he wears the antiquity of the character like a badge of honor. His Doctor has certainly had adventures and surely seen horrors. It’s a fact that’s basically woven into his DNA at this point. Just imagine the stories Twelve could tell by now. It’d definitely be enough to close down a bar on open mic night.

Booze of choice: Whisky. Neat.