Doctor Who’s Peter Capaldi Wins Over A Young Autistic Fan, The Rest Of The Human Race

By David Wharton | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

DoctorDalekWe’re in that weird period that Doctor Who goes through anytime there’s a regeneration and a new actor playing the time lord. For the most part, Whovians seem to be less skeptical about Peter Capaldi than they were about Matt Smith, which is understandable since he’s a better-known performer and it doesn’t take much research to discover that he is, scientifically speaking, awesome. But even with that being the case, we still don’t really know what his Doctor will be like. And what about his relationship with the fans? That’s a huge part of taking on the role of the Doctor: interacting with fans, especially those young enough that they don’t entirely understand the divide between fantasy and reality. For them, the Doctor is simply the Doctor, but now he has a different face. Well, regardless of what his Doctor proves to be like, Capaldi’s encounter with a young autistic girl has proven him more than worthy of carrying the torch.

See, last month the show was shooting at Mermaid Quay in Cardiff. Among the crowd watching the action was a young girl named Roxann, her big sister Bernadette, and their mom. Roxann is a big Doctor Who fan because, as her mom put it on her blog, “she goes on adventures with doctor who and Clara and she was worried that the new doctor (Peter) would not like her and wouldn’t want to join in her games.”

Excuse me, I have something in my eye. Eyes. I have something in both my eyes.

Jenna

Anyway, so the trio were watching the Who shoot while on holiday in Cardiff, and they got to meet Jenna-Louise Coleman and get some pictures with her. They told the crew about Roxann’s concern about the new Doctor, but unfortunately Peter Capaldi wasn’t filming that day, so the crew invited them back for the next day. So return they did, with Roxann all dolled up in a golden Dalek outfit and Benadette in a TARDIS dress. They kept hoping to meet Peter but he kept being needed elsewhere. Finally, the episode’s director came over personally and took them to meet Peter. Then this happened.

It’s noisy so it’s hard to make out the conversation, but thankfully the Internet went and gif-ified it for easier comprehension.

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Or, as Roxann’s aunt put it:

Hiya, the little girl in the dalek outfit is my niece, she’s autistic and was finding it difficult coming to terms with the regeneration as Matts doctor is her imaginary friend, she was worried PCap wouldn’t want to play with her. We are very ecstatic that he took time to reassure her. He’s brilliant!

So yeah. The new Doctor told a little girl he would still go on adventures with her because the last Doctor and Clara said it was okay and hopefully she wanted to still go on adventures with him and WHY IS IT SO DUSTY IN HERE?!?

Seriously, we need some sort of emotional buffer before we’re all dropped back into cold, cruel reality. Here’s Peter Capaldi in puppet form.

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