SCI-FI star Peter Capaldi has praised the new Doctor Who Christmas special for aping vintage superhero films.
The Scottish actor will return in his leading role as the Doctor in the festive episode, entitled The Return of Doctor Mysterio, alongside returning cast member Matt Lucas and newcomers Justin Chatwin and Charity Wakefield.
The theme of the Christmas Day episode is that of classic superheroes, with Chatwin taking on the role of a mysterious figure known as The Ghost.
And the old- fashioned take on the genre hasn’t been lost on Capaldi.
In a pot-shot at modern superhero movies, the 58-year-old labelled them “grim”.
Capaldi said the script reminded him of the early Superman movies and thinks fans will be enthralled with the comedic elements to this new Doctor Who outing.
He said: “When I first read the script I thought ‘this is wonderful’ because it captures the delightful, light comedy touch that existed in the early Superman movies with Christopher Reeve.
“Superheroes nowadays tend to be a grim lot – but in those days there was optimism and a deliberate naivety that the character of Superman had which was very attractive.
“But also the way the scripts were written back then reminded me of the Spencer Tracy or Katharine Hepburn kind of scripts – they were very witty, very knockabout, very American.”
He said: “This script is like that so I was very happy to read it and to go with this whole idea of the Doctor meeting a superhero – it’s great fun.”
Capaldi, who has played the Time Lord since 2013, said the plot for the upcoming episode was “very much a light-hearted superhero romp”.
Show creator Steven Moffat said he wanted to do a superhero story for the Doctor Who Christmas special because he loved the “secret identity” they had.
He said: “I like the daft superpowers, I like scenes where the two identities being managed by our hero are clashing with each other – they did that beautifully in the Christopher Reeves Superman films and the Tobey Maguire Spiderman movies.
“That’s what’s interesting, that’s the cool part and you have a certain joyful levity in how you deal with the superpowers because they’re fundamentally silly – you can’t take them too seriously and I think the Superman movies do that so beautifully.”
The episode will see the Doctor join forces with the masked superhero in New York for a typical Doctor Who adventure.
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