Waris Hussein, Doctor Who‘s very first director, has revealed that he particularly loves Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor.

At the Radio Times 2024 “Cover Party”, Hussein was asked what he’s looking forward to in the series; to which he replied:

“[When the Doctor] goes off to a more mysterious future. I don’t want him to be someone whose unavailable or is out of place.

“He’s a guide to gather humans. He knows too much but he doesn’t know how to convey things. I love Peter Capaldi. Peter gave it a kind of vulnerability.”

That’s a pretty great way of seeing the Doctor.

But it’s no surprise that Waris has such a great understanding of the Time Lord: Hussein helped originate Doctor Who, working with original producer Verity Lambert to cast William Hartnell as the First Doctor, and helming not only the first four-part adventure, An Unearthly Child, but also its fourth story, Marco Polo.

And how great to hear praise for the Twelfth Doctor — a tour de force of an incarnation who did indeed nonetheless give a vulnerability to his performance. Face the Raven, Heaven Sent, and Hell Bent are certainly testament to that, but there are numerous times the façade of this so-called “100% rebel Time Lord” cracked — Listen demonstrated a fearful side early on, Last Christmas showed how much he’d missed Clara Oswald, The Husbands of River Song let him connect to Alex Kingston’s titular character, and World Enough and Time/ The Doctor Falls showed what a hero he really is.

Let’s not forget that, when Capaldi was announced as the Doctor, he grabbed his lapels, as per the First Doctor too…

Yep, good pick, Waris.