Former Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi revealed he’d wanted to see the Time Lord having adventures with rock and blues themes, suggesting one episode could have focused on Jimi Hendrix.
The Oscar-winning actor and director played the 12th incarnation of the Doctor from 2014 to 2017, and managed to have his electric guitar playing featured in the show.
“Between my first and second seasons, I said it’d be fun if the Doctor had a guitar to plug into the TARDIS console,” Capaldi told the Guardian in a new interview. “It was just an idea; I never dreamed it would happen.”
The actor even thought up music-related plot points. “I imagined the Doctor might have invented the wah-wah pedal,” he revealed. “We could’ve done a historical episode where he met Jimi Hendrix and introduced him to this piece of alien technology. I also thought there could be a great blues episode. When Robert Johnson meets the devil at the crossroads, the Doctor could discover something extraterrestrial going on.”
He also confirmed that the character’s costume had been partly inspired by David Bowie. “Yeah, him and David Lynch, who used to do that buttoned-up white shirt thing,” he said. “Another reason was I thought kids could look like the Doctor without having to spend any money. Rather than buying a costume, they could just button up their school shirt.”
Capaldi – who was once in a punk band in Glasgow, Scotland, with TV host Craig Ferguson – is poised to release his debut solo album, St. Christopher. “I would’ve loved to be a professional musician but that would’ve also had its ups and downs,” he reflected, “so I’m happy to be coming to it at this late stage. My life has been enormously blessed. All the side-waters and strange corners I’ve gone around have made me who I am.”
Watch Peter Capaldi Playing Guitar as The Doctor