Before he was the Doctor, Peter Capaldi popped up in the Who-niverse twice, the first time we saw him he was a marble merchant named Caecilius. Working and living in Pompeii with his wife and children. After Donna (yay Donna) convinces the 10th Doctor to go back and save them, he and his family are left on the outskirts of the ruined city where Caecilius overcome by what he sees struggles to make sense of the events and coins the term volcano.
The next time he appeared was in Torchwood, the Doctor Who spin-off series and Capaldi traded his Toga for a suit and the marble for the bureaucrats and took on the role of John Frobisher.
After his announcement as the next incarnation of the Doctor, many fans wondered whether or not his previous roles would surface, Karen Gillan also featured in the Pompeii episodes but that was never mentioned now though Steven Moffat has spoken about the issue in an interview with Nerd3.
“We are aware that Peter Capaldi’s played a big old part in Doctor Who and Torchwood before and we are not going to ignore the fact. I remember Russell [T Davies] told me that he had a big old plan as to why there were two Peter Capaldis in the Who universe: one in Pompeii and one in Torchwood. When I cast Peter and Russell got in touch to say how pleased he was, I said, ‘Okay, what was your theory and does it still work?” and he said, ‘Yes it does. Here it is…’
Moffat being Moffat he added, “We’ll play that one out over time. It’s actually quite neat.”… why do you have to be such a tease Steve? Why?!
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