"Officially announced(?)"

Meet the new 'Doctor Who,'

Randee Dawn
TODAY contributor 04 August 2013

Who are you? Well, on Sunday, the BBC (and BBC America in the U.S.) let adoring fans of the 50-year-old series "Doctor Who" in on who will play the next incarnation of the traveling Time Lord: Peter Capaldi.

Capaldi will play the 900-plus-year-old 12th Doctor and takes over the role from Matt Smith in an episode that will air on Nov. 23 in the UK.

"Doctor Who belongs to all of us," said Capaldi after the announcement.

Scottish actor Capaldi appeared in both the feature film "In the Loop" and TV series "The Thick of It" as a foul-mouthed political advisor, and was highly touted to be the next in the role.

(Curiously, he most recently appeared in "World War Z" as a character called the "W.H.O. Doctor" — in that case, the World Health Organization medical expert.)

He appeared once in a "Doctor Who" episode, "The Fires of Pompeii," in 2008.

The announcement was made in a live TV show during a special 30-minute program, which played in prime time in the UK and in the afternoon in America, and was filmed before a 400-member studio audience. Also making appearances on stage and in pre-taped interviews were former Doctor Who actors and former traveling companions.

"Veep" and "Thick of It" writer/producer/director Armando Iannucci immediately tweeted his delight:

John