Why Peter Capaldi could be just what the doctor ordered

In case you haven't heard there's a new doctor in town. Matt Smith is handing over the role of the titular doctor, in sci fi series Doctor Who, to Oscar winning actor Peter Capaldi as the show looks to build its future by taking a leaf from its past.

What does that mean exactly?

Well the very first doctor was an older man (William Hartnell), a well established and popular actor who brought not only gravitas and considerable talent to the role but a maturity and authority that few actors have succeeded in capturing since.

Yes the likes of David Tennant and Matt Smith did a brilliant job, and for me personally rank among the best of the doctors, but they couldn't quite capture that air of authority in the same way.

As the fiftieth anniversary episode draws ever nearer the show has gone back to its roots, casting an older actor as the new doctor (Peter Capaldi is the same age as Hartnell was when he took on the role) in a move that gives clues as to the shows direction as Matt Smith bows out later this year.

What direction is that?

First off you don't get an oscar winning actor and not use his acting skills to full advantage. Capaldi excels in both comedic and darker roles. While best known for shows such as The Thick Of it he is perhaps best known to Doctor Who fans as the villainous Frobisher in Torchwood Children Of Earth, or of course as the father in the fires of pompeii episode.

His casting suggests the new doctor will continue to be comedic, as has been the way with many doctors, but that the series will explore his darker side more, a darker side that the upcoming anniversary episode is set to reveal as John Hurt takes on David Tennant and Matt Smith in what promises to be a 3D spectacular.

The show looks set to introduce a doctor with a little more depth, a doctor whose dark past returns to haunt him, and Capaldi has the acting chops needed to tread the fine line between dark and funny.

The casting of an older actor also signals another change in direction. Successive doctors have seen the show become more a kids show than a family show. What's the difference?

Well at various points in its history the show has been family oriented, having elements that appeal to both kids and adults alike, this gradually changed, particularly in more recent years, to appeal primarily to younger viewers but the casting of the new doctor suggests that the show will explore slightly more grown up aspects of the character, such as his guilt over past actions or his darker alien nature, and that, while still a kids programme, it will return to being a little more family oriented.

The casting of Peter Capaldi also shows that the role is a serious one able to attract even more established actors, and that the show has a definite future with the BBC. Of course the casting of an internationally recognised oscar winning talent such as Capaldi will no doubt help the series attract more viewers outside the UK in markets such as the USA where some still see it as simply a kids tv show.

Peter Capaldi could be just what the doctor ordered. But only time....or a timelord....will tell.

Get Androids PhotoSphere on any JellyBean device

The Samsung Galaxy S4, the HTC one, and a number of other well selling Android devices are great but when their manufacturers use a custom version of Android (such as Samsungs Touch Wiz) they often also replace the standard camera app from Google with a modified version of their own.

This is not always a bad thing, the camera app on Samsungs flagship S4 for example is superior in many ways to the stock Android one it replaces, but Google introduced one thing with version 4.2 of their operating system (better known as JellyBean) that has photography fans eager to use it...and it's the one feature that, until now, many of us have been unable to use because it isn't included in most manufacturers replacement camera applications.

That feature is Googles photosphere.

Googles camera app lets you take a 360 degree panorama and then, when you want to view it, you can move around it as if you were there inside the picture.


It's a handy tool but it has a few issues, mainly that it cannot remove moving objects from the image (so you may get the same people multiple times in your image if they were walking by at the time) and it works best with subjects that are a reasonable distance from the camera, but as this is intended for 360 landscape panoramas these things are unlikely to be a major issue for most people.

So how do we get it on our Androids? Well as long as you are using a phone or tablet that runs Android version 4.2 or higher you can simply click this link. This will open a web page with a download button on it, that links to the Samsung Galaxy S4 Play Edition photosphere application.

Click the download button and, when the download is completed, simply install the apk file you just downloaded (you will need to make sure that the "allow unknown sources" option in your devices settings menu is ticked before you can install any apps from outside of the Play Store).

This will install the gallery and photosphere camera applications, it will not over write your existing camera or gallery apps and will work on any Jellybean device (even if that device is rooted). To take a photosphere just open the new camera app and you'll see the sphere icon on screen.

Just press the sphere and then start taking your pic by clicking the big blue circle. It's that easy.

To view the spheres you take you will need to use the new gallery you installed, this will recognise them as a photosphere. View them in your default gallery and they will be displayed as normal panoramas.

So download and have fun taking photospheres.