Doctor Who Season 8 Premiere Takes New York by Storm with Cybermen

Most fan bases don't wear costumes for the premiere of a new season of a television show, but Doctor Who's fan base isn't most. Excited Whovians--the name for diehard fans--dressed as various incarnations of the Doctor, his companions and even the TARDIS lined up to see BBC America's Doctor Who season 8 premiere in New York City last night. They were far from disappointed.

Peter Capaldi, the new actor playing the Doctor in the series, Jenna Coleman, playing Companion Clara Oswald, and Executive Producer Steven Moffat took to the TARDIS blue carpet in front of cheering fans. They were joined by an actor dressed as a cyberman, one of the robotic monsters that the Doctor fights against, who posed with them before the screening of the first episode of the new season.

Last night's premiere marks not just the beginning of a new season, though, but also of a new Doctor. For those who aren't familiar with the series, the Doctor is an alien from the planet Gallifrey, and wanders all of time and space with his various companions, helping out where he can. It's a hazardous occupation but each time the Doctor "dies," he instead regenerates and turns into a completely different individual to continue his journey. Season 8 highlights the 12^th Doctor and his companion, Clara Oswald.

"It's a brand new Doctor--a brand new take on the grand old man of space and time," said Steven Moffat, executive producer and lead writer of the new Doctor Who series. "The best thing of all is that with the new Doctor, you get to see that old show that you know so well being brand new-being absolutely different, which is rather exciting. It's not normal for a show to be able to do that."

The new series will feature both new and old monsters, including the well-known cybermen and even an appearance from the daleks, the robotic creatures that contributed to the downfall of the Doctor's home planet of Gallifrey. While enemies abound, though, what has fans most interested is the relationship between Clara and the Doctor, one that Moffat describes as being "complicated."

"I think it's difficult for both of them, because she looks at him and she can't see him," said Moffat, describing the relationship between the new Doctor and Clara. "And it's terribly difficult for him because he's saying 'I am me. I'm just me. And you look at me, and you don't see me at all.' And you play that out and it's not over in five minutes. You suddenly become invisible to your best friend, and that's pretty traumatic even if you're the Doctor--especially if you're the Doctor."

The last season of Doctor Who ended when the Doctor regenerated into the newest version of himself. Now in the new season, Clara needs to get to know the Doctor as she sorts out her own feelings for him.

"I think they have their moments where it's brilliant and they're so together and they're running and it's great fun. And then suddenly something happens and she'll U-turn and the Doctor will just leave her and walk away. It becomes rocky--really rocky," said Coleman, describing the relationship that Clara and the 12^th Doctor have in the new season. "But she cannot give it up; she cannot walk away from him. Too much has happened. I think she's addicted. I think she's in love with him. And I think she's been introduced to this amazing, amazing man who's a hero to her and she absolutely worships him even though she'd never tell him that. And I think in her life she thinks she'll never meet anybody who's as amazing or experience things like this ever again--which she won't. And I think once you've experienced all of time and space, how can you ever go back?" "

Capaldi's version of the Doctor is less approachable, less patient and a bit fiercer, continuing the "darker" trend that the series has been taking in recent seasons. Yet Capaldi is quick to note that even if the newest Doctor is darker, he's still the Doctor.

I wouldn't want to make him sound grim, because he's not. He's a great enthusiast, a great lover of life-of this fabulous gift he's been given to roam around time and space and see wonderful things. And he finds beauty all over. You know, you find beauty in a solar flare, or you know-a fiber in the carpet. He can examine things and has an enthusiasm for existence," said Capaldi.

You can catch the Doctor's journey through time and space when the new season premieres on Saturday, August 23 at 8:00 pm ET.