Heartfelt letters, fanzine articles, even a campaign to run the Official Doctor Who Fan Club - yes, it's fair to say that Peter Capaldi is a full-fledged, card-carrying Whovian.
But has his enthusiasm for the iconic BBC sci-fi series been dented by long night shoots, endless promotion and all the attention that comes with playing the Doctor?
Not a bit of it. When Digital Spy and other press recently sat down with Capaldi, we discovered that he's as big a fan of Doctor Who as ever - and here's the proof.
Peter Capaldi on Doctor Who's Christmas: 'It's festive and terrifying'
He wants classic monsters to make a comeback...
"I'd quite like the Axons to show up again, but done with our modern CGI and the make-up techniques that we now have available to us. I loved them - with the BAFTA award face, that then turned into the monster - I loved that kind of thing.
"…or the Daemons, I'd love them to show up. I think they'd be good to do again. I think it's a while since we've had a cult.
"I watched 'The Masque of Mandragora' the other day, in which there was a fairly classic cult of people with strange masks on, in hoods, who were doing pseudo-sacrifices.
"I like the little overlap between Doctor Who and Hammer Horror - it's been a while since we've had any of that. We need a cult."
Yes, Peter still watches old Doctor Who in his spare time...
"The funny thing is, you [now] have a greater understanding... I mean, I was watching Tom Baker and I thought he, more so than I, has to deal with things that are a little bit cardboard, but he elevates them to utterly cosmic levels.
"We have, sometimes, very rarely on our show... but it is true that sometimes we have things that fall to pieces and are not looking so great as they might look at the end of the day, so it's the acting that has to make them believable.
"You suddenly understand much more about the work they're doing and how committed they are - how their truthfulness makes it work."
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Peter geeked out when Michael (son of Patrick) Troughton guested in this year's Christmas special...
"I spoke to Michael a lot about his Dad - he's got very interesting stories... because of course when his Dad took over Doctor Who, there was no guarantee that it would work.
"It was a very radical and brave move but it might not have paid off, so it was quite a risk for his Dad to do it, because his Dad was a quite established character actor - but it worked. So I was obviously digging stuff up about all of that - it was very interesting.
"I was a huge fan of his Dad - I had his Dad's autograph. I wrote to his Dad (another fan letter!) - he used to have little photos of himself as Doctor Who to send out to fans, as I have.
"But he'd obviously run out of those, so he sent me a little snapshot of himself on his boat in the Norfolk Broads. I remember really cherishing that, because it was such a personal thing."
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Peter watches the Doctor Who Christmas special every year...
"It's fitted into my family tradition - I've always insisted on watching it on Christmas Day. It's a little bit terrifying [to be in it] because it's moved into the Morecambe & Wise slot, as it were...
"It just shows how the show has expanded its constituency and is so popular that it successfully works on Christmas Day. But it has that British mix of something a little bit scary and a little bit festive...
"It's like that thing of always having a ghost story on late on Christmas Eve. It fits right into that tradition, which is wonderful.
"But it is scary - Eric Morecambe, I'm sure, used to get extremely worried on Boxing Day because he had to start thinking about what they would do next year - so I'm sure Steven [Moffat] has the same problem."
Peter thinks being a Doctor Who fan is a wonderful thing...
"Although people may disagree very violently about different aspects of it, their affection for the show remains very sound and very pure. So that means that not everybody likes me and not everybody likes what we're doing - a lot of people do, but a lot of people don't.
"But they love the show…. so whoever is playing the Doctor becomes the focus of their affection for the show. You get the benefit of their love for Matt and David and Chris and everybody - so it's wonderful.
"They're so creative and so positive - I just think it's a good thing in the world. It's nice to be part of that."
Peter Capaldi stars in Doctor Who's festive special 'Last Christmas' later this month on BBC One.
