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Doctor Who returns with a brand new season and a brand new star this Saturday on BBC America. Now, you might know your Daleks from your Cybermen and your Silurians from your Slitheen, but how much do you know about the actor playing the 12th Doctor, Peter Capaldi? We’ve got the lowdown on Doctor Who‘s latest Time Lord and we can point you to where you can stream his essential earlier work.

He’s a veteran star of stage and screen.

You’ve probably noticed that Peter Capaldi is no spring chicken. He’s an older, established actor who has been working for over 30 years on stage and in television and film. He’s appeared in Dangerous Liaisons, Agatha Christie’s Poirot, Prime Suspect and World War Z. So, basically there’s a lot that he’s done that you can stream. However, we’re kind of big fans of his supporting work on the first season of Skins. The gritty teen soap came under a lot of controversy because it showed teens drinking, doing drugs, having sex and struggling with eating disorders. That said, it also launched the careers of Nicholas Hoult, Dev Patel and more. Capaldi played a character’s disapproving father.

Stream Skins [Netflix]

He’s already been on Doctor Who.

Peter Capaldi might be making his big debut as the Doctor* this weekend, but he’s already been on the show before. Capaldi guest-starred in a season 4 episode called “The Fires of Pompeii.” He played a businessman in ancient Pompeii who gets embroiled in the Doctor’s adventures shortly before Pompeii erupts. Coincidentally, Karen Gillan, who would later become the 11th Doctor’s companion, Amy Pond, also makes an appearance in this episode.

Stream Doctor Who: “The Fires of Pompeii” [Netflix][Hulu Plus][Amazon Prime Instant Video]

His most famous character is a guy named Malcolm Tucker

Peter Capaldi was just your average hard-working British character actor until he starred as the explosive Malcolm Tucker in Armando Iannucci’s smart political comedy, The Thick of It. Malcolm Tucker is an aggressive, profane and hilariously mean director of communications for the British government. He’s also a ridiculously likable television character. The show’s success launched a spin-off film, In The Loop, and paved the way for Iannucci to create a sort of American version of the show on HBO called Veep.

Stream The Thick of It [Hulu] & In The Loop [Netflix]

He used to be in a punk rock band with BFF, Craig Ferguson.

Long before Craig Ferguson was a late night talk show host and Peter Capaldi was starring in Doctor Who, the two were BFFs in Glasgow. And yes, they were in a punk rock band together. And yes, they once took acid together. We know all about this because they’ve spoken about it publicly on Craig Ferguson’s show.

He’s a massive Whovian (aka Doctor Who fan).

Peter Capaldi is more than the 12th Doctor — he’s a Doctor Who supernerd. As a small boy, Capaldi would write fan letters to Doctor Who magazine and watched the show religiously. He’s already made a quip in interviews that he’s had to downplay his own nerddom on set. He told Vanity Fair http://www.vanityfair.com/vf-hollywood/2014/08/peter-capaldi-doctor-who that when he was first confronted with the TARDIS console, “I had to be very patient and not say to them, ‘I know exactly how to operate it. You don’t have to tell me a thing.”

Doctor Who returns to BBC America this Saturday, August 23rd and 8/7 C. Stream Doctor Who [Netflix] [Hulu Plus] [Amazon Prime Instant Video].

*Technically, Capaldi’s 12th Doctor had a brief cameo during the show’s 50th Anniversary Special (“The Day of the Doctor”) and made his first official appearance at the end of Matt Smith’s final episode as the 11th Doctor, “The Time Of The Doctor.”

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Photos: Everett Collection, Getty Images, BBC & CBS