Goodbye Matt Smith, Hello Who?

Goodbye Matt Smith, Hello Who?

Yesterday it was revealed that the eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith, from BBC TV show ‘Doctor Who’ will be leaving after this year’s Christmas special, meaning we have just two episodes in the company of Smith before he regenerates into a new, as yet unknown, actor.

Rumours of Smith leaving – just like Tennant before him – have been circling for eighteen months now – rumours mostly generated by a news-hungry tabloid press, but they have now been confirmed in elements that could have been classed as a self-fulfilling policy from our media obsessed with the show.

As the lead of the sci-fi show, Smith did have his work cut out for him. Following a very popular Doctor in David Tennant, he was always going to be a tricky act to follow. However, combined with the, then new, show runner Steven Moffat, proved himself to be, arguably, the best New Who Doctor.

In fact, I feel it’ll be the next actor to play the Doctor that will have the most difficult job, following Matt Smith who, to me, outclasses David Tennant in the role. That’s not to say that Tennant is not a good actor – he was great in the series and subsequent roles such as ‘Broadchurch’ have proven him to be versatile – but he never quite felt as alien as Smith, who embodies the eccentricity of the Doctor perfectly, and, I am prepared to be trolled by this, much of Tennant’s following comes from his looks and attractiveness rather than his abilities as a good Doctor. Though you can’t say that Smith is not a handsome man, he is classically less so than his predecessor.

Tennant, in a nutshell, was a great Doctor but Matt Smith was just that little bit better, also helped by the writing. Russell T Davies should be acknowledged as a hard worker in bringing ‘Doctor Who’ back and for setting up four strong series, each with some great building arcs, but his writing, and his time as a show runner, was marred by rushed endings, and deus ex maschina here there and everywhere, and by the time Tennant exclaimed ‘ I don’t want to go’ I was glad RTD was moving on as episodes of 40-minutes of set-up and 5-minutes of rushed resolutions were getting tiring. That said, there were some cracking set pieces during this time – Bad Wolf, The Master etc – but I was glad when Moffat came onboard following episodes such as ‘Blink’.

Moffat and Smith have been a good partnership of writer and actor. If there are two accusations you can throw at series five to present, is one that there has been the law of diminishing returns, with series five being incredible – from its strong closing few episodes, to “that scene” in ‘Flesh and Stone” to the feeling that it all pulled together – series six great but not as exciting, to series seven that balanced moments of brilliance with a lack of a cohesive arc, something that the series does need to hold it together. Secondly, Moffat plays his ‘timey wimey’ elements too much, wrapping the plot in knots. But, in terms of my knowledge of the show, it has never been in better hands.

Smith has also had some great companions to work with in the forms of Amy, Rory, Clara and River Song and for the first time in ages I’ve felt that there is some proper plotting going on and Moffat and Smith knew where they were heading all along, and I enjoyed that.

It’ll be a shame to loss Smith. In terms of fan base, I think he is ‘my Doctor’. He captured the eccentricity and alien-ness of the character perfectly and, combined with some strong writing, had lots to make of the character. I was hoping for at least series eight from him but, if his quote is correct, we’ll be staying on the fields of Trenzalore for two more episodes to perhaps, if the fall in the TARDIS wasn’t that, the fall of the eleventh.

Favourite episodes during the Matt Smith era

10. Flesh and Stone (Series Five)

The second episode of the new two-parter featuring the Weeping Angels, this episode stood out as the first real example of Moffat’s clever plotting with a scene that shouts out continuity error, until you see the last episode of the series…

9. The Eleventh Hour (Series Five)

Matt Smith’s debut was immediately grabbing, showing him making the character his own almost immediately, full of energy.

8. The Girl Who Waited (Series Six)

A heart-breaking episode about the perils of time travel with Smith, Gillan and Darvill all bringing the script to life.

7. Let’s Kill Hitler! (Series Six)

Possibly the weirdest title you could imagine, but an episode full of brilliant lines, twists and turns and the only time that a break mid-series made plotting sense.

6. The Lodger (Series Five)

I’m not a big fan of James Cordon at all but he was brilliant in this episode, and this was where Matt Smith brought the funny side of the Doctor to life with some cracking, well delivered lines.

5. The Name of the Doctor (Series Seven)

The most recent episode we’ve seen, it was a brilliant conclusion in what has been a sub-par series with the use of some locations brought vividly to life, great use of stock footage and a multi-facetted performance from Smith.

4. The Angels Take Manhattan / P.S. (Series Seven)

Though some of the plotting doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, this was a touching and shocking episode with some great set pieces, and then a really sad extra scene not included in the piece.

3. Vincent and the Doctor (Series Five)

Possibly the saddest episode in Smith’s run, this was less about the monster of the week but about the artist himself.

2. The Wedding of River Song (Series Six)

I love this episode for the playing with time as all of history happens at once. A great concept portrayed well on screen.

1.      The Big Bang (Series Five)

Rounding off a strong season, this pulled everything together you’d seen before in a timey-wimey plot that ticks the boxes.

My Ideas for Successors

Ben Whishaw

Most famous for playing the new Q in ‘Skyfall’, I know him more from his role as Freddie Lyon in ‘The Hour’. His series two performance shows he can tackle a great range of emotions and he looks like he could slip into the Doctor’s bow-tie quite easily.

Andrew Lee-Potts

Having already experienced the world of sci-fi from Primeval, Lee-Potts will be at home with the world of green screen, and his mixture of child-like enthusiasm and the ability to also hit home emotionally would work well as the Doctor, plus he’s from Yorkshire!

Olly Murs

He’d pull off the braces look well… OK, maybe not…