After three series and four years, it has been announced this evening that Matt Smith, the eleventh actor to play that time-travelling, planet-saving madman in a box, the Doctor, is to leave Doctor Who; regenerating in this year's Christmas special. As any reader of my blog will know, I'm a great fan of Mr Smith's. While I love every incarnation of the Doctor, none of them absolutely nail the character like Matt does with his mix of young and old, silliness and seriousness, and compassion and detachment. Every episode he appears in, Matt always gives a dedicated and enthralling performance that nearly always steals the show. Despite the marmite reaction his tenure has received, in my opinion the Matt Smith Era, as so it shall be known by fans of the future, are my favourite years of the show over its whole history of half a century. So far.
But as sad as this occasion is we must not forget that Doctor Who is all about embracing change. Whoever takes over the helm of the TARDIS (does the TARDIS actually have a helm? Discuss.) will have a lot to live up to. However, I would have said just the same at the end of Tennant's tenure and clearly that worked out fine. There are of course many capable actors (and actresses) who could tackle the role and I'm sure, as previous occasions have shown, the production team will cast the best person for the job. But for now we have two hour-long specials to enjoy with Matt Smith's eternally-endearing Eleventh Doctor before the, gulp, Twelfth appears. Thank you, Matt Smith! Matt Smith is cool!
I like how all your blog posts look like blog posts... like how pasta has different names.
ReplyDeleteBy Jove, you're right! Oh the wonders that can be found in the world by just marvelling at how things are exactly what they are.
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