Matt Smith Is The New Doctor Who
Jan 3, 2009 by Bruce SimmonsWith nothing but torment, the BBC1 teased people throughout the show with only the age of the new actor to play Doctor Who, as being …
With nothing but torment, the BBC1 teased people throughout the show with only the age of the new actor to play Doctor Who, as being 26. Tweeters and bloggers alike were going crazy. Some didn’t think it right that the new Doctor be younger than they are, but then, they just don’t get it then, do they?
What took me by surprise was that despite all the names that were thrown in the mix, a new one suddenly popped up as a favorite before the announcement: Matt Smith. I did my research and when it was announced, I was no longer surprised or saying what everyone else was saying: Who!?
Northampton-born actor Matt Smith has been officially announced as the new Doctor Who. Smith will appear in the iconic role starting in 2010, taking over the role from David Tennant. Smith is the 11th actor to take on the role and youngest actor ever to play the good Doctor.
Matt Smith is 26 years old and already has quite a bit of experience under his belt. Aside from Party Animals, his television experience includes the 2006 adaptation of The Ruby in the Smoke, the follow-up, The Shadow in the North, and in ITV2′s Secret Diary of a Call Girl. His stage experience includes a West End stint opposite Christian Slater in Swimming With Sharks, and other roles in the Royal Court and National Theater.
Smith was cast over Christmas. The moment the head of drama at BBC, Piers Wenger, saw his audition, he knew he was the one.
There will be a year and four specials before we see the new Doctor, but for Smith, filming starts this summer.
Now being run by a new creative team for the 2010 season, the show will be led by executive producers Steven Moffat and Piers Wenger. This casting was paramount to anything else, which obviously included the finalizations of scripts.
Though it hasn’t been quite the wait that we’ve had to endure like in other television series when they break up the final season, it was still a much anticipated announcement that the BBC1′s show, Doctor Who Confidential was going to announce the next actor that will portray the good Doctor.
The announcement was big enough that BBC1 simulcast the show live on their outdoor screens around the country in city centre locations including Hull, Liverpool, Rotherham, Swindon, Swansea, Norwich and Walthamstow.
Here’s an image of Matt as the new Dr.:
Matt Smith as the new Dr. Who
Head over to GallifreyOne.com for more and highr-res pictures of Matt as the Dr. (and thanks to regular SR reader Ash Ali for the tip on the photo above).
The web went quite stir crazy as reporters, fans and every Doctor Who site editor emailed each other and started scurrying around to decipher this information… and then we all had to wait. Wait until the Saturday broadcast to find out who will be replacing David Tennant. Arguably one of the more popular actors to portray the quirky Doctor.
The hard part was sorting through the noise of shameless websites and tweeters announcing the new doctor, incorrectly I might add, before it was officially announced. I presume to generate traffic. It does not help a harried entertainment reporter I dare say!
And now that we know who the next Doctor Who will be, the next obvious piece to this time traveling puzzle would be who will be his assistant? Could we possibly see Billie Piper again? I only ask that because she’s worked with Matt previously. Egads, the questions never stop, but that’s what I do. Stir up the pot.
Sources: BBC News, Northampton Chronicle,
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Well, Glenn…people said the same thing about Catherine Tate. That she would destroy the show and make it unwatchable, and that anyone who thinks she’d do a good job was “stupid”.
Guess who was proven wrong.
I love how you think that anyone who is a “true fan” will hate him. That’s…cute.
I *am* a true fan. That’s why I have faith in the show and the people that run it.
GO Matt! I can’t say I am particularly familiar with his work, but he’s got a great face, a fantastic team behind him and I can’t wait to see the Doctors new direction.
Frankly I don’t care if he looks 100 or 10, I just want to believe that he’s just flown in from outer space and really isn’t one of us, and I think Matt will carry it off.
And yes, it is wrong to hate somebody you don’t know, especially for wanting to do a good job.
tbh i was abit worried the next doctor was gonna be horrible but having a younger actor to play him..
of course i will miss david and i take most fans will doing it for 3 series but i reckon matt will do an exceptionally job and im looking forward to seeing who his assistant will be…
give him a chance, i didnT think much of tennant, but i did THInk we WERE GOnna GET a oldER DocTOR, sTE MOFFaT KNOwS what hes doing this guy was cast because he is the doctor he reminds me of a young tom baker personally i cant wait for the eleventh doctor
i feal bad for saying i hate him. and of corse i dont realy. i wish him all the best. but i just cant help thinking that he looks wrong and he is far far far too young. i love doctor who. and i think if he was real and i met him and he looked like matt smith i wouldnt want to travel with him. i wouldnt be in awe of him. and he couldnt frighten me if he had a chain saw. i would call him sun shine and young en. not realy the stuff of legends is he ?
>>i feal bad for saying i hate him. and of corse i dont realy. i wish him all the best. but i just cant help thinking that he looks wrong and he is far far far too young. i love doctor who. and i think if he was real and i met him and he looked like matt smith i wouldnt want to travel with him. i wouldnt be in awe of him. and he couldnt frighten me if he had a chain saw. i would call him sun shine and young en. not realy the stuff of legends is he ?<<
How would you know? You haven’t seen this Doctor in action yet. I wouldn’t exactly have been awed if Patrick Troughton’s Doctor had approached me, but after watching him, I would have been impressed.
I hate having to use this comparison, but I needed an example of a character even younger. Okay…Harry Potter (the character, not Daniel Radcliffe). If he approached me, I wouldn’t think much of him, but after watching him take on some nasty things as brilliantly as he does in the movies, I *would* be impressed. I’d be even *more* impressed that a kid so young could accomplish that much.
This is a cliche, but things tend to be cliche for a reason, but anyway…never judge a book by it’s cover.
But sure, stop watching if you wish. Your loss.
patrick troughton was a man. when a man tells you he is angry and is going to stop you. you listen. when a boy tells you he is mad and is going to stop you. you give him a slap and put him in his place.
espesualy one that looks like matt smith
Right, now you’ve only proven that you’re not worth discussing this with you anymore.
i take it that i am right then ?
stormy… i dont want to sound like a brute. i can tell you are a big fan of doctor who like me. and i hope matt proves me wrong. but to me he is not the doctor. i have a very good emagination. but it can only be stretched so far. he does not have the fisicle prawess to have eny orthority over grown ups. they are turning it in to a slopy teenage show like holioaks. and i cant stand shows like that.
>>i take it that i am right then ?<<
No, it means you’ve shown you can’t discuss the manner without being rude and insulting to a man you don’t even know.
Can you express your reservations without making nasty comments about his appearance, or about slapping people?
On that note…
Folks, I realize this is a topic you’re passionate about – but it IS possible to discuss and disagree without getting nasty. I’ve been monitoring this thread and it’s on the hairy edge of my stepping in and actively moderating it.
Disagree, but be civil about it.
Vic
If Moffat thinks Smith can pull it off, that’s good enough for me. After all, he’s the same man who brought us “The Empty Child”, “The Girl in the Fireplace”, “Blink”, “Time Crash” and “Silence in the Library”. What could possibly go wrong?
And that’s not sarcasm, by the way. There’s seriously nothing to worry about.
I believe you. Even if I hadn’t already seen this guy before I knew he was cast, I have faith in the Moff.
I am so disappointed in this new younger Doctor. I’m a hard-core fan, from back in the sixties. Christopher Eccleston was just in the radar. Before Tennant, Peter Davison was the youngest Doctor, and even he was pushing the age limit. I don’t like how the New Who is so focused on the sexual tension aspect of Doctor Who. That wasn’t the point of the original series. “Doctor Who” the original series was purely “Science Fiction”, but the New Who has been put into the “Sci-Fi Drama” genre.
I hope to see a path back to the old Doctor Who, where the Doctor is the wise, fatherly/professor type to show the few special humans what a wonderful and terrible place the universe can be.
Also, the Valeyard is supposed to make his debut at the end, and I just can’t see a young man playing that part, especially since the Valeyard was back on Gallifrey with the Master.
Even the Daily Telegraph has joined in – asking for opinions from its readers.
Of the 32 comments so far there are only 2 in favour – many of them are far more vitriolic than me!
A very high number of people have said they won’t be tuning in in 2010. Never mind the Telegraph readers, apparantly the BBC took a very high number of calls and emails complaining.
This is the point I was trying to make yesterday. Whatever the rights or wrongs of casting Matt Smith and irrespective of whether you as fans would watch if the Doctor regenerated into Basil Brush – it MUST appeal to the casual viewer. The fans alone don’t create big enough ratings. If they did – it wouldn’t have been cancelled in 1989.
You can’t FORCE people to watch or to “give the boy a chance to do a man’s job”.
I simply don’t want to watch Matt Smith as Doctor Who and won’t do so. I’m certainly not alone. So, Stormy, perhaps I might be missed after all…
Also I disagree with this tired old argument that the Doctor can become anyone / anything. That’s only true within the 45 year old established paramaters of the show. The casting of Matt Smith not just breaks those paramaters it sticks two fingers up at them. THAT’S why people are so upset.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/4094067/Casting-Matt-Smith-shows-that-Doctor-Who-is-a-savvy-multi-million-pound-brand.html
Honestly, this is the only place I’ve seen that is so overwhelmingly and hatefully against him.
We’ll see how it goes in 2010. I’ve heard the arguments before about other actors playing various roles in the show, and it always seems to come out fine, or more than fine.
“Oh my god, they’re putting a pop star in as the Doctor’s companion? It’s going to be a disaster!” And look at Billie now.
“Ugh! Don’t bring Donna back, she was so annoying. The show will be destroyed!” Yeah…that happened, huh?
That’s right, Stormy. And it’s not exclusive to Doctor Who either. I mean, back in 1989, people were up in arms when Tim Burton cast Michael Keaton as Batman, and they thought he’d act just like he did in comedy films like “Mister Mom” and “Night Shift”. He didn’t. In fact, he did a really great job at playing a dark, tormented superhero, and made Adam West’s Batman look even stupider than he already did.
Going further back, when Sean Connery was cast as James Bond in 1962, people thought that a hard, working-class, football-playing Scotsman wouldn’t be able to play an upper-class British secret agent. He could. When “Dr. No” came out, audiences took to him instantly, and he went on to star in 6 more Bond films (including “Never Say Never Again”).
Fandom is always full of people who are resistant to change, and the Doctor Who fanbase is no exception. These people always refuse to give a new actor or actress a chance, regardless of whether or not they’re faithful to the role, or even if they simply do a good job. And even when they turn out to be extremely good at their job, you’ll still get a few people who stubbornly refuse to admit they were wrong, and they continue to piss on everybody’s parade.
This has been happening far too often with Whovians lately, and it’s one of the main reasons I don’t post on Outpost Gallifrey any more. Every time some kind of change takes place in the series (from the lead actor to the kind of paper RTD prints the scripts out on), they all start moaning, bitching, crying, screaming, shouting, swearing, fighting, flaming and sulking. IN THAT ORDER. And it never, ever stops.
You people seriously need a reality check if you think that casting a man who’s a couple of years younger than Peter Davison was in 1981 is going to ‘destroy the series’.
/rant
stormy. i am not saying that i want to slap matt smith. what i am saying is that a young boy talking down to grown ups is unatractive rude and anoying. and eny girly haired foppy student that does. weather he is the doctor or not will not be met with a good responce. matt smith is not the doctor. and ther for should respectfully pull out of the roll.
You know what – I’m weary of all this now….
To the touchy subjects of politics, religion, and musical taste we now have to add Doctor Who. Whatever your viewpoint is on any of these subjects there will always be people who just won’t give your opinion any merit – its too emotive and personal to each of us.
I’ll never convince you – and you’ll never convince me.
I’m leaving the debate now. I intend to enjoy 2009′s episodes of Doctor Who. At this point in time it is STILL the best, most exciting, most innovative science fiction drama in the history of British Television (and IMHO better than any of the crop of US stuff as well).
My issues with the program are a full year and a quarter away and I don’t want to spoil what’s left with pointless debate.
I hope you are all correct. I hope you find Matt Smith to be a truly wonderful Doctor and I honestly do hope it goes from strength to strength – because I don’t want the show to end – it’s been one of the highlights of my life. I watch at least one episode and listen to at least one audio every single week!
I have every intention of returning to the fold if and when the show continues into the Doctor’s 12 incarnation – pending casting decision
For the record – I’ve never objected to ANY casting decision in the show’s history. I championed both Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy when others sharpened their knives.
I DID raise an eyebrow when Bonnie Langford was cast as a companion – but that was all and I thought she did a pretty fine job as Melanie Bush.
For me to feel so strongly on this occasion should be demonstration enough then of how wrong I fee the casting to be.
As I say – I hope I’m wrong and I hope you all enjoy it. I’m sure in every other respect we’d all get along like a house on fire. But I still don’t want to watch when Matt Smith takes over. That doesn’t make me wrong. And it doesn’t mean I’m going to miss out in any shape or form.
Oh….by the way I really, really, really, really HATE football……
Farewell
stormy i know that people have had mixed opinions in the past about martha and donna. but they wear just suporting actors. it didnt matter wether they worked out or not. but what we are talking about hear is the doctor. the be all and end all of the show. you get that wrong and the show will die. and another thing stormy. this is the only place that i have read coments that are in favor of matt smith playing the doctor. so i dont know wher you have been surfing.
it apears to me that the only people that are in favor of matt smith becoming the doctor are kids in the 12 to 15 age groop. so as far as i am conserned ther 0pinion is not to be taken serious at all.
With all due respect, Glenn, you’re talking bollocks. I’m 18, and I don’t have any problem with him at all.
Hating an actor is one thing, but using sweeping generalizations to support your arguments is another.
And you said that children’s opinions shouldn’t be taken seriously…this coming from the man who says HIS YOUNG NEPHEW IS THE ABSOLUTE AUTHORITY ON DECIDING WHO SHOULD (OR SHOULDN’T) PLAY THE DOCTOR.
*SIGH*
@Bradley De La Cloche
“Bollocks.” I love that word… Don’t ask me why.
Vic
sorry 12 to 18 year olds then.
bradley i do not hate matt smith. i am sure he is a nice kid. but he is not doctor who. not no way. not no haw. i hate the fact that he even thinks that he can play him. he must be void of shame. i feal embarassed for him.