Sunday 4 January 2009

New Who

The BBC have announced who will be playing the eleventh Doctor following David Tennant’s retirement from the role later this year.

**THIS IMAGE IS UNDER STRICT EMBARGO UNTIL 18:10 HOURS SATURDAY 3RD JANUARY 2009**

Picture Shows: MATT SMITH - the eleventh DOCTOR WHO

And the winner is . . . Matt Smith.

A name which, I’ve found, when put into IMDB brings up a bunch of people who aren’t the man in question. For reference, the correct one is Matt Smith (XI).

He’s not done a lot at this stage of his career (he’s only 26, after all) but I’ve seen a bit of what he has done, and it’s impressive.

300party_animals[1]Right now I’m enjoying his performance as politics nerd Danny Foster in the BBC series Party Animals (currently showing on Your ABC at 8.30 on Tuesday nights). He’s also acted opposite Billie Piper twice already: in The Ruby in the Smoke and Secret Diary of a Call Girl.

There’ll be a lot of cries of “Who?” over the appointment (particularly from the US) but tapping an otherwise unknown to play The Doctor is business as usual for the Beeb.

Even David Tennant, now lauded as one of the best ever in the role was largely unknown before he stepped into the TARDIS.

We await with interest Mr Smith’s work.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey matt,

wonder if you know this. in the 2009 series, doctor and donna go to the library where they meet a future ex-companion of the doctor. she seems to know him in his 2008 incarnation. does that mean we'll see her again in the 2009 series, before the doctor changes from tennant to smith?

Anonymous said...

"in the 2009 series, doctor and donna..." - sorry, meant to say in the 2008 series

Matt said...

Maybe. Tennant will be filming another 4 "specials" in 2009, before Smith takes over in 2010.
But even if not, I'm sure the writers will come up with some explanation . . . like maybe the future ex-companion was familiar with all the previous incarnations.

Anonymous said...

yeah, i'm sure they'll work something out. some explanation using the phrase "paradoxical loop" or something

Rob said...

well, they nmade it fairly clear in the billie piper serieses, that we don't see ALL of the doctor's adventures. So it's quite plausible that it has happened between episodes. Having said that, she seemes that she was a fairly significant feature in his life. Also I remember her saying that he looked "very young".
So given that Tennant won't look much older this year than he does now, and given Matt Smith looks even younger, it doesn't really fit, does it?
Sorry, getting a bit comicbookguy there. I'll stop now.
I am disappointed that Tennant is giving it up, because he is quite excellent at it, and I don't think it's necessarily time for him to move on. If he has concerns that playing the doctor for too long will harm the rest of his career he needs only look in the past to find that very rarely does an actor get ANYTHING of note after doctor who, regardless of how long he does it.
Peter Davison did all right, and Jon Pertwee went on to Worzel Gummidge, but other than that... well.