Matt Smith to remain Doctor Who star until 2013?
Posted by dailypop on August 24, 2010
Doctor No. 11 (Matt Smith)
Via Express.co.uk
DESPITE reports that he was set to leave Doctor Who after just one more series, Day & Night can exclusively reveal that Matt Smith is to stay on until the show’s 50th anniversary in three years.
BBC insiders now say moves are afoot to sign up the actor, 27, until 2013.“The current team believe that Matt is the person to continue taking the show forward over the next few years and want to avoid the prospect of fans having to get used to yet another actor in the role in the near future,” says our show mole.
“Matt has made it clear he’s keen to commit himself to the series for the long-term.”
He took over from the hugely popular David Tennant at the beginning of the year and has won rave reviews.
A spokeswoman for the show says: “From Matt’s point of view he’s loving playing the part and has no plans to quit. We aren’t in a position to provide a comment as to whether he’ll be playing the part in 2013.”
After the departure of David Tennant and Russell T Davies, many feared for the future of Doctor Who. The BBC wisely embarked upon the most ambitious marketing campaign I have ever witnessed including nation wide viewing in the UK and in a private showing on the other side of the pond in NYC. The 5th series has been the best yet in this viewer’s opinion and has revived my interest in the program. Matt Smith and Karen Gillan make the best team that Doctor Who has seen since Tom Baker and Lis Sladen and bring a kind of youthful exuberance to the 48 year-old Who. Head writer Steven Moffat has been a large part of the success in this drastic changeover, the first that the new Doctor Who has had to date. I have every confidence that given the chance, Moffat will continue to steer the series in the right direction.
This also marks the first hint that Doctor Who will be renewed past 2011. The last I had heard, the BBC had extended the program’s life and Smith’s contract for an additional series but no further. Modern fans of Doctor Who lack the experience of us older fans who bit their nails clean off past the 22nd series as the future of our favorite program seemed to be under constant threat of cancellation. I haven’t heard anything that would cause me to think that the BBC are unaware of the importance and profitability of the new Doctor Who series (something that the BBC execs were apparently unaware of back in 1984 and in 1989), but that’s no reason to take the continued success for granted.
Filming has started in the last month on the upcoming Christmas Special, with a preview image of Smith in the snow hitting the web today (dressed in a new jacket).
Matt Smith in the 2010 Doctor Who Christmas Special
Recent announcements of the series 4 Specials have apparently been selling well and in the US is currently at number 10 in the Amazon Top 20 Pre-Release Chart. Let’s hope things continue to stay this positive and that Doctor Who remains the oldest and most successful sci-fi TV program on the air today.
So where are those 50th Anniversary wish lists?
Recommended:
Pre-order: Doctor Who: The Complete Fifth Series
Pre-order: Doctor Who: The Complete Specials
Order: Doctor Who: The Beginning
Order: Doctor Who: The Deadly Assassin
Joe said
We should be so lucky as to have Matt Smith starring as the 11th Doctor through 20123. I personally would love to see him overtake Tom Baker as the longest-serving Doctor. I was skeptical of Smith before he debuted, but after the first 10 minutes of “The Eleventh Hour,” I was sold. “Bow ties are cool” indeed!
dailypop said
He really held his own throughout the series and shined like a genuine eccentric. I truly think that since Peter Davison left the BBC have been trying to find a replacement Tom Baker each time a new actor has been assigned to take over. The new series has essentially had the exact same character three times over with varied results and with all due respect to Eccleston and Tennant, Smith is the only one of the three to can pull it off. The three faces of Tom Baker that RTD wanted to recapture were serious/brilliant, angry and zany. An accomplished actor, Eccleston could pull of the gravity and sincerity of the character and had screen presence to burn. Tennant was all charisma and energy and in his second series you could see him growing into the part and exhibiting other facets to the character but… then he’d have to go all wacky and goofy and he lost the charisma that he had built up.
I know that Tennant has a cult idol status, but if he had just been allowed to find his own character instead of being apparently pushed into the same bad decisions that Eccleston before him had, his tenure would have been magnificent. As it is, it’s a mixed bag. I’m re-assessing his run now and am startled at what I am seeing.
The key element that both both Eccleston and Tennant lacked was the ‘zaniness’ that RTD insisted on instilling in the character, something that he must have viewed as part of the Doctor but in truth was really part of Tom Baker’s personality. Eccleston looked embarrassed each time he entered zany-land (if you watch his interviews in 2005, you can see how seriously he takes the part and I imagine he must have been disappointed by the farting aliens and Big Brother episode) and Tennant went far too over-the-top each time (his performance is restrained in Smith and Jones up until he dances out of a plimsoll in the X-Ray room), but Smith lives there. He’s genuinely that strange a guy, it doesn’t seem like an act at all.
I remember reading early interviews on Smith, about his injury that took him off the football pitch and into acting and his love for his cat from childhood. He showed a photo to the interviewer and mooned over the lost pet. He was reluctant to swear and shared candy with the interviewer and referred to it as ‘heaven in your mouth.’ I rolled my eyes, thinking ‘come on, drop the act.’ But that really is him, isn’t it? He really is that genuinely sweet and strange at the same time, qualities that make for a remarkable Doctor.
Joe said
Matt really does seem charmingly eccentric in real life, which could be the key to why he inhabits the character so fully. Like Tom Baker, Smith can just “be himself” and come off as…well, I guess I would call it “alien.” He doesn’t have to act the part, he doesn’t have to pretend. He’s just doing what comes naturally, so that’s why his performance seems so relaxed.
dailypop said
It’s a lucky thing because he has to win over the Russell T Davies/David Tennant fans who are reluctant to accept anyone else in the role.
Zeno said
After reading this I wish I followed the new Doctor Who more closely. Living in the states makes it difficult. Is BBC America showing the new episodes? I saw some of the first few Chris Ecllestion when it was on the Sci-Fi channel and few of the David Tennett’s on BBC America. The only Matt Smith story I saw is the Van Goth one. Any recommendations, Dailypop?
dailypop said
Zeno, BBC America is actually only a few weeks off from the UK transmission dates of new episodes. Keep your eyes peeled and I’ll do the same regarding any repeat schedule. I’ve been reviewing the new series from series 3 onwards and it has been a rough ride. In short, this is not the same program as Classic Doctor Who, which I am a devoted fan of.
I’m about to go embark on an in-depth re-visit of the new series as I just purchased the DVDs cheaply online and hope that it fares better. That said, I really do like Matt Smith in the part (as you can tell) and just watched the finale again and enjoyed it more.
The individual adventures aren’t really what I recommend, it’s more the performance by Smith and Gillan as the Doctor and Amy. The only exception this year is Time of the Angels/Flesh and Stone, which is quite good. The new series format is to tell one long interlocking story, making stand-out episodes very rare.
For the previous Doctor, David Tennant, I recommend Tooth and Claw, The Girl in the Fireplace, Human Nature/the Family of Blood, and Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead.
For Chris Eccleston, the first of the new Doctors, I recommend the Unquiet Dead and the Empty Child/The Doctor Dances.
However, and I have to stress this, you are meant to watch the entire series piece by piece rather than just one or two episodes so viewing individual adventures won’t give you an accurate view of the series.
dailypop said
Zeno, check out what’s coming to DVD!
http://gallifreynewsbase.blogspot.com/2010/08/meglos-coming-to-dvd.html
dailypop said
Zeno, BBC America are currently playing the end of series 2 and will start series 3 on August 31st. Doctor Who is aired at 10AM and 5PM weekdays. Series 5 may be available On Demand if you have digital cable.
Zeno said
Thanks for the information Dailypop. Like you I am fan of classic Dr Who. As much as I liked it one it varied in quality a lot. And as you also know the comedy elements of seasons 16 and 17 rubbed me the wrong way. In fact I haven’t made it through some of season 16 or and I only made it through City of Death and Destiny of the Daleks in 17. As a American you sometimes have to defend Dr Who . I assume this is much less of a problem in the UK. Perhaps that is part of my dislike that era. Since the Tom Baker episodes are by far the ones Americans are most familar with I think it is this period that makes others look down on the series. Still I tried to objectively view this era objectively. Ribos Operation is good,but somewhat overacted to the point of being very off putting. But a good story in itself. IDisliked Pirate Planet and thought Stones of Blood though,starting out decently was very poor in the last two episodes. What are your thoughts on those serials?
dailypop said
We are birds of a feather on this one, Zeno.
I was really into Dr Who in High School but dropped it in my 20′s. My initial opinion was that I preferred the 7th and 2nd Doctors, hated the 3rd and thought the 4th was over-rated. After being ‘clean’ for a long while, I picked up Tenth Planet on VHS and Ribos Operation used on DVD at a Newbury Comics. I picked up the rest of the Key to Time and now have a kind of nostalgic respect for it. Tom Baker was fantastic in his first three years under Hinchcliff and I also enjoy his last year but 16 and 17 are a real mixed bag with 17 being mostly silly and self-indulgent. In many ways, the new Doctor Who has a lot in common with series 17, just to warn you.
Talking to anyone in the US about Dr Who equals Tom Baker, really. In the Northeast his first three-four years were in heavy rotation in the late 70′s. A few saw Davison, but that’s about it. Most ppl I talk to had no idea it was a BBC production, had 7 leading men and started in 1963.
As a side-note I now think of Pertwee’s Doctor as one of the best. Weird, how our opinions change.
Zeno said
I have only seen a handful of Pertwee’s era but I thought he was pretty good. The biggest complaint as others have said is that they over did all the action scenes which padded the stories out. I still have his second adventure, the Silurians which I haven’t watched. Also planning on watching Brain of Morbius. I heard the 7th doctor’s first season was pretty lousy. I am lucky not to have seen any of it. However Curse of the Fenric and Remberance of the Daleks are very good. It seems the last two seasons were trying to reinvent the character. Of course this change gets mixed reviews. Does any era of the program not? It seems Hinchcliff’s era is the only one which is universally praised. Rightfully so I should add.
dailypop said
Silurians is excellent, a real classic. It’s when you delve outside of series 7 and into the comic-book-like series 8 and beyond that you run into trouble. But I still say he is one of the best. You should watch Trial of a Timelord before series 24 to get some sort of reference on ‘quality’ before watching McCoy’s first year. It’s not great in any light, but the program had become stale and needed reinvention. It wasn’t until series 25 that we got some good material, though. The new version of the Doctor is echoes in the new series, actually, in David Tennant’s 10th Doctor who shares many of the 7th Doctor’s character traits. Did you know that McCoy was voted Best Doctor in the Doctor Who Magazine polls for 1990?
And on series 12-14… you can’t go wrong with Hinchcliffe, can you?
Zeno said
Dailypop,Trial was in the Colin Baker years I recall. Never seen any of his stuff. Wasn’t Trial the last script Robert Holmes wrote before he passed away? As in for 12-14 his influence in those seasons was probably as important as Hinchcliffe,who said so himself on the commentary to Robot’s of Death. On to related topics you said David Tennett’s 19th doctor? You meant 10th,right? You said disliked Tennett,but he shares qualities with Mccoy who you did like. So I am a bit confused here on those two points.
dailypop said
Yes, Holmes heavily influenced the Hinchcliff era. I recommended watching Trial of a Timelord (Colin’s last) as something to compare McCoy’s first year to. Colin Baker is not for everyone. His bombastic acting and colorful coat drove away everyone who talked me into watching Doctor Who at the time! But I like him. I like almost all of the Doctor, really.
The “19th Doctor” was a weird typo. I fixed that. I do like McCoy and dislike Tennant, but I can see that one influences the other. The Doctor as a God-like trickster that we see in Curse of Fenric is very much a large part of Tennant’s Doctor but cranked up to a higher level. However, Tennant’s Doctor is also a moody romantic with far too much of Jim Carey’s ‘zaniness’ for my taste. Hopefully that clears that up, but you really should watch his episodes and decide for yourself.
Zeno said
I was going to mention this in my last post but from some of the episodes I saw it seemed they were trying to give Tennett more love stories. This was touched on the 8th doctor movie but it goes against the most personalities of the Doctor. Hartnell was a grandfather and he had a almost relationship in the Aztech’s, but nothing developed out of that and his interest in the woman was to learn a way to get back into the Temple. Hence that doesn’t count. Is this impression of Tennett as “leading man” type accurate?
dailypop said
YES and I completely agree that it is out of character. In the first series, she is developed as someone the Doctor may be developing feelings for, but thereafter, the Doctor and Rose are pitched to the viewer as a love to end all loves.
The “Doctor in Love” angle has been removed for the 11th Doctor, thankfully.
Joe said
Do we think Russell T Davies set out to make the 10th Doctor a romantic leading man-type, or was it just that David Tennant clicked so well with Billie Piper that there was little choice but to go with the onscreen chemistry? Certainly Davies knew from CASANOVA that Tennant was popular with female viewers, so perhaps that’s why Reinette fell for him. I recall 10 charming many female incidental characters (oh, and Capt. Jack, of course!) Even when Martha joined the TARDIS, she was not immune.
Also, let’s not forget that the Fourth Doctor and Romana got quite chummy, as well. I thought the offscreen chemistry between Tom Baker and his eventual wife, Lalla Ward, came through onscreen as well. Even though no relationship was suggested between the characters, one could sense a spark between them. I do recall that Baker was vociferous about the Doctor never getting involved with the TARDIS crew — so of course he had to go an marry one for real!
dailypop said
Nah, it was all RTD’s idea to make the Doctor a romantic figure straight from the start. The seeds of the idea are in the 2005 first series (in The Long Game the Doctor is decidedly flirty and says that he has kissed complete strangers) but it gets all blown out of proportion in the second series.
I actually never saw the chemistry between Tennant and Piper (the scene in Impossible Planet when Rose bubbles over with enthusiasm at living together while the Doctor stares off depressed is the one moment of what I thought of as genuine-ness between the two actors) but thought she worked very well with Eccleston. That being said, the initial idea of the series 4 companion was for her to be a new character whom the Doctor fell head over heels for. For some reason, Catherine Tate was chosen as the new companion and Russell T Davies scrapped the idea then decided to go back on the Doctor and Rose idea from the previous series.
There may have been positive chemistry between actors on screen, but the Doctor was never a romantic character in the classic series. This was a constant throughout the 26 years it was on screen, so it’s not restricted to Tom Baker. As for Baker and Lalla Ward, they barely looked each other eye to eye during their last series together. I like the pairing of the Doctor and Romana a lot, but the two actors barely cooperated on screen. Of-screen the marriage was very short-lived as well.
On recent DVD commentary tracks, Baker has complained that the Beeb wouldn’t let him have the romantic relations that Tennant enjoyed with companions on screen… but he is a randy old fella.
dailypop said
Check out my latest entry: http://dailypop.wordpress.com/2011/06/11/matt-smith-confirmed-for-another-14-episodes-of-doctor-who/
richard said
[ personally will be glad when he leaves. he doent have what dave tennant had. i would love to have patrick stewart take over the role