Time Lord calls it a day
Matt Smith bids farewell to role as 11th Dr. Who,
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. Five decades in five minutes. As Doctor Who prepares to draw back the curtain on its 50th-anniversary special this weekend, The Day of the Doctor, Matt Smith, the Northampton, U.K., native who played the 11th incarnation of the time-travelling Doctor for four seasons, starting in 2010, nudged his castmate and Doctor Who companion Jenna Coleman playfully and admitted it’s impossible to sum up in just five minutes what Doctor Who has meant to countless generations of young admirers.
From that November night in 1963, when Doctor Who first flickered into being in living black-andwhite glory, with the late stage actor William Hartnell cast as the first Doctor, the trippy, sci-fi parable about a time-travelling crusader for truth and justice captured the imagination, touched the heart and moved the mind.
Smith was outvoted this past week in favour of Scottish actor David Tennant as U.K. fans’ favourite Doctor, in an online poll commissioned by RadioTimes.com and reported by BBC. Smith, who finished a distant second in the poll, has never let ego, competitiveness or a misplaced sense of self-worth get in the way of his good nature, though.
Smith will step down as the Doctor in December’s as-yet-unnamed Christmas special, to be replaced by another Scot, veteran film actor Peter Capaldi, who’s expected to bring a more elegant, middle-aged poise to the role. Smith is 31; Capaldi is 55. Smith, who was cast when he was just 26, brought a youthful vigour and eccentric flourish to the role.
He had his doubters at the start, but he won them over with his lively energy and positive vibe over time. Doctor Who was always uplifting but during Smith’s stewardship it became an antidote to cynicism.
Times change, though, even for a Time Lord in a wildly popular cult sci-fi program. Smith decided in June that he wanted to tackle new challenges as an actor. It’s a measure of Doctor Who’s unique ability to change lead actors that the transition has been as smooth as it has. The drama on Doctor Who is on the screen, not behind the scenes. Ever since a new actor, Patrick Troughton, took over from Hartnell in 1966, due to Hartnell’s illness, Doctor Who has established a tradition of one actor handing off to another, like sprinters in a track relay.
The series’ original creators explained the change to the program’s fans by devising a plot twist in which a Doctor regenerates into a new body every several years, yet retains his original memories. That explanation, while not entirely credible — or scientific — made it possible for Doctor Who to last as long as it has without alienating the program’s core base of fans.
“It will make a bit more noise this time because it’s the 50th,” Smith said. “It’s a small audience here but worldwide it’s, like, 77 million people. It has a footprint, and I can see it getting bigger, definitely.”
Smith will appear in the 50th-anniversary reunion special The Day of the Doctor, alongside Tennant, the 10th Doctor, and the 10th (and ninth) Doctor’s companion Rose Tyler, played by Billie Piper.
Despite being on Doctor Who for little more than two seasons, Coleman already has a lifetime’s worth of treasured memories.
“For me, quite a special moment was the ‘Tardis-on-the-clouds’ sequence last year,” Coleman said. “It’s quite one of my favourites. There’s something fairy-tale-like about the whole thing, and first experiences with the Doctor. And riding around on a motorbike around London, past Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. … Riding on a motorcycle with Doctor Who is pretty cool.”
“Yes,” Smith said. “That was brilliant.”
Anticipation for the 50th-anniversary special has been building in recent weeks, in part because The Day of the Doctor will air simultaneously around the world — originating on BBC in the U.K. and airing at exactly the same time, regardless of the time zone, on BBC America in the U.S. and on the Space specialty channel here in Canada — and in part because the guest cast includes John Hurt, as the War Doctor, and Gavin & Stacey’s Joanna Page as Queen Elizabeth I.
Working with Hurt and Tennant in the same frame was a blast, Smith said.
“David is a fabulous Doctor, and he’s a good bloke, great bloke,” Smith said. “It was great. Great for the show. And Johnny Hurt. I mean, Dave and I would be climbing the walls, doing anything to get attention. And John just flicks his eyes and the camera goes, ‘Yep, let’s watch John Hurt.’ I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Capaldi will officially take over from Smith during the Christmas special, which will bow on Christmas Day — another Doctor Who tradition.
“I’ve had a great time,” Smith said. “I’ll miss it. It was a hard choice (to leave). I feel proud to be part of such a wonderful legacy of actors. With the 50th, we need to honour the history and legacy of those who have gone before us.
“I think the show has come to a natural tipping point, though. It’s at the top of a cycle, and it feels like a good time for me and the show. When it’s time to go, it’s time to go.
“I think the thing about Doctor Who, though, is that it always looks forward. That’s the key. The show will get bigger and better and carry on without me.”
Smith paused, then pretended to dab his eye.
“And people will forget.”