Rant begins.
Matt Smith is leaving Doctor Who and I accept the fact that this is the “nature of the beast.” And I have to be honest, this is pissing me off. I mean it is really annoying me.
Am I being silly?
I don’t think so. Here is why:
In 1989, Doctor Who went off the air for 16 stinkin’ years. Sure, we got the special with Paul McGann (and I still say the Eighth Doctor is my Doctor) but there was little consistency for any Who-fan in that time.
Well, praise the Lord in Heaven, when we get Christopher Eccleston in 2005 and a new show. However, he sticks around for one year, and now we have to get used to a David Tennant as the Doctor. So the Tenth Doctor sticks around for three whopping seasons and then spends (what felt like three years) saying Good bye with these idiotically-spaced holiday specials.
Finally, we hear who Doctor Eleven is and it takes him forever to be brought in and established himself as the Doctor, and at some point the geniuses at Doctor Who or the BBC (I don’t know) decide to break the season into two annoying parts with nearly four months in between each half.
So as we are doing this, we are wondering about the 50th Anniversary of the show. Who-fans wait and wait and wait to hear, “Who do we get? Do we get the surviving actors who played the Doctor? Do we find doubles to play the first three Doctors? What? What?”
Instead we get three confirmed Doctors – Matt Smith, David Tennant and John Hurt who played the Doctor – uh…when? (Yeah, I know the story will be revealed). But do we get any of the other Doctors?
Of course not!
Heck, we could have gotten Christopher Eccleston, but the geniuses at the BBC trashed him to the press and basically pissed him off to the point Eccleston will have nothing to do with the show.
So on June 1, we hear Matt Smith decided to move on.
Happy trails to him. Woo-hoo.
Why am I pissed? It is because I love this show, I love this character and I adore everything about it, but the current folks running Who (from BBC on down) seem to lack any understanding of consistency to their fans and their fan base. The BBC seems to show a level of arrogance. It is as if they said, “The Who-fans will stick around and give us cash no matter what we do.”
Sure we will.
Among my friends, I was once known as “The Green Lantern Guy,” but after a lousy movie and writer Geoff Johns’s consistent need to put Hal Jordan in war after war after major crossover event after major crossover event, I gave up. I walked away from the comic (though I consider “Green Lantern: Rebirth” a work of art).
Moral of the story, BBC, stop treating the fans this way!
Do what you can to make your actors happy that they will stick around for more than three seasons. Give us five!
We get the Doctor is a temporary role, but, dang it already!
Rant over.
All images – credit BBC.
Brian Isaacs - Executive Editor / Publisher
Good riddance, he was more Mork from Ork than Doctor. I blame Moffat for that and it’s a shame not to see 11 under a better show runner because Matt is a very good actor. Chris and David were a thousand times better as a Time Lord than this Moffat created goofball. He made me embarrassed to be a Whovian. And please let him take that abomination the psycho pig River Sue, the Jar Jar Binks of the Whoniverse with him.
I have heard other people say that as well. Like he went “too goofy.” I liked him, and this season my respect for him grew more.
But also, I saw more of Moffat’s “Coupling” Sense of humor come out so I can see how that would be grating.
But thanks so much for replying!
Though I agree that the current Doctor seems to have just established his jittery and spasmodic character an actor has to do what is best for the person behind the character. I’m sure we will hear the usual round of someone asked for too much money or the producer pushed the actor to the brink etc. I have enjoyed the revival of my child hood show.
I was a lucky American kid to have grown up watching the BBC in the Netherlands and see my first Doctor, Tom Baker. I had been passing the time with reruns until the BBC revived the show these past few years. Yes, the current stock of Doctors are all short timers but that is the nature of acting these days. Type casting, I’m sure, is the mark of death to these actors and I wish them each well in their future endeavors. For me, the gift of late has been the writing. Here in the states our writers seem to have either been killed off or scared into hiding. Our current crop of TV and movies really stinks and is becoming an export product for broadcast television. Only premium cable has anything to offer and even that is largely influenced by the Hollywood proclivity of overly beautiful people with haphazard plots. The BBC has been the lighthouse in the fog. Among BBCs shows Doctor Who has been original and decently written which is amazing for a 50 year old Sci-Fi export.
I am sad to see Matt Smith go and wish him well. I pray the writers are kept on and happy and are able to make the transition and continue to write one of my favorite shows. I am dying to see how the Doctor continues past the 13th Doctor and the series is continued or spun into something new.
Cheers for the warm side of the pond!
I agree with some things said here I feel that Matt Smith’s Doctor has left to many things left unsaid. These series unlike the originals I watch as a kid in the us PBS were short serials that losely sometimes led into one another like short stories. Nowadays we have these epic tales that you sees there beginnings and ends, but I feel so much like we are missings and ending that I don’t think the 50th and Christmas special can cover. As for a female doctor that people keep ranting about; there is one he is not the last time lord his duaghter is still out there. How about giving her a name and a show. Then everyone can get there fill of the Doctor.
As for the comment of Ghost in the Tardis. Tom Baker had a similiar manic personality. and River is a strong and weell written and acted character.