Meet The New Doctor Who

 

Meet Matt Smith.  He may only be 26 years old, but he plays a 900 year old Time Lord on TV.  Smith has been officially announced as the man who will take over the role of the time traveling Dr. Who once David Tennant leaves the show after the 2009 Christmas Special.

 

So who exactly is Matt Smith? There's no doubt a good proportion of the viewers of the grand unveiling of the 11th Doctor Who in Saturday's BBC1 documentary Doctor Who Confidential hadn't the foggiest when Smith's name came on the screen. And after all the feverish speculation that the next Doctor might be played by a Hollywood film star or, better still, Bill Nighy, it felt like a comedown that David Tennant's successor is a 26-year-old stripling with only two semi-popular dramas under his belt – the flaccid BBC1 literary adaptation The Ruby in the Smoke and BBC2's underrated Party Animals. But that doesn't mean Smith's not the right man for the job. It's easy to forget that the only major TV David Tennant had done before he became the Doctor was BBC3's hit-and-miss Casanova. Besides, big stars won't want to be locked into a part for several years, even if Doctor Who is the biggest role in British TV.

 

While I certainly don't wish to say anything negative about this news, I must say I am suprised, and a little let down.  I don't mean to disparage Mr. Smith's ability as I'm sure he'll make a great Doctor and I wish him all the luck in the world, but I had been hoping that some of the rumors would be true and we'd see a bit of a change with this Doctor Who.  Word had been spreading across the internet that the show's producers were considering casting a black Doctor, or maybe even a female Doctor.  After 40 plus years of a white male british Doctor, it would have been refreshing to see them take a risk and try something new.

 

Maybe the shadow of David Tennant's popularity was too great and they defaulted to someone more similar to him than different.  Who knows.  As I said though, I refuse to be upset by this news.  I've never heard of Matt Smith before, so I'm going to keep an open mind until I've seen a few episodes starring him as everyone's favorite Time Lord.  He's got big shoes to fill though.  I hope he's up to it.