Sunday 6 October 2013

Matt Smith Is Officially Done Filming Doctor Who

Filming has wrapped on this year's Christmas Special of Doctor Who, meaning that for Matt Smith the journey is over.



What's remarkable about this year's Chrimbo episode is just how little we know about it. Some guy claimed to be a Cyberman in it, we've seen a few filming pics of Matt and Jenna and something that may or may not be some sort of camp, Moffat has said some possibly sarcastic things about wrapping up plot threads, and a leaked picture showed us that Orla Brady will appear in some capacity.

Usually by now we know the basic plot, we know the full guest cast, and we know the title (I'm still predicting either Silent Night or The Fall Of The Doctor, but...) but this year things have been kept well and truly under wraps. And that's exciting as hell.

But as Matt Smith bows out of the show, and Peter Capaldi steps into the TARDIS (in fact, Capaldi by now must have actually filmed at least one scene as The Twelfth [Thirteenth?] Doctor - get your head around that), it seems like a good time to take a look back at Matt's five best moments in the show.

This list is entirely subjective, of course, but for for me these are the moments that best summed up Matt's Doctor - a madman in a box, a crazy scientist filled with childlike glee, icy determination and an ability to deliver a stirring monologue like no other. And with some seriously cool hats along the way.

5: The Ghost Of Christmas Future

There are so many great scenes to pick from in A Christmas Carol. It's a wonderfully sad love story that sees The Doctor interfering in the life of miserly Kazran Sardick, visiting his past and present to "Scrooge" him into being a better man - seriously rewriting the guys own life in the process - only to find that he's causing even more pain along the way.

I was truly tempted to use the scene where The Doctor sees Kazran's weather machine for this list ("Big flashy-lighty things have me written over them. Well, not actually, but give me time. And a crayon.") but the absolute standout scene comes late in the episode, when The Doctor has failed to make Kazran change his ways, and has in fact only made him more miserable than ever before. Kazran - not without justification - rants at The Doctor, finally spitting at him "Go on, show me my future."

And with a steely tone, The Doctor replies: "I am."


The Doctor has brought a younger Kazran into his own future, to show him just what a bastard he will become - a man just like his own abusive father. And it brings adult Kazran to tears.

Sardick: All my life I've been called heartless. My other life—my real life. The one you rewrote. Now look at me.
The Doctor: Better a broken heart than no heart at all.
Sardick: Try it. You try it. Why are you here?
The Doctor: 'Cause I'm not finished with you yet. You've seen the past, present. And now you need to see the future. - See more at: http://www.planetclaire.org/quotes/doctorwho/christmas-specials/a-christmas-carol/#sthash.01sBm5hs.dpuf
Sardick: All my life I've been called heartless. My other life—my real life. The one you rewrote. Now look at me.
The Doctor: Better a broken heart than no heart at all.
Sardick: Try it. You try it. Why are you here?
The Doctor: 'Cause I'm not finished with you yet. You've seen the past, present. And now you need to see the future. - See more at: http://www.planetclaire.org/quotes/doctorwho/christmas-specials/a-christmas-carol/#sthash.06vPjNLK.dpuf
Sardick: All my life I've been called heartless. My other life—my real life. The one you rewrote. Now look at me.
The Doctor: Better a broken heart than no heart at all.
Sardick: Try it. You try it. Why are you here?
The Doctor: 'Cause I'm not finished with you yet. You've seen the past, present. And now you need to see the future. - See more at: http://www.planetclaire.org/quotes/doctorwho/christmas-specials/a-christmas-carol/#sthash.06vPjNLK.dpuf
A Christmas Carol is an episode that shows Matt's Doctor at his warmest and most vulnerable (his line about how in all his travels he's never met anybody who isn't important, or the moment when he implores Kazran to kiss Abigail because "It's either that or stay in your room and invent a new kind of screwdriver - don't make my mistake" could easily be used if anyone wanted to sum up The Eleventh Doctor in a single line), but here he's positively chilling. It's a cold, calculating move, one that sends shivers and tugs at the heart in equal measure.

4: "Someone get her a jumper..."

The Vampires Of Venice: After Amy gets very... friendly with The Doctor, he retreats in panic, and rushes off to find her husband-to-be, to make sure that the two of them get together after all. What follows is probably the funniest character entrance in the entire series.


The following exchange is pure gold, too, as The Doctor talks at length about the poor stripper he's replaced, and delivers some spectacularly awkward news about what has gone on between Amy and himself.

See the clip below:


It's a small scene, but it utterly sells Matt Smith's brilliant comic timing.

3: "Twelve Jammy Dodgers and a fez"

In the opening episode to Matt's second season, The Doctor finds himself in the Oval Office with Richard Nixon.


The way that he casually indicates for everyone to carry on talking is comic brilliance as it is, so perfectly reminiscent of Doctors past who would enter a scene and before you know it have everyone following their directions (think of Tom Baker's "No [I'm not in charge] but I'm full of ideas" from The Horror Of Fang Rock).

But it is the moment that comes after, when The Doctor sits down at Nixon's desk, that shows that this is a scene that just wouldn't work with any other Doctor.


The gleeful, excitable way that The Doctor immediately starts playing with all the buttons and spinning in the chair is so unique to Matt's portrayal - here is a man who finds the little joys in every moment.

2: The Akhaten Speech

In the recent The Rings Of Akhaten, The Doctor found himself facing a parasitic sun-god that fed on the memories of the people of Akhaten. And in an attempt to beat the creature, The Doctor offers up his own life's story as food for this false god.

What follows is probably Matt's greatest speech as The Doctor, looking back over all the centuries he has lived, and all the people he has lost along the way. Tears stream down The Doctor's face, and Matt's voice wavers as he delivers the speech - here is a man who has lived it all, seen it all, and felt it all. And he's reliving every moment of it, putting himself through every moment of joy and sorrow he's ever suffered through his long life, to save a bunch of strangers he's only just met. It's heartbreaking, uplifting and thoroughly moving.

Hear the whole speech below:



1: "Hellooooo Stonehenge!!!"
 
What can top that? How about this moment from Matt's first season, in The Pandorica Opens.

The Doctor finds himself in possession of The Pandorica, prison of the most feared being in the universe. And other people want it - specifically, whole armies of other people. Battle fleets from almost every species of enemy The Doctor has ever faced circle overhead, an army of Autons surrounds him, he has, in his own words, "no plan, no back-up, no weapons worth a damn"... And he turns them all away, using just his words.


One small man, surrounded by impossible odds, and standing anyway - that's The Doctor, that's the hero we have all come to love over the past fifty years. I said earlier that Matt's line in A Christmas Carol about never meeting a single person who didn't matter could sum up The Eleventh Doctor perfectly - well, this scene sums up not just Matt's Doctor, but all Doctors, and in such magnificently rousing style. Not since Hartnell stood unmoving as the soldiers around him fled in The War Machines has The Doctor seemed so heroic.

The scene gets added power from the fact that, after giving this speech, after what is perhaps The Doctor's greatest triumph to date, he loses - it was all a trap that he fell for, and he is dragged kicking, screaming and pleading into The Pandorica himself - for it is The Doctor that it was built to contain. Matt's switch from total confidence to utter fear is staggering, and cements his position as the best actor to ever play The Doctor.

Oh, and the scene also gives birth to the cutest thing you'll ever see on YouTube:

Look at his little bowtie!!!!!!

So farewell Matt Smith. You were a hell of a Doctor.

But don't be too sad: Matt may be done filming, but there's still that Christmas special to come.

And before that, there's the small matter of The Day Of The Doctor.

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