• 28th June 2010 • Blog Post by Seb Patrick •
Well, Series Fnarg is over. And we’ll have plenty of comment to come – we’ve still got reviews of both eps 12 and 13 (as it happens, a wedding – yes, on 26.06.10 – got in the way of Capps doing “Pandorica”, and I’ll do “Big Bang” once that one’s clear) to post, but as well as that we’ll also do a big old retrospective of the series as a whole, and how the episodes stand up in context, and that sort of thing.
In the meantime, though, there’s one thing that surely everybody with any sense can agree on – Matt Smith was fucking brilliant. Not just “the Eleventh Doctor”. Not just “the new Doctor”. Simply… the Doctor. Effortlessly, wonderfully so. And in reflecting on just how perfect he turned out to be in the role (and from his first moments onscreen, to boot), thoughts naturally turned to how we reacted to his casting back when it was first announced.
Now, I don’t like my past self at the best of times. He usually nicks more than half of any packet of food he opens, leaving me less; he spends too much money immediately after payday, leaving me skint; and he makes me look like a sodding idiot when he pontificates on the casting of the new Doctor.
Well, bugger. (6.00pm, 03.01.09)
Obvious comment #1 : Twelfth Doctor to be played by a foetus. (6.07pm, 03.01.09)
Obvious comment #2 : Even though he hasn’t left yet, I want Tennant back already. (6.07pm, 03.01.09)
Rarely have I been more pleased to have been proven wrong. Still, at least I wasn’t the only one:
He looks and sounds like a foppish rugby player. And he better sort that fucking hair out before filming.
Fuck. (Jonathan Capps, 6.18pm, 03.01.09)
Anyone who’d like to be smug and link to a comment where they said from day one they knew he’d be brilliant, should of course feel free.
I was unsure, but I trusted Moffat’s judgment and I was very vocal about that trust. I now consider myself King of All Things. I’m not sure how I made that logical leap. It’ll come to me.
I reserved judgement on Smith, because I had talked myself into wanting Patterson Joseph. I do remember repeatedly insisting that this series would be for me the best Who that there’s ever been. An exceedingly rare moment of total confidence for me, and one that’s been completely vindicated. Matt Smith IS my favourite Doctor, Karen Gillan is my favourite companion, heck even the Tardis itself looks finer than it ever has before. Still think the new Theme is a bit pants, but even that’s grown on me as the series has gone on.
All my comments were in private emails and messages, but I can assure you that I was correct from the start, and feel tremendously happy that other people are more definitely back on board now. I don’t so much feel victorious about being right (aside: I do), but relieved that the transition to a new Doctor and production team has been relatively painless. According to teh internets even many hard-core Tennant fans are saying that Smith has won them over. As long as the writing can remain at a high standard, and there aren’t any more substantial budget cuts, the next while of Moffat/Smith should be a lot easier.
I AM RIGHT AND YOU ARE WRONG,
BECAUSE DOCTOR WHO IS ON.
I had the same hopes and fears as anyone else between the announcement and the Eleventh Hour, but I thought he’d be good precisely because he was so clearly unsuitable. Despite being about 893 years too young for the role, he’d won over a life-long Doctor Who fan, and one who’d more than earned my trust, within about two minutes of entering the audition room.
How could I resist?
To be fair to me, I watched the whole series of Party Animals shortly after the Smith announcement, and promptly changed my tune on Smith.
Here’s an ontological paradox:
1) My faith that Smith would be great stemmed from my faith in Moffat’s judgement
2) Moffat gave Chibnall a two-parter this series, which was categorically, objectively shit (if you disagree then your opinion is wrong, kthankxbye)
3) Smith turned out to be great anyway
Is the premise of my thinking right or wrong? If the premise of my thinking is wrong, did Chibnall actually write a fabulous two-parter? Erk!
That, my friends, summarises Gallifrey Base’s incomprehension as to how the Doctor escaped from the Pandorica at the start of The Big Bang.
Gallifrey Base has always been ripe for ridicule but it’s more open to it now than I think I have ever seen before. The arguments are getting ridiculous (and that’s on both sides, no matter how they have felt bout series 5) and everyone seems to be claiming to be a victim. Frankly, it’s booth hilarious and forehead slappingly tedious at the same time.