| The Doctor | |
|---|---|
| The Eleventh Doctor | |
| Portrayed by | Matt Smith[1] |
| Tenure | 2010[1]– |
| First appearance | The End of Time[2] |
| Number of series | 2 |
| Appearances | 22 stories (28 episodes) |
| Companions | Amy Pond[3] Rory Williams[4][5] River Song[6] |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) |
| Series | Series 5 Series 6 Series 7[7] |
The Eleventh Doctor is the eleventh incarnation of the protagonist of the BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. Matt Smith plays this incarnation, replacing David Tennant's Tenth Doctor in the 2010 episode "The End of Time, Part Two".[8] As of 2011[update], the BBC has confirmed that Smith is to appear in at least three series,[9] the second of which began on 23 April 2011.[10]
Within the series' narrative, the Doctor is a centuries-old alien, a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, who travels in time and space in his TARDIS, frequently with companions. When the Doctor is critically injured, he can regenerate his body but in doing so gains a new physical appearance and with it, a distinct new personality. Smith portrays the eleventh such incarnation, a quick-tempered but compassionate man whose youthful appearance is at odds with his more discerning and world-weary temperament.
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Although Steven Moffat expected to pick a middle-aged actor for the new Doctor,[11] Smith was aged 26 when cast. This made him the youngest actor to portray the Doctor, three years younger than Peter Davison was at the time he began his role as the Fifth Doctor.
Speculation about the identity of the Eleventh Doctor began on 28 June 2008; the penultimate episode of the fourth series, "The Stolen Earth", ended as the Doctor was regenerating after being shot by a Dalek's death ray.[12] The lack of a trailer for the second part, "Journey's End", prompted media and public speculation which helped Doctor Who attain the highest position in the weekly ratings in the show's history.[13] The rumoured replacements included Catherine Tate (then playing the Doctor's companion, Donna Noble),[14] Robert Carlyle,[15] Jason Statham,[16] David Morrissey,[17] and James Nesbitt.[18] The Daily Mail also reported the theories that two Doctors could be created, eventually proven to be correct.[19]
The Doctor is a very special part, and it takes a very special actor to play him. You need to be old and young at the same time, a boffin and an action hero, a cheeky schoolboy and the wise old man of the universe. As soon as Matt walked through the door, and blew us away with a bold and brand new take on the Time Lord, we knew we had our man.
Tennant announced at the National Television Awards on 29 October 2008 that he would be stepping down from portraying the Doctor because he felt that the four years he spent portraying the character was enough and to ease the transition from Russell T Davies' showrunning to Steven Moffat's.[21] At the time, BBC News published that Paterson Joseph, who appeared in the Doctor Who episodes "Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways", was the bookmakers' favourite to succeed Tennant and if chosen would become the first black Doctor,[22] followed by David Morrissey, who would be appearing in the 2008 Christmas special, "The Next Doctor". Other candidates included Sean Pertwee, son of Third Doctor actor Jon Pertwee;[23] Russell Tovey, who portrayed Alonso Frame in the 2007 Christmas special, "Voyage of the Damned";[24] and James McAvoy.[25]
Show producers were cautious about casting Smith because they felt that a 26-year-old could not play the Doctor adequately; BBC Wales Head of Drama Piers Wenger shared the sentiment, but noted that Smith was capable enough to play the role.[1][20] Smith's casting in the role was revealed during an episode of Doctor Who's companion show Doctor Who Confidential, during which he described the role as "a wonderful privilege and challenge that I hope I will thrive on".[20]
The Eleventh Doctor first appears in the final minutes of The End of Time (2010) when his previous incarnation regenerates. Smith debuts fully in "The Eleventh Hour", where he first meets Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) in her childhood while investigating a mysterious crack in her wall. Amy agrees to join the Doctor as his travelling companion on the eve of her marriage to Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill). In "Victory of the Daleks", he is tricked into spawning a new generation of Daleks. In "The Time of Angels"/"Flesh and Stone", he re-encounters future companion River Song (Alex Kingston) and his enemies the Weeping Angels, and learns that cracks like the one in Amy's wall are erasing individuals whole-cloth from time and space. After Amy attempts to seduce the Doctor, the Doctor takes Rory as a second companion from "The Vampires of Venice" up until "Cold Blood", where he is erased from history by a crack. The Doctor also confronts his dark side in "Amy's Choice", where he is put through trials by a manifestation of his self-loathing, the Dream Lord (Toby Jones). In the finale episodes "The Pandorica Opens" and "The Big Bang", an unknown force makes the TARDIS explode, causing the universe to collapse in on itself. Though he closes the cracks—reversing their effects and preventing the explosion—the Doctor himself is erased from history. However, River assists Amy in remembering the Doctor back into existence; he returns at her wedding to Rory, and the couple rejoin him as his companions. The Doctor next appears later in 2010 in Death of the Doctor, a two-part story of spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures, alongside former companions Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) and Jo Grant (Katy Manning), while Amy and Rory were on honeymoon.[26]
Subsequently, series 6 in 2011 continues to examine mysteries left unexplained at the end of series 5.[27] In "The Impossible Astronaut"/"Day of the Moon", Amy, Rory and River witness a future version of the Doctor murdered, which they vow to keep the secret from the present-day Doctor, but Amy unknowingly tells him in "The Almost People". At the episode's conclusion, it is revealed that Amy is pregnant and has been kidnapped by Madame Kovarian (Frances Barber). In "A Good Man Goes to War", the Doctor calls in old favours from across the time and space to raise an army to rescue Amy, but is unable to rescue her child, Melody Pond. The Doctor also learns that Melody—though Rory and Amy's child—is part Time Lord, and will grow up to become River Song. In "Let's Kill Hitler", the Doctor encounters a younger iteration of River and learns she has been conditioned by a religious order known as "the Silence" to assassinate him. This version of River kills the Doctor with a kiss, before Amy shows her daughter that she will grow up to be River Song, convincing her instead to save his life. The Doctor also learns the circumstances of his death from historical records. In "The God Complex", the Doctor leaves Amy and Rory on Earth when he realises Amy's apotheosis of him endangers their lives. 200 years pass before the Doctor is ready to confront his death. In "The Wedding of River Song", he devises an escape; when the Doctor hides within a robot duplicate of himself, and it is killed, this is revealed to be the fixed point history had recorded. In an alternate reality caused by River's reluctance to shoot the Doctor, the two become married; during the ceremony, she is let in on the Doctor's original plan and helps him fake his death. The Doctor is then warned by his old friend Dorium Maldovar (Simon Fisher Becker) that more prophesies still concern him, including the revelation of his name, which the Silence had intended his death to prevent.
Like the Tenth Doctor, the Eleventh and Amy appear in New Series Adventures novels in 2010. The first of these is Apollo 23 by Justin Richards, as well as the Decide Your Destiny series of interactive novels. The character also appears in comic books published in Doctor Who Magazine, Doctor Who Adventures, and he is set to take over from the Tenth Doctor in IDW Publishing's ongoing Doctor Who series.
The Eleventh Doctor also appears in a series of audiobooks. The first release of these is The Runaway Train by Oli Smith.
The Eleventh Doctor is the first of the Doctors to appear in full-on action adventure games. Doctor Who: The Adventure Games is composed of four stories ("episodes"), produced alongside the 2010 series. Smith and Gillan lend their voice and likeness. The first, "City of the Daleks", carries on from TV episode "Victory of the Daleks" and is a stealth and puzzle game set in 1960s Earth and the Dalek planet of Skaro. The second, "Blood of the Cybermen", is the Eleventh Doctor and Amy's first Cyberman story. The third episode is the video game "TARDIS", and the fourth is "The Shadows of the Vashta Nerada", featuring that enemy return in an underwater setting. The fifth Adventure Game "The Gunpowder Plot" was released on the 31st of October 2011, again featuring Matt Smith's voice. In February 2012, "The Eternity Clock" will be released for Playstation 3, Playstation Vita, and PC, starring Matt Smith and Alex Kingston.[28]
Matt Smith portrays the Doctor as an energetic, eccentric and lively soul who possessed a sense of arrogance and a short temper. The Doctor was affectionate towards his loved ones but was hesitant to trust River Song during the early stages of their relationship (or the late stages from River's point of view) but although he was slightly frightened of her, due to her unpredictability, he was also attracted to her and eventually chose to make her his wife, albeit in an alternate timeline and whilst inside a robot called the Tesselecta.
While the Doctor was usually cheerful and full of manic energy, traits he shared with his previous incarnation, he also had a darker side and was capable of becoming furious if his loved ones were threatened which was shown in A Good Man Goes to War. The Doctor was also less forgiving and more aggressive than his previous incarnation showing considerable hatred towards his arch enemies, the Dalek's and did not share the tenth Doctor's belief that Daleks could change, which David Tennant had displayed in Evolution of the Daleks. In Day of the Moon, he also attempted to commit genocide on the Silence by having the human race kill them all on sight, which his previous incarnation would never have done (although the tenth Doctor's duplicate might have).
The Doctor is also notable for his self loathing, claiming that he was "a stupid selfish man" and even saying that he hated himself more than anyone else in the Universe. At the same time however he also trusted himself more than anyone else in the Universe which was shown in The Impossible Astronaut. Despite his self loathing, or perhaps because of it, the Doctor was willing to sacrifice himself if he needed to but always managed to find a way to avoid getting himself killed, even managing to evade his murder at the hands of River Song, despite it being a fixed point in time. River has stated that the Doctor was always one step ahead and always had a plan. Vastra, an old friend played by Neve McIntosh, has stated that the Doctor never gives up, although he was close to giving up when Amy and Rory's daughter was kidnapped in A Good Man Goes to War.
The Doctor has also shown a desperation to be adored, which was best displayed in The God Complex, when he admitted to Amy that he had taken her with him because he was vain. The Doctor also liked to show off, notably "scolding" the Atraxi and using his almost legendary reputation to scare them off, and making a speech in The Pandorica Opens, whilst surrounded by ships filled with his most deadly enemies, and forcing them to retreat by reminding them how many times he had stopped them in the past, even though they could probably have exterminated him if they had been brave enough to try. In series 6 however, River Song made the Doctor realise that his reputation was causing people to become terrified of him; notably the people of the Gamma Forest translated the word "Doctor" to "Mighty Warrior". In The Wedding of River Song, the Doctor decided to fake his death and "step back into the shadows".
The Eleventh Doctor spends most of his first full episode, "The Eleventh Hour", in the tattered remains of the Tenth Doctor's clothing. As a result of his time travelling during the episode, for twelve years, young Amelia Pond remembers, draws, and plays make-believe games about "The Raggedy Doctor", whom she met as a child.
The Doctor's outfit is a brown tweed jacket with elbow patches, bow tie, braces, rolled up trousers and black boots. He frequently refers to his affection for bow ties, often proclaiming "Bow ties are cool."[29] The Doctor habitually varies the details of the outfit, switching from a braces and bow tie combination in red to the same in blue. The Doctor wore a third variation in Death of the Doctor consisting of a plain white shirt with black buttons and a blue bow tie. In the episode Let's Kill Hitler, another variation on the costume was introduced - the tweed jacket was replaced with a green military coat, with the rest of the outfit unchanged. The Doctor has since alternated between the two coats, wearing the tweed in "Night Terrors" and "The God Complex" while returning to the green coat in "The Girl Who Waited", "Closing Time" and the first half of "The Wedding of River Song".
In The Big Bang, the Doctor briefly dons a fez, stating, "I wear a fez now, fezzes are cool". The fez is cheerfully destroyed by River Song and Amy Pond before the end of the episode. In The Impossible Astronaut the Doctor wears a stetson, proclaiming, "I wear a stetson now, stetsons are cool", only for it to be shot off his head by River Song. The fez theme, and the Doctor's fascination with "cool" headgear, make periodic reappearances throughout the first story of the sixth series.
In an interview with Doctor Who Magazine, Steven Moffat revealed that the Eleventh Doctor had an entirely different costume until close to the start of filming. The original look had a swashbuckling feel which Benjamin Cook described as "a little like something Captain Jack Sparrow wears in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies". However, Matt Smith was unhappy with the costume as he felt it reflected how someone else would dress the Doctor, rather than how the Doctor would dress himself. The eventual costume, in particular the bow-tie, was influenced by Patrick Troughton's Second Doctor, after Matt Smith fell in love with the Troughton story The Tomb of the Cybermen.[30]
Following the airing of "A Good Man Goes to War", in which the Doctor is told by River how the legend of the Doctor is a problem which perpetuates disharmony in the universe, Charlie Jane Anders compared the Eleventh Doctor and the DC Comics superhero Batman. "Just like Batman," Anders writers, "it turns out the Doctor has created his own adversaries, by fostering his own dark legend. It's been a major theme in the Bat-comics since the 1980s, the idea that the Batman is such an extreme figure, who inspires so much fear, that maniacs like the Joker cannot help springing up in response." Anders links this development to a particular motif in Steven Moffat's stories. In a 2005 episode written by Russell T Davies, the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) instructed Mickey to erase all references to him off the Internet, and in Davies' "Last of the Time Lords" (2007), the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) had companion Martha spread his legend the world over, although the timeline in which this occurred was since erased. In "Forest of the Dead" (2008), however, Moffat has the Tenth Doctor tell the Vashta Nerada to "look him up".
When Matt Smith takes over the role, as the Eleventh Doctor in "The Eleventh Hour" (2010), he boasts of his own legend to terrify the Atraxi, and attempts this once again in series finale episode "The Pandorica Opens" later that year. Anders refers to this as the Doctor's "Batmanification", which she sees culminate in "A Good Man Goes to War"; new villain Madame Kovarian (Frances Barber) seemingly wages an endless war against the Doctor of which he is as of yet unaware. Throughout the episode, various characters all discuss the legend of the Doctor and how his name inspires fear; they revere it with "religious awe". River Song reveals that the Doctor's name, in fact, takes on two meanings across the universe: in many cultures, as in English, "doctor" means healer. Yet in a number of others, it means "mighty warrior". It is this very legend of the last of the Time Lords, which the Doctor perpetuates, which leads his enemies to capture Amy and steal her baby so that Melody Pond can be an adequate "weapon" against him.[31]
Matt Smith's portrayal of the Doctor has met with positive critical reception. Martin Anderson of Shadowlocked claimed Matt Smith to be the best Doctor since "Tom Baker practically redefined the character in the 1970s".[32] Smith's performance in "Flesh and Stone" was acclaimed by fans and critics. In his review for The Daily Telegraph, Gavin Fuller noted that "Matt Smith's 'quick-paced delivery' is 'a major facet' of the success of the current series."[33] In his review of "The Big Bang", Fuller once again praised Smith's acting. "Matt Smith was superb in his scenes where the Doctor sacrifices himself in the Pandorica to rescue the multiverse".[34]
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| Series | Series 5 | Specials | Series 6 | Specials | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Episodes | 203 | 204 | 205 | 206A / B | 207 | 208 | 209A / B | 210 | 211 | 212A / B | 213 | S/T | 214A / B | 215 | 216 | 217A / B | 218A / B | 219 | 220 | 221 | 222 | 223 | 224 |
| Companions | Amy | Craig | Amy | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Rory | Rory | Rory | |||||||||||||||||||||
| River | River | River | |||||||||||||||||||||