Ladies and gentlemen, the new Doctor is IN

[annathepiper]

For those of you who might consider this a spoiler, don't go look at the shiny newly released official BBC announcement.

For the rest of you, reactions behind the cut!


HAH, so I see that the trend of progressively younger Doctors is continuing. By this reckoning, whoever they get to play Thirteen is clearly going to have to be a kid. ;>

I'm kind of pleased--I have no idea who this Matt Smith person is so I have absolutely no preconceived notions about him. Which is something I was looking forward to, actually. It's good to have that feeling with a brand new Doctor and a whole new set of stories with a new producer.

We shall have to see as to whether I find Eleven nearly as swoonable as Ten. The pic included with the BBC article doesn't do anything for me, but he's kinda cute in the pic on his Wikipedia page. I kind of like too that he's not immediately striking me as 'handsome'. Tennant and Eccleston didn't, either--and both of them turned out to have thermonuclear charisma, which IMO is infinitely more important for a proper Doctor (e.g., Tom Baker). Or, you need to be comprised of so much cunning in every fiber of your being that you positively radiate Cluefulness (e.g., Sylvester McCoy).


This should be interesting and hopefully fun. Let the speculation about how the regeneration will happen begin!

ETA 10:58am: Ah, and here is the official announcement on the Doctor Who site.

Comments

[janne.livejournal.com]

The last couple of doctors have indeed turned out better than first impressions made me suspect, so I'm striving to keep an open mind on Doctor Smith. I'm more worried about having Moffat as the main writer, though... He's done some very good stories, but I'm starting to agree with another friend about his princess complex when it comes to women. Or rather his settle-down-to-raise-a-family-is-every-girls-dream thing...

[annathepiper]

Well, the thing about Steven Moffat is that he is the producer now and that'll be his primary function; if he does the same thing that RTD did, he might write the opening and closing episodes in a season, and leave the rest to other writers. We'll see. :)

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

And already spurious information has been added to his Wikipedia page!

LET THE WANK BEGIN!


(I'm keeping an open mind, although HE COULD BE MY CHILD!!!)

[annathepiper]

Har, yeah, I'm just waiting for the F_W post. I was massively amused by the remark over on F_L though about Jack's potential reaction. ;)

[lethendy.livejournal.com]

Hehehe - Jack's going to love him ;)

[annathepiper]

Just imagining the look on Jack's face is making me laugh and laugh and laugh. That's at least five whole minutes' worth of doubletake for him right there, I'm thinkin'!

[lethendy.livejournal.com]

Any bets on how long it takes before he pins the new Doctor up against a wall and lays one on him like he means it?

[annathepiper]

*LAUGH* I'm actually unsure as to whether Jack and Eleven will ever meet on screen (just because Jack's exit in last season's finale, along with that of all the other Companions, seemed pretty final), but I sense the fanfic revving up already!

[lethendy.livejournal.com]

True, but we have four specials to come yet before the new boy takes over, so there's time for Jack to make a re-appearance. And as they are only doing 5 new episodes of Torchwood next year, we'll all be desperate for some Jack (and Ianto, and Gwen....)

[annathepiper]

Heh! Reminds me I actually need to get caught up on season 2 still. *^_^*;;

[akadriver.livejournal.com]

I peeked and it's up if you haven't popped over yet. :)

[annathepiper]

Saw it this morning!

As far as age goes...

[zeekar.livejournal.com]

Smith may be the youngest to date, but it's not a straight progression. Davison was younger than Tennant (and way younger than Eccleston) back when he took the role.

Re: As far as age goes...

[annathepiper]

Sure. And you had a bump back to "older" with McCoy, anyway.

But that's also from the "actor" perspective. I'm talking more from the "character" perspective, and not just general appearance, but overall attitude and behavior as well. Eight, Nine, and Ten all certainly feel "younger" to me than Six and Seven, for example. And although Five is physically "young", from what little I've seen of him he doesn't feel as "young" to me as Eight, Nine, and Ten do.

(This might change if I get to watch more Five.)

Re: As far as age goes...

[lethendy.livejournal.com]

I think "Five" didn't feel as young because he was so quintessentially English, what with all the cricket gear and the plummy accent. Those English chaps (and I say this as an English person) tend to be young until about 12 and then they suddenly age about 30 years! He also lacked that kind of edgy energy that served Tennant well.

Re: As far as age goes...

[annathepiper]

*grin* Makes sense. I've only seen a couple of his episodes and read a novel or two, so my experience with Davison is pretty slim. But this jibes with what I've seen of him so far.

Re: As far as age goes...

[lethendy.livejournal.com]

Davison was "my" Doctor - I was 5 when he took over, and although I remember Tom Baker, Davison was the one for me. I still don't like Colin Baker for the simple reason he replaced Davison!

Re: As far as age goes...

[zeekar.livejournal.com]

I'm of the Tom Baker generation, but enjoyed Davison as well. Colin always seemed like he was trying too hard to be eccentric, whereas it seemed more natural with his predecessors..

Re: As far as age goes...

[lethendy.livejournal.com]

I agree with you about Colin. It all seemed so forced - I think he had a hard time making the character his own.

Re: As far as age goes...

[annathepiper]

Yeah. I could see where they wanted to go with Six, I think. And actually, he was more interesting to me in the Sixth Doctor novel I read than he was in the little bit of him I've seen on screen.

I'm given to understand that he's continued doing a lot of Sixth Doctor stories via Big Finish audio productions. I may have to check a few of those out.

Re: As far as age goes...

[eveshka.livejournal.com]

Get the Big Finish Productions audios. They treat the 6th Doctor so much better... he has a personality other than just cranky ass.

Re: As far as age goes...

[annathepiper]

Good to know. :) Thanks!

Re: As far as age goes...

[annathepiper]

I've been trying to remember for a while if I saw any Doctor at all when I was a kid. I have niggling memories about hearing about the changeovers, but they're very vague ones!

I never actually started watching the show at all until my current household was established in the mid-90's, and even then I was sort of only half-assedly paying attention to the reruns spazzkat and solarbird were watching. That said, of the episodes I've paid more attention to lately, the Tom Bakers have had the most ones that seemed familiar from before. :)

Re: As far as age goes...

[zeekar.livejournal.com]

Fair enough, but if Tennant is the youngest-acting, why is Ten so gosh-darn angsty and age-weary? :)

Re: As far as age goes...

[annathepiper]

Short answers: 1) Time War, and 2) Rose. Boatload of angst, right there. I think Ten needed his youthful energy just to be able to carry all that around. ;)