Doctor Who | The Next Question

'Doctor who?' The question has been asked countless times during Matt Smith's tenure as the mysterious Time Lord and with the latest series finale, The Name Of The Doctor, it looked like it might well be answered once and for all. Such a reveal would be much to fans' disdain and surely involve having to change the show's title to something less enigmatic. Doctor Charles, for instance, doesn't quite carry the same ring; besides, isn't the Doctor's name actually John Smith? (No. It's just an alias he occasionally uses but then, so is 'The Doctor'. Who knows his real real name?)

However, in a nice bluff typical of current Head Writer and Executive Producer Steven Moffat (AKA 'The Moff), the title referred more to the Doctor's reputation, rather than his actual moniker. Of course we weren't going to find out the Doctor's real name. Perish the thought. The question was asked, though and, indeed, answered. Not by The Doctor himself, to whom the query was addressed but by his wife, River Song (Alex Kingston) - one of the few people in the universe to know his true name, only no one heard her say it, because she whispered it behind a massive door. The door of a grotesquely enlarged TARDIS, incidentally, its 'dimensioning forces' having gone funny with old age, or something.

Now, with the Doctor having retained some of his mystery and the show its title (although Doctor Whom is more grammatically accurate), life imitates art as Matt Smith has announced his departure from the role, leaving the show's fans asking a similar question...who will be the next Doctor?

I felt sad at hearing the news that Smith was leaving, despite having gone off the Eleventh Doctor slightly during the latest series (I won't use the American word for a collection of episodes, 'season'. That describes a part of a year, not a TV show). When Smith started in 2010, I thought he was great, Doctor number eleven was mad, clever, funny and demonstrated more of the Doctor's alien side than David Tennant's Tenth Doctor, such as his being less prone to 'humany-wumany' (womany?) lovey-dovey stuff. I loved it when The Doc got angry with Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) because she made a difficult decision for him in his second episode - and only her first proper excursion with the Time Lord, The Beast Below; at one point crying, 'NO HUMAN HAS ANYTHING TO SAY TO ME TODAY!' Smith really sold the moment in his first series' penultimate episode, The Pandorica Opens, when The Doctor's mortal enemies banded together to trap him within the titular Pandorica - a magic box built especially to imprison him- so as to keep him from interfering with their destructive schemes. Smith made me really feel for the Time Lord potentially spending the slow, natural creep of eternity in a box that was not bigger on the inside and without the ability to move through the time/space vortex like his TARDIS.

Thankfully, The Doctor was rescued in one of the bonkers turnarounds that have been a staple during The Moff's time on the show. These have seen the series finales, like the two-part Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang (and, by association, the episodes leading up to them) go from the increasingly over the top Big Villain Attempts To Conquer The Earth/Galaxy/Universe/Reality showstoppers of the Russell 'OTT' Davies era ('era' being a word often used to describe far shorter timespans than it's meant to) to more specific villainous plans to get rid of The Doctor himself, either by trapping or even killing him. Whilst entertaining, this has itself become a cliche and The Name Of The Doctor is no exception. It sends the show literally right up its own time-stream when the nasty Great Intelligence threw itself into the Doctor's personal timestream in order to rewrite the Time Lord's entire existence and undo all his good work. The Intelligence was followed by Clara (Jenna Coleman), the 'Impossible Girl', who managed to bring her Time Lord back from the brink of oblivion, just as Amy Pond did in her own way during The Big Bang, as well as The Doctor himself, when a robotic double, constructed by the alien Teselecta, to cheat death in the series two finale, The Wedding Of River Song. These finales have been clever and fun and I know that Name leads into the 50th Anniversary Special, so it was fitting to see Clara interact with all the other Doctors but, perhaps in future series climaxes, the villains could concoct a plan that doesn't involve just killing The Doctor.

Smith has always been reliably good in Doctor Who but, perhaps it's just me growing old, his tics have grown somewhat tiresome over the last three series (none spring to mind right now, so they weren't too distracting!) His clothing's grown a little sillier (enough with all those silly hats, Doctor. Fezes aren't that cool!) But when he's serious, oh, he's good. In the opening to series 3's first episode, Asylum Of The Daleks, The Doctor gazes out upon the rainy, starshipwreck-strewn landscape of his greatest enemy's home planet from the top of a gigantic Dalek statue and mournfully intones, 'Skaro...look at the state of it.' There was some fantastic work during Name, too, as The Doctor was forced to visit his own grave on an equally dark and desolate planet (complete with the now monolithic TARDIS), the mere mention of which (whisper it...Trenzalore) brought tears to his eyes and mine too, nearly.

I'm sure Smith will accomplish great emotion once more when his regeneration comes. Doctor Ten had become a little annoying by the time he came to regenerate but the sadness of his dying moments caused a lump in my throat then, so I think Smith will probably do the same. I just hope that it's not as drawn out as Ten's exit, with that Buffy/Harry Potter-esque 'He Will Knock Four Times' prophecy stuff and having the time to visit past companions. It's a shame that news of Smith's leaving really only comes two episodes before he actually goes, even if the first is five months away, by which time, it'll be a PR coup if we don't know who Doctor Twelve will be.

So, who will be the next Doctor? I hope they get someone older and crotchetier - a bit like William Hartnell, or Jon Pertwee. John Hurt was introduced as "The Doctor" at the very end of Name but Smith's Doctor knew him as 'the one that broke the promise' of the Doctor's good name (possibly through his actions during The Last Great Time War), so it's highly unlikely Hurt will be Doctor Twelve, unless he redeems himself in the 50th Anniversary Special. How cool would that be, though? No, I think someone like Bill Nighy would work. In 2009, Steven Moffat had said he wanted an older actor to play the Doctor, prior to casting the then 26-year-old Matt Smith. He has been the youngest actor in the role at the time of casting since Peter Davison accepted the role at 29 during the 1980's.

Of course, the Doctor himself is, roughly, around 1000 years old and is a Time Lord, so his physical 'age' doesn't matter. Plus, the producers would have a tough job finding a living millenarian to take on the role. Smith is roughly my age, which endeared him to me even more but played the role primarily for kids' enjoyment. I hope that an older actor might mature it a bit, maybe take The Doctor back to being the Grandfather type character of William Hartnell, or the eccentric Uncle that Troughton and Pertwee played. The thing with this character, though, is that virtually any actor of any age, colour (or gender, even, although it might be too much to have a lady Doctor) could play him (her?) and do something new and cool with it. The show is in safe hands as long as The Moff is on board, along with his trusty team of writers, including Mark Gatiss (whose Matt Smith Who scripts are improvements over his David Tennant stories), Neil Gaiman and now Neil Cross, whose recent episode, Hide, was a highlight of the most recent series.

Before hearing that Smith was leaving, I thought he was signed up for at least one more series. Clearly not. Yet his departure was on the cards, given his burgeoning film career, having recently been cast in Ryan Gosling's directorial debut, How To Catch A Monster (a very fitting-sounding project for a Doctor Who star to involve himself with). Maybe Smith could have fit in  films and other TV roles like his predecessor but it seems not. Still, Smith's last episode is the 2013 Christmas Special, hot on the heels of November's 50th Anniversary Special, so he'll hopefully go out with a (big) bang.

How will he go? He's escaped eternity in the Pandorica, cracks in time and space, death at the hands of his own wife under the control of The Silence, as well as being rewritten by the Great Intelligence; what could possibly see the fall of the Eleventh Doctor after those? Probably something totally ignominious, like K9 turning up and accidentally shooting The Doctor when a stray lazer bolt meant for a foe ricochets into him. Unlikely. Whatever it is, it's bound to be something timey-wimey.

(Image credit - http://basementrejects.com/review/doctor-who-season-5/)