June 1st, 2013
479 comments
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Official – Matt Smith To Leave Doctor Who
Matt Smith To Leave Doctor Who
The BBC is today announcing that Matt Smith is to leave Doctor Who after four incredible years on the hit BBC One show.
Matt first stepped into the TARDIS in 2010 and will leave the role at the end of this year after starring in the unmissable 50th Anniversary in November and regenerating in the Christmas Special.
During his time as the Doctor, Matt has reached over 30 million unique UK viewers and his incarnation has seen the show go truly global. He was also the first actor to be nominated for a BAFTA in the role.
Matt quickly won over fans to be voted Best Actor by Readers of Doctor Who Magazine for the 2010 season. He also received a nod for his first series at the National Television Awards, before winning the Most Popular Male Drama Performance award in 2012.
Matt has played one of the biggest roles in TV with over 77 million fans in the UK, USA and Australia alone!
Matt Smith says: “Doctor Who has been the most brilliant experience for me as an actor and a bloke, and that largely is down to the cast, crew and fans of the show. I’m incredibly grateful to all the cast and crew who work tirelessly every day, to realise all the elements of the show and deliver Doctor Who to the audience. Many of them have become good friends and I’m incredibly proud of what we have achieved over the last four years.
“Having Steven Moffat as show runner write such varied, funny, mind-bending and brilliant scripts has been one of the greatest and most rewarding challenges of my career. It’s been a privilege and a treat to work with Steven, he’s a good friend and will continue to shape a brilliant world for the Doctor.
“The fans of Doctor Who around the world are unlike any other; they dress up, shout louder, know more about the history of the show (and speculate more about the future of the show) in a way that I’ve never seen before, your dedication is truly remarkable. Thank you so very much for supporting my incarnation of the Time Lord, number Eleven, who I might add is not done yet, I’m back for the 50th anniversary and the Christmas special!
“It’s been an honour to play this part, to follow the legacy of brilliant actors, and helm the TARDIS for a spell with ‘the ginger, the nose and the impossible one’. But when ya gotta go, ya gotta go and Trenzalore calls. Thank you guys. Matt.”
Steven Moffat, lead writer and executive producer, says: “Every day, on every episode, in every set of rushes, Matt Smith surprised me: the way he’d turn a line, or spin on his heels, or make something funny, or out of nowhere make me cry, I just never knew what was coming next. The Doctor can be clown and hero, often at the same time, and Matt rose to both challenges magnificently.
“And even better than that, given the pressures of this extraordinary show, he is one of the nicest and hardest-working people I have ever had the privilege of knowing. Whatever we threw at him – sometimes literally – his behaviour was always worthy of the Doctor.
“But great actors always know when it’s time for the curtain call, so this Christmas prepare for your hearts to break, as we say goodbye to number Eleven. Thank you Matt – bow ties were never cooler.
“Of course, this isn’t the end of the story, because now the search begins. Somewhere out there right now – all unknowing, just going about their business – is someone who’s about to become the Doctor. A life is going to change, and Doctor Who will be born all over again! After 50 years, that’s still so exciting!”
Having starred alongside three different companions, Amy Pond (Karen Gillan), Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) and most recently Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman), Matt’s Doctor has fought Daleks and Cybermen, as well as Weeping Angels in New York. Regularly heard shouting ‘run’ and ‘Geronimo’, through Matt’s Doctor fans have been introduced to a new culinary combination – fish fingers and custard!
Matt’s spectacular exit is yet to be revealed and will be kept tightly under wraps. He will return to BBC One screens in the unmissable 50th anniversary episode on Saturday 23 November 2013 – TUNE IN!
Doctor Who is a BBC Cymru Wales production for BBC One
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TheDoctorWhoGeek
June 3rd, 2013 - 6:21pmThe whole 507 thing was a joke – but to be honest I think the concept behind it works. The Time Lords REGULATED the 13 lives rule – we can see this as they granted the Master more lives! As the Time Lords are dead they cannot stop him from regenerating more!
Job done.
DWG
Silence Will Still Fall
June 3rd, 2013 - 6:15pmThe person who portrays the doctor must remain british and male. Chris o’dowd, colin morgan and richard ayoade are still my top 3 to succeed matt.
TheDoctorWhoGeek
June 3rd, 2013 - 6:11pmErm… Anyone who is Scottish is British.. So Tennant and McCoy were British – like the English and Welsh are British..
MyLittleTripod
June 3rd, 2013 - 6:04pmGrammar: USE IT.
TheDoctorWhoGeek
June 3rd, 2013 - 6:03pmYou have to admit that comedy is a frequent element of the show – I mean Donna faceplanted a wall in ‘The Runaway Bride’! You also cannot say that Steven makes sure nobody dies – considering he wrote Amy and Rory’s death – the first ‘NewWho’ companions to die! I don’t think there are many innuendos to be honest, and if so that would make the show more adult, rather than childish – and it is a family show at heart – it needs a balance between big monsters for the kids and jokes for the adults. I’d like to hear an example about the political correctness of Steven Moffat’s ‘Who’ aswell. I personally think that Steven Moffat cares a lot about the show – and I think it quite rude to assume that he doesn’t – he is a fantastic writer – even though I personally prefered RTD.
DWG
Anonymous
June 3rd, 2013 - 5:59pmthats different your talking about film
this is tv and dr who should remain british and male
Space Fish
June 3rd, 2013 - 5:58pmSteven Moffat will probaly try it
Space Fish
June 3rd, 2013 - 5:57pmYou clever person- He would be a brilliant Doctor and I am not being sarcastic
Anonymous
June 3rd, 2013 - 5:43pmOh well, maybe matt could come back to do the 100th anniversary special in 2063! Lol
Galifreyan Bod
June 3rd, 2013 - 5:39pmJim Parsons
MJ
June 3rd, 2013 - 5:15pmIf not Jim Parsons then Matt Berry or Julian Barrett
MJ
June 3rd, 2013 - 5:07pmJim Parsons
NigelP
June 3rd, 2013 - 5:06pmThe Doctor as a woman?
Over my cold dead body! I’ve watched avidly since 1970 and through the dodgy 80s to get to the high-point we have finally arrived at. I will NEVER watch again if that happens. And I will not be alone – it’ll be a P.C. farce!
prof horner
June 3rd, 2013 - 5:06pmI think they should get a unknown actor and change his name to John Nathan-Turner. The great ones name will live for ever! Or we could have Colin Salmon.
MJ
June 3rd, 2013 - 4:55pmMy choice? Jim Parsons from Big Bang Theory. And before you all get upset about an American as actor playing the Doc, just remember that three Brit actors have recently played three American comic book icons – Bale as Batman’ Cavill as Superman and Garfield and Spidey…
The Doctor
June 3rd, 2013 - 4:54pmThe X Factors ratings have been decreasing rapidly since the last series and after the series in this Autumn the show will face being axed. Doctor Who is bound to beat it. Stop being negative.
Scherzy
June 3rd, 2013 - 4:52pmThe anniversary episode will lose loaaaads of viewers to The X Factor
Anonymous
June 3rd, 2013 - 4:49pmShobna Gulati for the first female doctor
Anonymous
June 3rd, 2013 - 4:48pmJust cos she played Rose dosnt mean she couldn’t be the doctor
olletsoc
June 3rd, 2013 - 4:30pmthe 9th Doctor is my favourite New Series Doctor. There was no messing around with him, none of this ‘bow ties are cool’ lark. that was when the show was a bit darker, and more exciting. it’s a shame he was only in it for one season.
Anonymous
June 3rd, 2013 - 4:28pmI hope stevan moffat leaves
why well he’s made the show into a comady
no one die’s any more and if they do they magicly come back to life
there are to many innuendos which makes the show evan more childish
It’s to politicly correct
let some one like mark gattis take over the show someone who actualy cares for the show
The Cyber Squirrel
June 3rd, 2013 - 4:26pmAh Well… At least we will have a regeneration in the 50th anniversary year
Darth Vemin
June 3rd, 2013 - 4:25pmWhat about John Barrowman. That would really throw a conundrum into the works. We know the Captain Jack character lives for a long time and has been involved in time travel. They could make all sorts of crazy storylines with that.
Anonymous
June 3rd, 2013 - 4:13pmNO THAT WOULD BE THE END OF DOCTOR WHO
Anonymous
June 3rd, 2013 - 4:12pmbut the next doctor should be older
Anonymous
June 3rd, 2013 - 4:11pmtrue very true but whan Im saying is doctor who makes more money because it sells more toys and audios and comics and books the list goes on
the vocie makes a lot of money but doctor who makes triple of what the voice makes
Anonymous
June 3rd, 2013 - 4:05pmA female doctor who kill the show
why because the doctor has always been a man its like making wonder woman into wonder man
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it
outnumbered
June 3rd, 2013 - 3:58pmwhat no
she played rose
and olivia is not going to come in to something that is loseing its viewers every week
and i think its should be a man anyway
outnumbered
June 3rd, 2013 - 3:51pmwell maybe if dr who would get better storys were everyone understands it it might get the views back
Dalek: the Supreme
June 3rd, 2013 - 3:13pmBillie Piper already played a companion, and though her performance was good the character was awful.