Rumor: Matt Smith Quitting Doctor Who After Second Season

[SomeBritishDude]

Matt Smith is excellent as the Doctor, whereas David Tennant's constant shouting and running around got really fucking old, really fucking quickly.

Not quickly for me. But he did start to wear away at me near the end. I think he should have ended his run at the end of series 3, he really did become a parody of himself with the sparse episodes.

But yeah, it's the Sun. There is no news. Only the mad ramblings of morons desperate for stories and a lovely lady on page 3 who became obsolete when the internet was invented.

 

[Luke Cartner]

OH I HOPE ITS TRUE!!! BRING BACK DAVID! Matt smith is one creepy mother fucker, I'm sure he's a good actor but I just can't stand to look at him

It is a principle quality of the doctor who franchise that the doctor changes and is distinctly different from the earlier one. Just go with it and you'll enjoy the show more.
Rest assured even if Matt does go David wont be returning. Its just not how it works and anyways David wanted to work on new things so it is unlikely he even wants to return.

 

[Luke Cartner]

The River Song continuity is messed up already as she knew The Doctor as David Tennant despite her only seeing him once before he regenerated.

that we know of there is a big point made in doctor who that he is not always rescueing people he does go on holidays to far off planets andmeets other people

And ofcourse there was that 6 months gap where on working out he was going to die the doctor effectively went joy riding across the universe doing all sorts of things including getting married...

 

[Sprogus]

Everyone talking about the 12 regeneration limit there is a way around it that they have already introduced into one of the episodes. Now I don't remember which episode but it was mentioned that during the time war the regeneration limit was set to infinite. Since the time war is time locked technically that would mean that the regeneration limit is still set to infinite. Not sure if that is the route they will take but it's food for thought at least.

 

[Jared]

I really cant see him leaving so soon after saying how much he loved it...I loved his first season and can only hope the second one will be just as cool!

 

[Mr_Elddir]

I really don't understand the whole Tennant Vs. Smith business. They are both excellent Doctors, who brought/bring their own takes to the role (even if, at first, Matt Smith appeared to be doing a slight Tennant impression - he soon proved to be his own Doctor).

I have to say that I thought RTD's writing let Tennant down, if anything. With Moffat in charge, even the weaker episodes of the last series were at least 'good'.

 

[scnj]

Matt Smith is excellent as the Doctor, whereas David Tennant's constant shouting and running around got really fucking old, really fucking quickly.

Not quickly for me. But he did start to wear away at me near the end. I think he should have ended his run at the end of series 3, he really did become a parody of himself with the sparse episodes.

I've always preferred the Doctor as a protagonist who could step back from a situation and meticulously think it through, rather than ac purely on instinct. The man is meant to be a genius beyond anything we can comprehend, but Tennant was dangerously close to playing him as a complete idiot who survived purely on luck alone.

 

[Crystal Cuckoo]

Wait, if Smith quits, does that mean Karen Gillan does too?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[MDSnowman]

How's this.

I'm a David Tennant Doctor Fan, but RTD's writing went off the rails somewhere in the second season and by season four it had devolved into some very bleh episodes. Also Catherine Tate, I realize we needed a companion who wasn't crushing on the Doctor, but why take the single most annoying human character you've introduced in three previous seasons (and that includes Jackie) and make her the new companion?

I'm not a fan of Matt Smith's doctor, as it's been pointed out he's doing a bad Tennant impression, but with the addition of a bow-tie. However, the writing this last season has been really good, especially compared to season four. I'm not surprised since SM's other episodes have always been some of my favorites in previous seasons. The Vincent Van Gogh episode made me freakin' cry.

Really though Smith was a pretty uninspiring choice for The Doctor from the start. I loved all the wild internet rumors of the next Doctor being a woman, or black, but we get a guy who looks like a younger David Tennant... we couldn't even find a Ginger to play him? Really?

 

[jspheonix]

The River Song continuity is messed up already as she knew The Doctor as David Tennant despite her only seeing him once before he regenerated.

Yeaaaahhh they explained that. River has all of the Doctors faces, future and past in her book, she doesn't know the order of them either. So she sees Ten and just expects him to know her. It is also very possible that the tenth Doctor met her again in his final year (lets face it, there is virtually an unlimited amount of stories that can come from him dashing about the universe)

 

[Humiliated Grape]

Well fair play to him if that's the case. Christopher Eccleston stayed the right amount of time, we'll remember him but that's not all we'll remember him for. Where as David Tennant IS the Doctor now.

I will miss Matt Smith when he goes since I thought he made a brilliant Doctor. I'd like to see how he works without Amy around, although I think Karen's signed on for just as long as him.

As for bringing Tennant back... Timey Wimey Wibbley Wobbley :3

Also I hope at one point we have a meet up. The christmas special with the fifth Doctor was awesome sauce. Lets have some more Doctors on the scene!

 

[pilf]

it's very rare that the sun gets its facts right so im highly sceptical about this, plus I really liked Matt's portrayal of the Doctor and really want to see go on and have many, many more adventures.

 

[WolfThomas]

I wouldn't mind this, one of the best things about Eccleston is he left with me wanting more, whereas I started to get tired of Tennant. A quick turnover of awesome actors might be the best thing for the series.

 

[Tiswas]

I pretty much agreed with what had been said. Personally I think that Tennant should have left at the end of Journey's End. They coulda used some bull about his bodies failing cus there was two or some nonsense.

Although that's mainly because I found the specials to be rubbish overall. It was nice seeing John Simm and Wilf again but that could easily have been a 11th Doctor story if need be. Next Doctor fails on re-watching because the point was that he 'could' have been the Next Doctor. Whoever thought the Cybermen being in that ep should be hit. Hard. Same goes for the ones who wrote in those insect aliens and Gadget, Gadget.

So annoying.

 

[Witty-Name]

As practically everybody has said it's The Sun, so no need to take this seriously.
They have been right before -- but that's just law of averages, keep predicting things and sooner or later one of the things you predict will happen to be true.
Back when the first series was in production there were rumours that the Daleks wouldn't be back because of issues with Terry Nation's estate. The Sun decided to run a campaign to bring them back, then tried to take the credit when the problems were resolved and the Daleks returned.

As for the 12 regeneration rule. My guess is that they'll probably acknowledge it somehow before they overcome it. My prediction is that the 13th Doctor's final series will be filled with predictions that this is THE END, The Doctor will make peace with that and think that this is finally it for him. Then in his last moments he'll regenerate anyway - cue the story arc of the next series when he tries to find out why it is he was able to regenerate.

EDIT: If this turns out to be true, please remember that it was me who plucked the theory from nothing, not The Sun.

 

[ReSpawn]

I really don't understand the whole Tennant Vs. Smith business. They are both excellent Doctors, who brought/bring their own takes to the role (even if, at first, Matt Smith appeared to be doing a slight Tennant impression - he soon proved to be his own Doctor).

I have to say that I thought RTD's writing let Tennant down, if anything. With Moffat in charge, even the weaker episodes of the last series were at least 'good'.

This is precisely my position. After 'The Eleventh Hour', the Tennant-isms seemed to vanish entirely. I took those elements of his performance in that episode to be him implying the transition from Ten's character to this new one. From then on, he's succeeded in adding enough detail to Eleven to differentiate himself from the previous versions.

His sense of humour and comic timing and delivery alone set him apart from Ten (as much a product of Moffat's writing as Smith's acting, I'm sure). I mean, just thinking back I can remember a handful of brilliant, funny lines from each episode. Standout moments, because of his delivery. Nine/Ten would play those moments for laughs, almost winking at the camera (although I don't mean that as negatively as it sounds), while Eleven plays it straight. Paradoxically because he understands it's funny, but knows it's all in the delivery.

I've been pleasantly surprised by Smith, and hope he continues. This series ranks as one of the most watchable, thanks to the combination of Smith/Moffat.

Edit: Also, as to the regenerations thing. It's been alluded to already in the thread, but The Master stated that the Time Lords resurrected him and gave him a new 'set' of regenerations, before he repayed them by buggering off to the end of the universe. And in the old series, I'm sure one of his motivations for clashing with The Doctor so often was that he intended to steal his regenerations for himself.

 

[Eyhren]

I wouldn't wipe my arse with The Sun.

 

[tehweave]

Warning: Nerdy Rant


Here's my problem with this: From watching the earlier seasons (first series, before doctor 9) there's a significant amount of time the doctor spends in each body. For 400 years he was doctor 1, and doctor 4 lasted for 7 seasons. They established early on that a timelord can only regenerate 12 times (making 13 doctors total) but knowing the popularity of this series, they'll find a way around that.

The issue I have here is that we aren't spending enough time with these new doctors. The original series had story arcs that lasted 5 to 6 episodes each, and each doctor had several seasons of this, doctor 4 had probably 40 story arcs to his name. While David Tennant was in about 40 episodes as doctor 10, each episode was only about 45 minutes as opposed to 100. We're spending less time with each of the new doctors. Eccelston was only on for one season (12 episodes) Tennant ran with it for 3 seasons and 4 specials, which was a significant amount of time, but would be on par with that of one of the first three doctors, not doctor 4. And now Smith might only do it for 2 seasons? We're running out of doctors here.

At this rate, in about 5 years, Doctor 13 will die, forcing the writers to come up with some random loophole to keep him alive, or start a new chain of doctors, and they'll run through those even faster. Doctor Who is a fun and amazing series, and each actor seems to want to leave the role as soon as possible! It's not cool, man.

 

[TimeLord75]

So I'm gathering from others' posts is that the Sun is roughly equivalent to the Enquirer here in the US...? Intriguing. The clues dropped by the not-so-good Dr. Song would appear to support their conclusions, though.

Either way, the Doctor REALLY needs to slow his proverbial roll. There's only 2 of him left, damnit!

 

[Sylocat]

I always found this part very strange

Spoiler

Isn't there a MASSIVE PLOT HOLE in the last episode, how did he get out of pandorica's box the very first time and why isn't there a dead lock seal on it so the sonic dosn't work. Itn't the pandorica supposed to be the ultimate prison with loads of security devices on it.

They handwaved that by saying

Spoiler

"It's not hard to break INTO a prison, that's not what prisons are built to prevent."