Eleventh Doctor

The Doctor

The Eleventh Doctor
Doctor Who character
File:Eleventhdoctornew.jpg
First regular appearance	The End of Time
Portrayed by	Matt Smith
Preceded by	Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
Information
Tenure	2010 –
No of series	2
Appearances	19 stories (25 episodes)
Companions	Amy Pond Rory Williams River Song
Chronology	Series 5 Series 6 Series 7

The Eleventh Doctor is the eleventh and current incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running 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". As of 2011, the BBC has confirmed that Smith is to appear in at least three series, the second of which began on 23 April 2011.

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.

Overview

Although Steven Moffat expected to pick a middle-aged actor for the new Doctor, 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.

Casting

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. 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. The rumoured replacements included Catherine Tate (then playing the Doctor's companion, Donna Noble), Robert Carlyle, Jason Statham, David Morrissey, and James Nesbitt. The Daily Mail also reported the theories that two Doctors could be created, eventually proven to be correct.

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. 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, 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; Russell Tovey, who portrayed Alonso Frame in the 2007 Christmas special, "Voyage of the Damned"; and James McAvoy.

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."

Executive Producer Steven Moffat on Smith's casting.

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. 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".

Appearances

Television

Karen Gillan as Amy Pond, with Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor, filming "The Eleventh Hour"; Smith is wearing a tattered version of his predecessor's costume. (2009)

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 triggers the TARDIS to explode, which causes 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 the Doctor 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.

The 2010 Christmas special "A Christmas Carol" is a take on the Charles Dickens classic. Subsequently, series 6 in 2011 continues to examine mysteries left unexplained at the end of series 5. In "The Impossible Astronaut"/"Day of the Moon", Amy, Rory and River witness a future version of the Doctor get murdered; they vow to keep the secret from the Doctor, but Amy unknowingly tells him in "The Almost People". At the conclusion of this two-parter, 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 and 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 re-encounters her just before she regenerates into her familiar form, and learns she has been conditioned by a religious order known as the Silence to assassinate him; the Doctor's faith in the future River Song, however, convinces her to save his life and start her on the right path. At the end of the episode, he downloads his own data base from the Teselecta, giving him full knowledge of his death. In "The God Complex" The Doctor encounters his worst fear, which is behind door number 11. He, who exclaims it is his fault that Amy was in danger from the Minotaur, leaves Amy and Rory back at their house, ending their time as companions.

Literature

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.

Audio drama

The Eleventh Doctor also appears in a series of audio books. The first of these is The Hounds of Artemis by James Goss.

Video games

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. A fifth Adventure Game is scheduled for release in October 2011, again featuring Matt Smith's voice.

Appearance

Doctor Who filming, with Matt Smith as Eleventh Doctor, and Karen Gillan as Amy Pond

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." The Doctor habitually varies the details of the outfit, switching from a shirt, braces and bow tie combination in shades of red to the same in shades of 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 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.

Analysis

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.

External links

• The Eleventh Doctor on the BBC's Doctor Who Series 4 website
• The Eleventh Doctor on the BBC's Doctor Who Series 5 website
• Eleventh Doctor on Tardis Wiki, the Doctor Who Wiki