Doctor Who - Matt Smith Chosen to Succeed David Tennant on the BBC Staple

Posted by ScuzzBuster

January 3, 2009

Long time Doctor Who fans heads are probably exploding right now with the news that Matt Smith has been chosen to succeed David Tennant in the title role of the 45 year old program. At 26 years old he’s 3 years younger than Peter Davison when he took the role in 1981, a year before Matt Smith was born.

Smith is familiar to some UK audiences as Danny Foster in Party Animals on the BBC. He has very little exposure to US audiences beyond guest and bit parts. Smith did appear on Showtime’s Secret Diary of a Call Girl, starring Billie Piper, lead actress from Doctor Who’s first two new series in 2005 and 2006.

The link to the official BBC confirmation of the choice can be found here.

Matt Smith now becomes the basket into which new producer Steven Moffatt is putting his eggs as he takes over the show; in essence the gamble that Moffatt hopes it was worth giving up working with Spielberg for.

Obviously as a viewer of the show for over two decades myself, there is a twinge of bafflement in seeing someone take the role who was born about the time I first started watching the show. Well, at least the cat’s out of the bag, so to speak. Since I’ve never seen a second of any of Smith’s performances in anything there’s not much I can really say except I hope his voice is finished changing.

INTERVIEW WITH SMITH: