BBC – Media Centre – Matt Smith to leave Doctor Who.

Fish Fingers and Custard Doctor

Well, I cannot say that I am that sorry to hear this news – nothing personal against Matt Smith but I think that he has exploited the quirky side of the Doctor at the expense of the serious more introspective side and and had to rely more on the supporting cast to offset this; and no, I do not support the rumour that his last role before the Doctor was JarJar Binks…

It probably does not help that during his tenure the series has slipped more into the single episode story model than the more traditional serial model that original Whovians grew up with. While this change might be more commercially viable, it means that each self-contained episode has to have more peaks and troughs than the old serial format and as a result, we, the viewers, are subjected to a much higher proportion of  ‘fish fingers and custard’ quirkiness than might have occupied using the older format.

The serial format was probably better for bringing fans back each week to see ‘what happens next’ (it works for Coro!) than the self-contained model; certainly I find myself less compelled to view the more recent series than when they were serialised. Another advantage of the serial format that might have been lost on BBC Wales is that longer stories offer greater opportunities for character development than trying to cram EVERYTHING into a single 42 minute episode…

Of course, the big teaser in the finale (the one where the Doctor’s name is mentioned – sorry, I yawned and missed that bit) of the current series is whether John Hurt might be the next Doctor; from my traditional Whovian perspective, this would be a welcome return to the traditional Doctor from the good days when the series used to terrify me, when Daleks were truly scary and not like metallic Energiser bunnies that JUST WON’T DIE, when the Cybermen and Abominable Snowmen were  real threat to world peace and life as we know it, and the sets looked like they would fall over if you leaned on them. Yep, those sets, we might laugh at them know but, funny old thing, with good stories, who really cared? There’s a bit more to an enduring story than fish fingers and custard, glitzy special effects and an uber-franchise… 

Real Doctors