Matt Smith Leaving Doctor Who Already?

bowman9991 sent in a disappointing rumor saying "Ironically Matt Smith, the youngest Doctor Who ever, apparently wants to retire early. An unconfirmed report suggests Smith would like to try his hand at Hollywood films after the end of his second season as the Doctor. Smith is currently filming this year's Doctor Who Christmas special with Karen Gillan, who plays his companion Amy Pond, and opera star Katherine Jenkins. After the Christmas special he goes straight into production on a new Doctor Who series set to air next year." I've tremendously enjoyed the Smith/Gillan combo, personally.

Re:Thank god

[Sancho]

It's all the writing. I don't particularly care for Matt Smith, but I think that's my problem--having an unholy love for the previous Doctor. But for me, it's pretty hard to get past all of the continuity they've been screwing with, and even when they aren't doing that, the writing is just bad.

Re:The Sun eh...

[Two9A]

The Telegraph reports Karen Gillan as specifically denying [telegraph.co.uk] that Smith's going anywhere, so this is just a spurious attempt by the Sun to generate "news".

Here's hoping Smith stays on for at least 3 years, and we get some more multi-season arcs going.

Re:Christmas special?

[Anonymous Coward]

> Actually all doctors had a christmas specials

If by "all" you mean David Tennant. He had three.

Probably worth pointing out...

[Anonymous Coward]

Probably worth pointing out this rumour comes from The Sun, a British tabloid not exactly known for it's reliability.

Karen Gillan says Matt is staying

[Anonymous Coward]

Doctor Who star Matt Smith is staying put, says Karen Gillan
Karen Gillan, who plays Doctor Who's assistant, says Matt Smith isn't going to Los Angeles
Karen Gillan, who plays Amy Pond, the assistant to Matt Smith's Doctor Who, has reassuring news for his fans. The actor isn't about to decamp to Los Angeles.

"Matt will be sticking around," she told me at the Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup Final at Cowdray Park Polo Club yesterday. "I think those rumours were made up."

Karen, left, added that she and Smith have started filming the Doctor Who Christmas special, and adds that the atmosphere on the set is "great."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mandrake/7897262/Doctor-Who-star-Matt-Smith-is-staying-put-says-Karen-Gillan.html

Re:Christmas special?

[Aliotroph]

William Hartnell had one: Episode 7 of "The Daleks' Master Plan" in 1965. It was a farcical addition to a way-too-long serial.

Do you actually watch the show? Not a reboot.

[Picass0]

Davies made some reboot comments prior to the first season but he was selling it to new viewers at the time. As the show has had four more seasons there have been numerous bridges built to recognize the older shows, including actually showing all of the other TV Who actors in flashback (including Paul McGann). There have been references to older adventures, characters from the older shows (Sarah Jane and K-9, hello?). What the show was sold as initially and what it has become are two different things. The story very clearly is telling the further adventures of the Doctor, not a do-over.

Re:Think of all the hints River had dropped

[easterberry]

Well she said the same about Tennant. I think it's more a reference to her knowing the doctor from like... decades/centuries into his future.

Re:Time to add a little crazy into that character

[TheWanderingHermit]

It doesn't matter anyway. Slashdot was in such a hurry to get a headline people would react to, they didn't do their fact checking. He's not leaving:

http://www.digitalspy.com/cult/s7/doctor-who/news/a246624/gillan-matt-smith-isnt-leaving-who.html [digitalspy.com]

Re:It's a salary negotiation ploy

[Kagato]

Tennant had a much longer history as a leading actor. The salary was inline with his stature in the acting community. Smith is younger and didn't have the same chops. He simply couldn't command as much as Tennant.

As far as Hollywood? No way. He's too goofy looking for the shallow producers he'd have to deal with.

Re:Christmas special?

[nine-times]

Doctor who always has Christmas specials... or at least for the past several years. You just might not have realized it if you're in the US, because they tend to get played as season premieres. If you remember...

• "The Christmas Invasion" - First David Tennant episode, aliens invade on Christmas
• "The Runaway Bride" - Introduction to Donna Noble
• "Voyage of the Damned" - Spaceship Titanic, Kylie Minogue appears
• "The Next Doctor" - The Doctor runs into what appears to be a future version of himself, fights the Cybermen in the past
• "The End of Time" - Last David Tennant episode

All of these were Christmas specials. Many of them explicitly took place on Christmas, though I don't remember if they all do.

Tennant is a great stage actor

[igb]

Precisely. Tennant had done significant work with multiple TV production companies prior to Who, whereas Smith had done a couple of minor things. Tennant would have been been a reasonable casting for the RSC Hamlet even without the Doctor Who role. After all, he'd done multiple, successful seasons at Stratford (Lysander, Romeo, Touchstone: significant, career-building roles). To do Touchstone in the RST at 25 means you're pretty hot stuff (Patrick Stewart was 28 when he did the same thing: it worked out OK for him, too), and if you follow it with a well-received Romeo at 30 you'll be in any RSC director's list of people to call for Hamlet in your late thirties. Decent stabs at Touchstone and Romeo mean you can speak the verse. And his Hamlet proved that he has fantastic speaking skills: he looked top class next to Stewart and Pennie Downie, who are amongst the greats.

Tennant may not be the greatest British Shakespearian actor of his generation --- Jonathan Slinger probably gets that nod at the moment, after his Richards in 2007/8 --- but he's very, very good and his Hamlet sits alongside Branagh's as one of the best in recent years. Who knows what Tennant will be like in his late sixties, as Patrick Stewart was for his recent Anthony, Prospero, Macbeth and Claudius (with a side-order of Vladimir in Godot) --- I saw all of those bar the Anthony, and he was superb --- but at the moment in his forties the RSC would kill to have Tennant on hand to do Henry V or Richard II. And in ten years' time he's going to be the defining Prospero of the 2020s. The BBC got a bargain for his Who, as he's the first serious actor to take the part.

By the way, another Who name to watch: Sam Troughton, son of David, grandson of Patrick. Stunning Romeo this year.