Matt Smith Leaves "Doctor Who" 375
First time accepted submitter Dave Knott writes "The BBC has announced that Matt Smith will be leaving 'Doctor Who', after spending the last four seasons in the titular role of The Doctor. Smith will remain for the upcoming 50th anniversary special, where he will star alongside a majority of the other actors who have taken on the character, and will exit following the yearly Christmas episode. No actor has yet been cast as the twelfth incarnation of The Doctor, although there was a teaser involving John Hurt at the end of the most recent season of the show."
Re:Often the best man for the job is a woman (Score:5, Informative)
That was The Curse of Fatal Death and Joanna Lumley was the Doctor. It was, indeed, a spoof and quite a welcome one during the Dark Time of the Hiatus.
Re:First... (Score:5, Informative)
How much would he have cost me? ;)
A bag of Jelly Babies
Re:Often the best man for the job is a woman (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Often the best man for the job is a woman (Score:4, Informative)
Is it this this [youtube.com]?
Re:Not News (Score:5, Informative)
If anything was News for Nerds, this is it.
Re:I hope it's John Hurt (Score:3, Informative)
What's with you people? This doctor is the most fun of any since Tom Baker, and maybe even moreso.
I also like the general attitude (both his character and the show) that the Doctors is someone all the foes have learned to fear since he always beats their ass.
It has, logically, indeed come down to this:
Come onnnnnnnnn, then! [youtube.com]
I'm fine with that -- playful. I had never taken to a doctor that quickly before.
Re:Watch the age trend (Score:5, Informative)
I assumed that he was meant to be the Valeyard [wikipedia.org], who showed up in the series as the prosecutor when the Time Lords put the Doctor on trial. He was revealed to be a future incarnation of the Doctor who really has it out for himself. He's not necessarily exactly one of his normal regenerations, but may instead actually be an intermediate form like the Watcher. The Watcher was a mystery masked figure who semi-stalked the Fourth Doctor right before his death and regeneration and who actually became the new Doctor at the moment of regeneration. Another Time Lord featured in the series whose name I can't remember right now actually had his own future incarnation working for him as a sort of butler/apprentice until his own death. So, the Valeyard was meant to be possibly something similar from the Doctor's 12th regeneration (back when there was a supposedly firm limit on the number of regenerations), but evil and intent on destroying the Doctor and achieving a completely independent existence.
Through the entire series since its revival there has been a running theme that's popped up of repressed self-loathing the Doctor keeps under the surface. There was an episode where Rory and Amy were either living in an alien-infested small village or on the Tardis with the Doctor about to plunge into a "cold star" and had to figure out which was a dream and which was real. There was a creepy dream-lord villain plaguing them through the whole thing and the Doctor made a comment to him at one point that he had figured out who he was since there was only one person in the Universe who hated him that much. It turned out to be an aspect of the Doctor's unconscious mind. So, unless they're pulling some other big twist, then this new "Doctor" is probably that aspect of his mind incarnate, probably as an intermediate form produced as part of a regeneration.
Re:Often the best man for the job is a woman (Score:4, Informative)
Jenny, the doctors daughter (from an episode titled the same) is actually still out there. At the end of the episode, she regenerated and flew out into space for lots of running, etc. So there is a female time lord out among the stars.
Re:No way (Score:4, Informative)
David Tennant played Barty Crouch Jr and the Doctor, Michael Gambon played Dumbledore and Kazran Sardick, Helen McRory played Narcissa Malfoy and Rosanna Calvierri, John Cleese played Nearly Headless Nick and had a cameo in an older episode, Zoe Wanamaker played Madame Hooch and Lady Cassandra, Toby Jones played Dobby and the Dream Lord, Bill Nighy played Rufus Scrimgeour and a Van Goph expert, Roger Lloyd Pack played Barty Crouch Sr. and John Lumic, Shirly Henderson played Moaning Myrtle and Ursula Blake, Adrian Rawlins played James Potter and the Ood sympathizer from _Planet of the Ood_, David Bradley played Argus Filch and the Shansheeth in the old series, Derek Deadman played Tom the innkeeper and a Sontaran in the old series, Elizabeth Spriggs played the Fat Lady and was strangled to death in an episode of the old series, Jeff Rawles plays Amos Diggory and played Plantagenet in an episode of the old series, Jessica Hynes played the voice of Mafilda Hopkirk and played Joan Redfern and one of her descendants, Jimmy Gardner played the Knight Bus driver and Idmon in the old series, John Atterbury played Phineas Nigellus Black and some monsters in the old series, Julian Glover played Aragog and Richard the Lionheart and Scaroth in the old series, Terence Bayler played the Bloody Baron and Yendom in the old series.
Jim Broadbent played Horace Slughorn and also played the Doctor in _The Curse of Fatal Death_, but that's not really canon. Aside from that, Dudley Dursley and Dean Thomas are played by descendants of the 2nd doctor and one of the first companions respectively.
So, that's quite a few crossover actors. I knew some of those off the top of my head, but obviously I found a web site listing them for all of that. It's possible they may have missed some. In any case, it's not too surprising. The Harry Potter series has used a lot of British actors and so has Dr Who and there are only so many of them.