This phrase was Amelia Pond’s (Karen Gillan) last words to the Doctor when she and her husband Rory (Arthur Darvill) left the show last Fall. Now it’s time for Whovians to say the same to Matt Smith, the Doctor himself.
The BBC announced on June 1 that Matt Smith, the Eleventh regeneration of the Doctor, will be leaving the show after the 50th Anniversary Special and the Christmas Special in December. The rumours of Smith’s leave started circulating in March but Smith had dismissed the news, until now. Smith’s public statement called Doctor Who “the most brilliant experience” and described Whovians, fans of the Doctor Who series, as “unlike any other”, thanking them for their “truly remarkable” dedication. Lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat said, “Thank you Matt – bow ties were never cooler,” and Jenna Louise-Coleman, who portrays Clara Oswin Oswald, the newest companion, added that she “could not have imagined coming into the show without Matt as my Doctor, holding my hand, really, quite literally,” telling the fans, “it’s not over till it’s over.”
Smith started his run as the Eleventh Doctor in 2010, four years in total inside the time lord’s TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space, the nickname for the show’s iconic blue telephone box which is, as Whovians are well aware, a time machine), an era which has seen the show go truly global, conquering BBC America and becoming its highest rated series. Voted Best Actor by the readers of the Doctor Who magazine in his first year, Smith received the UK’s 2012 Most Popular Male Drama Performance Award and was the first Doctor to be nominated for a BAFTA (a British Academy of Film and Television Arts award).
He may be leaving the TARDIS, but Smith has been busy. As evident by his recent frequent trips to Los Angeles and his current project, the Ryan Gosling-directed How to Catch a Monster, co-starring Christina Hendricks, Saoirse Ronan and Eva Mendes, Smith is clearly transitioning over to Hollywood.
Naturally, there is active speculation of who’s to become the next, twelfth Doctor. Bets and odds are being placed in the UK, while names including Idris Elba, Dame Helen Mirren, John Hurt, and even Harry Potter’s Rupert Grint, Sherlock’s Martin Freeman, or Skyfall’s Ben Whishaw, have been raised.
So long, fish fingers and custard days. Like any Whovian, I would miss Smith, my first Doctor and one of my favorite Doctors dearly, but the time has come to embrace the change, move on, and look forward to what the show has to offer next. Geronimo, Matt!
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