Matt Smith’s Doctor: “A Bit Like Tom Baker Minus the Scarf”

New lead writer Steven Moffat is interviewed, and he says he has only one wish for the show:

“For it not to be s***…One wobbly wall, one pony-looking effect, one tiny thing goes wrong, and it’s back to the 1970s….The audience, whether they’re eight years old or 48, they’re not waiting to see why it’s different or strange or new, they’re just wanting it to be really good. It’s actually an incredibly easy challenge to make something different. It’s incredibly hard to make something good.”

Midgley has taken a look at the new TARDIS, and he describes it in pretty exhaustive detail:

This new TARDIS – not an obligatory accessory for each new Doctor, but required by the damage done to it in [David] Tennant‘s last episode – is big. It must be three times the size of Tennant’s, on multiple levels with staircases in between. Less grubby than its predecessor, with a transparent plastic floor on the main level, its walls are resplendent with polished copper and its central column features a blown glass decoration that could be straight from Tales of the Unexpected. There are old car seats and downstairs – downstairs! – a swing. With a nod to Paul McGann‘s TARDIS, the central column features an old TV screen on an extendable trellis. It also has a 1980s-style computer keyboard, and a His-Master’s-Voice style trumpet speaker.

Very cool indeed. But Midgley’s most interesting observations are about star Matt Smith, the Eleventh Doctor:

Most importantly, from the moment he stumbles out of his crashed TARDIS, Smith is certainly his own Doctor. Less prickly than [Christopher] Eccleston and without the slapstick of Tennant, he brings an air of muddled intensity that’s a bit reminiscent of, say, Tom Baker (though without the stripy scarf).

That’s interesting: Baker is the quintessential Doctor for many fans of classic Who. Could Smith’s Doctor be an interesting, modern throwback to the old school? Here’s a clip of Baker’s Doctor:

I’ll certainly be tuning in on April 17th to see what Mr. Smith has in store. Well, that is, if I don’t get tickets to the first U.S. screening of the new series premiere, which is taking place at San Francisco’s WonderCon on Saturday, April 3rd. Click here for the details.