The Eleventh Doctor - Looking back

[thejboy88]

With Matt Smith's time as the Doctor now drawn to a close, with Peter Capaldi taking the reins in future series, I think it's time to look back and decide for ourselves just how we felt about Smith's run as this character over the last few years. As such I would like to know your thoughts and feelings on his portrayal of the character, his acting, the episodes he had and so on. Just where do you all stand on the Eleventh Doctor as a whole?

 

[TimeLord]

I think when he started I was a big fan. I've watched the episodes of series 5 and 6 quite a few times but I can honestly say I haven't re-watched a single season 7 episode. Maybe that's more Moffat's fault than Smith's though.

I can't really put my finger on why, the stories were just as good but I really enjoyed the over-arching plot of series 5 and 6.

 

[EscapeGoat_v1legacy]

When I started watching him I was one of those people who couldn't quite handle Tennant leaving, so I didn't much like him. I recently re-watched his three seasons though and now I find myself more drawn to him. I still don't consider him one of my favourite Doctors, but I can appreciate him now and the more I look back at those seasons the more I realise it's not Smith's Doctor I don't like, it's Moffat's inexplicably poor writing that put me off.

 

[EeveeElectro]

I watched Smith from the very start because that's when I was really into it. My ex had got me watching a few of Tennants episodes and gradually got me into it, so 11th was when I really started to get into it.

I love Matt Smith as a doctor but I think the writing let him down a lot. I did have a lot of respect for Moffat at one point but that has just dwindled over time. The thing with Melody and River and Amy was just... stupid. I thought it was just daft and nonsensical and a plot twist for the sake of it.
he usually does okay when he has another writer, and his work on Sherlock is really good. I think it'll be best if he just does the odd few episodes and they switch it up a bit with different writers. When he was writing most of them, it looked like he was running out of things to do. ;;

I really liked Amy too, her and the doctor had great chemistry. I didn't mind Rory but their marriage was just eurghhh, so forced.

Hopefully Clara gets punted soon. >

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Maybe that's more Moffat's fault than Smith's though.

it's Moffat's inexplicably poor writing that put me off.

I did have a lot of respect for Moffat at one point but that has just dwindled over time.

Pretty much sums up my feeling on it. Individual charm/acting has not been a problem, really, for any of the doctors. Smith was no Tennant, but he had his appeal, and Karen Gillan was a charming and memorable companion. The writing though...oy vey. What is going ON with the writing on that show? It's a fucking mess.

Hopefully Clara gets punted soon. >

Eh. I disliked her at first, but as time has gone on and they've toned down her Mary Sue elements, she's grown on me. The fact she's not hard to look at isn't hurting, either.

 

[FalloutJack]

I think that the Doctors from 9th to 11th emulate the best styles of the Doctor as per the old series. They're good formulas of manic and grim, spectacular and humbled, and ultimately very VERY entertaining.

I also think Capaldi will do an excellent job.

 

[Loonyyy]

Smith's run is where I quit Doctor Who. Smith wasn't terrible, but he wasn't great either, and the smarminess of the writing and the desperate attempts to make memes out of it "Fezs are cool" "Oh look how random I am eating silly things" were annoying, and unlike Tennant or Ecclestone, very little effort seemed to be taken to differentiate him as a character. He even dressed very similarly to Tennant. Smith really shone though, when they dropped the silliness, and he got serious. While he didn't do the badass threats so well as Ecclestone and Tennant, where there really seemed the threat that he was going to wipe your entire existance from history, him dropping his childish whimsicallity to get serious always worked for me. The contrast was great.

What was more annoying was the writing. Moffat can't write. How can he write "Blink", still to my mind, the greatest episode of new who, and then completely ruin the Angels as monsters in "Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone". Oh really, pretending you can see them will make the angels stay stone? If it's all choice to the angels, why do they keep turning to stone against harmless opponents. Pond, The Doctor, Sparrow, none of these stands a chance against an Angel, who move like damn lightening, and now apparently snap people's necks, why do the Angels keep turning to stone? And making the Angels a part of an action thing? A dodgy PG Aliens? Really?

After falling asleep during two episodes in a row (The last being the terrible Van Gogh one), I decided I was done. From the occassional glimpse at the rest of Smith's run, the Melody/River/Amy stuff, the Pandorica, I'm glad I did. There's a limit to how far I want to follow Steve Moffat up his own asshole. And that limit is well, well outside the pants.

I'm keen to see what Capaldi can do with the role, there's a hilarious mock up video of him swearing his way through a trailer. I'm interested that Davies has some input with the writing (He's got some plan to explain why Capaldi's been in there twice before), although I'm sure Moffat will try to make me hate it. Seriously, that man's a genius. I can gobble up all the Who I can get my hands on, even some of the completely demented 8th doctor novels, and he's capable of making me not want to watch it. Genius.

 

[madwarper]

I'm not sad to see Matt Smith's stint as the Doctor come to an end because he suffered one major flaw, he was not David Tennant, much like how Peter Davidson suffered from not being Tom Baker.

Then again, I found the Ponds to be insufferable, they were in the show way too long. Clara seemed interesting, but suffered from uninteresting writing.