January the third 2009 is a date that saw the world holding its breath . Months of speculation were about to come to ahead . David Tennant was leaving DOCTOR WHO and everyone was shuddering as to who would replace Scotland's answer to Dick Van Dyke in the title role . The signs weren't good . For months speculation was that we'd be seeing the first ever black Doctor in the shape of Paterson Joseph . Would the audience be ready for Joseph ? Would Joseph break the habit of a lifetime and actually invest in acting lessons ? Would Joseph's career be cut short in the meantime by a fatal attack of woodworm ? We'd have to wait and see
The day dawned and news outlets such as Sky and the BBC evening news gave a shortlist of contenders , all of which had Paterson Joseph as a near certainty for the title role . One could only hope against hope , especially since Joseph had effectively been written out of SURVIVORS where his character was shot and left dying in a pool of sawdust . DOCTOR WHO CONFIDENTIAL was broadcast immediately after the BBC news and right away it was revealed that the actor playing the Doctor would be the youngest ever . Orgasmic euphoria swept over me when that ruled out Joseph . However that brought about a post coital headache when I realised we wouldn't be seeing Robert Carlyle , James Nesbitt , David Morrisey or Chiwetel Ejiofor in the role
My thoughts were broken by the amount of hype spewing out of the mouths of the interviewees . Jane Tranter , Russell T Davies , Steven Moffatt and David Tennant were all unanimous that the show would go from strength to strength under this actor . RTD especially was falling over himself in the sycophancy stakes : " Oh when I heard he'd been cast I was soooooooo jealous " . Then the new Doctor was revealed as : Matt Smith
At this point millions of people across the globe shouted out the title of their favourite show . Well the second half of the title as we were introduced to somebody nobody outside of the Matt Smith household had never heard of before . In fact I was shocked Smith was clean shaven since he's so unknown I doubt if he'd be able to recognise himself in the mirror in the morning
So what are we to take from this casting ? Perhaps the fact that Moffat who has set himself up as a radical and iconoclastic scriptwriter and producer has made the safest casting choice in the history of television by casting a 20 something pretty boy in the title role of DOCTOR WHO . I bet he'll even have a home counties accent . One of the great strengths of the show is that the incarnations of the doctors have all been different , no more so than the cross over from Eccleston's Byronic northerner into Tennant's lightweight zany southern geezer
But the true test will come in 2010 when Matt Who becomes Doctor Who . Looking on the bright side when the 11th doctor kisses one of his companions his co-star won't have to worry about getting splinters on her lips which wouldn't have been the case if Paterson Joseph got the gig
The day dawned and news outlets such as Sky and the BBC evening news gave a shortlist of contenders , all of which had Paterson Joseph as a near certainty for the title role . One could only hope against hope , especially since Joseph had effectively been written out of SURVIVORS where his character was shot and left dying in a pool of sawdust . DOCTOR WHO CONFIDENTIAL was broadcast immediately after the BBC news and right away it was revealed that the actor playing the Doctor would be the youngest ever . Orgasmic euphoria swept over me when that ruled out Joseph . However that brought about a post coital headache when I realised we wouldn't be seeing Robert Carlyle , James Nesbitt , David Morrisey or Chiwetel Ejiofor in the role
My thoughts were broken by the amount of hype spewing out of the mouths of the interviewees . Jane Tranter , Russell T Davies , Steven Moffatt and David Tennant were all unanimous that the show would go from strength to strength under this actor . RTD especially was falling over himself in the sycophancy stakes : " Oh when I heard he'd been cast I was soooooooo jealous " . Then the new Doctor was revealed as : Matt Smith
At this point millions of people across the globe shouted out the title of their favourite show . Well the second half of the title as we were introduced to somebody nobody outside of the Matt Smith household had never heard of before . In fact I was shocked Smith was clean shaven since he's so unknown I doubt if he'd be able to recognise himself in the mirror in the morning
So what are we to take from this casting ? Perhaps the fact that Moffat who has set himself up as a radical and iconoclastic scriptwriter and producer has made the safest casting choice in the history of television by casting a 20 something pretty boy in the title role of DOCTOR WHO . I bet he'll even have a home counties accent . One of the great strengths of the show is that the incarnations of the doctors have all been different , no more so than the cross over from Eccleston's Byronic northerner into Tennant's lightweight zany southern geezer
But the true test will come in 2010 when Matt Who becomes Doctor Who . Looking on the bright side when the 11th doctor kisses one of his companions his co-star won't have to worry about getting splinters on her lips which wouldn't have been the case if Paterson Joseph got the gig
