Doctor Who

Having said that it may well be considered one of the masterpieces of the past decade, it seems inevitable to make some comment on the new Doctor Who. The first instinct on seeing the actor Matt Smith was a disappointment in the sense that a black actor playing the role – Patterson Joseph or Chiwetel Ejiofor – seemed an exciting possibility. The second was to speculate on how Smith’s name ended up on Betfair and I don’t think we’ve heard the last of that. But the third instinct is a growing excitement; the new Doctor’s youth (and he may be too young) does open up a whole raft of possible storylines, particularly that he will be misjudged and underestimated in the adventures to come. The theme of a character hundreds of years old in a young body isn’t a new one; Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell), an alien which could host many lives, was a major character in Star Trek: Deep Space and the writers continually played with this idea. The best response I’ve seen so far is from Matthew Sweet (whose excellent Shepperton Babylon, a revisionist look at the history of British cinema, is available from most good bookshops) on the Guardian website:

“Matt Smith has got a fascinating face. It's long and bony, with a commanding jaw. He looks like someone who could have been in Duran Duran. He has a quality of the old man trapped in the young man's body. I suspect he might be a more sensual character than David Tennant, who had no kind of dangerous sexuality about him. There's something Byronic about Matt Smith – he's got the lips for it."