Matt Smith, who played the 11th iteration of the Doctor in Doctor Who, rejects the debates surrounding the casting of Jodie Whittaker and Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor.
Matt Smith’s role as the 11th Doctor is iconic. From his declaration that “bow-ties are cool” to his love of fish fingers and custard, many of his strange catchphrases and proclivities became staples of the Doctor Who fandom at the time of his tenure –from 2010 to 2014–and for years after it. If Christopher Eccleston brought the Doctor’s legacy back to television and David Tennant popularized that legacy, then Matt Smith solidified it. Many of the fans who first caught Doctor Who in the early years of its reboot found themselves growing up with Matt Smith’s Doctor. Even as Smith takes on new roles, his time as the Doctor remains one of his most beloved. There’s no doubt that the actor has helped shape what the show has become. And, unlike one of his predecessors, he enjoyed it too.
Smith loved Doctor Who, and was shocked by the impact his weird take on the British pop culture staple had. It was overnight,” he said to The Times. “Nobody knew who I was and suddenly I was f***ing Doctor Who!” The show clearly meant a lot to Smith because of how much it means to the people who watch it. “I feel very proud to have been in the show. It changed my life because few shows are watched by a nine-year-old, mum and dad and 83-year-old grandma. That’s three generations, and you’re in people’s homes at Christmas. It’s an amazing responsibility.”
When asked whether he still watches Doctor Who, the show’s former star said, “Not much, but Ncuti’s brilliant.” Smith’s innocuous take on the newest actor to play the Doctor goes against what many fans believe about Ncuti Gatwa’s role, as well as that of his predecessor, Jodie Whittaker. The choice to hire Whittaker as the Doctor led to outrage because, in the past twelve iterations of the character, they had never been a woman before. One might think that the controversy would die down when the Doctor was once again cast as a man, but the flames of outrage were stoked further due to Gatwa being black. Many fans of Doctor Who had been asking the series to break the white, male mold the Doctor had been in for years–decades, even–but others felt offended that a character that was previously portrayed as a white man was being changed. The fact that the Doctor had a relationship with a man in one episode made many fans happy, but angered some further.
Matt Smith Responds to Doctor Who’s Casting Controversy
While every new incarnation of the Doctor receives some pushback from fans who loved the previous version, Smith inhabited the role before the show was embroiled in the culture wars. He scoffed at such debates around the Doctor’s gender or race, saying, “Those debates reduce it to a place that it doesn’t need to be in.” He made his stance on the hatred for the show clear. “People that attack Doctor Who blow my mind. It’s about an alien who is cool and travels around the universe saving civilisations — what’s not to love?”
Those debates reduce it to a place that it doesn’t need to be in… People that attack Doctor Who blow my mind.
Smith’s response to the outrage around Whittaker and Gatwa’s casting shows the absurdity of it. How did a show about an alien flying through time and space in an old police box inspire so much hatred just because the alien wasn’t being played by a white man? At the end of the day, the show is about curiosity about the vast world around you and showing kindness to those who share it with you. It would seem that the people who harassed the new actors playing the Doctor due to their gender or race may have missed that lesson.
Doctor Who is streaming on Disney+.