Matt Smith is the Doctor...

For all of you who know me, the one thing I live for when it comes to television is DOCTOR WHO!! My video collection got me through college and I've been hooked on the new series ever since Christopher Eccleston first said "RUN!" in 2005. David Tennant became one of my favorite Doctors. Definitely right up there with Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker as far as I was concerned. For me he had the right mix of the Tom Baker's unpredictability, Peter Davison's chumminess, Colin Baker's anger and Sylvester McCoy's dark mysteriousness. Not to mention I really liked the combination of the suit, long jacket and trainers that really echoed his previous incarnations.

The funny thing is I started out a little skeptical of Tennant as the Doctor but he won me over and I don't think anyone else could have carried the series the way he did.

Which now I feel the same way about Matt Smith.

To be honest the choice kind of surprised me. Mostly because the way Steven Moffat was talking the next Doctor was going to be an actor over 40 and odd looking. Which I can understand. Many of the actors who had played Doctor Who like Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker or Sylvester McCoy were not pretty boys. Seeing that the Doctor started out as a Grandfather, Doctor Who had never gone historically for sex appeal when it came to their lead actor.

And I'm sure a lot of you, much like myself, are probably saying "Who the HELL is Matt Smith". But then again, there have been a couple of unknown actors like Tom Baker or Sylvester McCoy who were virtual unknowns and did an excellent job in the role. And Tom Baker is still considered to be one of the best Doctor in the shows history. Although, there have been people who feel David Tennant has eclipsed his popularity. And that's not a bad thing. It just means people like the show again. Nevertheless, Tom Baker casts a pretty long shadow.

I have to admit Matt Smith does have an interesting quality to his face. I suppose sort of a David Bowie/Jarvis Cocker appearance. That Ziggy Stardust/Thin White Duke definitely gives him potential to be good for the role.

But since I've never seen anything with him in it, I guess much like all the rest of you Whovians out there, I'll just have to look forward to seeing the Tenth Doctor regenerate into the Eleventh.

Doctor Who news!!

My love for the classic science-fiction show Doctor Who has been well documented (mostly by me) and trust me it takes a lot to pull me away from the television on a Friday night to miss an episode.

Yes, I am that sadly rabid of a fan.

But for all of you who are fans of the show like myself have probably heard the news that series producer Russell T. Davies is stepping down from his role as producer and handing the reigns over to Steven Moffat.

Which has been done many times in the show's history with the moves from Barry Letts to Philip Hinchcliffe to Graham Williams to John Nathan Turner.

I suppose the transition from John Nathan Turner to Philip Segal's 1996 Anglo/American production of Doctor Who with Paul McGann can fit somewhere in there too. With that you had a good actor as the Doctor, good set design for the TARDIS and good special effects for the time.

But a really lousy script.

Nevertheless, each producer has brought something new to the table. Good or bad. And what Russell T. Davies did in his time is brought Doctor Who back and made it a hit. Without having it so mired in the past that the show is stale and not having it so far removed from what the show was about that it alienates older fans.

That made him perfect to bring the show back. However, many of the stories he wrote were far from that. But he is such an oddity when it comes to his writing. He can write some scripts that are absolute clunkers and then he would make a complete about face and write an episode that would leave me all wide-eyed and excited!!

Probably one of the best "season finale" writers in my humble opinion.

And now he's leaving the series in the very capable hands of Steven Moffat. Steven is no stranger to the world of Doctor Who. He wrote the very funny (and well written) Children in Need sketch in 1999 The Curse of Fatal Death starring Rowan Atkinson (along with Richard E. Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant and Joanna Lumley) as the Doctor. And he has written some of my favorite Doctor Who episodes in the current series The Empty Child, The Doctor Dances and The Girl in the Fireplace.

And lastly but not leastly Time Crash which was the first multi-Doctor story on television since The Two Doctors with Colin Baker and Patrick Troughton.

So, I will be very eager to see where he takes Doctor Who when the show returns for a full series in 2010.