By now you’ve heard that Matt Smith will be leaving Doctor Who at the end of this year via the Christmas Special.  The New Who will begin next year.  While this isn’t a surprise as Smith has begun working on my Hollywood centered projects, a lot of fans love 11 and are very sad to see him go.

What I find interesting is this is the (other than the one season only departure of Chirstopher Eccleston) where the current season runner has stayed with the show once “their” Doctor has left.  Steven Moffat appears to be sticking around where Russell T Davies left once David Tennant departed the series.

So now the big question is, officially, “Doctor WHO?” Who will be the 12th?  The 12th Doctor, at least back in original series days, being the LAST Doctor.  They’ve actually changed this bit of cannon though with one line of dialog.  I figured a logical excuse for throwing out the 12 regeneration’s only rule to be “there are no more Time Lords so the Doctor has all the regeneration energy for himself.”  But that’s just my theory.

This time around it is anyone’s guess on who they may choose.  A well established actor?  An unknown?  Or my dream of a retro-regeneration back to Paul McGann to give him a shot at being on screen for more than just a film.  Or even cooler…make the entire next season a flashback to the time war so we can give it the attention that it deserves.

So let the speculation begin.  There are theories of making the Doctor a woman (Which would be a disservice, at least to me, to all the Time Lady’s who have come before.  We’ve established two genders.  I still don’t understand it and they’ve already done it in Big Finish and as a joke in Curse of Fatal Death.  What is the point of this?) There are people who want a non-Caucasian actor in the role (sure why not?)  A possible non-Brit (this has never happened.)  It’s going to be a back and forth for a while.

A few of my choices are, if we are going to for a new Doctor:

Michael Sheen (he was considered before and has voiced a planet in the show)

Sean Pertwee (he looks just like his dad)

Andrew Scott (oh man can you imagine)

Tony Head (who’s already been in the show and been part of the audio dramas)

Or like I said, we could just have an entire flashback to the Time War and this guy is back.

So we shall see.  In the meantime here is the official press release.  Let the Rise of the 12th Begin!

Matt Smith to leave Doctor Who

The BBC is today announcing that Matt Smith is to leave Doctor Who after four incredible years on the hit show. Matt first stepped into the TARDIS in 2010 and will leave the role at the end of this year after starring in the unmissable 50th Anniversary in November and regenerating in the Christmas special. During his time as the Doctor, Matt has reached over 30 million unique UK viewers and his incarnation has seen the show go truly global. He was also the first actor to be nominated for a BAFTA in the role. Doctor Who is BBC AMERICA’s highest-rated series and premieres as part of the channel’s Supernatural Saturday programming block.

Matt quickly won over fans to be voted Best Actor by Readers of Doctor Who Magazine for the 2010 season. He also received a nod for his first series at the National Television Awards, before winning the Most Popular Male Drama Performance award in 2012. Matt has played one of the biggest roles in TV with over 77 million fans in the UK, US and Australia alone!

Matt Smith says: ”Doctor Who has been the most brilliant experience for me as an actor and a bloke, and that largely is down to the cast, crew and fans of the show.  I’m incredibly grateful to all the cast and crew who work tirelessly every day, to realize all the elements of the show and deliver Doctor Who to the audience.  Many of them have become good friends and I’m incredibly proud of what we have achieved over the last four years.

Having Steven Moffat as showrunner write such varied, funny, mind-bending and brilliant scripts has been one of the greatest and most rewarding challenges of my career.  It’s been a privilege and a treat to work with Steven, he’s a good friend and will continue to shape a brilliant world for the Doctor.

The fans of Doctor Who around the world are unlike any other; they dress up, shout louder, know more about the history of the show (and speculate more about the future of the show) in a way that I’ve never seen before, your dedication is truly remarkable.  Thank you so very much for supporting my incarnation of  the Time Lord, number Eleven, who I might add is not done yet, I’m back for the 50th anniversary and the Christmas special!

It’s been an honor to play this part, to follow the legacy of brilliant actors, and helm the TARDIS for a spell with ‘the ginger, the nose and the impossible one’. But when ya gotta go, ya gotta go and Trenzalore calls. Thank you guys.  Matt.”

Steven Moffat, lead writer and executive producer, says: ”Every day, on every episode, in every set of rushes, Matt Smith surprised me: the way he’d turn a line, or spin on his heels, or make something funny, or out of nowhere make me cry, I just never knew what was coming next. The Doctor can be clown and hero, often at the same time, and Matt rose to both challenges magnificently. And even better than that, given the pressures of this extraordinary show, he is one of the nicest and hardest-working people I have ever had the privilege of knowing. Whatever we threw at him – sometimes literally – his behavior was always worthy of the Doctor.

But great actors always know when it’s time for the curtain call, so this Christmas prepare for your hearts to break, as we say goodbye to number Eleven. Thank you Matt – bow ties were never cooler.

Of course, this isn’t the end of the story, because now the search begins. Somewhere out there right now – all unknowing, just going about their business – is someone who’s about to become the Doctor. A life is going to change, and Doctor Who will be born all over again! After 50 years, that’s still so exciting!”

Having starred alongside three different companions, Amy Pond (Karen Gillan), Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) and most recently Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman), Matt’s Doctor has fought Daleks and Cybermen, as well as Weeping Angels in New York.  Regularly heard shouting ‘run’ and ‘Geronimo’, through Matt’s Doctor fans have been introduced to a new culinary combination – fish fingers and custard!

Matt’s spectacular exit is yet to be revealed and will be kept tightly under wraps. He will return to BBC AMERICA in the unmissable 50th anniversary episode on Saturday, November 23, 2013 – TUNE IN!

Doctor Who is a BBC Cymru Wales production for BBC ONE

Here is the promised video of Matt Smith and David Tennant filming the 50th Anniversary Special.  While some people it seems DIDN’T keep the spoilers quiet, enough did for BBC America to release this.

We’ll be talking this week on Fangirl Radio about our reaction to the Season Finale but for now, enjoy 10 and 11!

Here’s a bit of a tease from Moffat.  It’s a short prequel to The Name of the Doctor with Clara and The Doctor talking to each other…sort of.  Nothing is really revealed other than some scattered mementos in the background and the fact that we are “supposed” to get some answers in the next episode (which also had a shot of River Song’s headstone.)

The Doctor Who 50th Anniversary is a huge deal here at FG Magazine.  And earlier today the BBC released the below image of one of the classic villains of the Whoniverse that’s returning for the 50th Special.

The Zygons were (I always thought pasta like) race that had a fake Loch Ness Monster and took on the 4th Doctor with androids.  The Terror of the Zygons was a favorite episode and yet we never saw them again…until now.

This newly improved look for the Zygons isn’t that far removed from the original you’ll see, but they’ve added some nasty teeth and a more defined look.

THE NEW BREED

THE OLD GUARD

But the other big news that you probably already heard but begs to be repeated is that David Tennant and Billie Piper are returning for the special.  The first script read through was earlier this week and here’s an image for the ages:

The rumor is that the episode should be shown sometime in November to coincide with the original air date of the series.  November can’t get here soon enough.

New Doctor Who art has been released from the BBC as well as synopsis of the first few episodes of the second half of the season.  We’ve also got some brief interviews with the Doctor, his companion, and writer Steven Moffatt.  Here are the posters for the first four episodes and below you’ll find the synopses for them as well as the interviews.  Be warned…plot details ahoy!

Click the image to make bigger on the outside

SYNOPSES

**SPOILER WARNING**

The Bells of Saint John – Episode 6

The Doctor’s search for Clara Oswald brings him to modern day London, where Wi-Fi is everywhere. Humanity lives in a Wi-Fi soup. But something dangerous is lurking in the signals, picking off minds and imprisoning them. As Clara becomes the target of this insidious menace, the Doctor races to save her and the world from an ancient enemy.

Read more

A show as long running as Doctor Who has a lot of lost and slowly decaying footage.  Much like Dark Shadows, some of the episodes are in a bad way in terms of quality.

That’s where some innovation comes handy.  And that’s what’s going on now with one of the earliest Who episodes, The Tenth Planet.  Below you will see some of the animation work that’s been done with the audio that still exists.  The hope is that once this work is finished it will be edited together with the still viable live action footage and used to make the episode complete.  This is pretty neat and the animation is beautiful.

Thanks to NerdBastards for the heads up

As everyone figured, Clara’s mystery (which sounds a whole lot like the mystery of one of Doctor 8′s companion named Charley Pollard in the audio dramas) is the focus of the season.  That being said, I fancy the idea I had that she’s Captain Jack Harkness’s daughter (he did say he was pregnant once…and we know he’s had children the usual way as well.)

That’s right Baby Goosers (my new term)  Ryan Gosling has hired Matt Smith to be the lead in his new supernatural fantasy film “How to Catch a Monster.”  Gosling is directing the film and Variety is reporting that Smith has been hired to star as the male lead in what is his first Stateside production.

“Dr. Who” star Matt Smith is ready to cross the Atlantic to make his U.S. acting debut, taking the male lead in the Ryan Gosling-directed pic “How to Catch a Monster.”

Pic currently stars Christina Hendricks and Eva Mendes, and will mark Gosling’s directing debut.

Marc Platt and Adam Siegel will produce on behalf of Marc Platt Prods., along with Gosling via his Phantasma Films banner, and Michel Litvak and David Lancaster via the Bold Films banner.

Story is set against the surreal dreamscape of a vanishing city and centered on a single mother of two being swept into a macabre and dark fantasy underworld while her teenage son discovers a secret road leading to an underwater town. Production is set to start this spring.

Gosling is a Fangirl favorite if you didn’t know.  Having played Young Hercules, the awesome Driver in Drive, he’s also a monster fan with a band called “Dead Man’s Bones” that he’s the lead singer for.  The band’s music is a sort of spoken word, Oingo Boingo, and all the songs seem based in the supernatural or dark, creepy themes.  The fact that his first directing project is a movie like this doesn’t surprise me at all.  And damn, he might even be a Whovian for all we know.  Woof..I mean, that’s great.

Check out Dead Man’s Bones below and if you don’t know who Matt Smith is then I’ll have to smack you…why are you on this site?

SMITH IS THE GUY ON THE LEFT…YES I REALIZE DAVID TENNANT IS THERE TOO