For "Who" fans this Christmas, Santa, crackers, figgy pudding and the lot will be taking a backseat as "Doctor Who" takes over Christmas. BBC America is planning a full day of programming to honro of actor Matt Smith, who has been playing the 11th incarnation of the title character for four years and departs with this year's Christmas special.
On tap Dec. 25th is the television premiere of the six-minute Doctor Who prequel, "The Night of The Doctor" at 5:00 p.m. followed by an encore of the 50th anniversary special, "The Day of the Doctor." A world premiere retrospective special, "Farewell to Matt Smith" airs at 7 p.m., followed by the premiere of Smith's last outing (for now --Time Lords always seem to have a way of coming back via cameos with "Doctor Who") of the iconic time traveler in "The Time of the Doctor" at 8 p.m.
BBC America caught up with Executive producer and lead writer Steven Moffat, Smith and Jenna Coleman (who plays the Doctor's current time traveling companion Clara) to chat about Smith's impending departure and shared this interview:
Can you set the scene for this Christmas episode?
STEVEN MOFFAT: It’s his final battle and he’s been fighting it for a
while. The Doctor is facing the joint
challenge of a mysterious event in space that has summoned lots of aliens to
one place and helping Clara cook Christmas dinner. There are also elements from every series of
Matt’s Doctor, which will come to a head in this special. Things that we’ve laid
down for years are going to be paid off.
How was the read-through?
MOFFAT: It was emotional. I
think possibly the beginning of the end is more emotional than the actual end.
It was the same with The Angels Take Manhattan, when Karen and Arthur
left. The read-throughs are the moments
that tend to get people because obviously the shoot dissolves into what we hope
will be a tremendously exciting wrap party.
Did you know what you wanted Matt’s last words to be?
MOFFAT: I didn’t think I would go that way, but a couple of months
before I wrote it I did say to Mark (Gatiss) that I thought I knew what his
last moment would be, and indeed his last line.
But if it didn’t fit the scene I wouldn’t crowbar it in. I’ve had the vague storyline in place for a
long while.
What episodes or scenes do you think will define Matt’s time
as the Doctor?
MOFFAT: I think ‘The Eleventh Hour’ was such an extraordinary
debut. Everybody for a year of poor Matt
Smith’s life had been saying, ‘total mistake. He’s far too young.’ Then he came
in and he was brilliant. ‘Vincent and
The Doctor’ was also such a lovely episode and I was thrilled Richard Curtis
was able to write for the show. There’s
the physical comedy that Matt has brought and of course fish fingers and
custard. I think his relationship with his own TARDIS in The Doctor’s Wife was
gorgeous.
What do you think distinguishes Matt from the other Doctors?
MOFFAT: I think he does old Doctor better than anybody else. It’s
not an accident. It’s something he very, very consciously thought about.
Because he was the youngest Doctor, Matt said, ‘he’s only got young skin.
Nothing else is young.’ I think Matt makes you think very believably that he is
this ancient being.
The Christmas special will introduce the next Doctor, played
by Peter Capaldi. What was it about
Peter that you thought was right for the role?
MOFFAT: He’s one of the best actors in the country and is very
beloved. I was at the BAFTAs shortly
before we were contemplating Peter and heard the cheer he got from the
audience. Nobody has a bad thing to say
about him and that’s not a minor issue when it comes to casting a Doctor.
They’ve got to be lovely. And he’s a huge fan of Doctor Who. So we asked and he
was incredibly excited to come and audition. We didn’t tell him that he was the
only person auditioning because that would be oddly pressuring.
Did you deliberately aim to cast an older Doctor?
MOFFAT: It wasn’t the reason I cast Peter but I do think if we’d
cast another Doctor as young as Matt - because Matt’s been so good at being The
Young Doctor - I’m not sure what another one would have done. They’d have to
have either been deliberately different or just repeat him.
Can you first tell us a little bit about the Christmas
special?
MATT SMITH: The Christmas special for me is a bitter sweet episode
because I’m leaving, but Steven has written a brilliant, adventurous, funny
episode and I’m really thrilled with it.
It feels wonderfully Christmassy.
What did you want from your last episode?
SMITH: I think it’s good for the Doctor to go out with a bang, a
crash and a wallop. I’m pleased it’s really funny and mad. When I got to the last 20 pages and it was
quite a hard read for me, but I hope it’s going to be a belter.
We’ve got a great director in Jamie Payne and some really
lovely double hand stuff with me and Jenna.
Steven’s managed to tie in plot points and narratives that have been
threaded through over years and I think that’s ingenious.
Emotionally, how did it feel to be doing your final performance?
SMITH: It felt very emotional to be doing my final episode. My
mother is mortified, honestly she was at the front of the campaign for me to
stay and wasn’t happy when I said I was going to leave. But, when you’ve got to
go, you’ve got to go. Of course, it’s very sad for me in many ways because
everything is the last time. It’s the last read through, the last time I put on
the bow tie and the last scene in the TARDIS. But the show is about change and
I had lunch with Peter Capaldi shortly after the announcement and I think he’s
just going to be incredible. He has the
most brilliant ideas. As a fan, I’m
genuinely excited to see what he’s going to do because I think he’s going to do
something extraordinary.
So you’re still going to be a fan?
SMITH: Yeah, absolutely, I’ll be a fan. I’m very grateful to Steven Moffat and that
whole team up in Wales for the past four years and you know I want the show to
go from strength to strength, which it will. It might take me a couple of weeks
to get my head around it. I think it was the same for David and I think it was
the same for Karen, when she watched Jenna come in. I don’t think it’s easy,
but it’s not my show, it’s the fans show,
so I’ll be a fan and then it will be my show.
Have you been given anything by the fans as a leaving
present?
SMITH: I was doing a promo shoot for the 50th and these two girls
came on set. They had made me this book
which must have had 50 or 60 letters in, saying thank you for being Doctor
Who. Things like that are amazing. I’ve
said it before, the fans of this show are really spectacular and they’ve made
this an extraordinary journey for me and I’m very, very grateful. I don’t think there’s another set of fans
like it.
Can we expect some nods to past series with this Christmas
special? Are we referencing old specials?
SMITH: With Doctor Who you’re always looking back and forward at
the same time, because you tend to be jumping around. I don’t want to give too much away, but
obviously when you look at my tenure over the last four years, there are stories
and plot points and villains in there that are particular to my Doctor and I
think he’s got to face all that.
How did you find the read-through? Was it emotional?
JENNA COLEMAN: It was a very emotional read-through. Just going through the process of saying
goodbye was difficult. The script itself
is very emotional, but also joyous. But
saying those words and saying goodbye was never going to be easy.
Is there a sense from the start of the episode that we’re moving towards a regeneration?
COLEMAN: It’s very much an adventure, but it goes off on a different
track. People watching will know that
it’s Matt’s last episode, but it doesn’t loom over from the start.
We were introduced to Clara as the impossible girl last
year. Are we going to find out more
about her family background?
COLEMAN: Absolutely. I think
there had to be a sense of mystery last year to make the plot work. What’s really interesting is that it does
feel like we’re starting again and we get to see her home life as well as her
life with the Doctor.
From a few pictures that have been released there are some
of you cooking Christmas dinner. Have
you ever done that in real life?
COLEMAN: My mum does the Christmas cooking. It couldn’t be any other way.
Are you looking forward to filming next year with Peter?
COLEMAN: It will be a different show next year. We have a bit of a gap before we start
filming the new series, so I have time to get my head around it all. Me and Peter will get together before
Christmas to start rehearsing and the scripts will start coming in. When I came in I think there was just a week
off in production where Arthur and Karen left, so that would have been a
strange shift. This episode is very much about Matt and the Eleventh Doctor and
Clara and the Eleventh Doctor and their last adventure together. I have no idea where we’re going next series!
Where will you be watching the special this year? Will you be at home?
COLEMAN: Yeah I think so. Last
year the whole family got a cottage together where mum still did the Christmas
cooking. We’ll definitely all be
together.
What was your reaction when you heard the next Doctor was
Peter Capaldi?
COLEMAN: It was kind of that moment ‘of course, makes sense’. It’s funny as I don’t think he was one of the
names that was originally being speculated about and it wasn’t until the week
before that his name came up. He’s going
to be so different to Matt and take the show in an interesting direction.
When were you told?
COLEMAN: Matt and I were told together during the Royal visit to
Roath Lock studios. We could tell
something was going on and we managed to pin the producers down and get it out
of them!
How hard was it to keep the secret?
COLEMAN: I think I’ve learned my lesson in that the best thing to do
is not to tell anybody and then you don’t have your own paranoia that you’ve
let something out.
What will you miss about working with Matt?
COLEMAN: Everything! When
you’re reading a scene with him he can turn anything on its head. He’s so inventive, clever and very
funny. There’s just so much that I’ll
miss about him.
