A Rave in the TARDIS

I was stunned and a little angry when I first heard that Matt Smith, the man tapped to play the 11th regeneration of everyone's favorite time traveling alien, was a twelve year old.

Okay, so he's not REALLY twelve, but he IS younger than I am, and that is something that I simply couldn't accept.

As a literal life long fan of Doctor Who, Matt Smith was a blow to my vanity. I'd always known that one day I would pass the Doctor in age and officially grow old, but casting the youngest actor to ever take on the role was a needless way to hasten that inevitable moment. As a woman that's not quite thirty, I didn't appreciate having to face that milestone moment so soon.

Despite a number of doom-and-gloom predictions on my part, when the new Doctor Who series aired this Summer I had to give Matt Smith his due (despite the scoff worthy fact that he insisted on repeating over and over that he, as the Doctor, was "getting old.") He was a decent actor, and he did a decent job. I was able to admit gracefully that Smith would never earn the same devotion reserved for Tom Baker and David Tennant, but I could at least grow to like him.

My opinion changed once more when I found a mention on gallifreynewsbase.blogspot.com of Smith's surprise guest appearance at the 2010 Glastonbury Music Festival during the encore performance from Orbital, a band commonly thought of in connection to the Doctor Who theme song.

While watching the clip or Orbital on YouTube, I think I fell in love with Matt Smith. I don't know if he was partially in character that night or if the Doctor has partially taken over Matt Smith, but the pure joy and complete madness he exuded is the Doctor's calling card. It wasn't hard for me to imagine that the Doctor himself was on stage with Orbital, and, judging by the looks on some of the fans faces, I think the audience may have felt the same.

You have to respect a man who takes on the impossible roles in life and ignores his critics. You have to admire him even more when he turns the impossible into something marvelous and then shares it with everyone around him, young and old alike.

Isn't that exactly what the Doctor would do?



*The Doctor looks pretty sexy in Jack Harkness's coat, don't you think?
**Smith deserves double bonus points for saying "timey-whimey, wibbley-wobbley"
***If you're Matt Smith, feel free to e-mail me and ask for my phone number.