Doctor Who’s Matt Smith Talks About Daleks, Farscape’s Ben Browder, And The Future Of The Doctor
This week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly is something of a milestone: it features current Doctor Matt Smith and a feature article entitled “Inside the Cult of Doctor Who.” For a show that used to used to be relegated to late-night broadcasts on PBS here in the States, Doctor Who has come a long way, baby. While you’ll have to buy the issue to get the full coverage, EW has posted some overflow from their Matt Smith interview on their website. In it, Smith chats about the new season, reveals his favorite Who monster, and has kind words for guest star Ben Browder from Farscape.
Warning: Minor spoilers for the next season ahead.
The show’s recent popularity here in the States isn’t lost on the cast, and that’s partly because they’re doing more filming here in America this season. Smith reveals that they filmed in New York for the episode that sees the departure – however that may be – of Amy Pond and Rory. While the specifics will remain unspoiled, EW‘s Clark Collis mentions that the episode features Smith’s favorite Who monster: the Weeping Angels.
We’ve known for a while now that the first episode of the new season will feature the Daleks…lots of Daleks. Every single type of Dalek, actually. And just as with the Weeping Angels, Smith has a favorite when it comes to the shrieking cosmic pepper pots:
I got to meet my favorite Daleks, which are actually from [Patrick] Troughton’s era, I think. They’re the sort of pale blue and whitey ones. They’re a bit smaller actually. I think they’re groovy! I mean, we’ve got every Dalek that exists in the world [in the episode].
Farscape fans will also be excited to see one of the stars of that show, the mega-talented, criminally underrated Ben Browder, putting in a guest appearance in a Western-themed episode. Smith says that Browder was a great fit for the role. “He’s great in it, actually. He brings that sort of American naturalism which we Brits just don’t have, however hard we try. Yeah, he was great. He makes a good cowboy. He has that great drawl.” The episode also comes with an impressive pedigree: it was shot in Spain, in the same area where Sergio Leone’s classic Western, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, was filmed.
Speaking of notable guest stars, Smith reveals that one episode, written by Mark Gatiss (who also wrote for Sherlock), will feature an appearance by Dame Diana Rigg, who earned a place in TV history playing Emma Peel on the classic British spy series The Avengers.
The interview eventually – as does pretty much every interview with Smith these days – comes around to the question of how long he plans to play the Doctor. And, as usual, he remains cagey on the subject, saying that he and Steven Moffat haven’t really talked about that yet.
We’ve got too much to plan in the meantime. We’ve got the 50th anniversary stuff next year. I take it year by year. Because it’s such a commitment on your life. I don’t think you could do it for 7 years, like Tom Baker did. It would age you too savagely. The great thing about the Doctor is that there’s no stop sign. He can keep going and keep evolving and he can surprise you and the moment he stops surprising you is probably the moment that you should hand it over. But he still surprises me, so I’m still hanging in there.
You can read the full interview over at EW.com, and even more in the new issue on stands now.
