Doctor Who: Matt Smith Discusses Season 7.5, Neil Gaiman, The New Companion and the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who
Monday, November 5th, 2012
So what can you pretend that you don’t know about the Christmas episode?
SMITH: We’ve got the wonderful Richard E. Grant who’s brilliant as a sort of villainous role. We meet the new companion.
But, we’ve met her already.
SMITH: But, we meet her again.
But is she still a Dalek?
SMITH: We meet the new companion. And we’ve got Vastra, Jenny and Strax are making a return appearance which is terribly exciting. And it does the sort of wonderful Doctor Who-ey Christmas things, you know, snow, aliens, good will, good cheer, someone trying to take over the world. Hopefully it makes for good Christmas day telly.
Where are you in part two of season seven? Are you still filming that?
SMITH: Yeah, we are. We’ve got another five weeks left of shooting. We’ve just finished shooting episode one, the opener of next season which I think will be a real belter, actually. Steven’s delivered a great script; we had a great director called Colm McCarthy. Jenna really was on form in it and stuff. I think Steven’s written a really good monster so I think that could be something to really look forward to next year.
If I’m not mistaken, I believe Neil Gaiman-
SMITH: Is back, yeah.
There’s a film made about he’s thinking about the genesis of Doctor Who written by Mark Gatiss.
SMITH: Ah, the genesis of The Doctor, but that’s about William Hartnell isn’t it? I mean, there’s that and we’ll obviously make a 50th anniversary episode special, and then they’ll be all sorts of live events I would’ve thought that surround that. I think we’re going to make it a big year for Doctor Who on the BBC. I think that’s the plan.
When I last spoke to you, you said you really enjoyed playing The Doctor, do you still get the same relish from the role?
SMITH: Yeah, I mean, I was filming yesterday and I can’t even begin to explain—I know, again, I’m sorry to sort of tease you and not say anything, but it was this wonderful set with this array of particular characters and it was like a sort of fairy land of alien world. It was remarkable, and me and Jenna were just going, “Good day at work, right?”
What kind of a Doctor is he with Clara on board?
SMITH: Well, I mean, it’s a funny thing really, because that’s sort of an ongoing process. It’s something that you learn as you go quite a lot of the time, because obviously I don’t know Jenna when she gets the job, just like any job but this particularly where the relationships and their relationship throughout the show is so important to the story, it’s something that is constantly evolving as you get to know each other a bit better. But of course we meet him having lost Amy and Rory which were very—that was a very important part of his life. So we meet a slightly different version of him. I think being with anyone, being with a different actress, being with a different character ultimately it’s going to change you. But, it’s hard for me to articulate what that is because I don’t know, it’s not something that I’m conscious of really.
If you would like to read more, please go to Collider.com
.