john simm

On January 2, the final part of David Tennant and Russell T Davies' last episodes of Doctor Who aired on BBC America, and a day earlier in the UK. It was pretty good. I won't go into the plot much at all, but you know as soon as you turn on the episode that John Simm is in it, whether that means anything to you or not depends on your level of Doctor Who appreciation, I suppose.

And, John Simm sure was in it. He was in it like a fox. A few random quirks about his performance really enlivened the character, bringing him to a unique emotional realm that is just flat out uncommon for a villain. There were several moments when you could almost relate to his completely insane delusions as he stepped out of the realm of unrepentant evil. It was great.

The defining points of the Doctor Who revival in the past four years have been Russell T Davies' "dark, brooding doctor" push, as the "lonely god," survives more than explores and the exuberance that David Tennant brought to that writing. Davies has always been a fan of grand displays of universal importance when it comes to finales, constantly escalating the "threat levels," in each subsequent season. There is some level of campiness in the way he puts everyone's life on the line, waiting for the Doctor to save the day in some messianic manner. I love it, personally. It doesn't float the boats of everyone, but mine is quite buoyant, it seems (that's the kind of awesome writing Davies would be proud of, I think). Hah.

That said, the show sans Davies, sans Tennant will be a different beast altogether. The revived Doctor Who has ended, for all intents and purposes, and now we have a new series with the same name and similar characters coming to us in March. There's a lot of pessimism about whether or not the show can succeed without David Tennant's lovable face to smirk away the camp, but I'm hopeful. There's a trailer after the break that shows some of the characteristics this new Matt Smith Doctor will have. Seems to be a bit more direct when it comes to problem-solving, as you can see when he whacks a Dalek with a wrench, and punches out a scientist. It's clear that Matt Smith has been studying David Tennant's performance a bit, but if he can manage to bring enough of his own unique quirk to the table, that might not be a problem. What's apparent from his appearance at the end of the the last special and this trailer is that the guy is more easily surprised... or at least he has a perpetual look of shock on his face. It looks promising, at least. I'll let you know what I think when it comes out.

Check out the Matt Smith trailer after the break.