Doctor Who: The Vampires of Venice
by Toby Whithouse; dir. Jonny Campbell (BBC, 2010)
Though Whithouse offers plenty of humour, the script is more a writer’s guide to character than tenable story. (Stripped of laughs, the plot really doesn’t bear scrutiny.) Rory proves a welcome addition, Arthur Darvill near matching Matt Smith for signature, singular delivery.
Doctor Who: The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone
by Steven Moffat; dir. Adam Smith (BBC, 2010)
Moffat further develops the Weeping Angels as New Series adversaries, and puts in some deft touches concealing plot points within incidental humour. Matt Smith is tremendous, but whereas the suspense elements prove genuinely gripping, the actual resolutions are underwhelming, verging on facile.
Doctor Who: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe
by Steven Moffat; dir. Farren Blackburn (BBC, 2011)
“This hammock has developed a fault.” With his childlike enthusiasms and underlying vulnerability, the Eleventh Doctor is tailor-made for holiday specials. This one is a near-perfect concoction of whimsy, adventure and rousing Christmas miracle. Holly Earl and Matt Smith are both brilliant.
Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor
by Steven Moffat; dir. Jamie Payne (BBC, 2013)
Ending Matt Smith’s tenure with a Christmas special was a brave choice, but one that pays off. The story is chaotic and full of holes, yet Smith himself is quite brilliant as the ancient but ever-young-at-heart friend of children. A fitting farewell.
Morbius
dir. Daniel Espinosa (2022)
Jared Leto and Matt Smith do rather well in the Jekyll-side of their performances. Unfortunately, the Hyde-sides are beyond preposterous. Simplistic as it is, the film doesn’t even bother with closure, merely tailing off into some unfathomable prelude to interconnected Marvel bollocks.
Doctor Who: The Name of the Doctor
by Steven Moffat; dir. Saul Metzstein (BBC, 2013)
This season finale exhibits some very cool ideas, stitched together with plenty of good humour. Matt Smith carries the pathos well, yet there’s a bit too much plot crammed in and the episode is scored to within an inch of its life.
Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol
by Steven Moffat; dir. Toby Haynes (BBC, 2010)
A successful transplanting of Dickens’s novella into the Doctor Who universe, using science fiction to clever effect and adding a twist to the tale. Moffat captures both the Doctor’s exuberant childlike aspect and the seriousness beneath. Matt Smith is in top form.
Jackaby
by William Ritter (Algonquin Young Readers, 2014)
A supernatural detective story that doesn’t overplay its hand, relying on clever but sensible plot progression and the charisma of the eponymous Jackaby – a cross between Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock and Matt Smith’s Doctor Who, narrated by a Victorian Clara Oswald John Watson.
Doctor Who: Dark Horizons
by J. T. Colgan (BBC, 2012)
While writing in a style evoking the tv show’s snapshot paciness, Colgan nevertheless crafts a solid historical setting — a Scottish island under both Viking and alien incursion — and adds depth to the mercurial flitting about of Matt Smith’s otherworldly (yet unworldly) Doctor.
Doctor Who: The Jade Pyramid
by Martin Day (BBC Audio, 2010)
More a straightforward short story than novel, and with a production crackle marring Matt Smith’s suitably Doctor-esque flittering consciousness narration, this audiobook nevertheless stands out for its atypical Who setting (mediaeval Japan) and the uncommon, almost poetic refinement of Martin Day’s prose.