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.
Tag: Matt Smith
Doctor Who: The Name of the Doctor
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
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
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.
42 Word Review: Doctor Who – Dark Horizons
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.
42 Word Review: Doctor Who – The Jade Pyramid by Martin Day
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.