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twitchbellCast your mind back to 3rd January 2009. The date when Matt Smith was revealed as the next Doctor. I didn't know of him, hadn't seen him in anything. And the first thing I thought when I saw him was, "Bloody hell! It's Christopher Chant! Aka as Chrestomanci." Specifically, Christopher a few years after 'Conrad's Fate', as a young man round about the time when he became the Chrestomanci.
This was not a helpful revelation. How was I supposed to warm to the Eleventh Doctor when I had instantly seen the actor playing him as someone else entirely? Worse, what if the Eleventh Doctor had some traits that were remniscent of Christopher? Would he be very vain about his appearance? Would he have a habit of seeming frightfully vague when he was actually extremely alert to what was happening? Would he have a nice line in polite sarkiness? With a new Doctor, everything was up for grabs. I was worried. And I couldn't mention it to anyone for fear of sounding like a complete muppet. For over a year I worried!
And then, and then ... the fifth series finally aired. And the Eleventh Doctor is ... the Eleventh Doctor: he's by turn clumsy, gawky, adorkable, old-man-in-a-young-man's-body, awkward alien, manipulative, rude and brilliant. I already love him to bits.
And no, I don't look at him any more and think "Christopher Chant!" Except, except ... back to the icon ... except in the wedding togs he wore in 'The Big Bang'. And only in the stills, because Christopher would not move like the Eleventh Doctor. (Because nobody moves like the Eleventh Doctor.)
This was not a helpful revelation. How was I supposed to warm to the Eleventh Doctor when I had instantly seen the actor playing him as someone else entirely? Worse, what if the Eleventh Doctor had some traits that were remniscent of Christopher? Would he be very vain about his appearance? Would he have a habit of seeming frightfully vague when he was actually extremely alert to what was happening? Would he have a nice line in polite sarkiness? With a new Doctor, everything was up for grabs. I was worried. And I couldn't mention it to anyone for fear of sounding like a complete muppet. For over a year I worried!
And then, and then ... the fifth series finally aired. And the Eleventh Doctor is ... the Eleventh Doctor: he's by turn clumsy, gawky, adorkable, old-man-in-a-young-man's-body, awkward alien, manipulative, rude and brilliant. I already love him to bits.
And no, I don't look at him any more and think "Christopher Chant!" Except, except ... back to the icon ... except in the wedding togs he wore in 'The Big Bang'. And only in the stills, because Christopher would not move like the Eleventh Doctor. (Because nobody moves like the Eleventh Doctor.)