Smith on Daleks, Craig & Coleman
In the UK, it’s not surprising to see Doctor Who feature on the cover of a TV magazine, with it being such a huge and iconic show here.
Lately there’s signs that the show’s popularity across the pond is on the increase. Matt Smith has now graced the cover of one of America’s most biggest publications – Entertainment Weekly. Quite an achievement.
Smith is interviewed inside the new issue and he previews Series 7. Here’s some highlights:
On Asylum of the Daleks:
I got to meet my favourite Daleks, which are actually from [Patrick] Troughton’s era, I think. They’re the sort of pale blue and whitey ones. They’re a bit smaller actually. I think they’re groovy! I mean, we’ve got every Dalek that exists in the world [in the episode].
On James Corden (Craig) coming back:
We’d love him to, but he’s pretty busy being a Tony award-winning actor on Broadway and having a baby. But we’d love to get James back.
On Mark Gatiss’ episode, The Crimson Horror (TBC):
We’ve got Diana Rigg, Dame Diana Rigg — Emma Peel! (Rigg played Peel on the beloved ’60s U.K show The Avengers)! I mean, she is one of the first kick-arse women. It’s wonderful. What an actress! What a lady! We’re thrilled to have someone of her caliber on the show.
I think Mark has written a wonderfully sprawling episode. Let me read you a line. This is an exclusive! “Well, thanks a million, you three. Have some Pontefract Cakes on me.” So there we go. I’m giving it all away! It’s a great episode. The Doctor’s in a cool new Victorian costume. I get a hat and a three-piece suit. I’m having a ball!
On how Jenna-Louise Coleman is doing:
She’s doing really well. She’s thoroughly prepared, has a lovely nature about her, and I think she really gets Steven’s writing. This show is about change and it’s about regeneration and the only thing you can do is move with it. So we embrace and welcome Jenna and she’s doing really well.
On Steven Moffat and the Xmas Special:
[Steven] is brilliantly cantankerous. He has very firm opinions about everything — apart from what car he’s meant to get into going from A to B, where he generally looks quite confused. He doesn’t quite know where he should be going once he’s leaving somewhere and going somewhere else.
But, I mean, Steven makes me laugh more than most people in the world. He is acute and funny and ironic and silly and remains, at the ripe and seasoned age of 50, very child-like and ridiculous and good fun. I just read the Christmas special and there’s a bit in it where I’m like, “Where does he get it from? Where? Where does it come from?” Because it’s totally left field as an idea, and it’s magic. The invention through form in this show — I mean, can you imagine having to plot this show?
On his future:
We’ve got the 50th anniversary stuff next year. I take it year by year. Because it’s such a commitment on your life. I don’t think you could do it for 7 years, like Tom Baker did. It would age you too savagely. The great thing about the Doctor is that there’s no stop sign. He can keep going and keep evolving and he can surprise you and the moment he stops surprising you is probably the moment that you should hand it over. But he still surprises me, so I’m still hanging in there.
Read the full interview here. You can order the mag here.
