Re: BBC confirms Tennant's swan song as extra-length episode

On 5 Dec, 16:39, Ignis Fatuus <Ig...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Sat, 05 Dec 2009 16:13:59 +0000, Alan Sailsbury <al...@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Alan Sailsbury wrote:
Ignis Fatuus wrote:
The new couple leave me cold.

You haven't even seen them yet, apart from production shots!

PS: Sorry, I forgot. You're quite mad. I shouldn't expect anything
better from you.

Talking to yourself now, I see. Doesn't surprise me.

Of course I've seen everything I can get my hands on with Smith in it;
and I can't say that his acting skills or personality strike me as
adequate for the leading man in the BBC's flagship drama series. He'd
be pretty unimpressive as a companion IMO.

I've seen Gillan in Rebus, and DW; and she didn't impress me
particularly in either.

Of course you're going to say that they'll both undergo a miraculous
transformation; but personally I have my doubts. As we saw with
Catherine Tate - there's no substitute for experience and maturity.

What we saw with Catherine Tate was her undergoing a miraculous
transformation that astonished a lot of people, given her past acting
performance in the show in a role where neither her acting skills nor
her personality seemed up to the task of playing Tennant's companion.
So maybe she is the precedent to look to. Experience has nothing to do
with it - Tate had no pre-Who acting experience that I'm aware of.

I can't comment on Smith's ability to any great degree - all I've seen
him in is a book adaptation where he played a very minor part and was
given extremely bad dialogue. But I've made the point in the past that
the Doctor is not a role that has ever required much in the way of
acting ability or breadth - of all the actors to play the Doctor, only
three could act to any degree (Hartnell, Eccleston and Tennant), and
Hartnell's acting wasn't of a form that was particularly well-suited
to the role - look how hammy his efforts to do anything physical, even
falling down or feigning illness, were. Even though this was long
before the days of 'action hero' Pertwee, the scripts strained his
ability to play a time-travelling scientist who was called upon to do
anything more than stand around giving grandfatherly lectures like a
futuristic version of Jackanory. The only way you'd know he actually
*could* act was from his other roles.

The enduring popularity of Tennant and Tom Baker highlights what the
Doctor ought to be - a showman, someone with a memorable gimmick, turn
of phrase or expression. In interview Smith waves his hands around a
lot - I suppose that could count as his gimmick... Turn of phrase is
Moffatt's department, which makes it especially difficult to judge how
Smith will perform as the Doctor based on his other roles, since so
much will depend on the material.

Phil
.

Relevant Pages

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