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.