1. The way he talks. Seriously, the main motivation for me to tune in each week has increasingly become to hear him tackle lengthy speeches in such inventive, amusing and often hilarious ways. The best episodes are always those where the Doctor saves the universe using a monologue, and Matt Smith has turned a hobby of previous Doctors into an art form.
2. His hair. I mean, come on.
3. Smith's comic timing is above and beyond even Troughton's. Despite being a very accomplished dramatic actor, he has an incredible knack for comedy that doesn't come easily.
4. His theme tune is the most stirring, incredible piece of televisual incidental music anyone could ever hope to hear.
5. The bow tie. Bow ties are cool.
6. The fact that he made bow ties cool. It's now OK to wear a bow tie in public without being a geography teacher or a chiwawa.
7. Ditto for the tweed jacket. I now wear a tweed jacket on a very sizable proportion of journeys outside and am yet to feel any sense of despair or anything but sheer or awe from anyone I come across.
8. The transition is key for any Doctor. Ever since Patrick Troughton picked up a recorder in the heat of battle perhaps the key element of the role has been the ability to flit between comedy and drama, as per the tone of the show. Whereas, much as I loved him, Eccleston's jiving was somewhat artificial and Tennant developed a set routine that eventually began to grate, Smith make the jump so regularly and with not just ease but invention. He changes how he tackles it each time, never letting him fall into the David Tennant trap.
9. The bumbling shameless awkwardness of his every movement. It's endlessly watchable.
10. The way he checks his watch on the underside of his wrist. As a man who suffers from carpophobia (The fear of said underside), it has actually gone a long way to helping me get somewhat over it. Sometimes when I'm on the cusp of freaking out of it, I begin to think of how nifty and funny Matt Smith checking his watch is and forget about it all.
11. The way he says "Run" at the start of Dinosaurs on a Spaceship
12. His whole performance in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship. If Tennant, Eccleston, McCoy, Hartnell, whoever, made that episode, it would have been condemned and unwatchable. Smith's performance is good enough for it to be a vastly enjoyable experience. Previously perhaps only the great Tom Baker could have ever managed that.
13. The slow evolution and development of his portrayal. He started off just bumbling and lost, but this developed into a deliberate way of seeing the world, to keep things fresh after 1000 years. The flashes of sorrow have began to come through more and more often as his Doctor nears its end and begins to tire of this worldview somewhat.
14. That thing he does with his hands. The fidgety looseness of them as he works things out. The way he flails them.
15. His physicality as a whole. He's nearing Rowan Atkinson levels in the way he moves his body for laughs and for effect.
16. How much he clearly loves it. Playing the Doctor means the world to him, even more so than it did to David 'lifelong fan' Tennant. For Tennant, it was a dream job. For Smith, it's a way of life, and his ideal way of life.
17. This enthusiasm shines through in his Doctor: Perhaps for the first time, the Doctor wouldn't need a companion to show the universe; Smith's Doctor would be oh so happy just seeing the sights himself. He's still in awe at the wonders of the universe.
18. The bit at the start of The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe where he's showing the kids round the house. By this point the writers know exactly how to write for him and he's throwing their expectations around and delivering it in an even funnier way. He's so brilliant. I wonder if he'd accept if I proposed.
19. The fez, the stetson... He can make anything cool, just through the sheer uncoolness of it.
20. His waving of the Sonic Screwdriver has a hopelessness about it that the heroic Tennant lacked. John Hurt's line in The Day of the Doctor about assembling a cabinet wasn't necessary to Smith, who kinda knows nothing is going to happen. He's just trying to make himself feel better about the situation.
21. In his opening episode he walks into a tree and falls over and nobody turned over there and then. Now that's what you call a magnetic screen prescence.
22. His chemistry with Amy and Rory was fantastic. Again, the writers learnt to utilise this and the program benefited greatly on both comedic and dramatic levels. The fact that the characters are not only so likeable but work so well together made their exit all the more heartbreaking.
23. The difficulty he has understanding human life is a breath of fresh air after Tennant's hyper-adjusted, socially-desirable incarnation. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I do thing Smith's version of the same character is worth celebrating.
24. His opening is brilliant enough to completely undercut Tennant's exit (And trust me, tears were streaming down my face at this point).
25. His flamboyance is all well and good, but Smith has a wonderful subtlety. As already eluded to, his performance is so well-layered. There is a darkness hidden under the flappy, kinetically-charged skin, as Smith is good enough to portray that.
26. He also underplays lines very well. The 'Run' line mentioned is perhaps the shining example of this, but it'd be very easy for him to be loud and brash all the time, but he isn't. He balances it so well you have to stop and question whether or not he is actually a set of kitchen scales/a bank/a tightrope walker/another pun.
27. Imagine another Doctor bursting out of that cake at Rory's stag.
28. His effortless backtracking is so, so funny. "It's the light. Well, it's not a light, but just imagine a light". That kind of thing. I'm going back to point #1 and talking about him talking, but do you blame me?
29. The moment where he sits down on Clara's couch and begins to cry is reminiscent of James Stewart's performance in It's a Wonderful Life. Quietly heartbreaking.
30. The anger of the Time Lord is that 1% more intimidating thanks to the unpredictable nature of Smith's Doctor. You believe he might destroy a constellation to prove a point. You can see how much Rory, Amy, Clara, so on all mean to him. It's entirely believable.
31. Actually, that's a point. The unpredictable nature of Smith's Doctor. He could do anything, and I'd believe it. He's erratic, but that's all in-character. More of this comes from Smith's performance than Moffat's writing: There's only so far Moffat can go to make it believable.
32. The main point is that he does all of this. His performance is better-rounded than anyone who has come before him. Maybe because he's had better opportunities than some, but even when he's had a bad script to work with (And that has happened), he's made the most of it.
33. He carried the 50th anniversary on his back and nobody was let down. It was so very well adored by everyone and Smith's performance was, again, the heartbeat of it. It's his show. He is the Doctor and he is the reason it currently works. And he's about to leave. But that's OK, because the show goes on. It moves forward, and, frankly, Peter Capaldi is going to be fantastic.
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