7. His Love For The Show
Okay, perhaps a bit meta here but the article is called '11 Reasons Why We Love Matt Smith' not the Eleventh Doctor so I'm going to celebrate the guy for a bit too as opposed to just his characterization, good as I think it is. Matt Smith is a gentleman and a scholar. He's a cool kid who's adopted a love for Doctor Who beyond the requirements of his contract. When it comes to a show so widely loved as Doctor Who it's important to the fans to have someone in the title role with a passion for the part, someone who's going to take care of the integrity of the role. David Tennant had it from birth, he was raised on Baker and Davison but Smith had to learn it. When you hear him talk about the classic episode 'Tomb of the Cybermen' you know that he has the appropriate amount of appreciation for all of the show. He sees what makes this character timeless and he brings it to the screen. A good example of this is the story about the first session he had with the costume designer. She had him dressing up like a pirate, experimenting with the look of an interplanetary hero but Smith in the end just refused, he saw the tweed jacket, put it on and that was that. The Doctor, he said wouldn't dress like that. 'That's how other people would dress him.' He earned his part early on and continues to defend it.