Doctor Who: 14 Cool Details Revealed In Steven Moffat's Eleventh Hour Commentary

11. Moffat Thought It Would Take Six Episodes For Smith To Be Accepted As The Doctor

Doctor Who The Eleventh Hour Matt Smith TARDIS
BBC Studios

It's always a bit exciting when a new Doctor is about to bound onto our screens, but not every lead actor clicks with every Who fan right away. Some fans might like the new Doctor almost immediately, while others might take a few episodes to warm to them. It varies from case to case.

However, Matt Smith is a standout Doctor in this regard, because he seemed to click with the vast majority of the fanbase within his opening few scenes.

Many people cite "fish custard" as the moment when Smith "became the Doctor" in their eyes, and this must've been quite surprising for Moffat, because he didn't think that Smith would be accepted by the general public until midway through the series.

Early in the commentary, Moffat says that he thought it would take until episode six, The Vampires Of Venice - specifically, the bit where the Doctor bursts out of the giant cake - for Smith to "seal the deal".

Doctor Who The Vampires Of Venice Rory cake
BBC
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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!