Doctor Who: 5 Defining Moments Of Matt Smith's 11th Doctor

1. "The Doctor€™s Wife": All of It It had to be this. The Neil Gaiman-penned installment of the show€™s sixth season (Smith€™s second) is a mission statement not just for this Doctor, but for all Doctor€™s before and forthcoming. In fact, Gaiman€™s original script pre-dates Smith€™s tenure as The Doctor, having been written while the casting calls were still ongoing. As such, Gaiman€™s story is able to touch on the broad-strokes of The Doctor€™s nature and history, be it long-codified behavioral tics, specifics from the earlier, Davies-run seasons, as well as Smith€™s own unique spin on our favorite Time Lord. It€™s a unified theory on the basic nature of the character, his universe, the show, and it stands as perhaps the finest hour the modern show has ever put out (yes, better than €˜Blink€™.) What sets this episode apart is how many disparate elements exist within Smith€™s performance while still feeling they are a part of a character that is a complete whole. The Doctor is, at once, a tired old man and a restless youth. He€™s fool-hardy and ingenious often within the space of one scene (if not one sentence). He€™s affable in one moment, terrifying in the next And above all else, The Doctor is both all that€™s exhilaratingly alien and all that€™s crushingly human, wrapped up in one bow-tied package. He€™s a creation of the fantastic, but embodies so much of reality. And as Smith leaves the TARDIS, what better image is there to think of than of The Doctor cackling with the thrill of the unknown as the control panel ignites with sparks, heading off into some magnificent new corner of the galaxy, awake to all the possibilities waiting throughout time and space?