Doctor Who: Matt Smith Regrets Not Having a Full Season with Jenna Coleman
By David Hill
Almost everyone who leaves Doctor Who has at least one regret from their time on the show. In Matt Smith’s case, one of his regrets involves a former companion.
Matt Smith may well have portrayed the most personable Doctor in the history of Doctor Who. His ability to connect with virtually everyone, and to make each character feel like they were important, made the Eleventh Doctor stand out amongst those who had come before.
While it may be easy to remember his incredible chemistry with with Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill, they were not the only companions of this Doctor. For half of a season before his regeneration, Smith teamed up with Jenna Coleman, running into different incarnations of her character, Clara, before one of them became his companion.
It was interesting to watch their dynamic, and to see how the Doctor did not miss a beat with his new travelling partner. Even from the beginning, it felt as though the Doctor and Clara had known one another for years, and traveled together for just as long. When Smith left, we missed that instant connection, and the incredible chemistry that the two shared.
As it turns out, Smith misses that, as well. In a recent reunion panel at New York Comic Con, he stated that his biggest regret from leaving the show when he did is that he did not get a full season with Coleman. Given their dynamic, he is not the only one who wished that he had another season aboard the TARDIS.
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It would also have been interesting to see how Clara’s storyline would have changed with the Eleventh Doctor. Being much more personable and sensitive to the feelings of those around him, Clara may not have turned into that manipulative person whom we saw in Series Eight. Although, we also may not have had the more daring and Doctor-ish Clara from Series Nine had that been the case.
Of course, we may not have had Peter Capaldi as the Doctor, either, depending on how things panned out with casting in this hypothetical other universe. His incarnation has been a true throwback to the classic series, a more alien Doctor than anything that had been seen in the revival of the show. Following Smith’s Doctor, it was quite the shock, but one that made sense at the time.
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