Who is this Doctor?
Who else could it be?
Matt Smith - The Eleventh Doctor
"The Manboy Doctor", as he is sometimes referred to, reveals his main trait through behavior and physicality. Can we really envision any other Doctor bouncing away on young Kaszran Sardick's bed during A Christmas Carol like a bigger child than the one he's visiting? Or rescuing Victorian-era Clara Oswald and the two children she takes care of by creating a puppet show (still one of my favorite sight gags in the whole history of the show!)? Or doing a Pete Townsend Windmill in his final moments as he takes out Daleks with regeneration energy? Matt Smith delighted in making his incarnation of the Time Lord as visual as possible.
But how well does he rank against the other two incarnations that we've examined? Two performers who hailed from a bygone era where actors were allowed to be much "stagier" when they performed on television...
How Well the Jokes Land 7
When it comes to visual comedy, Matt Smith does seem to almost suffer from a certain level of timidity during a large part of his reign as the Doctor. Had he been a bigger fan of the show when he got the role, he might have been better aware of the fact that you can "get away with a lot more" when it comes to creating visual comedy with the character. That, thanks to the efforts of Troughton and McCoy (and all the previous Doctors, really, because they all used this style of humor from time-to-time) the audience will accept a Doctor looking downright silly.
Instead, he tends to hold back quite a bit during the better part of his first two seasons. I'm not saying that there aren't any times where he "really goes for it" during his early days. But there are a lot more times where his gestures almost seem a little too understated. Where, if he had just exaggerated things a little bit more, the behavior would have gotten a much bigger laugh. Which is why his score is a bit lower than his predecessors.
I will say that, once he does get comfortable with making his character a complete buffoon, he really does pull out all the stops. In his last season, he is especially impressive with this. He is at the top of his game during Series Seven. Which helps him to gain some points back and go out with a bang.
How Well it's Counterbalanced Against the Drama 10
This is where Smith is truly amazing. One of my favorite traits of this incarnation, in fact, is the way he "turns on a dime" from silly to deadly serious. Sometimes several times in one scene. Look at the way he confronts the Silence at the end of Day of the Moon. He flip-flops a few times, there. Looking the creepy aliens dead in the eye one moment as he threatens them, then flirting with River Song a moment later. Then back to mean face. Then back to goofing off. The way he bounces back and forth between intense drama and sheer comedy is a work of art.
I almost thought about deducting him a point just because he's almost a little too serious too often. He could have injected a bit more comedy to help with the juxtaposition. But I couldn't bring myself to do it. It is just too enjoyable watching him be almost bi-polar with the way he swings between the two temperaments. He deserves his perfect score.
Room for Improvisation 7
Here, again, I'd say Smith's near-shyness gets the better of him for a good part of his tenure. Admittedly, it is much tougher to throw in improvisation during modern-day shooting methods. During Classic Who, rehearsals were much more extensive. So there was real time to discuss opportunities for visual embellishments of what was written on the page. With the way TV is made today, if an actor starts making a lot of suggestions, it can really gum up the works and slow down production.
Still, as his seasons move on, Smith does start adding more and more little bits in that weren't there, initially. It's harder to spot because editing is so much smoother. But you can, eventually, learn about it. The spontaneous kiss he gives Rory during Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, for instance, was completely improvised. It even became "a thing" for the Doctor as he decides to reward other characters with kisses during Series Seven. The joke being, of course, that none of the people he kisses ever seem to want one from him!
But the impromptu kissing was what made me realize how little he was improvising. When I heard about it, I legitimately thought to myself: "That's the first time I hear about Smith doing something like that." I did, eventually, learn that there were some other things in earlier seasons that he did create on the spot. But, compared to other Doctors on this list, it was not a lot. This does seem to be another case where it seemed to take him most of his first two seasons to really get comfortable with himself. Only in Series Seven does he really start adding visual comedy that wasn't originally there.
Overall Aesthetics 9
I must give him a high score, here. As reserved as he might have been in his earlier days, he is still this mass of wild flailing limbs and ridiculous postures. While he does allow his body language to get a little looser as he progresses with the role, the basic template was always there. And it was always incredible to behold.
Just look at something like Amy's Choice where he is stumbling around trying to grapple with reality. He takes such a simple gesture and makes it look so outlandish. Movement was crucial to how he interpreted the part. And, even if he did seem a little shy with visual comedy at first, he still created a delineation that lent itself to the process. So that when his confidence does grow, it doesn't seem incongruous. Like the other two incarnations that made it into the selection, we see that body language was a huge priority for him. And it really shines through in the final product.
Personal Taste 8
This one's a bit tricky. I really do like that the other two incarnations have a much more "classic comedy" feel to them. Particularly McCoy, who incorporates a lot of vaudeville into what he does.
But it is equally-impressive that Smith really does his own thing, here. We don't see him, necessarily, borrowing a lot from the past. There's some traditional slapstick that happens here and there Those first few minutes of Eleventh Hour where he is struggling not to fall out of the TARDIS look like something out of a silent film. When he walks into a tree after meeting Amy Pond, there's a bit of a Three Stooges vibe happening. But even as that first episode progresses, we are already seeing Smith rely less and less on this sort of thing. And, instead, he creates a visual style that is completely his own.
Because of this, I still want to give him a fairly high score. I like my visual comedy to have a more traditional feel, but I can't deny that Smith really does do something amazing with the part.
FINAL TALLY
This next bit should be easy. We just take all the points I came up with in each category for each Doctor and come up with an ultimate sum. Whoever has the highest points wins the contest. Simple stuff, right?
I find, in life, that I'm never happy with anything unless I find some way to make things more complicated than they need to be!
Both Sylvester McCoy and Matt Smith site Patrick Troughton as having a huge influence on their performances. It's believed Smith chose a bow tie for his costume because of his love of the Second Doctor. I think, regardless of the score he got on his own, that Troughton deserves bonus points for this. So I will give him one point for each Doctor in this REVIEW OVERVIEW that he's influenced.
With this in mind, then, let's put together a final score for each Doctor:
PATRICK TROUGHTON - (including the bonus points) 45
SYLVESTER McCOY - 46
MATT SMITH 41
As you can see, competition was pretty fierce. Everyone finished within just a few points of each other. There were no huge gaps. As I do feel all of these actors excelled at what they did. But, even with his bonus, Troughton loses by a hair's breadth to McCoy. According to my system of evaluation, at least.
You might have a different opinion on the matter (in fact, if there's one thing we Who Geeks excel at, it's having different opinions!). You might even use this exact same system that I did and come up with radically different scores to mine. In the end, there is always a certain level of subjectivity to these things. But, for me at least, Doctor Seven does the best job with visual comedy.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING
Well, it looks like we have a little room left. So let's bring up a story for each Doctor that I feel really shows off their talent for visual humour. Some were already given a bit of an honorable mention when I was doing my analysis. But I'll do a deeper cut, here.
Seeds of Death
As I mentioned in the previous entry, this particular tale helped to give Troughton that reputation that he was "Chaplinesque". In truth, this really only happens in a few key scenes. But I am always intensely amused by all of them.
As if Fury from the Deep wasn't enough, the production team decides to have more fun with foam. Unlike Fury, there is less of an attempt here to imply horror and a stronger concentration on humor. Troughton gurns up a storm during various scenes involving the stuff. Most importantly, while he struggles through these perilous situations, he proclaims some of our favorite Second Doctor exclamations like "Oh my giddy aunt!" and other great quotes of that nature. Even when Zoe eventually gets to the door of the weather control station and lets him in, he looks utterly hilarious with foam all over him. It's great that Wendy Padbury has an accidental slip on the mess he's made and that they leave it in. It's a wonderful flourish to the whole moment!
As fun as all the foam foolery is, it still doesn't compare to that utterly wonderful chase scene through the corridors of the moonbase when the Second Doctor first runs into the Ice Warriors. This is, essentially, a sci-fi version of a Chaplin film. It might even qualify as my favorite visual comedy moment in the whole history of the show. I even love how it goes surreal for just a shot as we watch Troughton run past multiple reflections of himself.
Some may argue that Seeds of Death should have taken itself a little more seriously. That we're laughing at it rather than with it. That may be the case. But, for sheer visual comedy value, this is pure gold.
Greatest Show in the Galaxy
It was really hard to pick a Seventh Doctor story for this. So many of them are magnificent spectacles of visual humor. Admittedly, some are less funny than others. Delta and the Bannerman, for instance, seems to see a Sylvester McCoy who is not going so much for the site gags. And some of the visual moments that he does create in the three-parter only land so well. You also have stories like Curse of Fenric where the plot is just so serious that there really isn't much room for silly behavior.
But then you also have a tonne of stories that play out like Silver Nemesis, where the Doctor actually uses some of his greatest foes for a hasty game of live chess. Or Survival, where the Doctor spends the better part of Episode One chasing stray cats. Hell, he's even quite hilarious in Time and the Rani. It may not have been the greatest of scripts, but McCoy constantly has me laughing. I lose it every time I watch Kate O'Mara slap away the spoon-like devices that he's playing across her chest.
Ultimately, the prize of most visually funny story must go to Greatest Show in the Galaxy. I already went on a bit in the previous entry about how great he is as he entertains the gods of Ragnarok in the final part. That whole moment is utter brilliance. The sequence seems to be tailor-made for him. I actually really love when Doctor Who has a story that truly only works for that particular incarnation. In much the same way, (but in a total opposite sense) Six was best suited for Trial of a Time Lord. He was the Doctor who relished his own oratorical skills the most. So courtroom drama was perfect for him.
There are, of course, all kinds of other really great moments of visual comedy in Galaxy. Lots of gorgeous little touches. Like the way McCoy barks at the robot clowns after Mags snarls at them. Or how he gets the crap scared out of him when he almost bumps into one of Bellboy's androids. Even the way he dives through a hole made in the Big Top is utterly hilarious. He really is amazing in this tale. And not just during his act at the end. His actions, gestures and expressions evoke heavy laughter from me all the way through.
Day of the Doctor
I do feel this story does have a bit of a rival for best visual comedy. Smith is absolutely hilarious as he darts about through time with his vortex manipulator in The Big Bang. Especially since this is the first time he dons a fez. Big Bang, however, does only qualify as part of a story. The first half of the tale has some nice site gags too. But, in the end, the complete story just doesn't get me laughing at the visuals as much as Day of the Doctor does.
Part of what gets Eleven's silly mannerisms to stand out is contrast. These other incarnations seem quite static compared to the way he's dashing about like a madman. The place we really see it, of course, is when the War Doctor has to ask: "Can you actually talk without flapping your arms about?!" And Eleven has to admit he can't! We realize, in that moment, that this incarnation really is a whole lot more visual than a lot of other versions of himself.
There are subtler contrasts that show this off. When they both sit down and put their feet up on the table in the Black Archive, look at how Tennant plays it more seriously and Smith goes for a slightly more comedic flare. I have often remarked how Ten and Eleven (and Thirteen, for that matter) have very similar personalities. But it's a moment like this that shows one of their big differences. Smith's interpretation moves around in a much sillier way!
Like McCoy in Greatest Show, the devil is in the details. It's the little things that make a big difference. Eleven saluting the soldiers outside the museum and suddenly realising he's not sure why he's saluting them. Or the very mocking bow and tip of the hat that he does to the twin versions of Queen Elizabeth. Or the way he starts doing "finger guns" as he works out a way to save Gallifrey from the Time Wars. Those small gestures accomplish so much.
There are, of course, bigger moments too. Like hanging from the underside of a police box as it is carried through the air by a helicopter! I'm guessing part of that sequence was still done by a stunt person. But I love that they remember to kicks their legs in a wild comedic fashion to establish that this is definitely the Eleventh Doctor hanging for dear life!
And that is our final conclusion on which Doctor is best at visual comedy. It should be noted that no Doctor ever scored lower than a Seven in any category. That is because I felt that, even in their weakest areas, these actors are still quite good at what they do. It should also be noted that those Sevens did not appear very often.
I'll also say one more time that, even though I do try to make a REVIEW OVERVIEW a bit more objective than just a straight review, there's still a lot of personal opinion at play, here. You may not rank these Doctors in the same order I did. You may even feel that that there should have been more incarnations included in the analysis. That's all perfectly fine. Feel free, in fact, to use the same criteria I did and do your own version of this to determine which Doctor you think does the best job of being visually funny. Or even come up with criteria of your own if you really want!
Just in case you missed the previous parts, here they are:
The Prologue
Part One
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for the comment! It will be posted shortly...