Matt Smith: ‘The Doctor is a loose cannon’

By Christian Cawley, September 7, 2012 - Doctor Who - 1 comment

Matt Smith as the DoctorSpeaking to popular culture blog The Mary Sue, Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith has described his Time Lord role as “a loose cannon”.

It’s an interesting choice of words, one that might well describe any maverick character cast in a situation where no one quite knows what his next decision or dialogue might be… but is this also a hint about what is to come in the future of Doctor Who?

I think he’s always a loose cannon. I mean, the interesting thing is, we sort of pick up where we left him and he was on his own. And as Amy says to him, he’s got to be careful of travelling on his own. I think it makes him perhaps less compassionate somehow, I don’t know.

While the description that follows is nothing new, the term “loose cannon” can really only be applied to the Doctor in a handful of previous instances, most notably the solo Time Lord of The Runaway Bride and Waters of Mars.

In those situations, he made himself judge, and executioner, with little role for the jury that a companion might bring…

What do you think – is our favourite Time Lord a “loose cannon”?

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About the author

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A long-term Doctor Who fan, Christian grew up watching the show and has early memories of the Graham Williams era. His favourite stories are Inferno, The Seeds of Doom and Human Nature (although The Empty Child, Blink and Utopia all come close). When he’s not bossing around the news team, Christian is a freelance writer specialising in mobile technology and domestic computing, and enjoys classic rock, cooking and spending time in the countryside with his wife and young children. You can find him on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.