From one of my favourite reviews ever (Doctor Who – The Eleventh Hour – Does Matt Smith Live Up To The Name?):
Oddly, in trying to describe this element of "Doctorness," I keep coming back to the idea of age. Though the Doctor may be 450-ish, or nearly 1,000, depending on the story, Tom Baker's Doctor was mind-numbingly old. Eternally young of spirit, perhaps, but he fairly dripped of being old. Old even well beyond whatever his age might be. The kind of age that comes with having seen the Universe in a way mere humans could never really comprehend. Partially a wisdom and experience that allowed The Doctor to look at events from a different perspective, but more than that. It was some kind of specifically ancient sensibility that ruled out the possibility of urgency. Baker's Doctor was often distracted in the most intense moments, simply because of this unique perspective of events, and even when running somehow managed to seem like he didn't really mean it.
And here is Steven Moffat, talking about Matt Smith:
“His Doctor is, in the nicest possible way, completely unhinged. You think he might just forget to diffuse the bomb because he saw a nice butterfly.”
♥
Oddly, in trying to describe this element of "Doctorness," I keep coming back to the idea of age. Though the Doctor may be 450-ish, or nearly 1,000, depending on the story, Tom Baker's Doctor was mind-numbingly old. Eternally young of spirit, perhaps, but he fairly dripped of being old. Old even well beyond whatever his age might be. The kind of age that comes with having seen the Universe in a way mere humans could never really comprehend. Partially a wisdom and experience that allowed The Doctor to look at events from a different perspective, but more than that. It was some kind of specifically ancient sensibility that ruled out the possibility of urgency. Baker's Doctor was often distracted in the most intense moments, simply because of this unique perspective of events, and even when running somehow managed to seem like he didn't really mean it.
And here is Steven Moffat, talking about Matt Smith:
“His Doctor is, in the nicest possible way, completely unhinged. You think he might just forget to diffuse the bomb because he saw a nice butterfly.”
♥
