Doctor Who speculation

As a Doctor Who fan, you get used to stuff like this:

Matt Smith is reportedly planning to quit his role as Doctor Who to launch a full-blown Hollywood career.

Yup. Just as David Tennant was going to quit and hand the role over to John Simm (the Master, for fuck's sake) circa 2007/8. There is always going to be endless speculation about when a Doctor will go.

And you know what? At some point, Smith will go. As soon as he took over from Tennant, the one certainty we had was that he would leave the role at some point. It could be next year, it could be in ten years time. But he will leave.

The genius of Doctor Who, of course, is that the show not only anticipates the change of lead actors, but not actually relishes it. Smith will leave, and he will transform into someone else when he does. It will be dramatic and sad and brilliant, and it is going to happen. It is just question of when.

So when you read that Smith is about to leave, take it with a pinch of salt and don't worry. Even if he is on the way out at the end of the next season, there'll be a new Doctor on the way...