I am not a Whovian. I do not watch Doctor Who. A Twitter-follower recently yelled at me for abbreviating it to “Dr. Who” by the way. Which just shows how out of touch I am with the Whovians. With so many of your crushes, however, I will continue to try to deliver some news. Back in June, Matt Smith – the current Doctor – announced that he was leaving the role after four years. All of his episodes have not aired yet, right? There are still episodes to air later on this year, including a Christmas Special, I believe. So… the producers still have time to look for a new Doctor. And that casting process is ongoing. But what about Matt Smith? Does he regret pulling out of the series?

More than perhaps any scripted drama on TV, the nature of Doctor Who is forward-looking renewal, embracing the sort of periodic cast upheaval that other shows strive to avoid at all cost. For actor Matt Smith, who is preparing to shoot his final episode as the Time Lord, stepping off the cult hit is an unnerving prospect.

“I feel very proud to be a part of such a wonderful legacy,” Smith said Thursday at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills. “The thing about Doctor Who is he always looks forward. The show will get bigger and better and carry on without me … we shoot nine to 10 months a year, the show has come to a natural tipping point … it’s at the top of a cycle … it’s a good time of me and the show … it was a hard choice. I’ll miss it.”

Smith pointed out, however, that “just because I’ve done Doctor Who doesn’t give me a divine right to walk into any other jobs,” adding: “I’ll ponder it and sometimes think, ‘I’ve made a huge mistake. What am I doing?’”

The actor shouldn’t be too worried. He already has his next gig lined up, appearing in next year’s How to Catch a Monster, a fantasy film produced and directed by Ryan Gosling.

Doctor Who producer Marcus Wilson added: “As you say, when it’s time to go, it’s time to go. We want to send him out with a bang. Coming out after the 50th anniversary episode — our most ambitious episode yet — everybody wants to top that.”

[From Entertainment Weekly]

In another post, I compared Matt Smith to David Tennant and wondered if Matt was going to find that Hollywood just wasn’t all that interested in him post-Who. Tennant got a couple of roles in American films, but for the most part, he’s been in British television ever since he left Doctor Who. I get the feeling that Matt is more ambitious and he’s really going to try to make a Hollywood career happen. We’ll see. I will say this – Hollywood always finds uses for pale English actors, no matter what, so maybe his career prospects are pretty good.

E! News says that Whovians are asking producers to cast a woman as the new Doctor, and producer Marcus Wilson tells E!: “The search is ongoing. You just want the best actor possible for the role. We’ve been so looking to have a great succession of fantastic actors. You just have to cast the net wide and hope you find somebody brilliant.”

Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.