THE NEW Doctor Who IS REVEALED

Matt Smith is the new doctor

Speculation towards the identity of the Eleventh Doctor began on 28 June 2008; the penultimate episode of the fourth series, "The Stolen Earth", ended as the Doctor was regenerating after being shot by a Dalek's death ray.[3] The lack of a trailer for the second part, "Journey's End", prompted a media and public frenzy surrounding the show which helped Doctor Who attain the highest position in the weekly ratings-first in the show's history.[4] The rumoured replacements included Catherine Tate — then playing Donna Noble, the Doctor's companion — Robert Carlyle, Jason Statham, Alan Davies, and James Nesbitt. The Daily Mail also reported the theories that two Doctors could be created—eventually proven to be correct—and that Tennant's announcement that he would leave in 2009 was a bluff to create a shock regeneration.[5]
Tennant announced he would be stepping down from portraying the Doctor at the National Television Awards on 29 October 2008, because he felt that the four years he spent portraying the character was enough and to ease the transition from Russell T Davies's showrunning to Steven Moffat's.[6] At the time, the BBC published that Paterson Joseph was the bookmaker's favourite to succeed Tennant and would probably be the first black Doctor, followed by David Morrissey who was appearing as Jackson Lake in the 2008 Christmas special "The Next Doctor". Other candidates included Sean Pertwee, son of Third Doctor actor Jon Pertwee; James Nesbitt; Russell Tovey, who portrayed Alonso Frame in the 2007 Christmas special "Voyage of the Damned"; and James McAvoy.[7]

At 26 years old, Smith is the youngest actor to portray the Doctor, three years younger than Peter Davison, who took on the role at the age of 29. Smith was one of the first actors to audition for the role, and the production team immediately singled him out based on his performance. The BBC were cautious about casting him because they felt that a 26-year-old could not play the Doctor adequately; BBC Wales Head of Drama Piers Wenger shared the same sentiment, but noted that Smith was capable enough to play the role.[1][8]