When writer Steven Moffat helms a series, you know that the one-liners are going to come thick and fast – and so it has proven with the Matt Smith years of Doctor Who: an era which, in many ways, is exemplified by its catchphrases.

Here we take a look at some of these, and what they reveal about the programme they helped to define, beginning, appropriately enough, with…

 

Geronimo!

The Eleventh Doctor’s first catchphrase, and still the one that most sums up the breathless rush of so many of his stories. ‘Geronimo!’ was an invitation to adventure – a guarantee that, in forty-two and a half minutes, you’d be treated to the kind of storytelling that leaves scorch marks in its wake.

In previous eras, the Doctor might have been the still centre of this lunacy, thoughtfully steepling his fingers or rubbing at his neck; but Matt Smith is the Doctor who never stays still. Whether spinning around the TARDIS console or using his sonic screwdriver like a musical baton, the Eleventh Doctor dances freewheelingly to the music of the universe. The trouble is: he’s a little out of time, and only he can hear the beat.

If all this appears like so much geek dancing, then this is because…

 

Bow ties are cool!

The Eleventh Doctor isn’t just a geek, he is a celebration of geekdom – a recognition of the fact that geekdom is now the mainstream. The Eleventh Doctor lost the ease with social niceties which his immediate predecessor had, and became a man for whom present-day Earth was as alien a planet as any in space. In doing so, the Doctor became, once again, about otherness – a move that saw the programme re-occupy the territory of cult tv; but, since cult was now cool, it didn’t matter.

In the States, they lapped it up. ‘Bow ties are cool!’, and its sister catchphrase, ‘I wear a fez now’, were the calls to arms to a thousand cosplayers who proudly, literally wore their geekdom on their sleeves. Where the David Tennant era had opened the doors to ComicCon, the Matt Smith years blast them apart by providing a programme that was made to withstand the attentions of a more sci-fi literate audience. Story arcs took centre stage and, at times, the programme itself seemed to dip its toes into the territory of fan fiction.

If we were all to keep up, like Amy, we had to…

 

Come along, Pond!

This was a Doctor Who which was happy to occupy a place as multi-media cultural phenomenon, and which adapted accordingly to meet the demands of, and evade the attentions of, social media.

Previously, online minisodes had provided a little bit of extra story colour. Now, increasingly, they clarified story beats and furthered characterisation. But, as the programme sought to embrace its inherent potential for interactiveness, it also paid a price for the same, and the price was…

 

Spoilers, sweetie!

In no other era of Doctor Who had the potential for story leaks been so great, and, consequently, in no other era of Doctor Who had there been played such a game of cat and mouse between the production office and the media.

Executive producer Steven Moffat tipped his hat to the last time a series producer had confronted the scrutiny of the fans by naming one script, as John Nathan-Turner had baitingly pretended to do, ‘The Doctor’s Wife’; but this time round, the script wasn’t a fantasy. It was Neil Gaiman’s glorious hymn to the TARDIS – the first of several love letters to the programme as the series entered its fiftieth anniversary year and sought to honour the potential of its title…

 

Doctor Who? Doctor Who?

If the programme felt, at times, like meta-fiction, that was partly because of the number of times the narrative itself tipped a wink to its own conceits and even title.

For some, this felt like a fetishisation of the show’s mythology. Certainly, it was hard to imagine Tom Baker’s knowing, riddling cameo as The Day of the Doctor’s Curator appearing in quite that manner before 2008. But when the programme got it right – and who could resist the joy of Tom warmly wishing Matt Smith ‘Congratulations!’ – it honoured its own history with the kind of loving faithfulness that is bullet-proof against rejoinders.

In the midst of all this controversy, the single, constant joy has been Matt Smith – as faithful an ambassador as the programme has known, and one committed to delivering constant inventiveness in the part.

 

What was your favourite thing about Matt Smith’s Doctor Who era? Let us know below…