How Popular Is Matt Smith?

I was wondering the other day, Matt Smith seems to be quite a divisive Doctor.

It's a shame as I like most here thought he was the best, and that his era was by and large fantastic. (I even enjoyed season 7 though S6 has a crap ending.)

I've noticed that Matt tends to be the most popular among people like us. On predominantly old who fanboards like this, or Planet Mondas, Matt is the most popular, whilst among a lot of Tennant era fans like Bowlestrek and Nerdrotic he is despised.

On the one hand whilst Tennant got higher views in the UK, Matt was much bigger around the world. In America he is the most famous alongside Tom Baker of ALL the Doctors.

Overall do you think he is the most popular of the new lot given his international appeal? Or does Tennant still have a larger cult following.

Probably Tennant, sadly, though he seems well regarded from what I've seen, the last one who was for most.

People in my family were very quick to dismiss him at the time. My sister thought he was rubbish because he wasn't David Tennant. She refused to watch the series until people started saying how good he was in the role. I love my sister but she does enjoy her comfy place on the bandwagon. There was no doubt in my mind that Matt Smith was The Doctor after The Eleventh Hour aired. I guess a lot of the fans that kicked up a fuss back then absolutely love him now.

Matt smith is the better doctor I think. He pulled off the eccentricity more more clumsy as well which I liked

It's strange looking back at Smith's era because his portrayal of the character is probably the nearest NuWho has ever got to the classic series style and yet I hated it at the time.  It was Series 5 that finally turned me against NuWho  - I flogged all my Who stuff, stopped reading DWM, and didn't buy or watch anything Who-related for nearly 18 months afterward.

I wonder how the show would have fared if Davies had rebooted Doctor Who with Matt Smith or someone like Smith, instead of Eccelston  - all floppy hair, bow-tie, and posh accent?  More the eccentric Professor and less the leather-clad bin-man - would the mainstream 2005 TV audience have liked/accepted this?

My favourite MS line:
Craig: Has anyone ever told you that you're a bit weird?
The Doctor: They never really stop.

Matt Smith brought the "alien" back into the Doctor. The trouble with Tennant's Doctor is that there was too much humanising, especially THAT Bad Wolf bay scene.

As i've said in another thread, this actually betrayed something that Ten himself said that he can never attach himself to a companion since he regenerates while the humans die.

Eleven, on the other hand, didn't shy away from the 'romantic' aspects of the Doctor but kept it alien by keeping it awkward (and damn funny):

TheCuomoDoctor wrote:Matt Smith brought the "alien" back into the Doctor. The trouble with Tennant's Doctor is that there was too much humanising, especially THAT Bad Wolf bay scene.

As i've said in another thread, this actually betrayed something that Ten himself said that he can never attach himself to a companion since he regenerates while the humans die.

Eleven, on the other hand, didn't shy away from the 'romantic' aspects of the Doctor but kept it alien by keeping it awkward (and damn funny):

I was 11 when that aired. She made me experience feelings I'd never felt before

TheCuomoDoctor wrote:Matt Smith brought the "alien" back into the Doctor. The trouble with Tennant's Doctor is that there was too much humanising, especially THAT Bad Wolf bay scene.

As i've said in another thread, this actually betrayed something that Ten himself said that he can never attach himself to a companion since he regenerates while the humans die.

Eleven, on the other hand, didn't shy away from the 'romantic' aspects of the Doctor but kept it alien by keeping it awkward (and damn funny):

Sometimes funny. And while Smith's Doctor started out being relatively oddball and alien, over the course of Series 6 and 7 he became more Tennant-like and more an annoying, exaggerated caricature of himself.  I really liked 'The Eleventh Hour' but by the time of (ahem) 'The Time Of The Doctor' I couldn't wait to see the back of him.

I agree but that wasn't so much Matt as it was the writing.

Series 5 is among the finest of NuWho but from Series 6 and onwards, they started writing him as "cute" rather than alien by basically writing based on his looks.

The writing of his character was insufferable in Series 7, the show's anniversary year.

Don't even get me started on his finale.