Well, the filming is pretty obviously beginning. It’s kind of unfair that while Tennant only had to cope with about six months of “What’s he going to be like?” and being under the spotlight, Matt Smith is getting an even more intense version (considering the popularity of the show has only gotten bigger since Tennant joined), and aside from the immediate post-regeneration thirty seconds or so, we’ve still got just under a year before we find out what his Doctor’s actually going to be like. Which means eveything’ll be under the microscope, and everything will be “How could they!” and “For shame!” and “I hate it!” and on, and on… and the first pictures of the new Doctor’s costume has broken – available here. It’s kind of odd that it’s essentially gotten exactly the same reaction from me that Smith’s casting did – a slightly surprised, bemused “Oh…” followed by a bit of a mull, followed finally by a “Hmm, I quite like it, let’s see how it works in practice.” I’ve already been reading “I hate it” and “He looks too much like an English Professor” on Twitter, and they’ve certainly (as ianjclark quite rightly says here) dressed him older – it’d be easy to make Smith look absurdly young, but this’ll definitely give the impression of a 900-ish year old bounding around in a younger body. They’ve also gone for something that’s very distinct from both Eccleston and Tennant – and okay, it’s not as immediately fashionable as Tennant’s look was, but how would you do that again without simply ending up with something pretty damn close to Tennant? And also, they’ve got to give the Doctor a distinctive look that isn’t just hitting the ‘Edwardian’ button and going for something deliberately Doctor-ish. I’m certain the bow-tie will be a ‘controversial’ point, but again, it’s a distinct look. It’s retro, it’s fifties. It means that the Doctor isn’t going to easily blend into the crowd. And, I can’t help feeling that back in 1974, any dedicated fans of Pertwee looking at pictures of the new upcoming Doctor would have been thinking “What? What is going on with that scarf? The show’s doomed!” I’m not immediately blown away thinking “Yes, that’s ideal…”, but then, I was initially thinking Tennant was going to be ideal from the pre-publicity pics, and it actually took me until S3 until I started liking him in the role. It’s going to be fascinating to see how this works, and I would perhaps have preferred something a little scruffier and a little less buttoned-up, but at the moment, I am going to still reserve any major opinion until we finally see the 11th Doctor in action…