Straight from the horses mouth so to speak. Matt's favourite of his series.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s7/do...oBviLNBkS3COuL

I think as a series overall it was the most structurally tight of 11's era overall. Apart from the exploding TARDIS explanation it was mostly a perfectly contained series.

From his brief comment on series 6 I get the impression he didn't think much of the river reveal.

What actually did?? Series 5 is easily the best of Moffat's tenure.

Whilst there are many fine stories and moments in series 6 and 7, I would agree with the lad. Not surprising as 5 is my favourite of C21 Who....so far!

Also, the challenge he faced following a very popular Doctor and the fact that he was forging this new incarnation...he had to be different, take risks in his performance, and he was superb. However much I hope and expect to enjoy Peter C, 11 seemed to pass so quickly and it's still a bit "Aw bugger." for me.

I'll be fine when Series 8 starts.

Can't argue with the man. My favorite season ever. Many complain about unanswered questions but while there might have been an element of this it feels like a perfectly realized body of work with its own narrative and visual aesthetic. I must say while I have enjoyed 6 and 7 with hindsight they never quite delivered on where I hoped they were going. S7 in particular is a very erratic and disjointed season for many reasons-production wise and the purposeful decision to make the episodes movie of the week style thing. Worked at the time but looking back not so much. Whereas say Tennant took a while to really define the role Matts first season was perfect and pretty much sums up his era. What came after lacked...direction maybe? I dunno.

He's definitely right. S6/S7 were very poor in comparison to S5. Matt had to carry some terrible episodes in the latter two.

Matt's thoroughly correct. Series 5 is a classic, the other two are largely forgettable with only the odd Doctor's Wife to perk things up.

Hint to Moffat: the story arcs are predictable, dull and — as a result — disengaging.

Its interesting that Matt thinks Season 5 is the best for him. I think structurally yes the season is probably the best with regards to storyline. The Pandorica Opens/ The Big Bang are brilliantly inventive episodes in loads of ways bringing the cracks/universe arc story together ( except for the thinking into existence part) at the end.

However I do find Season 5 is a bit this way and that in the Doctor's characterisation as Matts performance is at times 'boyish enthusiastic' ' in the The Eleventh Hour' 'Vampires of Venice' and the 'Lodger' but then there are hints of a more 'serious' man in the 'Angels''Amy's Choice' and 'Vincent'.I am not saying anything about Matts ability as an actor but it is 'experimental' and a little inconsistent as Matt can be seen to still be finding his doctor in Season 5.

In Season 6 the character has that 'older' edge which I prefer & seems more assured. He does have quite a few good stories ( the Doctors Wife , Night Terrors, and the God Complex but I didn't enjoy Season 6 with the nonsense of the River reveal as the Ponds daughter and the kidnap of Amy. I don't think Matt was served that well by the plotline but obviously that's only my opinion

I cant really comment a lot on Matt's Season 7 as I only watched the episodes once or twice but the dynamic of Clara and The Doctor worked in the 'Snowmen' and 'Asylum' and Matt knew his character and acted it well but he seemed to slightly lose a bit of energy after the Ponds left.

'Asylum' is, indeed, one of his better moments. Though he was better when his Doctor was less 'knowing' and all the storylines weren't just a big tease.

Series 5 felt really fresh and interesting.

I do agree about the 'tease' of the storylines. Season 6 the first time around was exciting in a lot of ways because we all wanted to know the 'trick' of how the doctor died but once you see the ending it has to satisfy on a lot of levels for me to want to go through the plot ride thrill again so I fall back on performance. Is the story interesting enough for me to watch again.

Regarding the 'knowing' doctor I did like the two different versions of the Doctor in 'Astronaut' and 'Moon' and it played to Matts abilities as an actor. Also the ganger story with the two doctors had light and shade in it. I do understand what you mean about the 'knowing' doctor though because having him as the cleverest person in the room can be 'samey' and uninteresting to watch

In my opinion, the writing of the stories was better for series 5 but I felt that Matt Smith improved as an actor toward the second half of his time as his time as the the Doctor. He seemed to just mature into the role more and was just more comfortable in the role.

That was when I noticed he was more able to give that ancient look so easily. He may not had the best of stories, but the acting was better in my eyes.

Looking back, I think I'd agree. Series 7 is very good, but very messy, structure and production wise. Series 6...well, it was a bold new direction for the show to take, but I don't think it paid off.

I think Matt's performance in series 6 and series 7 was a lot stronger than in series 5 though. In series 5, he still seemed to be very much in DT's shadow, and he didn't seem a great deal different from DT, apart from the whole "such and such is cool" obsession.

In series 6, he really started to establish his Doctor's character a lot more. Even by the end of the Impossible Astronaut, the 11th Doctor shot through the roof in my affection.

Series 5 was good. Series 6 had 3 really good episodes TDW,AGMGTW and TGWW.
S7 had TATM and the brilliant NOTD to lead into the 50th. Matt worked hard he had to be both young and funny but also serious a 1000+ year old time lord who loved and lost two companions and a wife.

Season 5 was good but I agree that in season 5 Matt seemed to be trying to find himself as the doctor. In Season 6 he started to establish himself more and become comfortable in his version of the doctor but the season had a terrible arc with the whole River, Amy’s daughter, so eventhough Matt was more established in his role the story arc let him down.

I think Matt’s doctor grew and really established himself in season 7. I really enjoyed the version of his doctor since the loss of the Ponds and it’s when it was more apparent for me that ancient alien in a young men’s body, so for that reason I prefer Season 7 more. He gave us some of his best performances in season 7 such as, The Snowmen, Rings of Akhaten, Nightmare in Silver, Name of the Doctor, DOD and ToTD.

Matt Smith's opinion is a pretty common one. Series 5 does seem to be the most popular of Moffat's era. Mine is Series 6, with 5 close behind. Calling River's reveal a 'what the hell?" moment is also a perfectly natural response, because it was! I know there are some with an agenda trying to portray that quote as a Smith attack on Moffat's 'bad' writing but no need to take them seriously.

I agree with him completely. Out of all the series, Series 5 is the one which, to me, feels the most coherent and the most focused. It felt as if there was a definite plan and we as the audience were being taken on an adventure which had a definite climax; a definite resolution. It felt it was going somewhere. Every series since then has never had the same level of focus and clarity as series 5. I don't know whether this is true or not, but from Series 6 onwards it felt more like Steven Moffat was just making it up as he went along; writing each episode one at a time with no overall "masterplan". I like Series 6 and 7, don't get me wrong, but none of them quite have the same level of coherence as Series 5.

My view:

Matt Smith was probably answering wrt what it felt like personally as an actor to play each series rather than what they looked as a final product. He certainly had a lot more big spots - big speeches in series 5 and really took the challenge of playing the lead part really well.

In later seasons he delivered a more maturer take on the role the stories were less about the Doctor proving himself as a new incarnation and a bit more on the bigger story lines, focusing on the Silents, Kovarian and River Song in series 6. Series 7a was a bit of a miss for me and series 7b was great - just who was Clara!

Overall, for me, there were some stand out great scenes and episodes amongst all series. Each series had the usual combination of wow, meh, what the?

I agree. From Matt’s point of view season 5 must have been such a roller coaster with all the pressure on him to prove himself as the right choice for the role. So the fact that he managed it well makes him see that season as much more special than the subsequent ones.

BIB: Totally agree with the bit in bold. I loved series 7b.

Enough time has passed for people to become nostalgic about series 5. I see that recently, it's reputation has risen sharply. I remember (and my memory may wrong but) when series 5 was first broadcast, people were a lot harsher to it. Now people think it's alright. I'm not sure if the same will happen to Series 6. I hope so. It would be nice for people to a least acknowledge it's narrative adventurousness and experimentation, even if they don't like the end results.

I'm not a great fan of the last few series to be honest. My last fav was Tennant's 4th series with Donna (not the 'specials').
But #5 was ok - I got a bit fed up with Amy/Rory/River etc going on all the time...if I want a soap I'll watch Emmerdale!
Series 7b was a bit more interesting for me - and I loved Day of the Doctor and Time of the Doctor!!
Matt was a good Doctor......but a bit irritating in my opinion. I think he performed best in the 50th anniversary story.

Sorry Matt fans!

I have to agree, in terms of all the series done by Matt, Series 5 is his best.
Series 6 was too story arc driven, especially when at the end of most of the episodes, we were reminded of the countdown till the dr's death. I like standalones so we have a break away from story arcs, not to be reminded at the end of most episodes
Series 7 for me just feels a little bit muddled. Half a season with Amy and Rory and then half a season with Clara. I didn't see the need for Amy and Rory to continue for half of season 7 (although their exit was beautiful) and then to have the remaining lot with Clara. It felt like two seperate seasons that were joined together but didn't flow well at all.

I think the acquired nostalgia on series 5 is because the two following series didn't meet expectations. It was the most RTD like structurally and in it's style of arc, and had a start, middle and most of a wrap up, whereas the last two series have made big promises but delivered disappointing or in complete resolutions, so people now look back at series 5 overall and say 'yeah, there was a Matt smith series with a clear arc, that delivered' with it being the only Matt smith series where that is the case.

Basically series 5 opinion has gone up because what we've had after showed how bad and messy a background series story or arc can be, so in comparison series 5 looks way better than what people may have thought at the time. As a result it's probably gone up more in the estimation of people who already liked it to begin with.

I have to dispute this. I think the Clara and Great intelligence story arcs were very complete. You may not think they were as interesting or integrated as the season 5 arcs (and I'm inclined to agree) but they were comprehensively and unambiguously resolved. Season 6 copped out in its finale, to an extent (although I do like 'The Doctor's Wife'), and the River Song reveal was as underwhelming as could be, but 'The Name of the Doctor' was a tour de force, in my opinion equal to anything else Moffat has done on Doctor Who. And he further sealed all of the story threads in 'Night of the Doctor' (including those he DIDN'T resolve in the supposedly more complete Season 5 arc), quite ingeniously and masterfully in my estimation. I honestly don't understand the poor reception that episode had with some fans. It wasn't a great year for Doctor Who but Moffat's episodes were a real resurgence for him.

I totally agree. Season 7B had a very solid arc and it is my personal favourite. Matt gave some great performances (such as The rings of Akhaten speech and Nightmare in Silver, dual Mr Clever and the doctor parts). Clara was a breath of fresh air, a much needed relief from the irritating Amy and boring River.
I also agree about the Name of the Doctor. Great episode to end the series and an ingenious resolution to Clara’s arc.
I personally prefer Season 7B overall. The only downside was that it was too short in terms of having a new companion, new Tardis, new costume and a new changed doctor for 7 episodes only.

I suppose I just feel that series 5 was more in the style where it seemed as though it had been plotted and planned before hand whereas series 6 was just a mess in terms of story arc (even though it had some great individual stories) because the start gave the grand build up of showing the doctor's 'death' and the pay off for that was nothing even close to as special and seemed as though it had been thought up quickly at some point after he'd written the opening episodes.

Similarly with series 7, He at first decided there would be no arc after the poor reception of the series 6 arc, then in the second half, changed his mind and threw in the half hearted concept of 'the impossible girl' the payoff for which, whilst impressive as an episode, was to basically trample on the memory of all the doctors victories up until that point, and seemed more of a showy gimmick than anything else.

As for Moffat's arcs being resolved in time of the doctor, I can only say that from the time that people started asking the question 'who blew up the TARDIS?' Moffat kept hinting and teasing year on year that all the threads would come together and it was all part of one grand resolving storyline. Then when time of the doctor finally came most of the unresolved issues were rushed through with mumbled quick explanations, seemingly as though rather than them actually being important to the plot, Moffat had actually been stalling all the years, and then when it came to put his money where his mouth was he just went down all the unresolved issues and shoehorned explanations of them into the narrative of the final episode as if he were going down a checklist, rather than that stuff feeling like it was naturally important and relevant to the main plot of the episode itself.

I don't really feel any of the Moffat series feel completely 'as one' or whole, but series 5 is the one that seems to come closest because for the most part it is. You only have to overlook the exploding TARDIS for that to feel complete where the others just don't feel like a complete together uniform series at all.

Even though it was addressed (or at least, hinted at), in the very same episode.

You can't really do all the handholding and box-checking without it feeling like a shopping list. That was a response to a demand - people brought that upon themselves.