Matt Smith gave one of the best speeches in the history of Doctor Who in his first season finale. The Pandorica speech is our number 3 Matt Smith moment.

When Matt Smith took over the role of the Doctor, much of his first season was whimsical. Many questioned if he could hold up the the gravitas of his predecessor, the Shakespearean-trained David Tennant. Afterall, Smith didn’t exactly have the most intricate of resumes. Starting in the second half of the series Smith pulled out the stops. It’s always a risk to give a big, booming, and over-the-top “I am in charge listen to me” speech. If the special effects, music and supporting actors aren’t there, then you just look silly.

In the Pandorica speech, Smith was able to go from humor to deadly seriousness. Smith’s “I am talking” line was reminiscent of David Tennant in “Forest of the Damned” when he uttered the line, “I’m the Doctor, and you’re in the biggest library in the Universe. Look me up.” On the surface, neither line is a threat, but those words were certainly threatening the way Smith and Tennant delivered them.

There is a notable piece of trivia that goes along with this scene. At Dragon Con, a highly regarded sci-fi convention, Sylvester McCoy, who played the seventh Doctor, was a guest speaker. Many have, justly or not, blamed McCoy for Doctor Who’s cancellation in the late 1980s. He was the reigning Doctor when the classic show was finally axed. At the convention, one of the organizers theorized that it wasn’t McCoy’s fault at all, but the fact that the writing in his era was utter rubbish. To prove his point, he handed McCoy, who had not seen the season finale, the Pandorica speech. McCoy then gave a cold reading. Check out his interpretation of the speech and the audience reaction below (starts at the 4:10 mark).

Regardless of which interpretation you prefer, the speech solidifies the idea that the Doctor is a force to be reckoned with.