Within minutes of the BBC revealing the identity of the new Doctor Who on Saturday night, the sniping began about Matt Smith, the actor chosen to step into the Tardis after David Tennant.

The 26-year-old from Northampton is relatively unknown, his biggest part to date having been in the under-performing BBC2 drama Party Animals. But on the drwho-online.co.uk forum, it was Smith's hair, rather than inexperience, causing the most consternation. "I'm happy - as long as he has a haircut before he plays the Doctor," wrote Brackster. Other users piled in to agree that a floppy, foppish haircut just wasn't right for the Doctor.

Then talk turned to Smith's youth. Riben wondered if Smith could be the "first Doctor with an Asbo and a hoodie". Sarah Jane Lover grumbled: "I don't know who he is and I don't like the look of him," while Dean 69 was "relieved the choice was not to go for a woman".

After 7 million people tuned in to the BBC to see Smith crowned the new Doctor, so many fans piled into the biggest Doctor Who website, drwhoforum.com, that it crashed the server.

Smith took up acting after a back injury ended hopes of a football career. Yesterday his old drama teacher recalled casting him in Twelve Angry Men at Northampton school for boys in 1999. "He wasn't enthusiastic - he'd done no acting before - but he got the taste for it and he was absolutely fantastic," said Jeremy Hardingham.

Smith will begin filming in the summer and takes over as the 11th and youngest Doctor in spring 2010.