It may only be 6 months before Whovians see the last of Matt Smith as the Doctor, but that didn’t stop the actor from taking time out of his busy filming schedule to thank the cast, crew and fans for their support during his run on the series.

Smith is currently in Detroit filming the feature ‘How to Catch a Monster’ (hence the buzz cut) and after a session of night filming, made this video which you can see below:

While the footage starts off silently with Smith holding up sheets of handwritten paper conveying his message, in a Bob Dylan sort of way, his heartfelt speech of thanks afterwards brings a tear and a smile to all those who have been watching the series.

Smith announced earlier in the month his intentions of leaving the show with this year’s Christmas episode being the last time we’ll be seeing him as the Gallyfrean Time Lord on a regular basis. While many rumors have been floating around the web as to who will be taking his place, nothing concrete has been officially announced by the BBC. What is known is that they will announce the successor by the time the Christmas episode starts filming (hopefully by that time Smith’s hair will have grown in more).

Until then, we still have the 50th anniversary special to look forward to before we have to say officially say goodbye to the Time Lord who made bow ties cool.