I remember reading through some novelizations of the lost episodes at school, the Yeti in the underground was pretty scary even on paper. With Hartnell’s The Reign of Terror being reanimated soon, fingers crossed for another Troughton reanimation to join The Invasion.
Have any of the old Doctors visited on the “new” Doctor Who?
I’ve seen some older Doctor Who movies where several Doctors are brought together. Have any of the appeared on the new show?
Not on the show proper, but there was a short video filmed for Children In Need (a UK charity) that had David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor visited by Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor. It’s very funny!
Very funny. Glad to see at least one old Doctor return.
The pair of them seemed to have a better time together on screen than Colin Baker and Patrick Troughton.
I’m not sure how much of the joshing about Baker was just joshing in this Troughton TV spot.
Seeing as Davidson is now Tenant’s father-in-law, that’s probably for the best.
Not to this hardcore fan. Tennant is far and away my favorite Doctor, and I started watching back in the 80’s, on Saturday nights (apparently, PBS assumed that “British sci-fi fan with girlfriend and active social life” was a tautology). Tom Baker was my first, and I saw all of Peter Davidson and the first few Colin Baker shows.
Nevertheless, I consider Tennant the best Doctor, for two reasons. One, I think he got the best scripts. Tennant had more stories that explored morality and ethics and philosophy, and in more complex ways - cf Davros’ line in “Journey’s End”:“You take ordinary people and turn them into weapons”, or the central conflict of “Human Nature/The Family of Blood”: The Doctor’s return required the death of John Smith, and the broken heart of the Matron.
Two, and more importantly, Tennant was, I think, the best actor to play the role. He had all the manic energy of Matt Smith, and the gravitas (and darkness) of Christopher Eccleston, added to a great depth and range. I always felt that under the Doctor’s cheerful demeanor lies a lot of pain and loss, and Tennant was very good at showing that. Watch the scene with Jessica Hynes (Matron Redfern) and Thomas Sangster (Tim Latimer) from “The Family of Blood”, in which John Smith confronts and questions his own death. It’s an incredibly poignant and beautiful scene. Also, in the same scene, he switches to the Doctor’s personality for one line, and then goes back to Smith. He clearly showed those were two different characters.
He even went out with a bang. Remember his very last line as the Doctor? “I don’t want to go”. I had tears.
Fantastic acting. Thoughtful stories. Great TV.