You know which Doctors I’m talking about. Not which, Who.
My list:
1 Tom Baker - He is THE Doctor, the definite article, you might say. This is the face most see when thinking of the show. I think he actually lived the part while playing it. Besides, he’s the love of my fantasy life and I stand by my man as the song says.
2 David Tennant - I think he’s captured the Doctor magnificently, and every mannerism is correct. Given the show’s long hiatus, and Eccleston besides, he’s done a fine job.
3 Jon Pertwee - This guy did so much for the character of the Doctor and made him interesting even through the restraints of being stranded on Earth for much of his run.
4 Patrick Troughton - I believe his Doctor is the one Tennant is channeling most, and he gave the all important humorous edge to the Time Lord.
5 Sylvester McCoy - I liked the mystery he conveyed to the role, but he most shined in making the Doctor likable again, which was important after some unfortunate choices by some people running the show.
6 Christopher Eccleston - I wanted to like him, but he just seemed so pissed off all the time. Plus I couldn’t understand him through that accent. I often watched the show with the subtitles on.
7 William Hartnell - Okay, he was the first and that’s important. But I try to watch and he’s just so slow moving. He’s like a crabby Uncle Joe from Petticoat Junction.
8 Colin Baker - His stated intention was to make the Doctor less likable. Nice work jackass.
9 Peter Davison - Nice guy, nice Doctor. Completely forgettable. That’s worse than the Doctor as a jackass.
Tom Baker – witty and brought a lot of fun to the role. Helped by some of the best stories of the original series (the golden age of the original run was between “the Three Doctors” and “The Five Doctors”).
David Tennant – Nice job as a more emotionally vulnerable doctor. Smart, but also witty, too.
Christophe Eccleston – brilliant job of reviving the character.
Sylvester McCoy – underrated. I, too, liked the mystery and he actually brought some new dimensions to the character.
Jon Pertwee – Good for his kindliness and charm.
William Hartnell – I liked his crusty old bastard in the early episodes.
Patrick Troughton – Didn’t see enough of him, but his best part was that he was actually afraid of some of the monsters he fought.
Peter Davison – Bland, and couldn’t rise above the story. If the story was good, so was he; if it was mediocre, he didn’t improve it.
Colin Baker – I didn’t mind the unlikeable, but that was his only shtick. Hurt by a lot of bad stories prior to “Trial of a Time Lord.”
To me Davidson is THE Doctor. His is the image that comes to my mind when The Doctor is mentioned.
I haven’t seen enough of Hartnell, Troughton, and C.Baker’s doctors to really rate them fairly so they’re in seventh along with McGann by default. My list may change if I was more familiar with them.
I wish Eccleston had done more than one season. His replacement wasn’t bad at all, however.
McGann could have been a great doctor if he’d had more than that single telemovie. I liked McGann for the same reasons I liked Davidson’s doctor. They were both ladies’ men, moreso than 9 & 10 even.
I guess I’ll join the popular vote and plump for Tom Baker, David Tennent and John Pertwee. They mix irascibility with stony, universe shattering importance just a little bit better than the other Doctors. They also appeared to give more of a damn when it mattered about other people. The others were sorry too… they just didn’t seem to show it.
Hartnell, Troughton and Pertwee were before my time so I’ve never seen them. WIth that said,
1, Tom Baker by a country mile. I grew up in his era so he’s the natural choice for me, but he really seems so far in advance of anyone else. Defines the series for a generation of British 30 somethings.
Christopher Eccleston. Revived Dr Who with panache, great actor. He’s quite a physical actor IMO, has a lot of presence which will divide opinon on his performance. Some will prefer a more mercurial actor like Tennant, but I really liked Eccleston’s Dr. His wry Manc cynicism is the antithesis of Tom Baker’s Dr, but managed to hit the spot nonetheless.
Big gap
3. Sylvester McCoy. Good Dr Who-ish type actor, seemed to hit the series when it was turning to rat shit, maybe didn’t get the best scripts / stories.
David Tennant. Cannot stand Tennant as Dr Who, totally wrong for the role but as he’s a great actor otherwise so I guess he goes here by default.
Peter Davison. Really baffling choice in hindsight. Bland, charisma-bypass victim who was popular in other UK dramas at the time, nowhere near the gravitas for the Dr. His career noticeably died after Dr Who for whatever reason.
Colin Baker. Disaster. I guess deserves some credit for knowingly making a holy show of the piece and going down in history as the worst Dr by a distance.
Too late to edit - just reading the Dr Who wikis to refresh the memory and I guess I’m unfair on Peter Davison. Following Tom Baker was an impossible job and he was always going to suffer in comparison.
David Tennant - Defines the Doctor for the new 21st century series as much as Tom Baker did for the classic 20th century series.
Patrick Troughton - Buoyed the series along through a creative low-point (cliche, formulaic stories, the goofiest monsters & worst effects) in the original series.
William Hartnell - It’s so interesting to watch the original stories in which the first Doctor is a mercurial, troublesome, almost villainous character (in his first serial, he comes close to killing a man simply for the sake of expedience.) He definitely conveys the ‘alienness’ of the Doctor more than anybody else.
Christopher Ecclestone - Wasn’t too thrilled with his ‘angry, weary, blue-collar rebel’ approach. It already seemed to get old halfway through his one season. But he did had fantastic chemistry with Billie Piper, and their scenes together are great to watch.
Peter Davidson - I read an interview with him in which he said he came up with an approach for the Doctor being a crotchety old man in a seemingly-youthful body, but that producer JNT demanded he play the character in a more broad, MOR style. The stories where (as per Davidson’s claim) he got to play it his way - such as “Frontios” - the Doctor does seem a little more interesting. Pity then that he didn’t get his way more often.
Sylvester McCoy - Had a huge uphill fight, trying to make the Doc seem fresh after so many years. Did an OK job, but was hampered by stale stories & production.
Paul McGann - Again, he did an OK job with what he was given to work with (a ‘reimagined’ half-human clone of Spock). My problem with the romance in the movie is that it was much too abrupt (he knew the red-head for - what? twenty seconds?) and the companion wasn’t that interesting. (Rose or Donna, I could buy the Doc having feelings for them, because each relationship was built up over the course of time.)
Jon Pertwee - Didn’t especially like the ‘swinging foppish dandy’ Doc. He seemed more suited to hanging out at swishy piano bars, belting out showtunes and making catty comments to Sgt. Benton than saving the world. Didn’t help that he & the Master always seemed like spiteful ex-lovers rather than mortal enemies.
Colin Baker - A complete misfire. Unlikeable character, hammy portrayal, and that clown suit was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me - I couldn’t watch the show while he was on it.
