I probably saw Tom Baker, but the first one I remember seeing was Peter Davison (I’d have been six or seven when he took over).
As far as I can recall, the first episode I ever saw was The Three Doctors, episode 1, 30 December 1972. So my first Doctor was Pertwee-Troughton-Hartnell.
Tom Baker. I started watching about halfway through his run as the Doctor, stayed on through Peter Davison, and sort of faded out again in the Colin Baker years although I’ve seen little bits of various later Doctors.
Tom Baker. They ran the Doctor Who series on PBS when I was a kid and he will always be THE Doctor for me.
Dick York. No, wait, Dick Sargent.
What was the question, again?
“The Creature From The Pit” was my first Doctor episode and it featured Tom Baker. I think of the Doctor with the long scarf and curly hair when I think of him from my childhood.
I also saw the Five Doctors movie/special, so Peter Davison also is part of my memory.
As a regular viewer, I tend to go against the “remember your first doctor” idea and mainly focus on David Tenant, who is the best Doctor in my opinion.
I also tend to disagree with the popular notion that your first Doctor will always be your favorite. As evidence, I offer the fact that my first Doctor was Colin Baker. It’s a wonder I ever became a fan of the show at all, isn’t it? 
Actually, it may have helped me become a fan that Colin was the first experience I had of Doctor Who, as I had nothing to compare him to and be disappointed about. So I never experienced the idea that this Doctor’s harsh, abrasive personality was somehow “wrong.” It was only later, when my PBS station cycled back around to Tom Baker’s, and later Jon Pertwee’s, episodes, that I understood what other people were talking about. Today I vacillate between whether Tom Baker or Pertwee is my favorite. No one in the new show, not even the much-vaunted Tennant, comes close. Although Peter Capaldi is certainly getting nearer the mark than anyone else has managed to. I think in some ways, Capaldi is what Colin’s Doctor “should” have been, given proper writing and production values.
I think starting with Colin also gives me a bit of perspective when people start nattering on about how the Doctor never chooses the violent solution, never kills people, never uses guns, etc. And I can just sort of say, “Ehhh…except when he does.”
Tom Baker. I would watch it (mainly because it came on after Monty Python and Dave Allen at Large) but I never really grasped the whole “Doctor” concept as a kid. So I’d see an episode with a different Doctor, think “What’s this mess with this guy?” and turn it off. In my mind it was more of a York/Sargent Bewitched thing than a continuity-story line thing.
I first read of Dr. Who in the pages of Forrest J. Ackerman’s Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine when the show first came out in the 1960s. Sadly, they didn’t have much about the series, aside from pictures of some of their villains (like the Daleks). Not a word that I can recall about the Doctor himself.
The BBC series didn’t run in the US, so the first Doctor I saw wasn’t even a canonical Doctor – it was Peter Cushing, in the movies Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150AD. These were released in the US before they ever ran any of the TV episodes here (as far as I’m aware)
In the 1970s, PBS started running the series Doctor Who, and I finally got a chance to see what the hoopla was all about. Tom Baker was my first Doctor.
And I hated the series. Not at all what I’d been expecting.
It took me a while to finally accept the character. And I really do like the more recent run that started with Eggleston.
Exactly my experience as well; and like so many Americans, the introduction came via the good graces of PBS. So Tom Baker was my first Doctor. However, and apparently unusually, Tennant is the one I claim as “my” Doctor - he’s so far my favorite actor to play the role. But I have considerable affection for Peter Davison, as well.
Eccleston. “Everybody lives, Rose! I could use more days like this…”
Dr. Tate was my pediatrician… I’m amazed that so many people from such diverse locations all had the same doctor.
Eccleston. And I will never forget him…but Tennant is my favorite and always will be.
Tom Baker, watching late night Sundays on Channel 11, or more accurately Mondays after school on the VCR. I also saw several of the Jon Pertwee eps but not many of the others.
I’m 61, so that I watched the first episode live. :eek:
Thus William Hartnell was my first Doctor.
I’ve seen all the episodes since and my top three Doctors are:
- Tom Baker (a convincing alien )
- John Hurt (only one episode, but a true tour de force)
- David Tennant (definitely the coolest
)
Christopher Eccleston was first for me.
Matt Smith is my favorite, followed by basically a tie between Tenant and Eccleston. I’m warming up to Capaldi, but he’s my least favorite so far (I don’t dislike him, just rate the others higher). John Hurt was absolutely fantasic, but there’s not enough to really ‘rank’ him, imo.
Eccleston was my first and my favorite. Though the new guy Capaldi has brought back some of his darker edge, that the goofier Tennant and Smith distanced themselves from.
Still haven’t watched more than a few bits and pieces of the original series, but I will eventually.
Third doctor was my first, though I remember noticing the fourth a lot, because he seemed to be on forever. I never could get through an episode. I’m either lacking something, or just not ready yet. Maybe when I’m really old I’ll have this entire series to discover.
Tom Baker. The first episode I saw was the third episode of “Revenge of the Cyberman”. I became a fan with this line, delivered by the Doctor:
“Harry Sullivan is an imbecile!”
Please see my signature.
(Although in fairness, that doesn’t completely answer the question, so: Four, Tom Baker. I know Sarah Jane started with Jon Pertwee, but when I discovered the series on PBS they were airing “The Ark in Space.”)