# Who is the best Doctor(Doctor Who)?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-best-doctor-doctor-who/593560
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 21, 2011, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-best-doctor-doctor-who/593560 "2011-08-21T19:51:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2011, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-best-doctor-doctor-who/593560/1 "2011-08-21T19:51:55Z")
I’m curious to see the results. [We’ve discussed it](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=472290), but it has been a few years I think and I don’t see a poll for it.
So, who is the best Doctor?
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### Author:  [@monkeylucifer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monkeylucifer)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2011, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-best-doctor-doctor-who/593560/2 "2011-08-21T19:53:30Z")
If anyone says anything other than Tom Baker they need to be exterminated.
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2011, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-best-doctor-doctor-who/593560/3 "2011-08-21T19:54:18Z")
Oh, and I’ve made it so you can only pick one. Deal with it.
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2011, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-best-doctor-doctor-who/593560/4 "2011-08-21T19:55:18Z")
> [@monkeylucifer](#):
>
> If anyone says anything other than Tom Baker they need to be exterminated.
Well, I disagree. Tom Baker is my second pick, though.
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2011, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-best-doctor-doctor-who/593560/5 "2011-08-21T19:57:31Z")
Oh, I’ve picked David tenant by the way.
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### Author:  [@monkeylucifer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monkeylucifer)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2011, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-best-doctor-doctor-who/593560/6 "2011-08-21T20:05:30Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#):
>
> Well, I disagree. Tom Baker is my second pick, though.
I would reverse that. Having been first exposed to Dr. Who via PBS in the 80’s, Tom Baker was what sucked me in to watching the show. His quirky charisma was really a defining aspect of the show at that point. Tenant is great and would be my second choice but actually I think this is a bit of a problematic question. The original series of Dr. Who and the current series are really two completely different things. I’d say comparing the different Doctors from the two different series isn’t really an option.
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### Author:  [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2011, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-best-doctor-doctor-who/593560/7 "2011-08-21T20:12:45Z")
The only reason Tom Baker isn’t dead last for me is the fact that I’m not familiar enough with Troughton, Davison, or Colin Baker to say they’re necessarily better than him.
But if it weren’t for pure geeky determination, Tom Baker would have prevented me becoming a Doctor Who fan.
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2011, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-best-doctor-doctor-who/593560/8 "2011-08-21T20:40:23Z")
Who voted for Matt Smith? I’m curious to hear an explanation.
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### Author:  [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2011, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-best-doctor-doctor-who/593560/9 "2011-08-21T21:15:18Z")
That’d be me.
2 things to keep in mind - 1) as I said, I can only profitably compare 8 of them (One, Three, Four, Seven through Eleven), 2) my vote’s not for Matt Smith so much as ‘the Eleventh Doctor’, of which Smith is only part of the equation.
The current run, more than any other, plays up all the aspects of the Doctor - the big damn hero, the arrogant Time Lord, the adventurer, the conflicted criminal, the friend, the father, the lover. The giddy joy of exploration, the simmering rage, the centuries of loss, the love of his Companions. Smith pulls all of this off wonderfully.
Some of the other actors could certainly have pulled it off, if they’d been given the material, but…Smith is the first one to have writers who want to balance the Doctor’s various facets the way they do.
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### Author:  [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2011, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-best-doctor-doctor-who/593560/10 "2011-08-21T21:47:37Z")
Voted for Tom Baker because while he’s not my favorite, I think he defines the roll. Peter Davison is my favorite. I did also quite enjoy all those whole played him in [Doctor who and the Curse of Fatal Death](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_and_the_Curse_of_Fatal_Death).
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### Author:  [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2011, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-best-doctor-doctor-who/593560/11 "2011-08-21T22:13:56Z")
Tom Baker was _my_ Doctor but, honestly all three Nu-Whos have made for more interesting characters. Tenant gets my vote even though I am very much enjoying Smith’s take so far, mainly because Tenant did a more believable job helping us see The Doctor’s dark sides and the tragic side of the hero. He would be doing much more with the writing Smith is getting, even if he loses some of the Peter Pan, infinite boyish wonder, side of the character that Smith and Baker each hit well. Nu-Who Doctors are more than cartoons; they have growth and development as characters. Smith’s Doctor’s anger seems like The Doctor posturing, or baiting, never really angry, or more so controlling real anger and channelling it.
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### Author:  [@Lilacs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lilacs)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2011, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-best-doctor-doctor-who/593560/12 "2011-08-21T22:49:10Z")
I chose Troughton because he really embodies all of what the Doctor is to me. Fun, mysterious, comic and has a hidden depth that never really gets seen. I love watching his serials, despite the fact hardly any exist in full.
He made the multi-Doctor serials worth watching. Especially “The Two Doctors.”
Don’t get me wrong, I love the others too. I just really adore Troughton’s Doctor.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2011, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-best-doctor-doctor-who/593560/13 "2011-08-21T23:04:01Z")
Baker got my vote, though Tennant was a nanometer behind. Baker won on nostalgia, getting there first, and defining the character that later actors would interpret.
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### Author:  [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2011, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-best-doctor-doctor-who/593560/14 "2011-08-21T23:14:54Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#):
>
> Oh, I’ve picked David tenant by the way.
I find it amusing that out of eleven names, you spell them all correctly _except_ for your favourite one. 😃
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### Author:  [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2011, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-best-doctor-doctor-who/593560/15 "2011-08-21T23:38:11Z")
My first Doctor was the arse end of Pertwee: “The Green Death” scared the utter shite out of me as a kid, and later, “Pyramids of Mars” with Tom Baker. I think that Matt Smith is as good a Doctor that has ever been, he’s dead good at the whole old eccentric alien thing, so voted fir him.
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2011, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-best-doctor-doctor-who/593560/16 "2011-08-21T23:42:58Z")
Fine fellows. All of them.
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### Author:  [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2011, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-best-doctor-doctor-who/593560/17 "2011-08-21T23:43:29Z")
> [@Tengu](#):
>
> The current run, more than any other, plays up all the aspects of the Doctor - the big damn hero, the arrogant Time Lord, the adventurer, the conflicted criminal, the friend, the father, the lover. The giddy joy of exploration, the simmering rage, the centuries of loss, the love of his Companions. Smith pulls all of this off wonderfully.
Yes, this.
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### Author:  [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2011, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-best-doctor-doctor-who/593560/18 "2011-08-21T23:45:11Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#):
>
> Fine fellows. All of them.
Indeed. All of them have been good Doctors.
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2011, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-best-doctor-doctor-who/593560/19 "2011-08-21T23:46:52Z")
Tom Baker is my sentimental favorite. Grew up on his Doctor on PBS in the 70s.
Colin Baker was way too cool for all the scorn he gets (it was a writing problem during his reign).
David Tenant is who I think has actually done the best job as the Doctor.
I voted Tenant.
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2011, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-best-doctor-doctor-who/593560/20 "2011-08-22T00:24:10Z")
> [@Candyman74](#):
>
> I find it amusing that out of eleven names, you spell them all correctly _except_ for your favourite one. 😃
:smack:
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