Poll: Who’s Your Favourite Doctor Who?

This one went exactly as I expected, top to bottom.

Here’s the results of the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary poll.  I figured that enough people only know the post-2005 reboot that the new Doctors would win, and that Tom Baker would emerge victorious among the oldies.  For the record, here’s my personal list:

  1. Tom Baker – “My” Doctor, the longest-running and still the best.  Great wit and gravitas, he saw the series through its glory years.  Tom Baker is the Doctor for many fans, and he’s the main reason it became a worldwide phenomenon.  One of the most unique performances in television history.
  2. Patrick Troughton – He had the toughest job as the first regenerated Doctor, and wisely took it in a completely different from Hartnell.  His Doctor is full of humor and warmth, yet resolutely alien.
  3. David Tennant – The best of the “new” Doctors, by a stretch.  Maybe the best pure actor ever to play the role (not counting John Hurt).  Hampered by too many mediocre scripts but still great.  Funny, warm and genuine without being too human.  Too much kissing, though.
  4. Colin Baker – Easily the most underrated Doctor, booted by the idiots at the BBC who were in the process of killing the series after his second season.  The most edgy Doctor ever.
  5. Jon Pertwee – The quintessential British Doctor – suave, dapper, a bit reserved.  Loved to be on Earth and play the spy game with UNIT.  Great chemistry with his companions, Jo and Sarah Jane.
  6. Matt Smith – Too young for the role, but managed to inject a certain “old soul” quality that often worked.  Like Tennant hampered by too many mediocre scripts, unlike Tennant not a good enough actor to carry the show without vamping.
  7. Peter Davison – I love Peter Davison as an actor, but I’m not a huge fan of him as the Doctor.  He’s just too innocent and too human for my tastes – though later interviews suggest that was the fault of the writers more than the actor.
  8. Patrick McGann – I only list McGann this low because we had almost no opportunity to see him work.  Enormous unfulfilled potential – he may “look the part” more than anyone else, and he’s a terrific actor.
  9. William Hartnell – I can never look at “Bill” the same way after “An Adventure in Time and Space”, but I came to the series long after he’d left it and he just never fit with my image of the part.
  10. Christopher Eccleston – Another guy with untapped potential, but it’s his own fault as he quit after one season and severed all ties with the franchise.  I like his edginess and Northern accent, but his episodes are mostly pedestrian.  I prefer the way Colin Baker pursued this general style.
  11. Sylvester McCoy – I always felt McCoy was trying to channel Troughton and didn’t have the chops to pull it off.  I never bought his buffoonery and he was unfortunately saddled with some of the worst episodes ever, leading to the series’ eventual cancellation.


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4 comments

  1. t

    Pual McGann is really good in the radio dramas by Big Finish – check them out if you want to see what his Doctor really could have been!

    …I may have to watch some Colin Baker though – I never watched much after Tom Baker, as I never really bought into Peter Davison (even though the actor is terrific).

  2. H

    "Christopher Eccleston – Another guy with untapped potential, but it's his own fault as he quit after one season and severed all ties with the franchise." From everything I've heard, which I believe included a rare interview with him, they actually cast Tennant while he was still working since there are some interviews of him saying what he'd love to do in a second season. From the way you phrased that I guess he's never done any Big Finnish stuff (boo) but it sounds like there was a lot of classism going on (since the UK still has some really weird working man vs higher ups classism going on that you just don't quite have in the same way in the US).

  3. Actually everything ever written on the subject – including in Eccleston's own words – agrees he left voluntarily. The disagreement comes over whether it was agreed upon in advance, and the reasons.

  4. G

    I liked the Davidfson, Baker, and McCoy eras. The problem was the scripts were terrible and the budgets were non-existant and they did the best they could under the circumstances. The Doctor I really didn't care for was Hartnell but I respect that without the road he paved there would be no Tennant or Smith today.

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