Doctor Which

[Theodric]

While I voted for Tom Baker, and he does have a slight edge over everyone else, I could easily answer that my favourite Doctor is whoever is on screen. Some of them have had worse writing than others, and there have been some dreadful costumes, but I enjoy every actor in the role.

My wife's favourite has been Hartnell ever since I introduced her to him, my daughter loves Whitaker, and my son is indifferent.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

My favorite of the classic Doctors is Colin Baker, and of the nuWho Doctors it's Peter Capaldi. For my wildcard I choose Jon Pertwee, it's just an interesting era, like when Wonder Woman was acting like Emma Peel.

 

[Tonguez]

Oh I hadnt noticed that you had included Peter Cushing as a choice, he's not a canon Doctor and so by including him you also open the door for Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Grant, Joana Lumley and others.
I'm quite partial to Joana Lumleys Doctor

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Oh I hadnt noticed that you had included Peter Cushing as a choice, he's not a canon Doctor

Well, they put out two movies with him in it, so that seems, if not canon, to connote a certain amount of seriousness about him in the role, as opposed to Red Nose Day skits, which are clearly not meant to be anything but fun.

 

[Angus MacDeth]

Clearly, it's Rowan Atkinson.

I'll explain why later.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Clearly, it's Rowan Atkinson.

I'll explain why later.

He really was one of the best, not really kidding.

I gave a vote to Paul McGann, not because his stupid special was any good (it wasn't) but because I think that he's fabulous and could have been an excellent Doctor had he been given a chance.

Honestly, the same is true for Jodi Whittaker - nearly all her episodes were terrible, but it wasn't a problem (IMO) with her as a Doctor. She was just never given any good material to work with.

David Tennant and Tom Baker are both blessed/spoiled for the fact that not only were they good, but so was the show at the time they played the Doctor. In a lot of ways, the whole show went much easier on them than it did on many of the others.

Ncuti Gatwa had everything he needed to be a top-notch Doctor - other than having much in the way of great episodes. Sure, many of his had - bits - of greatness, but they almost always were overshadowed by garbage. Sometimes halfway through an otherwise great episode. Shame.

 

[overgeeked]

He really was one of the best, not really kidding.

No joke at all. Rowan Atkinson would have made an amazing full-time actor as Doctor Who.

I gave a vote to Paul McGann, not because his stupid special was any good (it wasn't) but because I think that he's fabulous and could have been an excellent Doctor had he been given a chance.

He's done amazingly well in the Big Finish audio dramas. There's so much there and so many classics to choose from. He and Colin Baker are especially well served with the audio format. Sylvester McCoy also has an absolute heap of stuff on Big Finish. Fantastic stuff.

Honestly, the same is true for Jodi Whittaker - nearly all her episodes were terrible, but it wasn't a problem (IMO) with her as a Doctor. She was just never given any good material to work with.

Yeah. She was a wonderful Doctor Who. She was utterly let down by her head writer and showrunner.

David Tennant and Tom Baker are both blessed/spoiled for the fact that not only were they good, but so was the show at the time they played the Doctor. In a lot of ways, the whole show went much easier on them than it did on many of the others.

True. Though Tom Baker's last series was really not good. I wouldn't say unwatchable, but nearly.

Ncuti Gatwa had everything he needed to be a top-notch Doctor - other than having much in the way of great episodes. Sure, many of his had - bits - of greatness, but they almost always were overshadowed by garbage. Sometimes halfway through an otherwise great episode. Shame.

Absolutely. Top notch actor and wonderful in the role. But RTD mark 2 and the influx of Disney money did not serve him well. Doctor Who is at its absolute best when it's got a small budget that they're desperate to stretch to cover the utterly mad ideas the writers can come up with. I'll take wobbly sets and painted trash bags over $1 million CGI fests.

 

[gban007]

Having to only pick 3 is hard, as first 5 are all pretty equal to me, along with ten / fourteen, but in end went for Hartnell, being the first and helping launch a successful series, Tom Baker for being the quintessential classic doctor, and Tenth for being around longer than fourteen Tennant just really capturing the Doctor well for me, on TV and in audios.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I have to put in a word for Pertwee. I guess I'm biased as he was my 1st, but having recently rewatched those episodes I think they stand up very well (if you can ignore the FX), and are certainly better than late-Baker and anything after.

Also, if you are familiar with Pertwee's other work, he was very much acting against his usual type.

My dad always liked Troughton, and weirdly, he kind of looked like him (but with the dress sense of Poirot).

 

[Staffan]

Absolutely. Top notch actor and wonderful in the role. But RTD mark 2 and the influx of Disney money did not serve him well. Doctor Who is at its absolute best when it's got a small budget that they're desperate to stretch to cover the utterly mad ideas the writers can come up with. I'll take wobbly sets and painted trash bags over $1 million CGI fests.

I don't know if I'd go that far, but "all the money in the world" hasn't been doing it for me. RTD mark 1 and Moffat were fine for me – they definitely weren't doing low-budget productions, but they didn't have Disney money.

I don't know what sort of budget they had for these two seasons and how it compares to what we might as well call the middle era, but I think it might have been better for everyone if they had used the same total budget and spread it across 13 episodes per season instead of 8.