Best Doctor (Who)

Not that there aren't enough threads for this show, but I was interested in which Doctors people liked and disliked. Can also serve to discuss which eras of the series are best. Here are my thoughts on them, bearing in mind I have very little experience with EU material.

1- When Hartnell was up to it and had a solid script he could be amazing. At other times though... well let's just say that one episode has actually driven me to sleep.

2- Not seen enough of him.

3- I used to think of him as one of my favourites. It's not so much that my opinion on Pertwee has changed, but rather the quality of his serials.     4- Most overrated. Stars in some of the best serials and has some of the best companions however.

5- Pretty good, although not one of my favourites.

6- Not a fan.

7- My favourite by a long margin. Mysterious, manipulativeand melancholy, he seems to me to be the most unique Doctor. Had the best full series (26) of the show as well.

  8- Find the personality unremarkable and I've never liked the actor. I liked the film overall, but tbh I'd rather it was cut out of cannon. 

  9-Back in 2005 I really liked 9, but when I rewatched a couple of his episodes a few years later I thought the acting was terrible. To be honest I've started to find Ecclestone's acting in general to be rather limited. Generally well written as a character though.

10- I'm very fond of 10, but I felt that the series started to take a dip in quality as RTD overstayed his welcome. By the end I was left feeling that the performances of Tennant and Cribbins were the only redeeming aspects of the show.

11- Too soon to tell. 

edited 18th Sep '11 3:44:43 PM by C0mraid

Don't we have enough different Doctor Who threads already?

Though one of Nine's first lines sold me on the show, most of the first episode and to some extent the next few episodes had me not liking him, and just pushing through to get to this Tennant guy everyone was worshipping. By the end of the series I found I was going to miss him, and Ten's comments about his last self at the end of Journey's End gave me a new respect for Nine's abrasiveness.

Ten is great fun with a solid drama backbone. Eleven is moreso.

On a good day, One could be incredible. His first good day was halfway through The Edge of Destruction.

Four pre-Douglas Adams is turning out to be fairly witty and intelligent, and an odd mix of youth and curmudgeon (I should note that I've only seen one serial of his).

I can't put my finger on why I like Five yet, but it's more than just Ten's recommendation.

I haven't seen enough Classic Who to make a judgment call on any of the pre-Nine doctors. But on New Who alone, definitely Eleven. I thought that Tennant was "my" Doctor, but practically the moment that Eleven showed up on screen I realized that he was my favorite.

I love all the Nu Who Doctors so far. Two is pretty awesome in The Five Doctors. (I'm allowed everywhere. I'm the Doctor)

Ten wins my vote for best performance (fuck yeah David Tennant) but the overall writing during his run was uneven in quality, leading to some rather bumpy characterization here and there. So the award for best Doctor overall goes to Eleven, who delivers consistent characterization and acting that is at the very least comparable to Ten.

I consider Eleven in all the best ways The Same But More.

The Ninth Doctor and Eleventh Doctor are my personal favorites. Ten used to be my favorite but the angst from his last few episodes ruined the joy of the character for me.Eight could also have a spot but he only has the one movie so I can't judge.

edited 21st Sep '11 4:36:02 PM by zam

I never really liked Tennant's Doctor much, even before he's generally accepted to have become annoying. I have always preferred Ecclestone's Doctor and felt that his tenure was too short lived. I think Smith is going to outperform both of them.

It's Eccleston. And yeah, I think we all wish he had a longer run. Even just one more series would have been great; I think he'd be the favorite of a lot more people if he had been on for even just one more year. Sadly, he had to leave for his own sake.

From an acting perspective, no one could have done Ten's character except for Tennant. He was the best actor for that role.

In the same way, no one can play 11 like Matt Smith can. His acting is magnificent.

As a character, I like 11 the most because he's the right mix of "Let's stop the bad guys!" and wackiness. 9 is too abrasive, and while 10 is okay, I always felt like he was on the delusional end of pacifism.

to a certain point, the incarnation of the Doctor is directed by the actor playing him. Tennant is the best example for new Who (extreme pacifism, melodramatic tenderness, fanboying over Five...) and Tom Baker is the best example overall.

I've been curious as of late where Moffat wanted to take Eleven before casting Smith and how that's changed. Besides the superficial things like casting a middle-aged black man.

I wonder how things might have been different if Tennant hadn't decided to hitch his exit to RTD's, and instead stayed on a season or two.

edited 21st Sep '11 8:21:15 PM by TParadox

I think I remember reading that Moffat had a more swashbuckling look in mind for the Doctor before Matt himself suggested the bowtie and they redid his outfit based on that.

So... more piratey?

Ah.

Given the Eleventh Doctor's love of dressup, we might get to see some more piratey stuff in the future. I'd love to see him wear a pirate hat and declare it cool.

Seeing The Three Doctors made me absolutely love Number 2. Nine and Ten are also favorites of mine and I hope to go through a few of the old serials so I can form opinions of the others. I'm sort of attached to Number Five because I remember him the most for some reason. When I was first researching Doctor Who he stood out to me the most.

Five stands out for being the first Doctor who wasn't an Insufferable Genius, from what I've seen. Arrogance certainly manifested itself differently with each of the first four, but I think Ten had it right when he said that Five was when the Doctor stopped "trying to be old and grumpy and important." He backslid a bit on that in some of his future incarnations, of course.

In what little I've seen of Seven, he seems to be more grandfatherly, mysterious and manipulative rather than grumpy and important. Is that accurate?

I think the "grumpy and important" backsliding mainly applies to Six and Nine, and the latter gets a pass because he's fresh from war.

I can only comment on 9, 10 and 11, but I think the best is 11. I think I like 9 better than 10 if only because in 9's last moment I wanted him to stay, but with 10 I couldn't wait for him to leave (I should note that I saw End of Time after season 5).

While I do like 10, both his entrance and exit where the worst of the three/two.

Six was a definite step back to grumpy and important. Seven rarely seemed to be grumpy in what I've seen of his episodes. He was a consummate gentleman even when being manipulative. Nine was grumpy, though I wouldn't call him important since he had a bit too much lingering self-loathing to seem truly arrogant. Ironically, even though he was one of the most human and personable doctors, I would say Ten was incredibly conceited, probably moreso than any other doctor since Six.

As I recall once Eight remembered who he was, he was rather self-important.

Insanity.

I only know the doctors of the new series, my opinion of them are:

9: too different from the others, but in a away, that is sort of the point, he is the doctor "fresh" from the time war and still to hardenned. We barely knew him.

10: I am more than a little fond, but while I cried when we said goodbye I felt that Ten had a full "doctor life" and filled it's purporse.

11: It is actually my favorite doctor so far, because, he convinces more that he is a crazy alien man with a box that is actually 1000 years old despite being the youngest doctor's actor.

4/11/10 in that order are my "Best" Doctors.

Oh sweet. A peripheral DW thread which I don't mind sticking my head into, seeing as I don't like classic DW.

Personally, I identify the Doctors mostly with the writers at the time than their personalities. To answer you, Paradox, Seven is big on Unspoken Plan Guarantees. He smiles smugly to himself and often plays the fake defector card, for which Ace bites his balls off, even though it's always a transparent ploy — so why do we bother pretending he's gone evil? I guess kids dig it.

Eight is a blank. But I'm interested in checking out the EDA sometime; from the looks of his character page, those were some crazy times.