Meh, it's about evenly divided between criticism of the writing and the observation that Smith just doesn't have the chops that Eccleston and Tennant did. That's fair comment. Smith ultimately bored me; his Doctor could make me laugh occasionally but never involved me. There's no subtlety there, no depth - and honestly, who wouldn't rather watch Alex Kingston play the Doctor?
Me. I've seen every Doctor Who story, and in my opinion Matt Smith is the best actor to play the Doctor.
This guys rant sounds like the youtube comments on Tennant clips going on about how Tennant is the only doctor ever and no one should replace him...
Let me think about it. Er, no. Slightly less entertaining than the video colonoscopy I had a few years ago...
Annoyed after reading all 11 'points' raised, Its the typical tripe from a someone who started watching Doctor Who in 2005 and believes Tennant and Piper epitomise The Doctor/Companion relationship, undoubtedly has watched very few episodes since Matt began (because no one is better in the part than David... ) and Moffat took over the reins as showrunner and looks through the rose tinted glasses back at Series 1-4 and considers it the golden age of the program and not the absolute crock of shit the majority of it actually was!
Sylvester and Tom are my favourites but I'd agree Matt is an excellent actor. Tennant's performance was very loud but there was no subtlety there. Just lots of "I'M THE DOCTOR!" grandstanding speeches and sexy crying for the teenage girls watching.
Here's a fellow who pitched an article to his editors -- "The 11 things wrong with the 11th Doctor!" Get it? 11 for 11? But then when it came time to write the article, he found he only had one reason: He doesn't like the Matt Smith Era because he doesn't. So then he had to pad it out with 10 other 'reasons'. I understand if a person doesn't like Matt Smith, or his era on the show. Or even Moffet. But I've got to say this is one of the weaker arguments I've encountered or read.
I agree that there was not a lot of subtlety in his performance, though there was some. Sylvester McCoy, though is one of two actors of whom I think they were not a good fit for the role, and I'm making an extra effort to be nice.
Dare I ask who the second actor is? McCoy had his moments, when he reigned in the gurning and panto acting. when he was good he was very good, but when he was bad....yadda yadda you know the rest. Of course if I'd had access to the internet in 1984 I might have done a Six things wrong with the Sixth Doctor posting
I think Sylvester was pretty amazing in the role. Especially in stories like Fenric and Ghost Light. I prefer The Doctor as an inquisitive dark imp than as a more traditional romantic leading man. Sixth Doctor was excellent too and I prefer him to any of the New Who ones. The writing during his tenure could be annoying though in Season 22. The Doctor spends most of the first episode of each story walking to where the interesting stuff is happening.
McCoy had his moments, yes, especially in Fenric, but most of the time he was hamming it up like a panto actor, rolling his "rrrrrr" and making funny faces whenever he felt that the material was too challenging for his acting abilities. "Amazing" he was not, nor was he, in fact, a "dark imp". Because of the infamous "Cartmel Masterplan", 1980's Doctor Who fans live under the impression that the seventh Doctor was a schemer, a manipulative mastermind, but in reality, these things are only vaguely hinted at, and only in a handful of stories, and never played convincingly by McCoy. For most of his run, he played the role like a harmless clown, without much depth or gravitas.
No way. He certainly had his clownish moments, but there's no way from 25 to 26 that he's playing it as a "harmless clown" most of the time.
What!? He's manipulating people left right and centre in damn near every episode of Season 26. Season 25 had him using ambiguous plots to take down both the Daleks and the Cybermen. It's only Season 24 when the Seventh Doctor is clownish. He's a much darker, more cerebral character from Remembrance of the Daleks onwards.
You're right, I overstated my case. I still believe that the character is not nearly as manipulative as some people think he is.
I think he is pretty manipulative though the New Adventures & to a lesser extent Big Finish took it much further than the show ever did which has helped build that reputation in fandom. I like McCoy and his era in general and he's good most of the time though yes he's not in Tennant or Smith's league as an actor.
It's not always necessarily the level of Acting skill a person playing a character possesses. Sometimes, it's just the portrayal. I like Ivanova and Lyta in Babylon 5, very much, and can't imagine them being played by anyone else (and I've enjoyed Pat Tallman in other stuff I've seen her in), but, neither of them is in Meryl Streep or Susan Sarandon's League
I was really not a fan of Sylvester as the Doctor, even if you wipe season 24 from your mind (best thing to do, unfortunately), would put him in 11th place without hesitation, but... Each season, he gets better as the season goes on - calmer and more powerful (of course, you need to know the production order to spot this). Then during the gap between seasons he slips back and loses half the progress. If he'd done more each year, he'd have maybe been one of the greats.