Best actor to have been the Doctor?

[Emperor-Tiberius]

This has been brought up a lot recently, and I was wondering which of the actors in your opinion was better than others within the 13 or 14 of the ones that have played the part (or will play).

Because to me, they have all been brilliant choices for the character (none more so than Tom Baker, the ultimate alien), but it can argued that some of them had been thespians before and certainly after the part.

As far as my choices are concerned, I'll go with the safest ones. I think the best actors to have been offered the part were Patrick Troughton, Peter Davison, Christopher Eccleston, John Hurt and Peter Capaldi. This not a slight on the others, as I love them all, and CERTAINLY not a slight to Jodie Whittaker, just to let you know on that one.

What do you think?

 

[Tom]

For the new series, Tennant. Old series it tough, my favorites are Pertwee, Tom Baker and Davidson

 

[kirk55555]

For the new series, I'd have to got for Smith or maybe Tennant. For Classic Who, thinking about it I'll probably go with Pertwee. Tom Baker was good, but his "diva" qualities I think held him back a bit as an actor.

All of that said, I don't think a single Doctor was a bad actor and they all worked very well in the role, even the ones that were let down by the writing of their era at times.

 

[Captaindemotion]

For the new series, Chris and Peter came to the show with the greatest CVs to boast of. However, David is adding to his body of work. I think that in 2013 he showed just how great his range is, when he reprised the Doctor, played grumpy & dour Alec Reid in Broadchurch, barrister Will Burton in The Escape Artist, then donned a crisp RP accent for The Politician's Husband. His role in Jessica Jones showed that he could do villains too.

Matt is probably my favourite Doctor but I haven't seen him in enough roles to say whether he's a really good actor or (as I suspect) genuinely is an alien (3rd option: that he really suited the role).

Old series: I'd say it's between Peter and Patrick. Tom is my favourite classic Doctor but basically he was playing himself.

Can't overlook Paul McGann - his role in Withnail and I may not have been as quotable as Grant's but is no less effective for that.

However, if we look at body of work and respect among his peers, the greatest actor to have played The Doctor has to be the late John Hurt.

 

[Reverend]

As good as a lot of these actors are or were, I think it's very hard to argue against John Hurt. The man is a titan of modern cinema with quite possibly more memorable, varied and indeed award winning performances than all the others put together.

 

[Jedman67]

Robert Picardo

 

[Starkers]

Yeah it really has to be Hurt. I don't think any of them have been terrible actors, it's just that some are more limited than others. I don't think Tom is a great actor, but he owned the role and he has presence. I'd say Colin and McCoy are more limited actors as well, and when you look at Doctors 4-7 Peter is clearly the best actor of the bunch, I mean as Moffat once said there's a reason he's had a stronger career than the others.

1-3 Troughton is possibly the strongest, though to be fair to Hartnell for a man who was typecast as gruff sergeant major types, taking on the part of the Doctor was quite a career change, and he did it successfully. As for Pertwee you can't deny that his Doctor and Wurzel Gummage are radically different roles.

8-13 I would potentially say are a different class of actor to what's gone before (with a few exceptions like Davison and Pat) and all are, to a greater or lesser extent, very good actors. Eccleston is pretty much always good barring a few blockbuster exceptions, Tennant just has such a winning personality and screen presence (though his gurning still annoys me!) I'm a huge fan of Matt and I've recently been watching The Crown and he's v good as Prince Phillip. Capaldi might be the best of the modern bunch though (excepting Hurt) though who knows, maybe Jodie will out do them all

 

[Mage]

Well, I only know nuWho I'm afraid, so it'll be limited to that.

And it's tricky to boot. All of them were good really, in their own. I loved the eccentricity that Eccleston brought to the part. Tennant had an amazing range. Smith, my least favorite of the Doctors that I know, had a quirky side to him that unfortunatly got gimmicky after a while, but was still well played. Hurt...... Needs no explaning. Capaldi was perhaps one of the most aggressive Doctors, and the subtle nuances he brought with were amazing.

I think for me it's either Tennant or Capaldi.

 

[Andrew_Kearley]

William Hartnell was a terrific film actor in his day. Later on, he appeared in Doctor Who.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Matt is probably my favourite Doctor but I haven't seen him in enough roles to say whether he's a really good actor or (as I suspect) genuinely is an alien (3rd option: that he really suited the role).

Well, when I see him give behind-the-scenes interviews, he seems human enough. Whereas Tom Baker is undoubtedly a genuine space alien.

Speaking of interviews, I remember seeing an interview with Peter Capaldi. It was after I had seen him play the Doctor and the interview was done on set, so he was in his Doctor costume. But nevertheless, when I saw him speak, my mind froze for a moment while I asked, "Who's that?" before realizing that it was Peter Capaldi, duh. It struck me then how much of a different energy Capaldi had when playing the part compared to when he's just being himself (assuming he's being anything like his real self in interviews, that is).

As far as the actor to give the best ever performances as the Doctor, I would go with Capaldi. He often carried the show despite some of the weak and unsympathetic material he was given. And when he got some "A" material--"The Zygon Inversion," "Heaven Sent," "The Doctor Falls"--he set a bar that I suspect few others could meet.

The only one who might come up to that level is Paul McGann. If you haven't tried any of his audios, I dare you not to be blown away by his performances in "Scherzo" & "The Natural History of Fear."

Outside of Doctor Who, the crown has to go to John Hurt of course. Just about any of his performances is legendary. My favorite was when he got to do pure scenery chewing evil in V for Vendetta. I'm heartbroken that I never got to meet the man in person.

David Tennant often showed an irritating lack of subtlety on Doctor Who but made up for it with one of the best Hamlets that I've ever seen. He deserves massive props for both surpassing Kenneth Branagh as my favorite Hamlet and for being able to stay on the screen next to Patrick Stewart giving the best performance of his career.

Meanwhile, I hope Christopher Eccleston fired the agent who told him to sign onto G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, The Seeker, and Thor: The Dark World.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Jon Pertwee for the win.

 

[VDCNI]

It's hard to look past Hurt who has pretty much done it all.

Then Tennant I think, I don't watch a huge amount of other TV but he's excellent on stage and his theatre career far outstrips the rest.

Then probably all very close together are Troughton, Davison, Smith, Tom Baker, McGann, Capaldi, Eccleston & Hartnell.

With C Baker, McCoy & Pertwee the weakest though still strong performers.

It's interesting how little theatre work Capaldi & Eccleston have done, I've seen them both and I don't think they are as accomplished on stage as they are on film. Tennant and Smith certainly come top of the modern regular Doctor's in that regard.

 

[Jedman67]

in NuWho, I think I liked Capaldi the best, followed by Tenant and Eccelston head to head. That said I stopped watching after Series 8 (except for Christmas with Nardole) and McGann was uninspiring.
Smith was my absolute worst nuDoctor mainly because half the time Moffat wrote him as a 15 year old pretending to be a thousand year old alien and half the time wrote him as a thousand year old alien pretending to be a 15 year old. When he was in his element; like in The Pandorica Opens, and in the 50th Anniversary special, he really knocked it out of the park.

 

[auntiehill]

John Hurt was, to my mind, one of the best actors in recent decades, so I have to give it to him. However, since he's not one of the "regular" Doctors, in that he never got an entire episode all to himself, I'l focus on the others. Of those, I haven't seen much of them outside of WHO, except for Troughton and Tennant, and I think they are both pretty spectacular.

 

[diankra]

Aside from Hurt, Troughton is probably the best actor of the lot.
Then Eccleston, Tennant and Capaldi. Suspect Tennant will be the one who gets an acting knighthood.

As a slightly obvious sidenote, Who performances aren't always a good guide to the rest of an actor's career. I'm watching a dvd of late 60s gangster series Spindoe: James Bree just played a lawyer in a low-key manner totally opposite to War Games or Trial, while Richard Hurndall is a suave crime lord, confirming yet again that Five Doctors was probably his worst ever screen performance.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

I think its safe to assume Capaldi will get a knighthood, as well. And Eccleston certainly deserves it, but probably won't.

 

[Marc]

As a slightly obvious sidenote, Who performances aren't always a good guide to the rest of an actor's career. I'm watching a dvd of late 60s gangster series Spindoe: James Bree just played a lawyer in a low-key manner totally opposite to War Games or Trial, while Richard Hurndall is a suave crime lord, confirming yet again that Five Doctors was probably his worst ever screen performance.

It was probably also hampered by having to imitate William Hartnell while not having that much to work with.

Only other thing I've seen Hundall in was the B7 episode "Assassin" but that was also a fairly small role.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

As I understand it, Hurndall was also imitating Hartnell based entirely off of memory and didn't watch any of Hartnell's old Doctor Who stories to prepare. As I result, I wonder how much of the performance he's giving is more like the iritible crank that Hartnell allegedly was like behind the scenes rather than the more mercurial twinkle that Hartnell tended to have as the Doctor.