Each Doctor-- Overrated or Underrated?

[The Borgified Corpse]

Take each Doctor, compare them to what seems to you to be the overall fan consensus about them, and declare whether they are overrated, underrated, or correctly rated.

William Hartnell - UNDERRATED. He doesn't get nearly enough affection from the fans. In a way, I get it. He's hard to compare to any of the others because the Doctor's role on the show was so different back then. He wasn't the lead. It was more like "The Ian & Barbara Show" with the Doctor as this enigmatic instigator. But I love the 1st Doctor's brusque, no-nonsense attitude. And while he's generally known for being grumpy, he also had lots of moments of fun and whimsy, often giggling to himself because he was just so tickled by the mystique of the universe.

Patrick Troughton - UNDERRATED. When it comes to the hardcore fans, we all know how awesome Troughton is. But he's not nearly well known enough among casual fans. If a new series fan asked me which classic Doctor to start with, I would recommend Troughton, especially because he had such great chemistry with Jamie.

Jon Pertwee - CORRECTLY RATED. When you ask the average fan what they think about Jon Pertwee, the typical reaction tends to be a great deal of fondness but no real gushing. I think that's about right. There's not much to criticize with Pertwee but also not much to talk about.

Tom Baker - CORRECTLY RATED. Given how much people gush about Tom Baker, it would be so easy for him to be overrated except for one thing-- he absolutely deserves all of the hype that he gets.

Peter Davison - OVERRATED. Peter Davison is a great actor but he's too normal to be the Doctor. His overrated status has only gotten worse since "Time Crash," since it somehow gave the new series fans the impression that he's somehow interesting.

Colin Baker - UNDERRATED. He takes way too much crap from the fans, who too often scapegoat him for all of the other problems that the show had during his era. He definitely had some bad moments at the beginning but there was so much wasted potential there. Even the costume grows on you if you give it a chance.

Sylvester McCoy - Uhhhhhhhhh, I don't even know. What IS the fan consensus on McCoy these days? I remember back before the new series when he was considered the hip, edgy Doctor. I don't know that fans think that so much any more. But I'm not sure what the current perception is. I think his Doctor has been somewhat overwhelmed by how bad the overall production quality was during his era. It's very '80s in a way that is only destined to become more & more dated as time goes by, never actually circling back around to become "retro." (I really like Ace though.)

Paul McGann - UNDERRATED. Or perhaps just underexposed. Even a handful of Big Finish audios should be enough to convince anyone that he's one of the greats.

Christopher Eccleston - CORRECTLY RATED. He's another Doctor where it's kinda hard to gauge the fan consensus. He generally gets overshadowed by Tennant and his era often feels more like a prelude to the Tennant years rather than its own thing. That's probably not fair. But at the same time, merely by being a new series Doctor, that tends to give him a cachet that makes people rank him above classics like Troughton & Pertwee. And that's just crazy talk!

David Tennant - SO GODDAMN OVERRATED! It seems like so many modern fans treat him like he's the be-all-end-all of Doctors. IMO, he's strictly middle tier. He's a little too human and a little too sexy to be a proper Doctor. But then, it's hard for me to hold it against him too much because, in interviews, he seems so charming and so devoted to the show & the fans. I may not like the 10th Doctor as much as most people. But the show couldn't possibly ask for a better brand ambassador.

Matt Smith - CORRECTLY RATED. I'm almost tempted to say overrated because I think he's very middle tier as well. But since he doesn't inspire quite the level of fan devotion that Tennant gets, I suppose his assessment is generally fair.

Peter Capaldi - CRIMINALLY UNDERRATED. I absolutely adore Capaldi and it breaks my heart whenever I talk to friends of mine who say that they gave up after his first season. He can hold my attention just by monologuing in the TARDIS to absolutely no one.

Jodie Whittaker - UNDERRATED. Even though I'm not at all a fan of her era so far, I think that she's the best thing about it. She's only a middle tier Doctor at best but she at least feels Doctor-y. I sometimes think that all she needs is one really good guest script by Moffat to make me fall in love with her.

What are your assessments of the Doctors?

 

[dupersuper]

1: I agree he needs more credit for kicking it off

2: I agree the Whovians love him while the casual fan has likely no idea who he is: I blame the tragically high number of missing episodes from his era

3: haven't seen much of him yet (I'm almost done with Troughton in my extremely slow classic Who viewing)

4: my childhood Doctor: hard to be objective

5: haven't seen much...I vaguely remember way too much cricket

6: haven't seen much of him yet

7: haven't seen much of him yet

8: liked what little there was, haven't gotten into the Big Finish audios yet

war: no love for John Hurt???

9: I'd say underrated - every one seemed to forget about him once Tenant hit

10: SLIGHTLY overrated - I loved his run, but his fans are...passionate

11: underrated - I loved him even more than Tenant, but he gets a tad overshadowed (not as bad as Eccleson, but a little)

12: underrated - too many people gave up on him too early (the Zygon Inversion speech alone should be enough to get him legendary status)

13: underrated - I agree, the issues with her era (especially several episodes of her first season) have nothing to do with her

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

5: haven't seen much...I vaguely remember way too much cricket

There really wasn't that much cricket. Sure, he wore a cricketer's outfit, but we only saw him playing cricket once in "Black Orchid." And he threw a cricket ball at the side of a spaceship in order to gain momentum while helplessly floating in space in "Four to Doomsday." But that's it. Heck, Tom Baker made almost as many references to cricket in "The Horns of Nimon" as Peter Davison made during his entire run.

war: no love for John Hurt???

I love John Hurt but I don't consider him a proper Doctor for stuff like this. He was great as a supporting character in "The Day of the Doctor" but I'd need to see more of him on his own before I could really make a judgment.

12: underrated - too many people gave up on him too early (the Zygon Inversion speech alone should be enough to get him legendary status)

Agreed. Between that "Zygon Inversion" speech, "Heaven Sent," & "The Doctor Falls," he's had more sustained great moments than any other Doctor.

And, on the off chance that anyone here has never seen "The Zygon Inversion," enjoy this scene. And for those of us who have.... enjoy this scene again.

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[dupersuper]

There really wasn't that much cricket. Sure, he wore a cricketer's outfit, but we only saw him playing cricket once in "Black Orchid."

Yeah...I think that was too much for me.

 

[Mr Awe]

Ok, I'll play. But, I'm just going to do the Classic Doctors for now. It's late. After writing this, I realize, it's often more about each era rather than solely the Doctor's performance.

Hartnell: Correctly rated. Not a great Doctor. Not terrible. I will say that Ian and Barbara are underrated. While I think fandom likes them, they are even better than that. Compared to the rest of the classic companions, these two feel more real and less like caricatures of later companions. They are strong people who pushed back against the Doctor. They helped make the series endure more so than Hartnell, IMO.

Troughton: Slightly underrated. The show could not continue if it tried duplicating Hartnell. Troughton made a new mold that even the modern Doctors incorporate more so than Hartnell.I think fandom recognizes this fact, although possibly not to its full extent.

Pertwee: Slightly underrated. I think fandom understands the change to a bit more adult and action oriented show. Pertwee successfully fixed the problem of sagging rating that occurred (undeservedly) under Troughton. As with Troughton before him, a change was needed to keep the show going. And the challenge was met. However, I'm not sure how much fandom realizes the writing improved during the Letts/Dicks era. It wasn't just action and gadgets, but there was more thought about issues and ideas. The scripts made points about issues. I guess that's not Pertwee himself, but his era. So, again, I think fandom appreciates the change in style but maybe not the full extant of writing improvements.

Baker: Correctly rated. The best, most alien Doctor. Hinchecliffe/Holmes era was the Golden Age of Doctor Who. Although, I think fandom sometimes forgets many of the later subpar stories. Still, the best of Classic Who and is generally recognized as such.

Davison: Correctly rated. Davison is a great actor. Stories were usually at least good, sometimes very good, but generally not great. Too many companions. The good and bad are I think widely known by fandom. Consensus seems to be mostly positive but not at the very top. Outside Androzani of course.

Colin: Correctly rated. Poor actor with poor stories (overall).

McCoy: Correctly rated. Poor actor with poor stories. Although, signs of improvement near the end.

I guess I don't deviate too much from conventional wisdom. However, I think the fandom as a whole might not pick up on some of the plusses during the Troughton and Pertwee eras and might miss the extreme importance of Ian and Barbara.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

After writing this, I realize, it's often more about each era rather than solely the Doctor's performance.

I think that there's something to that. It's often hard to control for factors like that. Sometimes I'm not sure how much to credit the Doctor specifically for having a really good dynamic with his companion. Smith was never the same after Amy & Rory left. And what is Troughton without Jamie?

Hartnell: Correctly rated. Not a great Doctor. Not terrible. I will say that Ian and Barbara are underrated. While I think fandom likes them, they are even better than that. Compared to the rest of the classic companions, these two feel more real and less like caricatures of later companions. They are strong people who pushed back against the Doctor. They helped make the series endure more so than Hartnell, IMO.

I think you have a point, at least about Ian & Barbara. They're not just two of my favorite companions. They're two of my favorite sci-fi characters ever. (I'm also not normally a 'shipper but I 'ship Ian & Barbara super hard.) The actors brought such charisma to the roles and deserved to become much more famous than they did. I think I may need to check out that Lancelot TV show that William Russell did. (Has anyone seen that? Is it any good?)

But I still think that Hartnell himself deserves a bit more credit. One thing that always impressed me was that, while he would often flub his lines, he always flubbed them while completely in character. It wasn't William Hartnell forgetting his lines. It was the Doctor getting confused about what he was going to say or not saying anything because his pride wouldn't allow him to admit to Ian that he was wrong.

However, I'm not sure how much fandom realizes the writing improved during the Letts/Dicks era. It wasn't just action and gadgets, but there was more thought about issues and ideas. The scripts made points about issues.

Agreed. The Pertwee years were the most overtly political era of the classic series. You had pointed anti-war stories like "The Silurians" & "Frontier in Space." There were stories about evil corporations devastating the environment for profit, like "Colony in Space," "The Mutants," & "The Green Death." "Inferno" rolled its eyes at the useless machismo of the fascist alternate universe. "The Monster of Peladon" talked about labor relations and even invited Sarah Jane to lecture the Queen of Peladon about women's lib. You even had "Invasion of the Dinosaurs," where incorrigible lefty Malcolm Hulke wrote an eco-terrorism story where the environmentalists were mostly portrayed as stupid & intolerant.

Baker: Correctly rated. The best, most alien Doctor. Hinchecliffe/Holmes era was the Golden Age of Doctor Who. Although, I think fandom sometimes forgets many of the later subpar stories.

I don't think that we forget about his later subpar stories. It's just that, even when the stories didn't work, Tom Baker was still great in them, thus cementing his greatness even further.

 

[DigificWriter]

I've only seen five Doctors to date, but I'm only going to rate three of them (Colin Baker, Eccleston, and Tenant) since I've only seen two stories featuring the fourth (Davison) and one story featuring the fifth (Troughton).

Colin Baker: Criminally underrated. The "Alien Willy Wonka", as I refer to him, was the second Doctor I met (Eccleston was the first) , but is my favorite for all of the reasons for which he gets derided.

Eccleston: Underrated. He gets overshadowed because he only lasted a single season, but more popular " Modern" Doctors wouldn't exist without him... and the things that define Tennant's era with regards to the Doctor/Companion relationship were introduced with him.

Tennant: Slightly overrated. His Doctor is a nice evolution of Eccleston's, but he only has three truly exclusive legacies: his friendship with Donna and his encounters with the Weeping Angels and River Song.

 

[JRoss]

First Doctor: UNDERRATED. I hope Adventures in Time and Space continues to shine a light on what Hartnell did for the show.
Second Doctor: UNDERRATED. So much of what came after is based on his mannerisms.
Third Doctor: CORRECTLY RATED. Not the greatest, but good. The first Doctor I remember seeing as a child.
Fourth Doctor: CORRECTLY RATED. He was great. Got out when it was the right time.
Fifth Doctor: OVERRATED. He came across as wimpy to me.
Sixth Doctor: UNDERRATED. But only because he can't be as bad as all that. Still not great.
Seventh Doctor: UNDERRATED. I love his performance. He was so weird. But once you get to the Ace episodes everything just picks up.
Eight Doctor: UNDERRATED. McGann is a fantastic actor.
Ninth Doctor: UNDERRATED. He was fantastic. Should have been around a bit longer, maybe. Or at least come back for the 50th.
Tenth Doctor: CORRECTLY RATED. He brought so much to the role. I think his star fell in the eyes of some because Matt Smith got all the goodies (new set, HD filming, a BIG PR blitz). But all that came on the back of Tennant's work on the show.
Eleventh Doctor: SO VERY OVERRATED. I mean, he was kind of fun, but it came across a lot as Matt Smith being into himself. And the writing hurt the character because the stories were sub-par.
Twelfth Doctor: UNDERRATED. His first season was bad. His interactions with Clara were cringey. But they made up for that with his final season. All the hate he got just for being old and not Matt Smith makes him underrated.
Thirteenth Doctor: UNDERRATED. Not Jodi's fault that the stories are boring. She puts something so warm but also ancient-seeming into the role. And there really are some standout stories in her set so far.
War Doctor: CORRECTLY RATED. I mean, we only got one story with him, and since Hurt died like right after, that's all we'll ever get, officially.
FUGITIVE DOCTOR (and the other Timeless ones): UNDERRATED. Man, the show finally got around to getting its head out of its butt. You can't string along a mystery for 57 years without it getting stale. They explained that whole mystery, but then they added a new one (where did the Timeless Child come from?). I love it. And now we can have cameos of unsung past Doctors as a fun little surprise. Just imagine actors like Martin Clunes, Steve Valentine, Miranda Hart, Judy Dench, or Rowan Atkinson just popping in for one-off cameos.

 

[JRoss]

9: I'd say underrated - every one seemed to forget about him once Tenant hit

10: SLIGHTLY overrated - I loved his run, but his fans are...passionate

11: underrated - I loved him even more than Tenant, but he gets a tad overshadowed (not as bad as Eccleson, but a little)

12: underrated - too many people gave up on him too early (the Zygon Inversion speech alone should be enough to get him legendary status)

13: underrated - I agree, the issues with her era (especially several episodes of her first season) have nothing to do with her

I agree with what you're saying about 9, 12 and 13. 12's acting was great, but I HATED the Zygon Inverson storyline. His acting was great, but that story was so dumb.

 

[matthunter]

Seven is a great Doctor and I'll do something 'orrible to the ears of anyone who says otherwise.

 

[Qonundrum]

Take each Doctor, compare them to what seems to you to be the overall fan consensus about them, and declare whether they are overrated, underrated, or correctly rated.

Woohoo!

William Hartnell - UNDERRATED. He doesn't get nearly enough affection from the fans. In a way, I get it. He's hard to compare to any of the others because the Doctor's role on the show was so different back then. He wasn't the lead. It was more like "The Ian & Barbara Show" with the Doctor as this enigmatic instigator. But I love the 1st Doctor's brusque, no-nonsense attitude. And while he's generally known for being grumpy, he also had lots of moments of fun and whimsy, often giggling to himself because he was just so tickled by the mystique of the universe.

UNDERRATED
The first is still a high point for me. The show is incredibly risky as it starts off with the Doctor being quite vile and for the reason of keeping an epic technological advancement as secret as possible. The episode hints at a deeper picture, and after the thirteenth episode pretty much has it all spelled out regarding the Doctor's journey prior to Earth and what led him to being so paranoid... and how the humans are more civilized than he was behaving. It is the "Ian and Barbara show" mainly because the show wouldn't have succeeded otherwise. Hartnell's era is full of gems, even despite some pedestrian pacing, and those early episodes are truly unique. And going through One's journey from the start kept it fresh.

Also, Barbara is not a stereotyped coffee peddler but is a 3D character and one of the show's finest.

Patrick Troughton - UNDERRATED. When it comes to the hardcore fans, we all know how awesome Troughton is. But he's not nearly well known enough among casual fans. If a new series fan asked me which classic Doctor to start with, I would recommend Troughton, especially because he had such great chemistry with Jamie.

UNDERRATED
Troughton would have made or broken the show forevermore. If he's underrated it's because so little material exists and has more recent incarnations trying to copycat his style (and not succeeding).

He and Hines as Jamie made for a sharp double-act. And both worked with Victoria or Zoe equally well, despite their having vastly different origins.

His era introduced the overused trope "base under siege", which was made up for by them and a conglomerate of monsters whose designs

Jon Pertwee - CORRECTLY RATED. When you ask the average fan what they think about Jon Pertwee, the typical reaction tends to be a great deal of fondness but no real gushing. I think that's about right. There's not much to criticize with Pertwee but also not much to talk about.

OVERRATED
He's got a share of great stories, but his era goes up and down over the years. A lot of stories are stuck on Earth, which isn't often interesting, and there's often a lack of deftness that his predecessors had.

Tom Baker - CORRECTLY RATED. Given how much people gush about Tom Baker, it would be so easy for him to be overrated except for one thing-- he absolutely deserves all of the hype that he gets.

OVERRATED
He'd redefined the show in a non-self-aware way, and is deservedly great. He wasn't a big name before becoming the Doctor, and became one because of it. In the entire scope of the entire show, however, there are so many wonderful eras and his shouldn't eclipse the others. But Docs 1, 2, and 4 are highlights for sure...

Peter Davison - OVERRATED. Peter Davison is a great actor but he's too normal to be the Doctor. His overrated status has only gotten worse since "Time Crash," since it somehow gave the new series fans the impression that he's somehow interesting.

OVERRATED
The first incarnation I'd seen after Tom, I adored his era. Still do. The "old man in young man's body" approach was perfect and there are some great sci-fi gems. But until his era the Doctor was more alien, the Fifth is the most human-like, certainly by classic Who standards.

Colin Baker - UNDERRATED. He takes way too much crap from the fans, who too often scapegoat him for all of the other problems that the show had during his era. He definitely had some bad moments at the beginning but there was so much wasted potential there. Even the costume grows on you if you give it a chance.

UNDERRATED
JNT seemed to be trying to redo a bit of Hartnell's style in making the Sixth irascible and unpredictable, but adding in the regeneration trauma from the spectrox poisoning and having his premiere be a season finale with no time to breathe... that put a lot of people off, especially those who didn't pick up on Davison's dialogue about the regeneration being different. Bravery can be a good thing but not when it's a season finale, and not with a script that needed another draft and not by the person who said he disagreed with Colin's casting, noting it's Colin himself who's working overtime to make unpalatable material even remotely entertaining and the story would be far worse without him.

Colin does bring life to the role and making it more his own than being a carbon copy of Hartnell; the lapel-grabbing gesture is a hark back to Hartnell but that's about it.

The costume grew on me and I'd love to see the original outfit ideas.

June Hudson (who did previous Doctors) also made a design for Colin and it's absolutely marvelous. It looks like she might have made a couple other designs, but I didn't dig into the web search any deeper...

https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/699817229577921682/

Sylvester McCoy - Uhhhhhhhhh, I don't even know. What IS the fan consensus on McCoy these days? I remember back before the new series when he was considered the hip, edgy Doctor. I don't know that fans think that so much any more. But I'm not sure what the current perception is. I think his Doctor has been somewhat overwhelmed by how bad the overall production quality was during his era. It's very '80s in a way that is only destined to become more & more dated as time goes by, never actually circling back around to become "retro." (I really like Ace though.)

OVERRATED
Back in the day, his era was derided for being too cruel toward the companion and the show was focusing more on Ace, leading to commentary such as "Ace Who". The attempt to reintroduce mystery felt fake. As much as the show did find new ground, the lack of budget kept it earthbound, which is the last thing the show needed to be.

Paul McGann - UNDERRATED. Or perhaps just underexposed. Even a handful of Big Finish audios should be enough to convince anyone that he's one of the greats.

UNSURE
The 1996 TVM has him being a clone of Tom Baker and Davison. Meh. The 2013 special has him being a copycat of Smith. Far bigger meh. What's in between I never cared for, though "The Janus Connection" felt like a partial but paltry redo of "The Caves of Androzani" except the Doctor didn't regenerate.

Christopher Eccleston - CORRECTLY RATED. He's another Doctor where it's kinda hard to gauge the fan consensus. He generally gets overshadowed by Tennant and his era often feels more like a prelude to the Tennant years rather than its own thing. That's probably not fair. But at the same time, merely by being a new series Doctor, that tends to give him a cachet that makes people rank him above classics like Troughton & Pertwee. And that's just crazy talk!

^^this

Given a cheap outfit that looks like it came from K-Mart didn't help. And Rose is leagues worse than any Classic Who companion.

David Tennant - SO GODDAMN OVERRATED! It seems like so many modern fans treat him like he's the be-all-end-all of Doctors. IMO, he's strictly middle tier. He's a little too human and a little too sexy to be a proper Doctor. But then, it's hard for me to hold it against him too much because, in interviews, he seems so charming and so devoted to the show & the fans. I may not like the 10th Doctor as much as most people. But the show couldn't possibly ask for a better brand ambassador.

^^this

The 10th is a generic "Sheldon Cooper on red bull trying to be Tom Baker" incarnation, complete with even more blatant k-mart outfit. The episodes being earthbound are increasingly lame. So is Rose. Add in sub-fanfic with Daleks fighting Cybermen and a parallel world where Rose is trapped permanently (ugh)...

Matt Smith - CORRECTLY RATED. I'm almost tempted to say overrated because I think he's very middle tier as well. But since he doesn't inspire quite the level of fan devotion that Tennant gets, I suppose his assessment is generally fair.

OVERRATED
He starts out okay but quickly becomes a self-aware Troughton-wannabe parody.

Peter Capaldi - CRIMINALLY UNDERRATED. I absolutely adore Capaldi and it breaks my heart whenever I talk to friends of mine who say that they gave up after his first season. He can hold my attention just by monologuing in the TARDIS to absolutely no one.

CRIMINALLY UNDERRATED
Probably NuWHO's best incarnation, or at least the best actor to get the role to do it complete and unequivocal justice in a very long time. People who ditched missed out on series 10, which was mostly spectacular.

Jodie Whittaker - UNDERRATED. Even though I'm not at all a fan of her era so far, I think that she's the best thing about it. She's only a middle tier Doctor at best but she at least feels Doctor-y. I sometimes think that all she needs is one really good guest script by Moffat to make me fall in love with her.

CORRECTLY RATED/SLIGHTLY OVERRATED
Her era was a decent return to basics, but is also the blandest. The sonic screwdriver magic wand waving sets new milestones for lame storytelling that are unparalleled. But that's not Whittaker's fault. But for someone who's never watched the show, her impression of Tennant is spectacular. She still is higher on my list.

 

[Shawnster]

Colin Baker - UNDERRATED. He takes way too much crap from the fans, who too often scapegoat him for all of the other problems that the show had during his era. He definitely had some bad moments at the beginning but there was so much wasted potential there. Even the costume grows on you if you give it a chance.

My favorite Doctor, at least of the Classic era. Well, maybe second favorite. I think Baker is hard to supplant for me, but that was my first Doctor.

Jodie Whittaker - UNDERRATED. Even though I'm not at all a fan of her era so far, I think that she's the best thing about it. She's only a middle tier Doctor at best but she at least feels Doctor-y. I sometimes think that all she needs is one really good guest script by Moffat to make me fall in love with her.

I still feel Jodie hasn't had a proper chance to really shine. Too short of seasons punctuated by too long of an off-season. Seems like many have complained about the writing during Whittaker's time as the Doctor, but that is not her fault.