Favorite Incarnation Of The Doctor
- Thread starter CmndrSela318
- Start date
Alas, poor scarf... it was unravelled soon after (the photo was taken on location either at the end of Logopolis or the beginning of Castrovalva).
David Tennant is my favourite.
There are always "The Girl In The Fireplace" and the "Silence In The Library" / "Human Nature" Two-Parters - those episodes work best for me.
There are always "The Girl In The Fireplace" and the "Silence In The Library" / "Human Nature" Two-Parters - those episodes work best for me.
I'm beginning to understand why ...This was always one of my favorite pictures of her
^No makeup, I think. Or less, anyway.
Anyway, my ranking:
1. Patrick Troughton. The top 3 are all really close. But if you put a gun to my head, I'd have to say Troughton. He's smart, but not obviously so. Funny, but could also be serious when the situation absolutely demanded it. And he's the only Doctor that can be put in mortal jeopardy at the end of a cliffhanger and I genuinely believe it. (Plus, he earns bonus points for the 2 best companions ever: Jamie & Zoe!)
2. Paul McGann. (Must. Suppress. Man-crush!) If he had more TV stories, he might well be number one. He's certainly the best, most versatile actor ever to play the role. I can't imagine any other Doctor having the necessary depth to pull off stories like "Scherzo" or "The Natural History of Fear."
3. Matt Smith. They guy makes it look easy. It's strange that he's the youngest Doctor ever and yet easily conveys the Doctor's age so much better than any of the older Doctors that played him. Other Doctors must pretend to be older. Smith immediately convinces me that he really is an old man who is desperately refusing to grow up. And I love his unjustified pride in his fashion faux pas. Bow ties are not cool. But he thinks they are, and that somehow makes them cool.
4. Jon Pertwee. He's too serious to really be a proper Doctor. But he is the most charming human being who ever lived, so who cares?!
5. Tom Baker. He's not an actor. He's a genuine space alien who just happened to be cast as a famous space alien. As a result, his Doctor is far more authentically alien than most of the others.
6. William Hartnell. He's hard to judge against the others since the show was so different back then. It was really the Ian & Barbara show (or the Steven show). The Doctor was more of an enigmatic instigator rather than the lead. But goddamit, the man visibly flubs half his lines while still remaining completely convincing as the character! If that isn't talent, I don't know what is!
7. David Tennant. I appreciate his manic energy at times. And when he tones it down to do more subtle performances, he knocks it out of the park. But he's often trying too hard.
8. Colin Baker. He's much better in the audios. On screen, he's better than his reputation suggests. But you still have to get past the costume, the lousy writing, and the sense that he's just bullying Peri.
9. Christopher Eccleston. He's a fine actor and was great as a modern, darker version of the character. And it made sense for the character given his backstory of the Time War. But it's not really who the Doctor is or what he should be. (And he was frequently mean to Mickey for no good reason.)
10. Sylvester McCoy. When he's on, he's one of the best. Just the right mixture of super-intelligent bluster. But when he's off, he's damn near unwatchable.
11. Peter Davison. Fine actor but far too vanilla to be a suitable Doctor. He's gotten better with age, as most actors do, and thus better at faking it. But why put up with that when you've got actors like Troughton, T. Baker, & Smith, who were clearly born for it? Or actors like Hartnell & McGann, who were much better at bringing out the necessary mischevous side?
Well, she still wasn't in it very much. It was Carole Ann Ford's week off.
Seriously. In each of the last 4 stories of that season, one of the regulars took a break for a couple episodes. William Hartnell is absent from parts 3 & 4 of "The Keys of Marinus." (The Doctor skips 2 jumps ahead to find the final key while leaving Ian, Barbara, & Susan to find the 3rd & 4th keys in the screaming jungle and the frozen wastelands.) Jacqueline Hill was absent from 2 episodes from "The Sensorites." (The Sensorites keep Barbara as a hostage aboard the ship while the Doctor, Ian, & Susan go down to the planet.) William Russell makes only brief token appearances in parts 2 & 3 of "The Reign of Terror." (He pre-filmed all of Ian's scenes in the prison cell a week earlier.)
I hate Turlough. I never thought a companion could be worse than Adric but Turlough manages it. And I don't much care for the writing during the Peter Davison & Colin Baker years generally. (Which makes me suspect that the problem had less to do with JNT and more to do with Eric Saward.) There were a handful of decent stories during that era: "The Visitation," "Earthshock," "Time-Flight," "Arc of Infinity," "The Caves of Androzani," "The Two Doctors," parts of "The Trial of a Time Lord," some of the loopier parts of "Castrovalva," the Master/Rani scenes in "The Mark of the Rani." But there was also some real shite, like "Kinda," "Snakedance," "Mawdryn Undead," "Warriors of the Deep," "The Twin Dilemma," "Attack of the Cybermen," "Timelash," & "Revelations of the Daleks."
The 5th Doctor was a doormat. There were so many times when he just needed to tell somebody to fuck off and he didn't. Tegan & Peri both just kinda invited themselves onto the TARDIS and he didn't have the nerve to say no. The best he could do was passive-aggressively antagonize Tegan & Nyssa by bringing along companions that he didn't really want just to spite them. That's the only reason I can figure for why he invited Turlough & Kamelion to join them.
Anyway, my ranking:
1. Patrick Troughton. The top 3 are all really close. But if you put a gun to my head, I'd have to say Troughton. He's smart, but not obviously so. Funny, but could also be serious when the situation absolutely demanded it. And he's the only Doctor that can be put in mortal jeopardy at the end of a cliffhanger and I genuinely believe it. (Plus, he earns bonus points for the 2 best companions ever: Jamie & Zoe!)
2. Paul McGann. (Must. Suppress. Man-crush!) If he had more TV stories, he might well be number one. He's certainly the best, most versatile actor ever to play the role. I can't imagine any other Doctor having the necessary depth to pull off stories like "Scherzo" or "The Natural History of Fear."
3. Matt Smith. They guy makes it look easy. It's strange that he's the youngest Doctor ever and yet easily conveys the Doctor's age so much better than any of the older Doctors that played him. Other Doctors must pretend to be older. Smith immediately convinces me that he really is an old man who is desperately refusing to grow up. And I love his unjustified pride in his fashion faux pas. Bow ties are not cool. But he thinks they are, and that somehow makes them cool.
4. Jon Pertwee. He's too serious to really be a proper Doctor. But he is the most charming human being who ever lived, so who cares?!
5. Tom Baker. He's not an actor. He's a genuine space alien who just happened to be cast as a famous space alien. As a result, his Doctor is far more authentically alien than most of the others.
6. William Hartnell. He's hard to judge against the others since the show was so different back then. It was really the Ian & Barbara show (or the Steven show). The Doctor was more of an enigmatic instigator rather than the lead. But goddamit, the man visibly flubs half his lines while still remaining completely convincing as the character! If that isn't talent, I don't know what is!
7. David Tennant. I appreciate his manic energy at times. And when he tones it down to do more subtle performances, he knocks it out of the park. But he's often trying too hard.
8. Colin Baker. He's much better in the audios. On screen, he's better than his reputation suggests. But you still have to get past the costume, the lousy writing, and the sense that he's just bullying Peri.
9. Christopher Eccleston. He's a fine actor and was great as a modern, darker version of the character. And it made sense for the character given his backstory of the Time War. But it's not really who the Doctor is or what he should be. (And he was frequently mean to Mickey for no good reason.)
10. Sylvester McCoy. When he's on, he's one of the best. Just the right mixture of super-intelligent bluster. But when he's off, he's damn near unwatchable.
11. Peter Davison. Fine actor but far too vanilla to be a suitable Doctor. He's gotten better with age, as most actors do, and thus better at faking it. But why put up with that when you've got actors like Troughton, T. Baker, & Smith, who were clearly born for it? Or actors like Hartnell & McGann, who were much better at bringing out the necessary mischevous side?
Well, she still wasn't in it very much. It was Carole Ann Ford's week off.
Seriously. In each of the last 4 stories of that season, one of the regulars took a break for a couple episodes. William Hartnell is absent from parts 3 & 4 of "The Keys of Marinus." (The Doctor skips 2 jumps ahead to find the final key while leaving Ian, Barbara, & Susan to find the 3rd & 4th keys in the screaming jungle and the frozen wastelands.) Jacqueline Hill was absent from 2 episodes from "The Sensorites." (The Sensorites keep Barbara as a hostage aboard the ship while the Doctor, Ian, & Susan go down to the planet.) William Russell makes only brief token appearances in parts 2 & 3 of "The Reign of Terror." (He pre-filmed all of Ian's scenes in the prison cell a week earlier.)
I hate Turlough. I never thought a companion could be worse than Adric but Turlough manages it. And I don't much care for the writing during the Peter Davison & Colin Baker years generally. (Which makes me suspect that the problem had less to do with JNT and more to do with Eric Saward.) There were a handful of decent stories during that era: "The Visitation," "Earthshock," "Time-Flight," "Arc of Infinity," "The Caves of Androzani," "The Two Doctors," parts of "The Trial of a Time Lord," some of the loopier parts of "Castrovalva," the Master/Rani scenes in "The Mark of the Rani." But there was also some real shite, like "Kinda," "Snakedance," "Mawdryn Undead," "Warriors of the Deep," "The Twin Dilemma," "Attack of the Cybermen," "Timelash," & "Revelations of the Daleks."
The 5th Doctor was a doormat. There were so many times when he just needed to tell somebody to fuck off and he didn't. Tegan & Peri both just kinda invited themselves onto the TARDIS and he didn't have the nerve to say no. The best he could do was passive-aggressively antagonize Tegan & Nyssa by bringing along companions that he didn't really want just to spite them. That's the only reason I can figure for why he invited Turlough & Kamelion to join them.
Tegan originally stowed away by accident. She thought she was really going into a proper Police Box to get help, and ended up getting lost - by that time the Master was up to his trans-dimensional tricks, and Tegan literally could not find the way out. By the time she found the Doctor and Adric, they were on their way to Logopolis. And yes, she bitched and whined about Heathrow... finally did get there, lost her job, and got a second chance to travel with the Doctor.
I'm not talking about " Logopolis." I'm talking about Tegan's return in "Arc of Infinity."
That's what I meant by "second chance."
Yeah, and the Doctor was clearly trying to give her the brush off before Tegan and Nyssa pretty much made the decision for him.
I still like the Doctor that introduced me to the series, Christopher Eccleston. If Capaldi will be that Eccleston-type doctor instead of the zany doctor we got out of Tennant and Smith, I will greatly enjoy the new season.
After the events of Arc Of Infinity, Tegan travlled with the Doctor because he wanted her.
No way. The Doctor was barely containing his disdain. Watch the end of the episode again. (Although, he did seem to be used to her by the end of "Resurrection of the Daleks.")
^ But maybe he still wanted her, disdain or no.
A Time Lord cannot live on bread alone.
A Time Lord cannot live on bread alone.
Considering he was the first Doctor to actually kiss a Companion, that shouldn't have been a worry. If the movie had resulted in more TV episodes with Paul McGann, he very well could have been a more "romantic" Doctor.
Peter Davison said flat-out that his favorite Companion was Nyssa, so it's not a shock that he liked Tegan less.
However, he did a credible job of convincing the audience that he regretted her decision to leave. Of course, when she came running back and saw the TARDIS gone, I had to wonder if she'd changed her mind AGAIN...?
However, he did a credible job of convincing the audience that he regretted her decision to leave. Of course, when she came running back and saw the TARDIS gone, I had to wonder if she'd changed her mind AGAIN...?
