1. Tom Baker 2. David Tennant 3. Patrick Troughton 4. Jon Pertwee 5. Sylvester McCoy 6. Christopher Eccleston 7. Peter Davison 8. William Hartnell 9. Jodie Whittaker 10. John Hurt 11. Paul McGann 12. Peter Capaldi 13. Colin Baker 14. Matt Smith
They did originally want Hurt's part to be played by Ecclestone, but he would only come back if a specific director was doing it, so they had to find a work around. I would have loved to have seen McGann back for the role, give him a full adventure like you say, but Moffat said they didn't want to use Eight because it would have ruined the air of 'romanticism' of the Eighth Doctor that he had about him. Personally, I think it would have been great to have him go down like that, it really would have helped bring across just how badly the time war was screrwing everything up, and the ending would have helped restored his 'romanticism' when he finally helped save Gallifrey.
Right. I have felt this way too. Yes McGann was a "romantic" Doctor. But people change when bad things happen to them. Wouldn't this help emphasize how bad the war was if he was a little more hardened when we saw him again? I enjoyed Hurt's Doctor but this was definitely a missed opportunity for McGann.
To be fair, he was the first Doctor who had real love interest with the first on-screen kissing scene in the entire series.
Agreed. McGann's Doctor deciding that the only way to solve the Time War by destroying Gallifrey, would have much of an impact than the same decision from a regeneration that came into existence solely to fight a war. You expect the War Doctor to be more brutal so him deciding that ending the war by killing them all just doesn't carry the same punch as it would have with McGann. Plus it would've been the perfect bridge between old and new Who and a great way to celebrate 50 years of the show. (Sometimes, in my mind, I just ignore the War Doctor.)
There's also the fact that his on-screen design would've looked right at home hanging out with Byron and the Shelleys if he'd been the Doctor for that Villa Diodati story.
Which is funny as this is who he was actually dressing like He stole a Wild Bill costume that a doctor had worn to a party.
I kind of agree about Paul McGann... I would of loved to see him in a full on screen adventure instead of just that little mini episode. And I think the episode would of played much better with THREE established Doctors rather than two Doctors and John Hurt. I mean he was great in the role for what it was but he always just felt shoehorned in. He didn't play off the others quite as well as he could have because we were only just learning about this incarnation as we were watching the episode. It could of been so much better had that role been filled by a Doctor we were already familiar with. Jo Martain is another great example of this... also the Valeyard with the 6th Doctor. And it's even more clear with those episodes. Even though they're great in the role. Multi-Doctor adventures, the thing that usually makes them so unique and special is seeing other actors we're familiar with RETURNING to the role along side the current Doctor. We like seeing multiple incarnations of a character we're already familiar with interacting with each other. It's fun seeing older actors returning to the role and playing the character along side the current Doctor. Throwing someone new in there who we're never seen before just isn't the same. How are we suppose to care about this incarnation of the Doctor if we're never even seen them before? It's just kind of confusing cause we don't even know how we feel about this incarnation on their own and watching them play against the current Doctor is just... like watching any other random character we've never seen before instead of like another Doctor. The best way I can put this... is Derek Jacobi... He played Professor Yana... He was the Master but not really... I mean in story yeah he was the Master but to us, the audience... he was the Master for about 5 seconds before he regenerated into John Simms. The majority of his time on screen he didn't know he was the Master, he was a totally different character, Professor Yana. Kind of the same thing with Jo Martain. She was Ruth, she wasn't the Doctor, we were introduced to her as Ruth and even after we found out who she was her unofficial title just because the Ruth Doctor cause no one knew how she fit in. The Valeyard, suppose to be the Doctor from the future but we mostly just know him as the Valeyard not as the Doctor. Despite knowing who these people we have no attachment to them as those characters. They're strangers to us. Because of that they don't really feel like true incarnations of the character. Even Twice Upon a Christmas feels more like a true Multi-Doctor adventure. Even though it's David Bradly who was also technically new to the role, he was playing the William Hartnell incarnation the same as Richard Hurndal did before him. He wasn't playing a brand new incarnation that they pulled out of thin air, he was playing the first Doctor... a poorly written first Doctor who was more like William Hartnell the actor than the character he portrayed but still it was something familiar and felt a lot more like a genuine Multi-Doctor adventure. The 50's Anniversary Special only works because Matt Smith and David Tennant are together. John Hurt is just kind of a 3rd wheel that feels out of place. Despite being great in the role, he doesn't have the experience being the Doctor that the other two actors had. It's hard to explain but something about that just doesn't feel right. Bringing back Paul McGann would of meant bringing in an air of familiarity to the role while would make it feel more genuine and less like a shoe horned in extra incarnation. I hope that makes sense because I'm very bad at explaining this... ANYWAY... as for my ranking... Main actors only from best to worst... 1. Matt Smith Obviously my favorite era of the show as he got me into the show in the first place. 2. David Tennant I find him very similar to Matt Smith, I just didn't care for most of his companions... except Martha who was oddly the most boring of all his companions but also the only one who didn't annoy me. 3. Tom Baker The guy had the longest run so even if you don't like every 4th Doctor adventure chances are you will find something enjoyable in his run. 4. Patrick Troughton A lot of his stories have been lost so I haven't seen MUCH of the second Doctor but what little I have seen I quite liked. 5. Jodie Whittaker Controversial I know, her episodes have not been great but I've still enjoyed her in the role even when the story isn't good she still felt more like the Doctor to me than some other actors I could mention. 6. Peter Davidson I don't know what it is about him, just the most "Doctor" thing about him is his wardrobe. Other than wearing celery I find him a little dull. 7. Jon Pertwee I would rank him higher based on the Master alone. My favorite villain and Roger Delgado is still my favorite Master but this is a ranking of the Doctors not the Master... and to be honest... I kind of wanted the Master to win cause I really didn't like the Doctor then. 8. William Hartnell He may have been the first but his failing health, bigotry, being notoriously difficult to work with, the fact that I could visually and audibly see him stumbling to remember his lines. He's just not a good person and was down right painful to watch. On the plus side he did originate the role and was a stickler for details. Like he was one of the first people who didn't treat the audience like they were idiots. Even though the controls on the console don't actually do anything he always made sure that each control had a purpose in universe and would use the same control for the same purpose every time because he knew the audience at home would notice if he hit a random switch and didn't keep it consistent from one episode to the next. That is something I love about him. No one else on the set cared but him but he still made sure those controls made sense to the viewers at home. And he was right, I mean look at the internet now days, it's full of videos and posts from fans pointing out small mistakes in fiction that the shows and movies creators never thought anyone would notice or care about. 9. Sylvester McCoy And now we get into the worst Doctors. McCoy felt like a few steps backwards... I mean the Doctor kind of loosened up over time but McCoy some how reverted back to being kinda grouchy and full of himself. Not quite as bad as the next Doctor on my list but he still felt like a few steps backwards as far as character development goes. 10. Colin Baker The first thing he does is strangles his companion... He dresses like a clown but is completely serious all the time. There's a major plot hole in one of his adventures where they introduce a new companion... who's already traveled with him in the future... but from his perspective he hasn't met her yet. They bring her into the trial from the Doctor's future and then they just leave together... He doesn't return her to her own time, we never know how they actually met in the original time line. It just continues on from there like they met in the court room even though the Doctor doesn't actually know who she is yet. To be fair reportedly they were intentionally making him the worst Doctor because they wanted the show to get cancelled. So yeah... his stories were pretty awful and didn't make any sense. 11. Christopher Eccolston I actually probably would of placed him higher on the list if he had more than one season. And that one season isn't very good. 12. Paul McGann Again... I probably would of placed him higher on he list if he had more of a presence. Technically speaking he's oddly had both the longest and shortest run as the Doctor... Shortest on screen but if you factor in Big Finish productions he never stopped being the Doctor between the TV movie and the 50th Anniversary. I've only seen him in the TV movie, that mini-episode where he turns into John Hurt, and I've also seen an animation on YouTube of Shada with the 8th Doctor. I'm not familiar with other Big Finish productions and I don't really consider Shada to be canon since it was written with the 4th Doctor in mind and was later produced officially with Tom Baker animating the parts that never got filmed. Anyway... just based on my own personal exposure to him cause I can't judge off Big Finish... I like him but I just haven't seen enough of him to rank him very high on my list. I feel like if could listen to more of the Big Finish stuff he could move up to number 3-5, somewhere in that range, but as it is he's mainly only this low due to lack of exposure. 13. Peter Capaldi Honestly feel like he's the modern day Colin Baker. Due to no fault of his own, he's great, just the way the character is written just doesn't feel like the Doctor to me. Literally the only time he actually felt like the Doctor was giving that speech to the Master and Mistress at the end of his run. The dude has played three different characters in the Doctor Who universe and they all felt like different characters but none of them felt like the Doctor. They went too dark with the writing during his run, which I thought was showing the beginning of the Valeyard's existence and the darker tone the show went would of been good if that's what they were going for but it never went anywhere. It was just pointless and out of character for no reason. I would actually rank him LOWER but I said main Doctors only so I can't rank him any lower.
Actually he was a very good Master and I wish we got more of him on video. But He's making up for it on audio
That would be great, though that's one reason why I like Big Finish, they do things you'd be unlikely to see on TV like a multi master crossover Ravenous 4 is great you have Missy making fun of Eric Robert's Master American accent.
We started the McCoy BD set tonight by watching the special edition of Battlefield. For some reason I thought this story was supposed to have some additional footage in it and I figured since we had watched the broadcast version last year on BritBox it'd be nice to watch that. Sadly, I was wrong, but it was interesting to watch it edited as one long movie without having to skip the credits and intro throughout the four parts. I still enjoyed it quite a bit despite the overracting from everyone. The make up for the blue demon at the end is really exceptional and I wish we had more scenes of Shou Yuing since she had great chemistry with Ace. A shame she didn't stick around for another story.
Today he gave an interview about his life and work with Jason Clifford for Fantom Events on YouTube. Philip Morris was asked about the current status of the still-missing episodes. Morris said "I have a lot of friends who are collectors and I will tell you straight away now that at least six episodes – missing episodes exist – to my knowledge in the hands of private collectors. I won't name them. I've said to them, you know, your best thing, why didn't you get it back to the BBC and you know that you know that they're not very certain of how they'd be treated, and the one thing they always say to me is well you've returned lots of episodes and look how you've been treated." "My answer to that is always that's a minority of people that's not the majority. I'll tell you now I've met the majority of Doctor Who fans they are the most articulate wonderful loving creative people you could ever meet and they there in all walks of life they really are wonderful wonderful people you know." He also said he believes there are missing episodes in Australia in private collectors hands. His current method is to wait, for everything to work its way out. You can watch the full video below. He also talks about what happened to that missing tenth episode as well.
If I had to rank the Doctors it would be as follows: Patrick Troughton Tom Baker Matt Smith Peter Davison Jodie Whittaker Christopher Eccleston Peter Capaldi Paul McGann Sylvester McCoy David Tennant William Hartnell Jon Pertwee Colin Baker Not gonna get into the minutiae, but I think I can make a generalisation that my favourite Doctors are often the unassuming and initially dismissed types and my least favourite the overbearing authoritarians who throw their weight around from the off (Capaldi started off that way and I didn't like him but he mellowed quite a bit).
To be fair, Capaldi’s 1st season was all over the place in how they portrayed his Doctor. One episode he was brooding & cruel. The next he was whimsical and quirky. One ep he’s a great friend. The next he’s the biggest jerk to his closest friends. They couldn’t seem to decide what kind of Doctor he should be until his 2nd season got started. At least that’s how it seemed to me.
With the rubbish beard. Can't forget the rubbish beard. I think it was pretty consistent... he was brooding, cruel, the biggest jerk to his closest friends, for pretty much his entire run. Bill even pointed out some of the same issues that Clara did and she wasn't even there for his first two seasons. I don't think he was ever whimsical... maybe quirky a few times. He has moments of being a great friend like when he punched that dude just for being a bigot towards Bill. But he also let a child die in that same episode. It just felt like they were trying to set him as the first Valeyard but then abandoned the idea entirely. I mean there's literally times where he questions if he's a good man and they never really answered the question, it was just brought up once and forgotten about. The darker tone of his run just screams THE VALEYARD! I think the Mistress going from evil to good over the course of the series also could of worked better if they made the Doctor into the Valeyard. Instead both these character changes kinda go no where and reset back to normal after they leave.
