Which actor's portrayal of the Doctor was so hated that the show was canceled after
a quarter of a century of success?
Keep watching to find out!
This is more of an honorable mention than a true ranking, as John Hurt was made to play
a grizzled veteran of an intergalactic war.
He looks like he's seen bodies floating in a vacuum, and he's going to do something about
it.
The War Doctor's incredible backstory, and the time-manipulation plot that allows him
to avoid destroying his homeworld, is a wonderful bit of world-building.
But as he never actually starred in a single episode as the one, true Doctor, it simply
doesn't seem fair to rank him with the folks who have had their name on the marquee, even
if he ultimately did a better job than many of them.
Poor Paul McGann never had a chance.
He basically got one made-for-TV movie, which was intended to be a pilot for a series that
ultimately was never made.
In terms of on-screen performances, McGann's romantic, frilly take on the Doctor amounted
to little more than a footnote in the long history of Who, which relegates him to the
bottom of the list.
There is some consolation, however.
As the only official Doctor between the original series ending in 1989 and the new version's
debut in 2005, McGann's eighth doctor went on to have an oversized presence in other
media, appearing in novels, comic books, and more than 70 audio dramas.
He finally got to return to the screen for a final farewell in the 2013 short "The Night
of the Doctor," which saw him die and regenerate as Hurt's War Doctor.
Colin Baker was the Doctor for several years, but that doesn't mean he was given anything
approximating a fair shake.
The Sixth Doctor's tenure was marred by behind-the-scenes drama as budget shortfalls and other issues
led to shortened seasons and long hiatuses.
He fought an uphill battle against an unpredictable schedule and absolutely insane costume, struggling
through several seasons as the Doctor, as viewers tuned in less and less reliably.
In spite of all that strain, Baker did manage to turn out one of the most memorable arcs
in the history of the series with "The Trial of a Time Lord."
Even with the death of the series' scriptwriter and other offscreen catastrophes, Baker held
down the role admirably until being dismissed after the series' 23rd season.
Fan love of Baker's tenure expressed itself in many extended universe adventures, fleshing
out threads that were abandoned when he was removed from the role.
The Doctor knows more about most things than the people around him, but he should never
be above it all.
That's a lesson that Sylvester McCoy and the creative team behind Doctor Who learned the
hard way as they rode the series into the ground.
McCoy's intellectual and self-important take on the Doctor rubbed viewers the wrong way,
and they abandoned the show in droves.
The BBC did the formerly unthinkable and put the show out of its misery in 1989.
To make matters worse, in the 1996 "Doctor Who" TV movie, the Doctor was unceremoniously
killed by gang members in San Francisco, playing into some of the grossest aspects of media
during the period's crime panic.
Peter Davison filtered fellow Doctor Tom Baker's eccentricity through '80s cool, looking like
Don Johnson from outer space in his three seasons at the helm of the TARDIS.
But the writers made the interesting decision to rob the Doctor of his well-earned wisdom.
In spite of his centuries of inherited memories, Davison's doctor was a bit of an indecisive
fop, dropped on top of scripts that harkened back to the First Doctor's grave seriousness.
Credit Davison's charisma and skills as an actor for making Doctor Who work anyway.
At the end of the day, though, workable is all Davison's tenure was.
He did a fine job bringing some of the series' main antagonists back into popular consciousness,
as seven full seasons behind Baker's wild stories had moved the show away from battles
with the Cybermen and the Master.
Davison's time was the last of the original Who's high years, sliding quickly without
him into the low point that led to the show's cancellation.
Stern, bombastic, and grandfatherly, William Hartnell launched the series and is deservedly
beloved for being the first person to don that mysterious moniker that lends us the
title of the show.
But no one thinks of him first when they try to pull up "The Doctor."
Hartnell made the series a success, allowing it to continue well past its sell-by date
and stick in the brains of a younger generation of creatives who helmed the New Who years.
For that alone, he should be praised.
But the series was a long way from dinosaurs on a spaceship, leaning much more into the
educational potential of the show.
His stilted and cold take on the traveling alien was more alien than anything else, and
left the warm, human-loving parts to be fleshed out by actors that followed.
Jodie Whittaker knocked her performance of the Doctor out of the park.
She stepped into the role as the first-ever woman to play the Doctor — and played it
so well that pitying her for the misogynist backlash against her casting feels unnecessary.
The doubters have been proven wrong by how well she holds down one of the most recognizable
roles in all of fiction.
Whittaker swings the role back from Peter Capaldi's stand-offish thrill seeker, playing
13 as a bubbly and friendly helper who loves humans as much as she loves solving problems.
Unfortunately, though, Whittaker's time as the Doctor has been dragged down by scripts
that haven't always lived up to the show's high standards — not the first time a great
Doctor has been undermined by creative choices outside their control.
"Oh, mate…I’m the Doctor.
Ring any bells?”
What if the Doctor broke bones as well as he set them?
That's the conceit at the heart of Jon Pertwee's Doctor — a savvy and dapper martial artist
who isn’t afraid to set down his sonic screwdriver and work with his hands instead.
Pertwee's tenure laid the groundwork for a decade of high energy action sequences.
Pertwee played the Doctor as a scrapper and a scientist, making him equally quick with
a gadget as a fist.
The Third Doctor was angry due to being forced to hang around Earth, and he took out his
anger on any alien who got in the way of his fists.
His tenure is an important building block in several other ways, marking the first appearance
of Sarah Jane Smith as a companion, introducing the Doctor's nemesis the Master, and reviving
the Daleks as primary antagonists.
Still, his tenure is firmly in the middle of the pack, reversed neutron flow or no.
Peter Capaldi was previously best known for his work as a foul-mouthed political operative,
and, fittingly, he brought a good bit of darkness back to the role in his brief run as the Doctor.
He played the character with a cold remove, amping up the alienness of the Time Lord in
a way that hadn't been seen since the original run of the show.
Far from David Tennant's near-romance with a human, Capaldi's Doctor was a weary ancient
outsider, who showed up to help but had almost no bedside manner to speak of.
Showrunner Stephen Moffat noted the new iteration's coldness, and he called Capaldi's Doctor "much
fiercer, madder [and] less reliable" than Tennant or Matt Smith.
The characters around the Doctor recognize his weakness as his run goes on, having to
balance their plan of attack against antagonists, while knowing that 12 is an adrenaline junkie
who loves to dive in with both feet.
Live by the Moffat , die by the Moffat.
Matt Smith's eccentric and noodly performance as the Doctor was characterized by a head
writer who loved rousing speeches, front-loading his run with memorable standoffs and scenery-chewing
shouting matches.
However, Smith was also in the main role when Stephen Moffat spiraled the series into a
convoluted mess that couldn't just be waved away with
"Wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff."
For many of the episodes, Smith is a perfect first Doctor for the show's intended audience:
children.
His giddy joy over dinosaurs on a spaceship, and his wonder at seeing the perseverance
of people well into the future, makes him an ideal hero for a child.
"I know!
Dinosaurs!
On a spaceship!"
However, much of that goodwill is squandered by convoluted plot lines that can be difficult
to understand even as an adult.
To follow the story of the Doctor, Amy and Rory late in Matt Smith's tenure was a good
way to risk a nosebleed, but the highs of his first appearance and a chills-inducing
staredown between the Doctor and every major villain were worth the headache.
If Patrick Troughton only managed to get people on board with the idea of an entirely new
actor playing the Doctor — and in only 150 episodes no less — his work would be admirable.
The fact that Troughton went above and beyond that, securing a place above the original
actor in most fan's hearts, is remarkable.
Credit a shift in writing and costuming to play to Troughton's strengths.
The so-called "Cosmic Hobo" turned the Doctor from a lecturer to a loveable, spacefaring
tramp.
Troughton played the Doctor with the wide-eyed wonder you might expect from someone who has
the ability to travel the entire universe.
The hobo aesthetic leached into the script.
Troughton's Doctor got in and out of stories much quicker than Hartnell's four-part historical
epics, cementing the "Monster of the Week"-style story that has produced some of Doctor Who's
most thrilling hours.
Troughton helped build the antagonism between classic villains and the Doctor over his three-series
tenure, as he nearly always encountered a villain every time he stepped out of the police
box.
Christopher Eccleston gave us some idea of how a longer run for John Hurt's War Doctor
would play out.
The first Doctor of the 2005 Doctor Who revival played the character with all the weight of
the Time War on his shoulders.
His outfit reflected his brooding nature, suiting the alien traveler up in a leather
jacket and topping it off with an angry stare.
His take on the Doctor preceded the grimdark era of genre movies, but his performance can
be seen as an early adopter of that gritty style.
In particular, he earns his dour attitude in the modern classic episode "The Doctor
Dances."
His harsh demeanor cracks when he learns that his crew has managed to set things right without
causing death and destruction.
In an instantly iconic moment, Eccleston turns to the camera with a maniacal grin on his
face and shouts
"Everybody lives, Rose!
Just this once, everybody lives!"
His tenure on "Who" brought the show back to life, and that one crack allowed light
to shine into the series as they barreled toward one of the series' most adored leads.
For many people born in the late '80s on, David Tennant is the Doctor.
His affable but confident turn as the Doctor brought a massive wave of new fans, who certainly
weren't turned away by the fact that the writing hit a high for New Who during Tennant's time,
balancing the steady hand of Russell T. Davies with the bursts of originality from Steven
Moffatt.
Tennant was also buoyed by a murderer's row of companions in Billie Piper's lovesick Rose,
Catherine Tate's wisecracking Donna, and Freema Agyeman's intelligent and assured Martha.
Tennant's run also introduced the tragic plot of River Song, and included several all-time
great episodes like "Blink" and "Human Nature."
Altogether, the writing and cast, paired with a budget reflecting their suddenly high ratings,
produced the best run of the series since its revival.
"Don't turn your back.
Don't look away.
And don't blink!"
Tom Baker.
What can we say?
If you're over a certain age, his wooly hair and long scarf are bound to be the image in
your mind's eye when you recall the Doctor.
He's lodged there for more reasons than the fact that he held the position longer than
any other actor, though that certainly doesn't hurt his case for "Best Doctor Ever."
Tom Baker hit the perfect balance between a compassionate and humanistic leader and
an odd outsider with a whimsical view of the universe.
Baker handled everything from the creeping horror of his early seasons to the zippy and
fantastical scripts penned by legendary author Douglas Adams.
In all ways, from the comical horror camp of "The Brain of Morbius" to the high weirdness
of "City of Death," from K9 to Romana, Baker's tenure highlighted what the series does best.
Even better, he did it with a grin on his face and jelly babies in his hand.
"Would you like a jelly baby?"
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Looper videos about your favorite shows are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.