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I know there is all ready a great Dr. Who threa din the Off-Topic, but this one is specific to the question in the title. Netflix Instant has a set of "Classic" Dr. Who that hits one of the 4-part serials from each year. I recently watched it. In addition, I have watched up to the the 7th season of the new Doctor Who. This got me thinking a bit about the title question.

My First Dr. was John Pertwee

My Favorite Doctor at the moment is..... Patrick Troughton (2nd). I really enjoyed his clownish antics.

For a bonus, who is/was your favorite companion?

I think mine was Leela. Her dialogue exchanges with Tom Baker were very fun. However, as a youth I loved K-9.

I watched all sorts of Classic Who when I was a kid and the most identifiable doctor from that time was Tom Baker.

I'm rewatching right now and am up to Baker again. So far, I love Pertwee the best. Troughton was hard to get into just because so many episodes were incomplete.

First was Ecclestone (I know, I'm a newbie), but I still think he's the best ones out of the more recent Docs, mainly as the character and the plots were a fair bit "darker", as in the Doctor didn't just say "I'm so sorry" and talk his way out of everything, he was prepared to get his hands dirty, such as when they fought of the Daleks on Sat. 5. Now, he just tries to make everyone get along happily, combined with inane story arcs and boring characters such as River Fething Song: Oh how I loathe that character.

Edit: Fav companion: probably Clara. Rose was not bad. Donna was just too similar to the actress' comedy character. Martha was fairly ok. Amy, while insanely hot, was just too convoluded when incorporated into the plot. Suddenly she's River's mother, all that crap about "fixed points in time", surviivng for 2000 years with her husband who's suddenly an Auton. I don't mind big plot arcs like this but pick one; don't try to cram in as many as possible.

That's kind of the point of new who though. Classic Who is shorter episodes with longer arcs. New Who is longer episodes with shorter arcs.

And how can you not like River?

Either way, I highly recommend some Classic Who to give perspective on a lot of new Who. Most of the current season is homage to Classic Who.

First was Tom Baker.

Favourite is David Tennant, although Baker and Pertwee will always seem like the 'real' Doctors...

Eccleston is easily my least favourite.


Companions... I have a 4-month old daughter named Amelia, which is probably a small clue

Oooh, Tennant is my favorite New Who doctor. Just so good.

Tom Baker the Peter David. Baker looked properly loony tunes and the transformation between the doctors was confusing and scary as hell to a youngster like me.

Tennant is probably my favorite and he is my wifes,

 pretre wrote:
That's kind of the point of new who though. Classic Who is shorter episodes with longer arcs. New Who is longer episodes with shorter arcs.

And how can you not like River?

Either way, I highly recommend some Classic Who to give perspective on a lot of new Who. Most of the current season is homage to Classic Who.

I just think they've made the character "too intwined" with the plot if you get me. First couple of appearences, fair enough, she's a recurring character. After a while though, you get all these twists, she's Amy and Rory's child, she marries the Doctor, she then kills him after she's been abducted at birth, etc etc. It's like they're trying too hard to make this character important in the Doctor's life that they end up with these crap arcs.

Actually, I will add another criticism with the newer Doctors in the sense that the writers just keep reintroduing old enemies. Villans from Classic 'Who, I can understand, as it's a nice homage to the older series, but that episode with the Pandorica I believe it was called, where they had Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, and basically every villian from the past few series in one episode, I just lost all interest in the series.

 Valkyrie wrote:
Actually, I will add another criticism with the newer Doctors in the sense that the writers just keep reintroduing old enemies.

Doctor Who has always done that...

Villans from Classic 'Who, I can understand, as it's a nice homage to the older series, but that episode with the Pandorica I believe it was called, where they had Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, and basically every villian from the past few series in one episode, I just lost all interest in the series.

Er... all of those villains from the past few series were also recurring villains from Classic Who...

Yeah, I think you really need to have some perspective. This is a very old series.

I don't wish to get into the New vs Old war, but yours is a common vision for folks that have only seen New Who.

Also, River's his damn wife, of course she is important.

Edit: Re: Old enemies: Heck, the early doctors often had one recurring enemy that bothered them for their entire tenure off and on.

 insaniak wrote:

 Valkyrie wrote:
Actually, I will add another criticism with the newer Doctors in the sense that the writers just keep reintroduing old enemies.

Doctor Who has always done that...

Villans from Classic 'Who, I can understand, as it's a nice homage to the older series, but that episode with the Pandorica I believe it was called, where they had Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, and basically every villian from the past few series in one episode, I just lost all interest in the series.

Er... all of those villains from the past few series were also recurring villains from Classic Who...

Still, having them all in one episode is a bit much wouldn't you agree?

 Valkyrie wrote:
Still, having them all in one episode is a bit much wouldn't you agree?

I think you missed the point of the whole Pandorica episode. Having them all there represented how dire a situation it was. Not to beat a dead horse though, It is also not a first for Doctor Who. The first Doctor ran into a coalition of his enemies in a similar manner. (http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/The_Daleks%27_Master_Plan_%28TV_story%29)

First and Fav = Tom Baker

Fav Companion = Mary Tamm's Romana (earlier rather than later in Series 16)

I thought Tennant was pretty good but the Matt Smith era, not just his Doctor, I find quite preachy and off-putting.

 Valkyrie wrote:


Still, having them all in one episode is a bit much wouldn't you agree?

Not in the slightest. It was a corker of an episode... And as pretre pointed out, wasn't the first time the doctor has been ganged up on.

Sure, it was a little silly and improbable... But no more so than an awful lot of what went on in Classic Who.

 insaniak wrote:
Sure, it was a little silly and improbable... But no more so than an awful lot of what went on in Classic Who.

OMG, this reminds me. I'm making my way back through and got to the Dinosaur episode with the third doctor not that long ago. The models they used were awesomely silly.
Man, Pertwee was awesome. And his flying car. And his remote control buggy. Good times.

Oddly enough, while the Pertwee doctor is right up there with Tom Baker for me, it's more because of the books than the show... I saw most of the Baker run, but Pertwee was slightly before my time, so I had to make do with the Target novelisations (which I had a truckload of as a kid).

David Tennant was my first and Favorite Doctor

My first Doctor was Tom Baker.

My favorite Doctor, without a shadow of a doubt, was the dark jester himself, Merlin, the one and only Sylvester McCoy.



He battled against the lowest budgets and an entirely hostile BBC upper management but still managed to act his socks off to bring amazing humor, darkness and unpredictability to the role, he was great as the Doctor and it's just a shame there was so little surrounding him in terms of budget and some ropey stories he had to work with (with the exception of the lovely Sophie Aldred). I'm really glad he got to be in the Hobbit and his profile got elevated, he's a great talent.

First was Tom Baker.

Favorite... Sylvester McCoy was kind of awesome, though I never watched a lot of Who after Baker. I have a great fondness for Pertwee, too. Possibly the most physical, butch Doctor. "Get out of my way, young person." [punch]

I loved watching Pertwee box.

William Hartnell was my first Doctor. I remember seeing the show when it first came out and it scared the crap out of me, but I loved it. Half of those early shows I watched from the safety of behind my father's chair.

First: Tom Baker
Favorite: Hard to say. I enjoyed Eccelston's PTSD Doctor quite a bit.

Even though the movie was terrible, I always thought Paul McGann had a great deal of potential, but was in the right place at the wrong time.

 DA's Forever wrote:
David Tennant was my first and Favorite Doctor

Same here. Maybe it's different if you actually grew up with the Doctor.

 KalashnikovMarine wrote:

 DA's Forever wrote:
David Tennant was my first and Favorite Doctor

Same here. Maybe it's different if you actually grew up with the Doctor.

It definitely is. Although I recommend people go back and rewatch the originals if they have netflix and time. (Or dailymotion and time)

Technically, Rowan Atkinson was my first Doctor. My first real Doctor though was Paul McGann, and for that reason, I'll always have a soft spot for the the 8th.
My favourite Doctor though, is Matt Smith. A lot of people don't like him, but I said since he started "He just needs better stories." Now that the Ponds are gone, lots of people seem to be warming to him without making that connection.

On a related note though, my favourite arc has neither my first or favourite Doctor in. The Five Doctors, pride of my DVD collection.

 Sir Samuel Buca wrote:
My favourite Doctor though, is Matt Smith. A lot of people don't like him, but I said since he started "He just needs better stories." Now that the Ponds are gone, lots of people seem to be warming to him without making that connection..

I actually really enjoyed the start of Smith's run, but since Clara came along the stories seem to be much less polished. The thing that made Smith awesome was the way each episode just sent him reeling from one thing to the next without time to stop and catch a breath. That served to somewhat distract you from the underlying ridiculousness of whatever was going on.

The Clara run so far has seen a real slow-down in the pace, and when you have time to process what's going in, it makes it that much more obvious that things are just happening because they need to. There's less of the Doctor doing clever things, and more of the Doctor just being there and things happening to make the story work.


As a Doctor, Smith is awesome. but yeah, I would agree with the need for 'better stories' at this point (although the amusement park episode was fun... a bit more of a return to form). That, and less reliance on the sonic screwdriver to solve every single problem. It's supposed to be a screwdriver. Not a magic 'does everything' device.

Tom Baker was my first, probably the definitive Doctor to me. My first episode was Pyramid of Mars. God I loved that one. I haven't seen that many episodes of classic Who, but I infinitely prefer it over new Who.

My favourite is a close run between Tom and Colin Baker, although I do like Matt Smith, and David Tennant was good for the first 2 3rds of his time on the show. After that he got stagnant. I never really cared much for Christopher Eccleston though. He always struck me as too "edgy".

I stopped watching Doctor Who after the episode with the dinosaurs on the space station. That episode was so dire, so cheesy, with crappy effects, a pretentious story and wooden acting, that I never really returned to Who. I did see the godawful Christmas special, and after that travesty (Worst. Fake. Snow. Ever.) with its shoddy effects and gratuitous lesbian pairing (I have nothing against lesbian pairings in stories, it can work very well, but it just felt so...forced) I completely gave up on the series.

I just cannot imagine Rowan Atkinson as The Doctor... he'll always be Blackadder to me.

 KalashnikovMarine wrote:
I just cannot imagine Rowan Atkinson as The Doctor... he'll always be Blackadder to me.

To be fair, it was a very brief stint...

Tom Baker for both.

I did like all of the 80's Doctors though.

GG