Dr Who Classic /Off Topic

[jasmine]

(changed the title slightly )

Anything 'Who' that is not related to the current tv series can go in here.




First Doctor, played by William Hartnell (1963–1966)
Second Doctor, played by Patrick Troughton (1966–1969)
Third Doctor, played by Jon Pertwee (1970–1974)
Fourth Doctor, played by Tom Baker (1974–1981)
Fifth Doctor, played by Peter Davison (1981–1984)
Sixth Doctor, played by Colin Baker (1984–1986)
Seventh Doctor, played by Sylvester McCoy (1987–1989, 1996)
Eighth Doctor, played by Paul McGann (1996)
Ninth Doctor, played by Christopher Eccleston (2005)
Tenth Doctor, played by David Tennant (2005–present)

I always liked Tom Baker (assistant Romana, whom he married) I thought he made a great Doctor.

I seem to remember the Daleks and Cybermen were much scarier too. (course they were jas - you were younger )

The Doctors I didn't care much for - 7th Sylvester McCoy and the 6th Colin Baker.

[arcadia]

My favourite Doctors were Tom Baker and Peter Davison (who was my first TV crush!)

I haven't seen much of Doctors before Tom Baker, apart from clips, so I can't really comment too much on them. I didn't like Colin Baker much either. Does anyone like him the best?

[jasmine]

arcadia said:

My favourite Doctors were Tom Baker and Peter Davison (who was my first TV crush!)

Aww, Peter Davison was cute!

I haven't seen much of Doctors before Tom Baker, apart from clips, so I can't really comment too much on them. I didn't like Colin Baker much either. Does anyone like him the best?

Well if this topic doesn't take off I'll dump it. I suppose we could always talk about the ones we do remember. And in my case it won't be much - I have a memory like a sieve!

[arcadia]

I have a terrible memory too. I'm pretty saw I watched all the episodes from the tail-end of the Tom Baker years up until the bitter end of the Sylvester McCoy 'era', but I can't remember much about them.

The story that sticks in my head is one where there was a cave with evil spiders in it and people who got bitten turned into evil spider-people or something. Or was it snakes? Gah, I can't remember! Anyway, Romana got bitten I think. That story scared the crap out of me!

[Mirela]

Tom Baker is my favourite Doctor, then David Tennant, then Christopher Ecclesston, then Peter Davison, then Sylvester McCoy. I can't really put the rest in any sort of order because I haven't seen any William Hartnell stories yet and I've to see quite a few of Patrick Troughton's and Jon Pertwee's. I've seen clips though and they're all great as the Doctor (and I just got "Spearhead from Space" - the first Jon Pertwee story - from Play.com through the door today).

I have these stories on video:

Genesis Of The Daleks (Tom Baker)
Revenge Of The Cybermen (Tom Baker)
The Face Of Evil (Tom Baker)
The Invasion Of Time (Tom Baker)
Destiny Of The Daleks (Tom Baker)
Frontios (Peter Davison)
Resurrection Of The Daleks (Peter Davison)
Planet Of Fire (Peter Davison)
Revelation Of The Daleks (Colin Baker)
Remembrance Of The Daleks (Sylvester McCoy)
The Greatest Show In The Galaxy (Sylvester McCoy)

and these on DVD:

The Mind Robber (Patrick Troughton)
Spearhead From Space (Jon Pertwee)
The Five Doctors (Peter Davison)

and next month I'll get two more on DVD for my birthday: "Pyramids Of Mars" (Tom Baker) and "Earthshock" (Peter Davison)

;D

[Storm]

My favourite has always been Tom Baker - the definitive Doctor if you ask me - who also had many of the best episodes.

He is closely followed by Patrick Troughton, who was the most amiable Doctor. He never put in a bad performance in his entire career. It's just a shame most of the material he got to play with was so unremarkable.

I'll choose DT as third best, although that's more for his undoubted potential than for what he has achieved so far, and I have to admit my hopes for him are starting to slide. If he gets some better scripts soon, and proves himself with them, I'll stick with this rating, but I may revise him downwards if he doesn't stop pulling silly faces for no reason.

My fourth favourite is Paul McGann, who was excellent at conveying the alien mystery of the character. It was a real shame he didn't get to do more episodes. (Also a shame the movie script was such trite nonsense; enjoyable nonsense, but still nonsense.)

Number five on my list is the First Doctor. William Hartnell was a fine start to the character, a very powerful presence; I know he made a lot of gaffes on-screen, but so would all the others if they'd had to perform 'as live' like he did. I just felt he wasn't quite weird enough. Sinister yes, but not alien.

Number six. Peter Davison is one of the under-rated ones. I know he seemed thoroughly miserable in a few episodes, but that was because he was so bored and frustrated; many of the stories he had to do were pretty crummy. But when he got to do better episodes like Earthshock and The Caves Of Androzani (one of my very favourite stories), he did tremendously well.

Chris Eccleston had a similar problem to Hartnell in not quite being alien enough, but he also spent far too much time pulling silly faces rather than acting. I give him only seventh I'm afraid.

I think Colin Baker was always maligned far too much and I quite liked his take on the character. I don't blame him especially for how poor his era was. That was mostly down to him having to cope with a lot of very weak scriptwriting (as did all the Doctors in the 1980's). However, there's no denying that his performances were often over-the-top, or that the timing of his delivery could be very dodgy. He really needed to learn that there was no need to shout every line. I'll slot him in at number eight.

Most over-rated, or at least over-exposed, was Jon Pertwee. Seeing his era was the weakest part of the 70's writing-wise, we can probably forgive him up to a point, but he seemed to spend most of his time on autopilot, spewing sanctimonious accusations at his enemies.

Alas, the weakest for me was Sylvester McCoy. He always did his best, and he was perfectly fine at getting the alien quality across. And let's be fair to him, he was another victim of the dire writing of the later years. And above all, he was another very amiable chap, and so I do want to like him, I really do! I promise I do. But... I'm afraid... *Sigh!* There's no getting away from it; the poor fellow just can't act. He's good as a comedy actor, but he can't do drama, even surreal drama like Dr Who. He always puts emphasis on the wrong words, and mis-times his delivery completely. He did better in his final season when he was helped by some better stories, but he was still comfortably out-acted by most of the inanimate objects on-screen. Even his recent performances as the seventh Doctor for Big Finish haven't been much better.

Oh, it hurt to say that!

Anyway, my favourite stories; -

The Aztecs, with Bill Hartnell.
The Time Meddler, with Bill Hartnell.
The Ice Warriors, with Patrick Troughton.
The Mind Robber, with Patrick Troughton.
Inferno, with Jon Pertwee.
Genesis Of The Daleks, with Tom Baker.
The Deadly Assassin, with Tom Baker.
The Robots Of Death, with Tom Baker.
The Talons of Weng Chiang, with Tom Baker.
City Of Death, with Tom Baker. (Very clever stuff.)
Logopolis, with Tom Baker/Peter Davison.
The Caves Of Androzani, with Peter Davison/Colin Baker. (The best DW story of the 80's, perhaps ever.)
The Mark Of The Rani, with Colin Baker.
Dalek, with Chris Eccleston.
The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, with Chris Eccleston.
The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit, with David Tennant.

Interesting to note that, in that list, there are only two Dalek stories, also just three stories with the Master (the 'master' in The Mind Robber was a different character), and none featuring the Cybermen. While I appreciate them, I guess I can live without the traditional villains.

EDIT: I've been watching The Aztecs and it reminded me that it was one of the best early stories, so I've added that to my list of favourites. I also decided to swap Hartnell and Davison around in my 'league' of Doctors.

[jasmine]

Good heavens storm! you don't do things by halfs do you?
Nice review of all the Doctors there.

I wouldn't know where to begin. I don't have any of the old Doctors on dvd - and I haven't watched any for an age. So my memory of any is rusty.

[Storm]

jasmine said:

Good heavens storm! you don't do things by halfs do you?

Sad, ain't I?

[jasmine]

Nah, you're not sad - I enjoy your posts. They are very entertaining and interesting to read.

[Storm]

That's a relief!

Anyone got a preference for favourite Doctor's companion? I've thought about it and realised that mine's probably Micky! Followed by Sarah Jane and Ace. Two Smiths and a Dorothy, what a combination.

EDIT: I've remembered that Ian Chesterton from the earliest days of the series was a very strong character too. His acid rivalry with the First Doctor was compelling.

[jasmine]

Oh great! it's bad enough me trying to remember the old episodes - let alone the companions!!

I suppose Sarah- Jane and co (can only remember them )

can I have k9 ? - woof!

ETA: Did K9 just appear with Tom Baker? I thought he was with Jon Pertwee too - there again what do I know. Me with rusty brain.

[jasmine]

storm said:

Two Smiths and a Dorothy, what a combination.

Could have been worse - they could have had a Dorothy and a Toto!

[Storm]

jasmine said:

can I have k9 ? - woof!

Sure. Better still, let's have a woof. We can start by watching any comically-intentioned episode, so long as it's not written by RTD. {endsatire}

Did K9 just appear with Tom Baker? I thought he was with Jon Pertwee too - there again what do I know. Me with rusty brain.

K9 first appeared around the same time Romana joined up with the Fourth Doctor. You may be confusing K9 with Bessie (the car), which both the Third and Fourth Doctors drove around in for a while.

they could have had a Dorothy and a Toto!

They did. They're more commonly referred to as the First Romana talking to K9...

[jasmine]

storm said:

jasmine said:

can I have k9 ? - woof!

Sure. Better still, let's have a woof. We can start by watching any comically-intentioned Sepisode, so long as it's not written by RTD. {endsatire}


K9 first appeared around the same time Romana joined up with the Fourth Doctor. You may be confusing K9 with Bessie (the car), which both the Third and Fourth Doctors drove around in for a while.

they could have had a Dorothy and a Toto!

They did. They're more commonly referred to as the First Romana talking to K9...

That made me laugh! um..the Romana and K9 thing..

I do get confused. That's me all over. I’m very easily confused…er...

I forgot about the car (of course) Now that you’ve mentioned it, I remember.
*leaves quickly before digging herself a bigger hole and also making a mess of the quotes*

[Storm]

*Looks down at the enormous hole that Jasmine has left in the ground, shakes head, and gets out a shovel.*

Women! Always leaving a mess all over the place for the guys to clear up... grumble, moan...

*Starts heaping the dirt back into the hole.*

...whinge, whine... Never get any thanks... gripe, complain... didn't even say how nice I looked in my new y-fronts... mumble, mutter... women are all b*st*ards...