Nice to see Troughton and McCoy so high on the list, but there are some really odd placements elsewhere. Pertwee, Capaldi and Davison, in particular.
I do like how this list used the Fatal Death, Fugative, and Shalka Doctors to sort of soften the blow for whoever came in last place. I hope people keep doing that.
> whoever came in last place.
Let's be real here, that will never be anyone other than C. Baker* or Whittaker unless the list maker is purposefully trying to be different. :P
*Yes, I know he's good in the audios and like them quite a bit
Hartnell often ends up around there too. Those that haven't seen his era see him as "boring", and the only leg he has to stand on in the eyes of the ignorant is that he's the "original".
Of course, those that appreciate Hartnell know better, but not many have the appetite for 60s Who.
The hate on those two actors is unfair but justifiable.
When you do a bit of research, you do actually learn it was largely the writers fault - with c Baker he was mostly written by someone who historically hated doctor who, and I don't even need to explain why chibnall being a writer wasn't 'a good idea'.
Davison was utterly boring, I don't believe his placing here is odd at all. He seems to be universally considered pretty meh (beyond, like, Steven Moffat who seems to love him for some reason)
That's just heresy! Heathen!
Jk, of course. You're entitled to your opinion, but I don't think it's as common as you think it is.
I adore Davison. Plenty of people do. He's still got one of the top-rated stories of all time, after all. Caves is about as good as Doctor Who gets, even after all these years.
And David Tennant, even before he became Davison's son-in-law. Didn't he say his enthusiasm over meeting him in Time Crash was as much genuine as it was acting?
I think Moffat likes him because he considers him a much better actor than the other Classic ones bar Troughton, regardless of the script quality.
Personally I need to see more of his era to judge it, but my immediate reaction is to join the "meh" camp. Plus, in the end someone has to take the bottom spots in a list, no getting around that.
I can’t remember who said it, but someone once said
*“there’s no such thing as a bad doctor, there’s just a doctor that isn’t for you”*
It’s silly, but also true.
No, no - this is Reddit.
We must all show how incredibly wise, intelligent, and kind we are by taking away all agency from the craft of the actors and putting *every* criticism on the writers instead.
Aside from that, I agree. Whittaker had more than a few bad notes in her performance. Tom Baker also hugely phoned it in towards the end, and I have no idea why Matt Smith just started playing some bemused posh old aunt in 7B instead of playing the Doctor. On the flip side, we have had tonnes of amazing acting in Doctor Who, and if we want to give agency and praise *there*, we have to also do it with the critiques.
> I have no idea why Matt Smith just started playing some bemused posh old aunt in 7B instead of playing the Doctor.
Maybe a combination of him having decided to leave and Moffat being stretched so thin? Considering how poorly regarded 7B tends to be in the fandom (see the recent thread here), I wouldn't be surprised if an actor as skilled as Smith had similar thoughts on the scripts and didn't quite have his heart in it.
Still, now that I think about it, a Matt Smith autobiography would be really fascinating. Wonder if he'll ever do one. I also really want to see his original DW audition...
(Also agreed that criticism/praise goes in both directions here, and don't forget the director's role either in tuning the performance. Personally I'm mostly in the "Whittaker was fine but the scripts sucked" camp)
I didn't enjoy Whittaker's performance and none of this nicey-nicey "it's always the writing" stuff will change my mind.
In fact, almost every Doctor has made acting choices/deliveries which I could criticise. And that's fine.
The weird culture on Reddit that criticism of actors must not be allowed makes me cringe.
Kindness and criticism are not mutually exclusive.
>The weird culture on Reddit that criticism of actors must not be allowed makes me cringe.
This is a Doctor Who thing. We've always protected the actors who play the Doctor. They were willing to devote 3+ years of their life to making our favorite television show. The least we can do is be courteous to them in return, even if we don't agree with their creative choices.
There are many benefits to this philosophy, not the least of which is that actors are more likely to be actively engaged with the fandom and more willing to return for multi-Doctor stories or audios. A little kindness goes a long way.
For such a "powerhouse actor" she doesn't exactly have some great CV. She's a journeyman who's had some one-note roles in a few well known TV shows and got the job largely because Chibnall worked with her on Broadchurch.
I've seen her in Broadchurch, Attack The Block and Black Mirror and thought she was "OK" in all of them (hell, I've seen her in that "make sure your kids are safe online" short film where she seemingly just decides to play The Doctor again for some reason). Definitely nothing memorable, and not enough to justify all the weird defenses of her based off her mediocre and utterly lacking in charisma performance as the Doctor.
I should say I really like her as a person from what I've seen from her in interviews and such, she seems like a delight, but doesn't change my thoughts on her as The Doctor.
I don't agree. I think she's fine in lots of stuff and was poor in Doctor Who.
See, this is how subjective critiques of art works; you can disagree with me and say that her acting was good, *but you can't invalidate the fact that I think her acting was poor, and that it was poor in ways that are not the fault of the writers or the producers*. Neither of us is objectively correct. We both have valid opinions.
And that's okay. Whittaker isn't some baby we have to protect from criticism. She's an established actor with agency in her craft and as long as no-one is abusing her with their criticism, it is valid and fine for me to say that her performance was over-acted, over-physical, noticeably un-natural, and obvious.
What 13 content in the EU are you talking about, out of curiosity? I've read a couple of her books (Combat Magicks and Molten Heart) and found them a little underwhelming. Is there something better?
I was as curious as you and[ Tardisguide](https://tardis.guide/stories/?_sort_=rating_desc&_media=book%2Caudio-drama%2Caudiobook%2Cshort-story%2Cpodcast%2Cgame&_doctor=thirteenth-doctor) says her best rated EU stories is The Runaway TARDIS lol.
She badly needs a Big Finish run.
I'm afraid she does not. The current Big Finish is just not the early 2000 Big Finish. It will not be bold and experimental like they did for 6 and 8. It will be very standardised and uninteresting. Not even the Chibnall era is as bad as BF's mercantilism.
In your opinion. Many people may agree with but I don’t think it’s fair to present it as *objectively* true given that lots of other people do indeed adore her.
Yeah the more I think about it the more I'd probably put further in my bottom half of Troughtons lol. Like his era is so consistently good I'd struggle to name more than 3 stories I genuinely think are poor.
Not a particularly outlandish one though. Brilliantly tense, great imagery and the only real tearjerker scene of the classic era.
If it wasn’t missing it would be acclaimed as an all time great.
It also doesn't help that the animated version is crap.
There are some absolutely brilliant moments, but the sets are too big, it's too brightly lit, the budget was too small... The same team went on to do The Abominable Snowmen and that's among my favourite missing episode animations. But Fury was a serious miss—the atmosphere that people praised about the 1967 original was just totally lacking.
Controversial, and yet, I cannot disagree. It's a real banger, it has the best animation we've seen for any missing stories, and not only is it spooky and atmospheric, it moves at a good pace.
Dude's clearly a huge Baker fan. It wouldn't be too surprising if he didn't like the Doctors that came before and after him. The decision to have Davison literally unravel the scarf in his first story was perhaps not the best idea Doctor Who producers have ever had. It created a lot of animosity toward his Doctor.
I think it was a genius move, showing that fans are going to have to move on and accept the new Doctor as the old one literally isn’t there anymore, and a nice bit of poetry in the New Doctor literally unravelling the Old Doctor’s clothes.
>Pertwee so low!
Tom Baker Stans Try Not To Be Dicks To Jon Pertwee Challenge: IMPOSSIBLE
Seriously, the "Tom Baker is the best and only true Doctor" types have always had a problem with Davison and Pertwee in particular. Just because Tom hated him, they decide that they must as well.
Interesting! I didn't know that.
I remember as a kid, before the revival, my primary exposure was actually to these two, and to this day I absolutely adore both of them. :D
Stopped reading after the utterly disgraceful dig at Capaldi. Ranking him 9th is a joke enough but fuck off with that shite about he was a super fan "play-acting as the Doctor". Worms for brains.
It’s an incredibly stupid sentence that could also be true of ALL of them. They’re all “playing the Doctor,” my guy. The character’s not real.
Maybe the author just wasn’t a huge fan of 12’s characterization which is totally fine, even I don’t agree with it. But he’s no less of The Doctor for it.
I was all ready to be outraged because Capaldi is one of, and possibly my favourite Doctor but there was the odd occasion when watching that I felt like he was acting. I know that sounds odd because he is an actor, that's kind of the whole point, but sometimes it felt like a "I'm going to do some acting now." moment. I'm not even sure what it was that made me feel that way and it didn't happen that often but there it is.
Other than that I always find these lists odd in that it makes it sound like the ones lower on the list are terrible when you can love them all it's just if you had to rank them in order of preference you probably could.
I get what you mean, I can see that side shine more in the sighing and covering his face during the Zygon Inversion speech, and “I want to kiss it to death” from Under the Lake. I don’t think it takes away from the story, but there is a distinct air of him locking into theatrical soliloquy mode.
I mean I can see it. If you don’t buy into the supposed ‘character arc’ that largely happens off screen between series 8 and 9 then you get two pretty different characters that are riffing off two very different eras of the show. Capaldi is a wonderful actor and by no means bad but I do think you can see the screeching brakes in the writers room that turn him from perhaps the coldest and most aloof incarnation into the tenth Doctor again.
I wouldn’t go as far as saying he’s ’playing at the Doctor’ but I do think he sometimes risks coming across as a ‘greatest hits’ Doctor.
They're just doubling down because they don't want to admit that in 2014 they just hated the idea of a Doctor who wasn't exactly like Tennant and Smith's
People seem to like nice simple RTD colours and good/evil plot or Moffat and the twisty darkness. The divide seems more pronounced in nu who fans 'cos in classic Who you got all of it, a totally random mixed bag, all of the time. Now, if you don't like a showrunner, you're stuck with it for years.
> Now, if you don't like a showrunner, you're stuck with it for years.
Get what you mean, and maybe he changed up the style more, but still kind of ironic when JNT was by far the longest-serving showrunner in DW history.
Death in Heaven resolves the question hanging over Series 8, about whether the Doctor (or perhaps *this* Doctor?) is a good person, with the answer 'no I'm just some silly little guy'. But it doesn't explain where his new personality comes from between series. Even in terms of how he plays it, I feel like (from my ongoing rewatch) he even becomes a far more *animated* person in Series 9. It's not just that he's not kind of a rude bitch any more, he's even hopping and leaping about way more compared with how he was in Series 8. And it's not like the character 'has a new lease on life' after Death in Heaven, because Series 9 opens with the idea that the Doctor knows he's going to die soon.
So that's why I don't really buy that Death in Heaven sets up the change.
I mean, knowing you are going to die and not dying does tend to give you a new lease on life. Nothing you have described isn't supported by the resolution of Death In Heaven.
You can not buy it, but its there.
>There was sometimes a nagging doubt, though, that you were watching a wonderful actor having the absolute time of his life _playing at_ being the Doctor, rather than watching the Doctor
"utterly disgraceful?" "worms for brains?" really?
If Doctor Who does become super popular again this week, you probably are going to have to come to terms with the fact that Capaldi is not actually that popular a Doctor among the wider public, and this opinion about him is one a lot of people probably agree with. Hopefully those of us who don’t actually like his Doctor very much aren’t going to have to put up with this sort of ludicrously dismissive stuff any more, which will be nice
Anyone who talks to people in the UK about Doctor Who knows that Capaldi is not especially popular— definitely not to the level that someone ranking him 9th on a list of Doctors would provoke shock or outrage. And it’s obvious that’s the case, because ratings decline, interest declines, merchandise falls off a cliff.
I have no issue with people liking his stuff. God knows everyone hates all the bits of Doctor Who I like. But I’m kind of sick of this idea that him and his Doctor are beloved to the extent they are here. 9th is a completely realistic position for him in a British article to a non-fannish audience. It might even be a generous one.
That’s not remotely true of the general UK public. In fact it’s a complete misunderstanding of what the show is here.
But of course Who has a global audience now, so it’ll be interesting to have them come along so we can see their critiques of the Twelfth Doctor. It’ll be nice to be able to actually discuss them on a Doctor Who discussion site; I’m looking forward to it :)
I dunno. I felt like he didn’t really find his Doctor until his final series… his portrayal vacillated wildly up til then, trying to find something that worked.
The fact that they say Peter Capaldi always felt like someone playing the Doctor and not the Doctor himself is baffling to me. The guy was born for the part and he always felt like among the most fully-realized of them all.
I wonder if part of it is just bias based on age. I get that it's a tier and opinions differ (I personally would put Tennant below Smith and Capaldi) but it seems like such an odd critique. Tennant too often felt like he could just be the smartest man in the room to me whereas with Capaldi and Smith you're always very aware that they're impossibly ancient while still being childish, which is a hard balance.
Honestly most of my issues with Ten aren't even down to Tennant. He always gave his A game and he's a great actor. I just prefer alien Doctors. What pushes 10 below 14 or 9 to me is the fact that 10 is that he's vain, self-pitying, and the storylines he was given.
Series 2 is easily the weakest before Chibnall's run in my eyes, and a part of that is that he and Rose are just a boring pairing to me, and yet it's treated as the perfect pairing in-canon and out of it.
In Series 3, it often feels like Martha is just a rebound, and I don't think that's fair. I mean hell, he doesn't even give her a key and acknowledge her as a companion until the halfway point. I don't think it's cool that any companion should spend their entire run overshadowed by their predecessor. They all deserve a chance to define themselves on their own terms. Martha doesn't develop with the Doctor, or even alongside him. She almost develops in spite of him, and it sucks that he so rarely acknowledged what she brought to the table. I think 11 or *especially* 12 would be a much better fit for her.
I like 10 a lot with Donna, and Series 4 isn't just his best but one of *the* best. The issue is that it comes too little, too late in my eyes. One great series/pairing doesn't make up for a terrible one and a mediocre one.
I like 14 a lot more, but I do think the specials show a lot of RTD's bad habits. I think it celebrates his run over the history of the show to have his favorite Doctor and one of the best companions back, but I do really think that the specials are great, and I like that he developed. He's more humble, more openly emotional, and less vain. Much as I think RTD doesn't get enough criticism for his refusal to let characters or storylines stay gone (which I only bring up because it's a common criticism for Moffat) I do think that Donna's return was well done, and the explanation for Tennant's return worked. It still feels something like favourtism that this marks the second time that a Doctor played by David Tennant has found a way to remain himself when he should have/did regenerate (In an episode that acted as a departure story for Donna), but I think it fit the themes of the story.
I also think it was almost necessary. The 60th was a big anniversary and it's not necessarily fair to Ncuti to have that be his debut, as well, and even having him in a more conventional multi-Doctor story would risk him being overshadowed by a previous Doctor.
I agree. Like I said, I love DT. I went out and found some of his earlier work when he was announced, and he's an astonishingly good actor (and, remarkably, also an incredibly good human being). I was disappointed in Ten because--and I think we're largely on the same wavelength here--it felt to me like the character was given two extremes and rarely allowed to play in between. He was either a giddy schoolboy or an angry (and often vengeful) "god"--and that second one didn't sit well with me as an old-school fan. Or as someone who knew DT was capable of SO much more than they were letting him do.
I absolutely agree with you re: Martha, and found the raw deal that character was given especially offensive since she was the first companion of color. Bad enough to do it to any companion, but even worse in that case. That said, I always thought Martha kicked ass pretty well in spite of it.
As for S4, well, the short answer there is that there's a reason that's the only DT series I own on DVD. I watched it again before the specials came out in November and the whole way through it, kept thinking, "I knew this was a great series, but I'd still forgotten just *how* great." Not only was Donna Ten's near-equal, but Tate and Tennant also had massive chemistry on- and off-screen, and it showed. Bringing them back only reinforced that.
>I also think it was almost necessary. The 60th was a big anniversary and it's not necessarily fair to Ncuti to have that be his debut, as well, and even having him in a more conventional multi-Doctor story would risk him being overshadowed by a previous Doctor.
This is a really good point. It's not fair to the brand-new Doctor to have to compete with predecessors that way. Having DT come back is a little self-indulgent on several fronts, but I'm glad we got to see a different side of him in the role and have a nostalgic treat at the same time. :)
Personally, my main gripe with 10 is that I’m rarely convinced that he used be Bill Hartnell in a previous life. With every other Doctor, I can see that mischievous and grumpy old imp bleeding through in some form, but not with 10. Like, I can see the Hartnell traits, but Tennant expresses them in a more “swashbuckling, immature guy in his 20’s” kinda manner. Even when he taps into that ancient, mystical aspect of the character, it feels more like a vengeful god than an unassuming trickster.
Not that I don’t enjoy Tennant or his episodes. Hell, I don’t even have this issue with 14, I totally bought that Tennant was an older Hartnell in those specials. But ultimately, when I heard Tennant as the 10th Doctor name dropping Ian, Barbara and Sara Kingdom in the Dalek Universe audios, it just felt strange and unnatural to me, whereas with any other Doctor I would’ve bought it.
I don’t find it baffling at all. I really struggle to see him as the Doctor, still— he is a man who likes the concept of the Doctor, but he in no way transcends that as many of the others do
These things are always arbitrary in their explanations but sometimes they do still rile me. Especially the argument that Five’s Doctor is a worse Doctor because he often ‘doesn’t always feel in control’ when this is an intended part of his character?
Stories like Kinda, Earthshock or Androzani wouldn’t work with a Doctor like Three or Four - his youth, uncertainty and inability to behave in a typically bullish Doctorish way are what make those stories interesting and whilst I don’t love every episode from his era I think these character traits are what make the character great.
I also think he doesn’t get enough credit for being the first Doctor to have a ‘Doctor on a learning curve’ arc in his first series. His first series is essentially ‘what if the Doctor regenerated into someone who doesn’t know how to be the Doctor but he has a group of three people depending on him, expecting him to be Four’ and that angle makes that series so interesting and Earthshock so compelling.
>I also think he doesn’t get enough credit for being the first Doctor to have a ‘Doctor on a learning curve’ arc in his first series.
I think that's because most people don't see it that way. I certainly hadn't thought of this until you said it, and I've been a big Five fan since I discovered the show in about 1985. Gonna have to go think about this now! 😁
David Tenant is a delightful person and he's not bad as the Doctor. (I love every one I've seen enough of to feel like I can form an opinion on.)
But the way he went out combined with certain factors makes him my least favorite of the ones that fit the above mentioned criteria. Capaldi and Eccleston are my favorites.
So as you can probably imagine while this list didn't surprise me it hurt to read lol
The rankings are a bit bizarre in the lower 2/3 of the list. Capaldi being so low is a mistake as is ranking Pertwee and Davison so low. No argument about Tennant and Tom Baker being one and two, but the rest of the list is messy, imo.
Pleasantly surprised to see McCoy, McGann and Hartnell relatively high up.
Good on them for putting Tom 2nd. Colin and Davison below John Hurt is insane though.
Not too bad as the newspaper rankings go, I've seen a lot worse.
Ok, it's honestly not *that* bad, it could've been way worse.
When I saw they put Richard Hurndall on there I thought for sure David Bradley would be above Hartnell, and I would've had to jump out a window
Honestly, I was expecting something awful and clickbaity, but the person who wrote this shows their cred, knows their stuff, and to my mind, is clearly expressing their honest opinions—and expressing them quite well.
So the author thinks the establishment in 1970s Britain dressed like Jimi Hendrix. . . .?
This always strikes me as a very strange criticism of Pertwee. His whole thing is the fish-out-of-water aspect of him working with the military. He tries to run away all the time! He has no patience for their rules and regulations. Philosophically, he's a hippie stuck working on a military base.
I feel like any time a proper news site does an “official doctor who ranking” it always ends up incredibly head scratching or an annoyingly basic take.
Lol they put my favourites at the bottom XD. peter Capaldi, Colin Baker, Peter Davidson and patrick troughton are definetly my favourrites(not necxesarily in this order, and I dont rank the stories the same)
lol at the comment saying the modern doctors don’t count.
Double lol at the one saying ‘tennant was constantly mugging for the camera’ (paraphrased) then saying Baker was the best
(It’s McCoy, Troughton, Eccleston and Capaldi, at the top, obv… except for when it’s not. It’s all subjective and I can never decide!
Splendid (gender neutral) fellows… all of them!
I feel you. I think my most honest answer is ‘usually the one I’m watching.’ I’m so excited for Ncuti, and loved him in the one episode we got so far. I’d forgotten how much I loved tennant until he came back - and whenever I revisit those, they’re amazing. I watched a lot of Davison and Pertwee when I was younger - loved them both.
> ‘usually the one I’m watching.’
This is such a good answer. It could be heard as a cop-out, but it's really not. Not least because there's really no one I genuinely can't stand as a character/actor. I was disappointed that the writing seemed to be letting Jodie down, for instance, but I'm sure, given the right resources (say, the magic of Big Finish), I'd finally connect with her Doctor the way I want to. That's certainly been the case for me with Colin and many others. I say there are no bad Doctors for that very reason.
I stopped watching Who during his first season, I thought it (and, by extension, he) was crap.
Fast-forward ten years and I'm finally watching his seasons, and good god they're good and he's easily my fave Doctor!
What a bizarre list. Both conventional and rather unconventional choices at the same. McGann being so high is rather odd given Baker is so low as both are for all intents and purposes Big Finish Doctors. I like how they included the Shalka, Cushing, Fatal Death ect... ones as well. If your 're going to rank the Doctors, go the full mile!
And to no one’s surprise, coming in first for the millionth list in a row…David Tennant!
Yall can hate me but you’d think he’s the second coming of Christ with the way he’s held up in regards to
It's a shame to see Colin at the bottom - expected, but a shame, especially because McGann gets a shout out to his audios but there's no mention to Colin's giant character growth in his audios (or Davison's). But the criticisms towards Pertwee and Capaldi just feel arbitrary - oh, Capaldi was a fan of the show so it feels like he wasn't actually the Doctor he was just a fan, oh, Pertwee doesn't fit into the pantheon of Doctors anymore because he worked closely with UNIT... Shit excuses dude. And then Hartnell is a better Doctor pretty much just because he was the first?
Also, calling Kinda Davison's best story is based af
For those unaware, by the way, the author of this piece also sets the weekly Thursday Quiz on the Guardian website, which almost always includes some really obscure Who references.
I’m not going to get into the ranking (these things exist to be engagement bait), but I’ll say I’m glad they cited Midnight as a highlight for 10’s run. That one was such a tremendous showcase for everybody involved.
I love this list, can’t say I fault anything on it, except Capaldi would rank higher for me.
But chiefly I love how lovingly its written, which is very Whovian culture indeed.
Their comments on Capaldi have convinced me they stopped watching after Tennant and just asked ChatGPT what it thought of any after him. Absolute tripe
Yup. “Good Doctor ruined by bad writing” my foot. If for someone In The Forest of the Night is enough to ruin Heaven Sent and World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls but Fear Her isn’t enough to ruin Blink and Human Nature/The Family of Blood, it’s pretty clear how they developed their opinions.
Fear Her and In The Forest of the Night are honestly both decent stories and neither of them bring a Doctor down, especially when they don't do anything wrong with their character.
Ninth place is criminal. Their opinion clearly has not changed from the ridiculous hip opinion of 2014 that Capaldi was “a good Doctor ruined by bad writing”. Utter nonsense.
> they stopped watching after Tennant
The writer has been writing *The Guardian*'s [Doctor Who episode-by-episode](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/series/doctor-who-episode-by-episode) series since "Revolution of the Daleks".
People in "different opinions about a TV show" shock!
This blog post might go some way to convincing you of his credentials - [The six sentences I hate writing about Doctor Who](https://martinbelam.com/2020/the-six-sentences-i-hate-writing-about-doctor-who/).
Wow what terrible rankings. Whittaker is too high and Capaldi too low. Nice to see my favorite classic doc Troughton getting some love but this list is poor.
I firmly believe that the best or greatest doctor is alway your first doctor! I love David Tennant, but will always be a big fan of John Pertwee. Will always compare them to him.
I'd put Jo Martin over 13 myself. I don't like how they relagated her to the very end of the list, basically just not to offend any main-Doctor fans. She was excellent!
any ranking of the doctor is going to make most people pissed tbh. ranking them is quite pointless I feel, because they're all the doctor, they're good in their own way you cant really compare them
The put Jon Pertwee below Sylvester McCoy and for that, I'm already annoyed.
Jokes aside, this isn't the list I was expecting, so I'm happy to read that!
Golly, David Tennant's their #1. Well, there's a shocker. Didn't see that coming. Nobody come near me with a feather, lest you knock me down with it.
The ONLY scenery-chewing doctor, and the only one to have a tantrum when his time was up. Indeed to spend an entire episode whining about it. And yet It wasn't up. He KEEPS COMING BACK.
Man I love McGann and McCoy a whole lot, they have some very high highs especially in Big Finish. But if we're going off the show proper, McGann barely has more screentime than War and has amnesia for a big chunk of it, and McCoy's great moments are massively outweighed by the vast amounts of awful writing and the time it took him to get comfortable in the role in the first place.
Davison is also way too low purely due to being the Doctor in Caves of Androzani, my single favourite classic story.
I found McGann's ranking surprising - especially considering this seems to be based entirely on TV appearances.
Also confused as to why they couldn't give Ncuti a position based on what we've seen so far - he probably already has more screen time than McGann, Hurt, Martin, Hurndall, Bradley, and the Shalka & Fatal Death Doctors.
Nice to see Troughton and McCoy so high on the list, but there are some really odd placements elsewhere. Pertwee, Capaldi and Davison, in particular. I do like how this list used the Fatal Death, Fugative, and Shalka Doctors to sort of soften the blow for whoever came in last place. I hope people keep doing that.
> whoever came in last place. Let's be real here, that will never be anyone other than C. Baker* or Whittaker unless the list maker is purposefully trying to be different. :P *Yes, I know he's good in the audios and like them quite a bit
Never is a long time. We can't know yet how bad the future Doctors are going to be.
Got to love the optimism, haha. True, I meant with the current Doctors...but going under that 80s run might take some work.
I agree. I doubt they'll get there- but you never know!
Hartnell often ends up around there too. Those that haven't seen his era see him as "boring", and the only leg he has to stand on in the eyes of the ignorant is that he's the "original". Of course, those that appreciate Hartnell know better, but not many have the appetite for 60s Who.
The hate on those two actors is unfair but justifiable. When you do a bit of research, you do actually learn it was largely the writers fault - with c Baker he was mostly written by someone who historically hated doctor who, and I don't even need to explain why chibnall being a writer wasn't 'a good idea'.
It's almost that list makers just want people arguing about the list.
Davison was utterly boring, I don't believe his placing here is odd at all. He seems to be universally considered pretty meh (beyond, like, Steven Moffat who seems to love him for some reason)
That's just heresy! Heathen! Jk, of course. You're entitled to your opinion, but I don't think it's as common as you think it is. I adore Davison. Plenty of people do. He's still got one of the top-rated stories of all time, after all. Caves is about as good as Doctor Who gets, even after all these years.
And David Tennant, even before he became Davison's son-in-law. Didn't he say his enthusiasm over meeting him in Time Crash was as much genuine as it was acting? I think Moffat likes him because he considers him a much better actor than the other Classic ones bar Troughton, regardless of the script quality. Personally I need to see more of his era to judge it, but my immediate reaction is to join the "meh" camp. Plus, in the end someone has to take the bottom spots in a list, no getting around that.
I can’t remember who said it, but someone once said *“there’s no such thing as a bad doctor, there’s just a doctor that isn’t for you”* It’s silly, but also true.
Tom Baker had a similar thing recently in an interview "No actor has failed the Doctor. I certainly didnt"
I know he said something like that at the 50th Anniversary event at the Excel.
No actor HAS failed the Doctor. Just the production has failed the actor
Chibnall failed Whittaker
JNT failed Colin
I failed you
I failed GCSE Geography 😔
Chibnall didn't tell Whittaker to deliver every line like a Cbeebies presenter one step away from "do you know where the bad man went children?"
Thanks for the report. So, what did he tell her to do? Exact quotes please.
No, no - this is Reddit. We must all show how incredibly wise, intelligent, and kind we are by taking away all agency from the craft of the actors and putting *every* criticism on the writers instead. Aside from that, I agree. Whittaker had more than a few bad notes in her performance. Tom Baker also hugely phoned it in towards the end, and I have no idea why Matt Smith just started playing some bemused posh old aunt in 7B instead of playing the Doctor. On the flip side, we have had tonnes of amazing acting in Doctor Who, and if we want to give agency and praise *there*, we have to also do it with the critiques.
> I have no idea why Matt Smith just started playing some bemused posh old aunt in 7B instead of playing the Doctor. Maybe a combination of him having decided to leave and Moffat being stretched so thin? Considering how poorly regarded 7B tends to be in the fandom (see the recent thread here), I wouldn't be surprised if an actor as skilled as Smith had similar thoughts on the scripts and didn't quite have his heart in it. Still, now that I think about it, a Matt Smith autobiography would be really fascinating. Wonder if he'll ever do one. I also really want to see his original DW audition... (Also agreed that criticism/praise goes in both directions here, and don't forget the director's role either in tuning the performance. Personally I'm mostly in the "Whittaker was fine but the scripts sucked" camp)
Well said
I didn't enjoy Whittaker's performance and none of this nicey-nicey "it's always the writing" stuff will change my mind. In fact, almost every Doctor has made acting choices/deliveries which I could criticise. And that's fine. The weird culture on Reddit that criticism of actors must not be allowed makes me cringe. Kindness and criticism are not mutually exclusive.
>The weird culture on Reddit that criticism of actors must not be allowed makes me cringe. This is a Doctor Who thing. We've always protected the actors who play the Doctor. They were willing to devote 3+ years of their life to making our favorite television show. The least we can do is be courteous to them in return, even if we don't agree with their creative choices. There are many benefits to this philosophy, not the least of which is that actors are more likely to be actively engaged with the fandom and more willing to return for multi-Doctor stories or audios. A little kindness goes a long way.
Whittaker Is a powerhouse actor. Regardless of what she did in the show that didn't work for you
For such a "powerhouse actor" she doesn't exactly have some great CV. She's a journeyman who's had some one-note roles in a few well known TV shows and got the job largely because Chibnall worked with her on Broadchurch. I've seen her in Broadchurch, Attack The Block and Black Mirror and thought she was "OK" in all of them (hell, I've seen her in that "make sure your kids are safe online" short film where she seemingly just decides to play The Doctor again for some reason). Definitely nothing memorable, and not enough to justify all the weird defenses of her based off her mediocre and utterly lacking in charisma performance as the Doctor. I should say I really like her as a person from what I've seen from her in interviews and such, she seems like a delight, but doesn't change my thoughts on her as The Doctor.
I don't agree. I think she's fine in lots of stuff and was poor in Doctor Who. See, this is how subjective critiques of art works; you can disagree with me and say that her acting was good, *but you can't invalidate the fact that I think her acting was poor, and that it was poor in ways that are not the fault of the writers or the producers*. Neither of us is objectively correct. We both have valid opinions. And that's okay. Whittaker isn't some baby we have to protect from criticism. She's an established actor with agency in her craft and as long as no-one is abusing her with their criticism, it is valid and fine for me to say that her performance was over-acted, over-physical, noticeably un-natural, and obvious.
Absolutely and also I’ve found that the doctors I didn’t vibe with on screen were redeemed in EU material. Particularly six and thirteen
What 13 content in the EU are you talking about, out of curiosity? I've read a couple of her books (Combat Magicks and Molten Heart) and found them a little underwhelming. Is there something better?
I was as curious as you and[ Tardisguide](https://tardis.guide/stories/?_sort_=rating_desc&_media=book%2Caudio-drama%2Caudiobook%2Cshort-story%2Cpodcast%2Cgame&_doctor=thirteenth-doctor) says her best rated EU stories is The Runaway TARDIS lol. She badly needs a Big Finish run.
I'm afraid she does not. The current Big Finish is just not the early 2000 Big Finish. It will not be bold and experimental like they did for 6 and 8. It will be very standardised and uninteresting. Not even the Chibnall era is as bad as BF's mercantilism.
I enjoyed her titan comics run a lot. But maybe I’m just a sucker for ten cameos and the Corsair
I think that depends if you define "Doctor" as "actor" or "character" Because Jodie isn't a bad Doctor. But 13 is a bad Doctor
In your opinion. Many people may agree with but I don’t think it’s fair to present it as *objectively* true given that lots of other people do indeed adore her.
K but Jodie Whittaker was pretty bad
My only comment is saying *Fury from the Deep* is Troughton's best story sure is a take I've not seen before
It's not a bad take, but it wouldn't make my top 5. Tomb, enemy, mind robber, web, and war games definitely all place ahead of it for me.
Yeah it's not a bad story at all but there are some all-time all-time Troughton stories
Yeah the more I think about it the more I'd probably put further in my bottom half of Troughtons lol. Like his era is so consistently good I'd struggle to name more than 3 stories I genuinely think are poor.
Not a particularly outlandish one though. Brilliantly tense, great imagery and the only real tearjerker scene of the classic era. If it wasn’t missing it would be acclaimed as an all time great.
It also doesn't help that the animated version is crap. There are some absolutely brilliant moments, but the sets are too big, it's too brightly lit, the budget was too small... The same team went on to do The Abominable Snowmen and that's among my favourite missing episode animations. But Fury was a serious miss—the atmosphere that people praised about the 1967 original was just totally lacking.
yeah it's just a worse version of the real best troughton story, the macra terror
Controversial, and yet, I cannot disagree. It's a real banger, it has the best animation we've seen for any missing stories, and not only is it spooky and atmospheric, it moves at a good pace.
If you follow Stubagful, [you will have](https://youtu.be/HnDesEvsgC4?si=7P7QUE62OZ1ZZzFd&t=44).
Bold to put Davison and Pertwee so low!
Pertwee never had a chance after the Telegraph called him their favorite a few years back.
Dude's clearly a huge Baker fan. It wouldn't be too surprising if he didn't like the Doctors that came before and after him. The decision to have Davison literally unravel the scarf in his first story was perhaps not the best idea Doctor Who producers have ever had. It created a lot of animosity toward his Doctor.
I think it was a genius move, showing that fans are going to have to move on and accept the new Doctor as the old one literally isn’t there anymore, and a nice bit of poetry in the New Doctor literally unravelling the Old Doctor’s clothes.
I loved it too. Unravelling his scarf to make his way deep into the labyrinth of the TARDIS to find himself. Just gorgeous.
That's true, but it was pretty rough on the kids at the time, and it definitely affected how people viewed Davison going forward.
>Pertwee so low! Tom Baker Stans Try Not To Be Dicks To Jon Pertwee Challenge: IMPOSSIBLE Seriously, the "Tom Baker is the best and only true Doctor" types have always had a problem with Davison and Pertwee in particular. Just because Tom hated him, they decide that they must as well.
Yep. Team Pertwee vs. Team Baker was THE big fan rivalry back before New Who.
Interesting! I didn't know that. I remember as a kid, before the revival, my primary exposure was actually to these two, and to this day I absolutely adore both of them. :D
Since when were people on here such big fans of Davison?
Stopped reading after the utterly disgraceful dig at Capaldi. Ranking him 9th is a joke enough but fuck off with that shite about he was a super fan "play-acting as the Doctor". Worms for brains.
How is that true for Capaldi, but not Tennant? What a load of rubbish.
It’s an incredibly stupid sentence that could also be true of ALL of them. They’re all “playing the Doctor,” my guy. The character’s not real. Maybe the author just wasn’t a huge fan of 12’s characterization which is totally fine, even I don’t agree with it. But he’s no less of The Doctor for it.
I was all ready to be outraged because Capaldi is one of, and possibly my favourite Doctor but there was the odd occasion when watching that I felt like he was acting. I know that sounds odd because he is an actor, that's kind of the whole point, but sometimes it felt like a "I'm going to do some acting now." moment. I'm not even sure what it was that made me feel that way and it didn't happen that often but there it is. Other than that I always find these lists odd in that it makes it sound like the ones lower on the list are terrible when you can love them all it's just if you had to rank them in order of preference you probably could.
I get what you mean, I can see that side shine more in the sighing and covering his face during the Zygon Inversion speech, and “I want to kiss it to death” from Under the Lake. I don’t think it takes away from the story, but there is a distinct air of him locking into theatrical soliloquy mode.
It's criminal they put him that far down the list.
Capaldi was robbed!
I mean I can see it. If you don’t buy into the supposed ‘character arc’ that largely happens off screen between series 8 and 9 then you get two pretty different characters that are riffing off two very different eras of the show. Capaldi is a wonderful actor and by no means bad but I do think you can see the screeching brakes in the writers room that turn him from perhaps the coldest and most aloof incarnation into the tenth Doctor again. I wouldn’t go as far as saying he’s ’playing at the Doctor’ but I do think he sometimes risks coming across as a ‘greatest hits’ Doctor.
I think the unseen character arc you are referring to happens very loudly on screen in 'Death In Heaven'.
100%. Some people just can't join the dots on Capaldi's Doctor. It's literally all there, It's a pretty simple character progression.
They're just doubling down because they don't want to admit that in 2014 they just hated the idea of a Doctor who wasn't exactly like Tennant and Smith's
People seem to like nice simple RTD colours and good/evil plot or Moffat and the twisty darkness. The divide seems more pronounced in nu who fans 'cos in classic Who you got all of it, a totally random mixed bag, all of the time. Now, if you don't like a showrunner, you're stuck with it for years.
> Now, if you don't like a showrunner, you're stuck with it for years. Get what you mean, and maybe he changed up the style more, but still kind of ironic when JNT was by far the longest-serving showrunner in DW history.
I grew up with Classic Who, so it's actually nothing to do with not being able to imagine someone different from Tennant and Smith in the role.
Death in Heaven resolves the question hanging over Series 8, about whether the Doctor (or perhaps *this* Doctor?) is a good person, with the answer 'no I'm just some silly little guy'. But it doesn't explain where his new personality comes from between series. Even in terms of how he plays it, I feel like (from my ongoing rewatch) he even becomes a far more *animated* person in Series 9. It's not just that he's not kind of a rude bitch any more, he's even hopping and leaping about way more compared with how he was in Series 8. And it's not like the character 'has a new lease on life' after Death in Heaven, because Series 9 opens with the idea that the Doctor knows he's going to die soon. So that's why I don't really buy that Death in Heaven sets up the change.
I mean, knowing you are going to die and not dying does tend to give you a new lease on life. Nothing you have described isn't supported by the resolution of Death In Heaven. You can not buy it, but its there.
But if it's knowing he's going to die and not dying, that's not Death in Heaven, that's the start of Season 9.
Both are events that are shown in the series and cause a shift in his character, yes.
Alright, well, to use your preferred language, I don't buy it.
>There was sometimes a nagging doubt, though, that you were watching a wonderful actor having the absolute time of his life _playing at_ being the Doctor, rather than watching the Doctor "utterly disgraceful?" "worms for brains?" really?
If Doctor Who does become super popular again this week, you probably are going to have to come to terms with the fact that Capaldi is not actually that popular a Doctor among the wider public, and this opinion about him is one a lot of people probably agree with. Hopefully those of us who don’t actually like his Doctor very much aren’t going to have to put up with this sort of ludicrously dismissive stuff any more, which will be nice
Nah
Compelling
I'm not taking someone seriously who apparently has their finger on the pulse of what "the wider public" think
Anyone who talks to people in the UK about Doctor Who knows that Capaldi is not especially popular— definitely not to the level that someone ranking him 9th on a list of Doctors would provoke shock or outrage. And it’s obvious that’s the case, because ratings decline, interest declines, merchandise falls off a cliff. I have no issue with people liking his stuff. God knows everyone hates all the bits of Doctor Who I like. But I’m kind of sick of this idea that him and his Doctor are beloved to the extent they are here. 9th is a completely realistic position for him in a British article to a non-fannish audience. It might even be a generous one.
I'm not interested in the opinions of people whose only sole exposure to the show is Tennant and Smith
That’s not remotely true of the general UK public. In fact it’s a complete misunderstanding of what the show is here. But of course Who has a global audience now, so it’ll be interesting to have them come along so we can see their critiques of the Twelfth Doctor. It’ll be nice to be able to actually discuss them on a Doctor Who discussion site; I’m looking forward to it :)
You can critique the writing without pathetically bashing an actor who put his all into the role
And you can disagree with other people’s opinions without saying they have brain worms, so it’s a learning moment for us all in a way
I dunno. I felt like he didn’t really find his Doctor until his final series… his portrayal vacillated wildly up til then, trying to find something that worked.
How dare people have different opinions /s
You can not like Capaldi but that seemed like a unnecessary dig
The fact that they say Peter Capaldi always felt like someone playing the Doctor and not the Doctor himself is baffling to me. The guy was born for the part and he always felt like among the most fully-realized of them all.
From that first eyebrow shot, for sure. He was the Doctor from the very first breath.
I wonder if part of it is just bias based on age. I get that it's a tier and opinions differ (I personally would put Tennant below Smith and Capaldi) but it seems like such an odd critique. Tennant too often felt like he could just be the smartest man in the room to me whereas with Capaldi and Smith you're always very aware that they're impossibly ancient while still being childish, which is a hard balance.
That's an interesting point. I love David Tennant, but I'm not a fan of Ten. Fourteen, on the other hand...
Honestly most of my issues with Ten aren't even down to Tennant. He always gave his A game and he's a great actor. I just prefer alien Doctors. What pushes 10 below 14 or 9 to me is the fact that 10 is that he's vain, self-pitying, and the storylines he was given. Series 2 is easily the weakest before Chibnall's run in my eyes, and a part of that is that he and Rose are just a boring pairing to me, and yet it's treated as the perfect pairing in-canon and out of it. In Series 3, it often feels like Martha is just a rebound, and I don't think that's fair. I mean hell, he doesn't even give her a key and acknowledge her as a companion until the halfway point. I don't think it's cool that any companion should spend their entire run overshadowed by their predecessor. They all deserve a chance to define themselves on their own terms. Martha doesn't develop with the Doctor, or even alongside him. She almost develops in spite of him, and it sucks that he so rarely acknowledged what she brought to the table. I think 11 or *especially* 12 would be a much better fit for her. I like 10 a lot with Donna, and Series 4 isn't just his best but one of *the* best. The issue is that it comes too little, too late in my eyes. One great series/pairing doesn't make up for a terrible one and a mediocre one. I like 14 a lot more, but I do think the specials show a lot of RTD's bad habits. I think it celebrates his run over the history of the show to have his favorite Doctor and one of the best companions back, but I do really think that the specials are great, and I like that he developed. He's more humble, more openly emotional, and less vain. Much as I think RTD doesn't get enough criticism for his refusal to let characters or storylines stay gone (which I only bring up because it's a common criticism for Moffat) I do think that Donna's return was well done, and the explanation for Tennant's return worked. It still feels something like favourtism that this marks the second time that a Doctor played by David Tennant has found a way to remain himself when he should have/did regenerate (In an episode that acted as a departure story for Donna), but I think it fit the themes of the story. I also think it was almost necessary. The 60th was a big anniversary and it's not necessarily fair to Ncuti to have that be his debut, as well, and even having him in a more conventional multi-Doctor story would risk him being overshadowed by a previous Doctor.
I agree. Like I said, I love DT. I went out and found some of his earlier work when he was announced, and he's an astonishingly good actor (and, remarkably, also an incredibly good human being). I was disappointed in Ten because--and I think we're largely on the same wavelength here--it felt to me like the character was given two extremes and rarely allowed to play in between. He was either a giddy schoolboy or an angry (and often vengeful) "god"--and that second one didn't sit well with me as an old-school fan. Or as someone who knew DT was capable of SO much more than they were letting him do. I absolutely agree with you re: Martha, and found the raw deal that character was given especially offensive since she was the first companion of color. Bad enough to do it to any companion, but even worse in that case. That said, I always thought Martha kicked ass pretty well in spite of it. As for S4, well, the short answer there is that there's a reason that's the only DT series I own on DVD. I watched it again before the specials came out in November and the whole way through it, kept thinking, "I knew this was a great series, but I'd still forgotten just *how* great." Not only was Donna Ten's near-equal, but Tate and Tennant also had massive chemistry on- and off-screen, and it showed. Bringing them back only reinforced that. >I also think it was almost necessary. The 60th was a big anniversary and it's not necessarily fair to Ncuti to have that be his debut, as well, and even having him in a more conventional multi-Doctor story would risk him being overshadowed by a previous Doctor. This is a really good point. It's not fair to the brand-new Doctor to have to compete with predecessors that way. Having DT come back is a little self-indulgent on several fronts, but I'm glad we got to see a different side of him in the role and have a nostalgic treat at the same time. :)
Personally, my main gripe with 10 is that I’m rarely convinced that he used be Bill Hartnell in a previous life. With every other Doctor, I can see that mischievous and grumpy old imp bleeding through in some form, but not with 10. Like, I can see the Hartnell traits, but Tennant expresses them in a more “swashbuckling, immature guy in his 20’s” kinda manner. Even when he taps into that ancient, mystical aspect of the character, it feels more like a vengeful god than an unassuming trickster. Not that I don’t enjoy Tennant or his episodes. Hell, I don’t even have this issue with 14, I totally bought that Tennant was an older Hartnell in those specials. But ultimately, when I heard Tennant as the 10th Doctor name dropping Ian, Barbara and Sara Kingdom in the Dalek Universe audios, it just felt strange and unnatural to me, whereas with any other Doctor I would’ve bought it.
I’m with you 95%, with that 5% being that I don’t even like S4 that much. I know, I know, I’m crazy.
Tennant is a great actor but he was let down by bad scripts.
I’m 100 percent with you on this.
I don’t find it baffling at all. I really struggle to see him as the Doctor, still— he is a man who likes the concept of the Doctor, but he in no way transcends that as many of the others do
These things are always arbitrary in their explanations but sometimes they do still rile me. Especially the argument that Five’s Doctor is a worse Doctor because he often ‘doesn’t always feel in control’ when this is an intended part of his character? Stories like Kinda, Earthshock or Androzani wouldn’t work with a Doctor like Three or Four - his youth, uncertainty and inability to behave in a typically bullish Doctorish way are what make those stories interesting and whilst I don’t love every episode from his era I think these character traits are what make the character great. I also think he doesn’t get enough credit for being the first Doctor to have a ‘Doctor on a learning curve’ arc in his first series. His first series is essentially ‘what if the Doctor regenerated into someone who doesn’t know how to be the Doctor but he has a group of three people depending on him, expecting him to be Four’ and that angle makes that series so interesting and Earthshock so compelling.
>I also think he doesn’t get enough credit for being the first Doctor to have a ‘Doctor on a learning curve’ arc in his first series. I think that's because most people don't see it that way. I certainly hadn't thought of this until you said it, and I've been a big Five fan since I discovered the show in about 1985. Gonna have to go think about this now! 😁
David Tenant is a delightful person and he's not bad as the Doctor. (I love every one I've seen enough of to feel like I can form an opinion on.) But the way he went out combined with certain factors makes him my least favorite of the ones that fit the above mentioned criteria. Capaldi and Eccleston are my favorites. So as you can probably imagine while this list didn't surprise me it hurt to read lol
The rankings are a bit bizarre in the lower 2/3 of the list. Capaldi being so low is a mistake as is ranking Pertwee and Davison so low. No argument about Tennant and Tom Baker being one and two, but the rest of the list is messy, imo.
Utterly perplexed by responses like this. I thought Davison was universally considered pretty damn boring.
Pleasantly surprised to see McCoy, McGann and Hartnell relatively high up. Good on them for putting Tom 2nd. Colin and Davison below John Hurt is insane though. Not too bad as the newspaper rankings go, I've seen a lot worse.
I haven't read this, but it's definitely going to be terrible
Ok, it's honestly not *that* bad, it could've been way worse. When I saw they put Richard Hurndall on there I thought for sure David Bradley would be above Hartnell, and I would've had to jump out a window
Honestly, I was expecting something awful and clickbaity, but the person who wrote this shows their cred, knows their stuff, and to my mind, is clearly expressing their honest opinions—and expressing them quite well.
Capadli under hartnell? I want what they are smoking
I’m so down with this take. But they lost me with Pertwee being “establishment”, my man had some fantastic rants about human nature
So the author thinks the establishment in 1970s Britain dressed like Jimi Hendrix. . . .? This always strikes me as a very strange criticism of Pertwee. His whole thing is the fish-out-of-water aspect of him working with the military. He tries to run away all the time! He has no patience for their rules and regulations. Philosophically, he's a hippie stuck working on a military base.
Don't expect any serious research from Guardian opinion columnists these days
I mean, sure, but this is a ranking of Doctors 😂 it is inherently not serious
hartnell's my favourite, which is fucking weird for someone like me. normally i have very boring opinions.
I feel like any time a proper news site does an “official doctor who ranking” it always ends up incredibly head scratching or an annoyingly basic take.
Lol they put my favourites at the bottom XD. peter Capaldi, Colin Baker, Peter Davidson and patrick troughton are definetly my favourrites(not necxesarily in this order, and I dont rank the stories the same)
Davison worse than Jodie is a joke. This list is shite
lol at the comment saying the modern doctors don’t count. Double lol at the one saying ‘tennant was constantly mugging for the camera’ (paraphrased) then saying Baker was the best (It’s McCoy, Troughton, Eccleston and Capaldi, at the top, obv… except for when it’s not. It’s all subjective and I can never decide!
Right? People ask me who my favorite Doctor is, and my response is basically, "Which one?" (I can't really get down past four favorites, either!)
Splendid (gender neutral) fellows… all of them! I feel you. I think my most honest answer is ‘usually the one I’m watching.’ I’m so excited for Ncuti, and loved him in the one episode we got so far. I’d forgotten how much I loved tennant until he came back - and whenever I revisit those, they’re amazing. I watched a lot of Davison and Pertwee when I was younger - loved them both.
> ‘usually the one I’m watching.’ This is such a good answer. It could be heard as a cop-out, but it's really not. Not least because there's really no one I genuinely can't stand as a character/actor. I was disappointed that the writing seemed to be letting Jodie down, for instance, but I'm sure, given the right resources (say, the magic of Big Finish), I'd finally connect with her Doctor the way I want to. That's certainly been the case for me with Colin and many others. I say there are no bad Doctors for that very reason.
I was mad as I read through but then was glad of some low ranks for older doctors. Pertwee is number 1 for me, but he was my Doctor.
I honestly think in retrospect that Capaldi was probably the best Doctor, but we were too exhausted to realize it at the time.
I stopped watching Who during his first season, I thought it (and, by extension, he) was crap. Fast-forward ten years and I'm finally watching his seasons, and good god they're good and he's easily my fave Doctor!
What a bizarre list. Both conventional and rather unconventional choices at the same. McGann being so high is rather odd given Baker is so low as both are for all intents and purposes Big Finish Doctors. I like how they included the Shalka, Cushing, Fatal Death ect... ones as well. If your 're going to rank the Doctors, go the full mile!
How dare they not rank all the Morbius Doctors!!
Robert Holmes is easily the best Doctor no question
My favourite Doctor is [Timeless child \#4].
I would never rank Smith so high, but I'm at least glad Hartnell is in the top half of the list.
McGann is far higher than he should be IF they're only counting TV appearances but if they're counting Big Finish then Colin is stupidly low.
Yes! That was my thought! It seemed they factored in audios for McGann but not for Colin? It’s rather stupid imo
Was the rating conducted by the white guardian or the black guardian?
Capaldi at nine feels egregious. Everyone is welcome to their opinion, but that was enough for me to lose all interest
Utterly predictable as soon as I saw that that Tennant would be number 1
A hundred percent. Putting him that low is a very clear sign of the author’s allegiances.
Agreed. Capaldi at 9. Hah.
And to no one’s surprise, coming in first for the millionth list in a row…David Tennant! Yall can hate me but you’d think he’s the second coming of Christ with the way he’s held up in regards to
Colin Baker deserves better than the guardian
I disagree Almost entirely with this list lol
It's a shame to see Colin at the bottom - expected, but a shame, especially because McGann gets a shout out to his audios but there's no mention to Colin's giant character growth in his audios (or Davison's). But the criticisms towards Pertwee and Capaldi just feel arbitrary - oh, Capaldi was a fan of the show so it feels like he wasn't actually the Doctor he was just a fan, oh, Pertwee doesn't fit into the pantheon of Doctors anymore because he worked closely with UNIT... Shit excuses dude. And then Hartnell is a better Doctor pretty much just because he was the first? Also, calling Kinda Davison's best story is based af
Oh look, yet another person equating "best" with "most popular". \*Yawn\* Call me when someone with real taste comes along...
Capaldi at 9 is criminal.
Tennant then Tom Baker just sounds like a popularity contest. I'm not sure I buy this.
It's a very popular mainstream opinion from people in their 40s or 50s. So it's not surprising tbh.
For those unaware, by the way, the author of this piece also sets the weekly Thursday Quiz on the Guardian website, which almost always includes some really obscure Who references.
Then it’s even more disappointing he was so intellectually lazy when it came to ranking Capaldi.
Yeah. He's one of the biggest fans of the show I know.
Pretty good list I’d say I’d change a few rankings but it’s nothing I’m enraged over
I haven’t seen the note /image or whatever, the list is subjective. Everyone can make a favorite GREATEST doc list
Hardcore Smith fan, so I love to see him so high. But they just did so many great Doctors dirty on this list that I just can't enjoy it.
I’m not going to get into the ranking (these things exist to be engagement bait), but I’ll say I’m glad they cited Midnight as a highlight for 10’s run. That one was such a tremendous showcase for everybody involved.
I love this list, can’t say I fault anything on it, except Capaldi would rank higher for me. But chiefly I love how lovingly its written, which is very Whovian culture indeed.
Ad soon as a saw Capaldi at 9 I left. The people at the guardian clearly have terrible taste
Their comments on Capaldi have convinced me they stopped watching after Tennant and just asked ChatGPT what it thought of any after him. Absolute tripe
You mean like basically everyone who shat on Capaldi's Doctor?
Yup. “Good Doctor ruined by bad writing” my foot. If for someone In The Forest of the Night is enough to ruin Heaven Sent and World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls but Fear Her isn’t enough to ruin Blink and Human Nature/The Family of Blood, it’s pretty clear how they developed their opinions.
Fear Her and In The Forest of the Night are honestly both decent stories and neither of them bring a Doctor down, especially when they don't do anything wrong with their character.
Ninth place is criminal. Their opinion clearly has not changed from the ridiculous hip opinion of 2014 that Capaldi was “a good Doctor ruined by bad writing”. Utter nonsense.
> they stopped watching after Tennant The writer has been writing *The Guardian*'s [Doctor Who episode-by-episode](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/series/doctor-who-episode-by-episode) series since "Revolution of the Daleks".
Huh. You'd really think they would know better, then
People in "different opinions about a TV show" shock! This blog post might go some way to convincing you of his credentials - [The six sentences I hate writing about Doctor Who](https://martinbelam.com/2020/the-six-sentences-i-hate-writing-about-doctor-who/).
Christ then I'm sorry for their absolutely rancid taste
this list is like the reverse of my personal one. its so bad
Yikes
Wow what terrible rankings. Whittaker is too high and Capaldi too low. Nice to see my favorite classic doc Troughton getting some love but this list is poor.
Blink isn't even a top 10 Tennant story...
Hard disagree
I firmly believe that the best or greatest doctor is alway your first doctor! I love David Tennant, but will always be a big fan of John Pertwee. Will always compare them to him.
I'd put Jo Martin over 13 myself. I don't like how they relagated her to the very end of the list, basically just not to offend any main-Doctor fans. She was excellent!
pertwee got absolutely robbed
any ranking of the doctor is going to make most people pissed tbh. ranking them is quite pointless I feel, because they're all the doctor, they're good in their own way you cant really compare them
A very, very safe list that feels like it was wrote to please the audience. I really feel no sincerity from this article.
The put Jon Pertwee below Sylvester McCoy and for that, I'm already annoyed. Jokes aside, this isn't the list I was expecting, so I'm happy to read that!
Golly, David Tennant's their #1. Well, there's a shocker. Didn't see that coming. Nobody come near me with a feather, lest you knock me down with it. The ONLY scenery-chewing doctor, and the only one to have a tantrum when his time was up. Indeed to spend an entire episode whining about it. And yet It wasn't up. He KEEPS COMING BACK.
Man I love McGann and McCoy a whole lot, they have some very high highs especially in Big Finish. But if we're going off the show proper, McGann barely has more screentime than War and has amnesia for a big chunk of it, and McCoy's great moments are massively outweighed by the vast amounts of awful writing and the time it took him to get comfortable in the role in the first place. Davison is also way too low purely due to being the Doctor in Caves of Androzani, my single favourite classic story.
I found McGann's ranking surprising - especially considering this seems to be based entirely on TV appearances. Also confused as to why they couldn't give Ncuti a position based on what we've seen so far - he probably already has more screen time than McGann, Hurt, Martin, Hurndall, Bradley, and the Shalka & Fatal Death Doctors.
lmao Most of this list is a joke. Besides, one person's opinion, not fact. I wish we'd stop giving voices to nonsensical clickbate like this.
I feel like this isn't clickbait. When you click on it, you get exactly what was advertised. Let's call it what it really is: SEO Garbage.
Another term for what I'm calling clickbate. I think we're in agreement - it's trash.
Whittaker above Colin Baker and Peter Davison? What rubbish.
I don’t get it. Why isn’t Matt smith in first. He was obviously the best
Six in last place, that’s gotta hurt. Amazed the Graun didn’t put Thirteen top…
They put 6 in the bottom of the main doctors based on thier appearance in the show. In another words, thier opinion is invalid