Who's your favourite Who?

Well, is it the bohemian Major Tom, Peter Davison-he of the 'pleasant, open face', according to novelist Terrance Dicks-or the whimsical Mr Troughton? Who is your Doctor, and why?

For me, it has to be Tom Baker, still the definitive Doctor in my eyes, though Pat Troughton and Paul McGann come a close joint second (Paul, mainly for his excellent audio stories).

Has to be Jon Pertwee.
My mother wrote to him when I was 7 (I had just got into Doctor who and he was my favorite) when I was about to go into hospital. He sent me an autograph and a nicely written letter. He also told me about an upcoming convention, I think it was Manoptican 3 and that if I was better I could meet him in private. I did and he was a very very charming man, he's one of the few actors I say are worthy of their hero status. Had a long chat about his time on classic who and as gummage, lovely lovely man.

Up until his death he wrote to me regually as a pen friend, always sending letters when I was ging into hospital to cheer me up. I cant think of any other actor who gave so much back to their fans. I still have the letters to this day. I keep them private and wont pass them on out of respect for Jon. However one day I'll show them to my kids (or more likely sisters kids) and say theres are letters from the Doctor himself and what a nice man he was.

Amazing story! He really did appreciate his fans, didn't he? When the other Doctors would visit conventions as themselves, he always got into the spirit of the thing and would stride onto the stage in costume and boom 'I-am-the-Doctor!' Inevitably to a huge round of applause...

Colin Baker is very much like him. Remember the well wishes he sent me after loosing my eye?

Jon though will always be special for me. He was a shining light at a very dark time in my life. Just having the support of a man (who at that age you would view as the doctor) who you looked up to was great.

Hourglass wrote:Colin Baker is very much like him. Remember the well wishes he sent me after loosing my eye?

Jon though will always be special for me. He was a shining light at a very dark time in my life. Just having the support of a man (who at that age you would view as the doctor) who you looked up to was great.

I've met Colin, a lovely man who is still unjustly under-appreciated, I think. He was a great ambassador for Doctor Who, and his stories are generally a lot better than they're remembered as being. Sadly, most people couldn't see past the absurd costume, one of the worst mistakes any producer ever made...

...there's definitely an article for Crikey! about your letters from Pertwee, Mr Hourglass. Do you still have them? Get them scanned and over to me along with your prose and we'll get it in to the magazine!!

Jon Pertwwe for me! I met him at Longleat in 1983 and he was courtesy itself! Plus! The MAGNIFICENT season 7 which is still my favourite season! Pat Troughton close No 2 though!

alanultron5 wrote:Jon Pertwwe for me! I met him at Longleat in 1983 and he was courtesy itself! Plus! The MAGNIFICENT season 7 which is still my favourite season! Pat Troughton close No 2 though!

Season 7 was totally unlike the rest of Pertwee's era, but it was definitely his best, I think. Had a very 'Quatermass' feel to it. I particularly liked Spearhead from Space and The Ambassadors of Death.

GBF wrote:...there's definitely an article for Crikey! about your letters from Pertwee, Mr Hourglass. Do you still have them? Get them scanned and over to me along with your prose and we'll get it in to the magazine!!

I do have them yes, but I must turn down your offer. The letters are personal and I feel it is wrong ethically to release them now that Jon is no longer with us. I hope you understand.

However I will show you the photo of Jon and I when we had that personal meeting at Manoptican. The photo is a bit aged though, but it still has pride and place on my desk.

Hourglass wrote:However I will show you the photo of Jon and I when we had that personal meeting at Manoptican. The photo is a bit aged though, but it still has pride and place on my desk.

Oh, wow! Jon at his big haired peak...

He never really looked his age, did he?

tony ingram wrote:

Hourglass wrote:However I will show you the photo of Jon and I when we had that personal meeting at Manoptican. The photo is a bit aged though, but it still has pride and place on my desk.

Oh, wow! Jon at his big haired peak...

He never really looked his age, did he?

What was brilliant about Jon was he ALWAYS looked like the doctor. McCoy, the Bakers and even Davison no longer really look doctorish but for me Jon always maintained that look.
You know looking at that photo almost brings a tear to my eye. I think I was very lucky to have had such a good child hood hero. I can't understand why people choose the heros they have these days. Jon may have just been an actor but he was a bloody good man, did a lot for his fans, for charity, served his country and whilst not the best boy at school (being expelled sooooooo many times lol) he is a perfect example of someone who didnt have an easy life but rose above it. I guess that's why I really admired him.

Tom Baker, on the other hand, failed as a monk because he was too keen on girls. Which is probably why he's my hero...

Anyone here attend the big Longleat Dr Who extravaganza in April 1983? The weather was very cold for April and I had recently suffered a bout of Pleurasy (Probably spelled it wrong!) Still a great day out though! Only time I ever heard a Cyberman swear!!

alanultron5 wrote:Anyone here attend the big Longleat Dr Who extravaganza in April 1983? The weather was very cold for April and I had recently suffered a bout of Pleurasy (Probably spelled it wrong!) Still a great day out though! Only time I ever heard a Cyberman swear!!

I was there for part of it. I still have some memorabilia from it somewhere, might have to have a hunt around and post some pictures on here...

Growing up in the 70's, I was lucky enough to have Pertwee and T Baker as 'my' Doctors. Both completely brilliant, both completely different to each other, but I had to vote for Pertwee as I feel he showed more consistency throughout his run. It was close, though.

I watch those 70's episodes now on a regular basis and am taken right back to Saturday teatime's. In fact, I fancy watching The Sea Devils right this minute

It'll take a bit more than one minute to convince me, but I've just seen the new trailer for the upcoming season and I have to admit, Matt Smith may actually be starting to grow on me...

I've not seen Matt Smith in anything, so I can't comment on him as an actor, but the trailer looks promising. I do feel, however, that the show is in great hands as I do think Moffat is an outstanding writer.

My seven year old son remains to be convinced, as he loved '10' and doesn't like the look of '11' at all.

I remember being six or seven myself and being quite upset at the end of Planet Of the Spiders when The Great Pert changed into some new upstart. it took me a while to accept this new guy before admitting he was just as great.

The regeneration of The Doctor is such a huge, cultural, event. (well, most of them) I know memories of Tennant into Smith will stick with my son just as long as Pertwee into Baker did for me.

It was Baker into Davison for me, but I know what you mean. And I am cautiously optimistic about the new series as well as the new Doctor-I didn't really like Russell T Davies' Who and never rated him as a writer, but Moffat's episodes so far have all been among the better ones (Blink and The Empty Child were outstanding) and I don't think I've ever seen anything else of his that I haven't liked. Coupling, Chalk, Joking Apart and Press Gang were all excellent series'. Let's hope he can maintain the quality.

Yes, Baker into Davison was quite the event as well. I know that Logopolis gets quite a mixed reaction from many in Who fandom, but for me, its one of the best stories in the classic series. I never get tired of watching the thing, and even Adric is OK in this

Then again, I just love the whole of the Bidmead influenced Season 18, and I know that gets quite a mixed reaction as well.

I thought season 18 was incredible. The 'E Space Trilogy' and then Keeper of Traken and Logopolis are one of the strongest runs of stories ever, and The Leisure Hive was pretty good, too (though Mglos rather let the side down). Bidmead actually tried to make Doctor Who into credible science fiction, and I only wish he'd stayed longer. It all had a very fresh, new, and slightly more adult feel to it which had me enthralled at the time. It still does, really.

It's got to be 10 for me, i always knew of the existence of Doctor Who whilst growing up and might just have seen some of the 1989 episodes on thier first broadcast (can't remember a thing about them, mind). I also remember seeing the Daleks and some burning city on TV in the early 90's when repeats were on (i also watched the start of the 1996 special but thought it was boring and gave up after 10 minutes). However i barely knew a thing about the show until it re-started in 2005... did 9 stick around long enough to be anybody's "real doctor", though? XD.

Unfortunately, probably not. Which is a shame as Eccleston had potential, I thought. A shame he appears to have been somewhat 'missold' the concept of Doctor Who (which seems not to have been the show he thought it was going to be), then largely sidelined in favour of Rose Tyler. His season really should have been titled 'Rose Tyler & Her Depressing Northern Sidekick' rather than 'Doctor Who'...

LOL thats brilliant Tony.
But I agree, and theres a lot of speculation around that he wasn't happy with the show. He praised it on DWC so it looks like he wanted to stay on but something really must have pushed him, and my own theory is RTDs scripts where not on par with what he expected. He is an actor who likes serious roles and he just wasn't getting any, or any scene that had a serious feel to it was chaved up with piper.

Unfortunately, since Eccleston appears to be reluctant to do interviews, I doubt we'll ever really know what caused him to leave, but I think you're right.

Perhaps when the show is cancelled when people see it for what it is, he may stand up. I think he should personally. I admire BBC staff when they complain about the quality of BBC programing. Doctor Who came pretty close to making me sell my TV and stop paying the license fee.

Hourglass wrote:Perhaps when the show is cancelled when people see it for what it is, he may stand up.

Not if he wants to work for the BBC again...

Given the state of the BBC, I wonder if he'd want to.

Don't sit on the fence there, lads, say what you really think!

felneymike wrote:

Don't sit on the fence there, lads, say what you really think!

Sorry, Mike-we really are Who fans, honest! Just not necessarily fans of the outgoing producer and his vision of the show...

Tom.

'My' Doctor was Sylv, and I still love him (and he's still appallingly underrated) but there's no one to top Tom. Da man. Love all the classic Docs, though, really.

codywillis1 wrote:Tom.

'My' Doctor was Sylv, and I still love him (and he's still appallingly underrated) but there's no one to top Tom. Da man. Love all the classic Docs, though, really.

McCoy's last season, I thought, was the best Doctor Who had been in years. Unfortunately, his first was a pantomime farce that ensured most viewers never watched his second, let alone his third. Not his fault, of course. And he's been brilliant in the Big Finish audio stories.

Eccleston was my Doctor. Wish he'd got more than one series.

He took awhile to grow on me, but he was certainly more suited to the part than his successor. There are only a handful of new series stories I've really liked, and he starred in three of them (four episodes)!

I think it's telling that my favourite Ten story is when Ten thinks he's John Smith for 99% of the story.

If there's a movie, I want Eccleston in it. Or I'll thcream and thcream and thcream until I'm thick.

Likewise, though I'd place Human Nature second; my personal favourite Tennant story is Blink, in which he basically barely appears...

Blink has loads of terror and suspense, yes, but Human Nature has the emotional drama as well as the terror.

Lucy McGough wrote:Blink has loads of terror and suspense, yes, but Human Nature has the emotional drama as well as the terror.

I'm more a terror and suspense man, really. Emotional drama has its place as long as it isn't overly sentimentalised but give me screaming nightmares behind the curtains any day; I'm shallow like that...

Men

In that case, you should have been a big fan of Eccleston. He was dark and gritty. And Northern. Northern guys sound more menacing.

Lucy McGough wrote:Men

In that case, you should have been a big fan of Eccleston. He was dark and gritty. And Northern. Northern guys sound more menacing.

Northerners never stop whining, though. Eccleston demonstrated this admirably. He's almost in tears halfway through his first episode, wailing at the Nestene creature that 'it wasn't my fauuuult!' Give me the stoic officer types of those old World War II movies any day. 'I say chaps, sorry I'm late back but I got the entire lower half of my body blown off by a Hun. Had to fashion a makeshift boat from a soapbox and row back from Dieppe in it using my legs as oars so I'm a bit overdue. Oh, I say! You rotters have finished all the bacon and eggs!' Now that was an attitude you could admire!

tony ingram wrote:Northerners never stop whining, though.

Even as a slightly whiney Northerner, I'm quite offended by that.

Sandhopper wrote:

tony ingram wrote:Northerners never stop whining, though.

Even as a slightly whiney Northerner, I'm quite offended by that.

Actually, I was trying to offend GBF but he seems not to have noticed...

By the way, the poll should have been multiple choice. That way I could have voted for Hartnell AND Eccleston, who is currently scandalously neglected

Lucy McGough wrote:By the way, the poll should have been multiple choice. That way I could have voted for Hartnell AND Eccleston, who is currently scandalously neglected

Well, there's hardly a contest though, is there? Hmm? Hmmm? No, dear me no, child, and if it had been multiple choice you could have left him my vote! Er...

Eccleston then Tom Baker then Jon Pertwee then Colin

THEDRUNKENMASTERTWO wrote:Eccleston then Tom Baker then Jon Pertwee then Colin

I think you're the first person I've seen rate Eccleston top!

tony ingram wrote:

THEDRUNKENMASTERTWO wrote:Eccleston then Tom Baker then Jon Pertwee then Colin

I think you're the first person I've seen rate Eccleston top!

shame he only did the one year but he's by far the best actor to play the part.

THEDRUNKENMASTERTWO wrote:

tony ingram wrote:

THEDRUNKENMASTERTWO wrote:Eccleston then Tom Baker then Jon Pertwee then Colin

I think you're the first person I've seen rate Eccleston top!

shame he only did the one year but he's by far the best actor to play the part.

Ah, now if you're talking technical ability I'd have to rate Davison highly, though he wasn't my favourite Doctor. My own favourite is still Tom, though he's no great shakes as an actor-it's simply the part he was born to play, as it's basically just him.

I'd have rated Eccleston joint top with Hartnell if the mechanics of the poll had allowed me to do so.

Lucy McGough wrote:I'd have rated Eccleston joint top with Hartnell if the mechanics of the poll had allowed me to do so.

The two most habitually irritable Doctors? Hmm...