I had never watched Doctor Who, but I am a big fan of Jodi Whittaker, so when she was named the new doctor, I started recording the series. I watched the first episode in January 2020, liked it, and Tivo has been recording it ever since.
Until this weekend, I had only watched the first episode with the new doctor. I am now on episode 6, and I am watching it as I did when I started watching The Arrow and Flash and Marvel’s Agents of Shield – with absolutely no knowledge of any of the backstories. So I have tons of questions!
Are there any Doctor Who peeps who might want to talk about Doctor Who and possibly answer some of my questions?
I remember nothing from episode one with Jodi Whittaker, except the I liked it! I am thinking that the doctor is always the same person/spirit, but just in different bodies over time. I am guessing that each doctor has friends who travel with that particular doctor, and guessing that when the doctor changes, the friends change, also.
What I do know is that I love Jodi Whittaker as the doctor. What does everybody else think? Who’s your favorite Doctor?
Open Thread.
Nicole
You are correct- same character, in different bodies. Started three years into the show when the first actor grew too ill to continue. One of the best creative decisions made by necessity ever.
I guess your first Doctor is often your favorite, and I like Tom Baker (at least, his early seasons) but I’ve really liked all the actors- they all have brought such different choices and energies that I can’t even really compare them.
Glad you’re enjoying it! I haven’t seen any of hers yet, but I was absolutely thrilled when they cast a woman in the role.
zzyzx
Sometimes the companions overlap different Doctors. Sometimes they want a fresh start. It depends on the showrunner really.
Noskilz
I haven’t seen the latest series, but I’ve liked all the material from the relaunch that I’ve seen. I’ve picked up some of the boxed sets (for some reason Capaldi’s doesn’t seem to be available right now), but I haven’t managed to get caught up yet.
My favorite Doctor is Tom Baker, but they’re all fun.
Stillwater
Dr Who gets regenerated, so it’s the same, like, soul inhabiting different bodies.
As for how the Whitaker/Chris Chibnall Dr Who stacks up against previous Drs and show runners, you’ll have to watch the reboot from the start. Only then will you understand what a disappointment the Whitaker/Chibnall Dr Who is. (I say that as someone who loves Whitaker as an actress.)
zzyzx
And yes, it’s the same being but different aspects of their personality come out over time. Especially in the older version 5 and 6 are quite different takes on the character.
Emma from FL
When it was announced Whitaker would be the new Doctor I danced in joy. She is marvelous!
I am an old Whovian, having discovered the series when the mythical Tom Baker was the Doctor. Of the “new” doctors, I find something to like in all of them, but Eccleston has a thin edge.
By the way, the friends don’t necessarily change if the Doctor changes. There are some companions that have achieved mythical status: Sara Jane Smith, Adric (whose death triggered anger in a few thousand parents whose kids were traumatized), and K-9 the robot dog.
Yeah, I’m a Doctor nerd.
Starfish
The doctor usually has one friend that travels with him known as a companion, but there was that season where there was the companion and her fiance, right?
There are usually themes of loss and longing about when the doctor and the companion have to part ways.
My spouse watches a lot more Dr. Who than I do.
FlyingToaster
Okay (and don’t fucking @ me, dammit!):
Favorite Doctor, Original era: Tom Baker (the guy with the hair and the scarf and the Jelly Babies)
Favorite Doctor, New era: Peter Capaldi.
The “friends” are called Companions. Some companions last across Regeneration (Sarah Jane Smith, Rose Tyler, Clara Oswald). Others are there for a single season or episode. The very first companion was his memory-wiped grandaughter, when they were hiding from the Gallifreyan Council. A very few companions die in the saddle (Adric, Bill Potts); most are returned home relatively unharmed.
The Doctor is supposed to be from Gallifrey, and having completed a degree at the Academy, is a Time Lord. As an older man, he stole a Mark 23 Tardis from the disassembly line; it was defective due to a malfunctioning chameleon circuit and what seems to be an AI run amuck.
The Doctor chose his name because he wanted to fix things, rather than accept Gallifrey’s official non-involvement policy. The other Time Lord you see a lot of is the Master, a former classmate from the Academy who wants to be the boss.
The two big villanous species you will see frequently are the Daleks (“Exterminate” and the Cybermen.
Most of this you’ll pick up as you go. Really.
Woodrow/asim
Yes! As an somewhat-rebellious old-school Whovian, I actually adore a lot of the current series with Whittaker. It’s weaknesses are from swinging for the fences, and expanding the narrative of a show that should constantly be doing so (looking at you Moffat!)
That’s actually a great way of putting it, esp. when you say “spirit”. I say that because the more mundane answer is that The Doctor is the same person with a different personality, yet there are a lot of radical approaches to playing him. For example: McCoy’s Doctor (aka the 7th Doctor), esp. towards the end, is very different in not just tone but moral code than, say, the 4th Doctor played by Peter Davidson.
FYI: up until very recently (like last 5 years or so) the assumption was that Time Lords (the species The Doctor is from) kept the same gender. There’s a…lot of churn still in the Doctor Who fandom over them retconning this, sadly.
Almost always, yep! The usually term is Companion(s), and the vast majority of them are younger woman. Of those women, most are from England, and the majority of them are from time periods roughly contemporary to when the show is being made.
Not always! It’s not unknown for the Companion(s) to stay a while, even years, after the actors change. For example, arguably the most popular Companion, Sarah Jane Smith, starts in the last year of the 3rd Doctor, but is likely better known for her years of adventures with the 4th Doctor. In contrast, the Human Medical Doctor who was also a 3rd Doctor companion, Harry Sullivan, got written out after a few serials with the 4th Doctor.
(Edited to add — and no, he didn’t get written out because having two Doctors was confusing to say :)
eddie blake
@Starfish:
that was doctor eleven, matt smith, and the ponds, rory and amy pond.
good stuff
i first heard about it with the fourth doctor, really got into it with peter davison, doctor five.
all of the new doctors have been very good. nine through thirteen, including the one-shot war doctor played by john hurt.
i really am enjoying the whovian renaissance.
sdhays
The companions don’t really change when The Doctor’s body changes – sometimes the change coincides with doctor’s body change, but not always. The Doctor is immortal and the companions aren’t, and the companions usually eventually have another life to get back to, either by choice or otherwise.
Something that’s irritating and fun at the same time is the absurd centrality of the UK in The Doctor’s encounters with humanity. We Americans inflict this on the rest of the world all the time, so it’s interesting to be on the other end of it for once, while at the same time it’s still so absurd that it can be occasionally irritating.
I never watched the old episodes, but I watched the reboot up through somewhere in season 8 (I think), and then I haven’t really been back since. I didn’t stop watching for any particular reason, I probably went on a trip or something and just didn’t get back to it. It’s something I keep meaning to get back into to catchup and see the new Doctor, but I don’t really watch all that much TV anymore with the toddler.
I will say that I don’t really care for the Christmas specials usually. They tend to be a little bit too much for me.
Keith P.
The Fourth (Tom Baker)
WaterGirl
I love that the Doctor is a woman. I love that she strides around like, there’s no doubt about who’s in charge, regardless of gender. I have no idea how I would feel if I had watched Doctor Who earlier, but it feels like anyone who had a problem with her gender would also have a problem with the idea of Idris Elba being James Bond.
eddie blake
@Woodrow/asim:
baker was the fourth doctor. scarf. jellybabies.
the fifth was peter davison.
zzyzx
@Woodrow/asim:
You did both of those mistakes just to see how many people would correct you, right?
Mag
I’ve been watching Doctor Who since it was first broadcast on PBS in the early 1980s. I tend to prefer the show in its original 20th century version, than the reimagining 21st century version. Of the modern Doctors Who, I probably like Capaldi the best as a character, but not many of the stories have captured my imagination as much as the more vintage ones.
WaterGirl
I did not know that the Doctor is immortal! So when she got hurt in the episode with the little energy-eating alien, her body must have been repairing itself as the episode went along.
WaterGirl
@zzyzx: This is flying right over my head.
slightly_peeved
Tom Baker was the 4th, I thought. Peter Davidson was the 5th.
A woman Doctor had occurred once before in the Comic Relief special “The Curse of Fatal Death”, where the Doctor was played by Joanna Lumley amongst others.
jackmac
About time there is a woman Doctor and Jodi Whittaker is simply terrific in the role. She’s a worthy successor to the previous four Doctors since the series rebooted. Some of the plot twists in Season 12 left me thinking ‘WTF?’ but I’m willing to let those play out in the Season 13. I’m still not totally sold on having three companions, but they’ve grown on me. My favorite remains Peter Capaldi, the cranky, caring and idiosyncratic previous Doctor. I wish he had a fourth season, but three years seems the limit for each Doctor (with the exception of Christopher — One and Done — Eccleston). If the pattern holds, Whittaker would be entering her third (and potentially final) season as the Doctor, so what comes next now that the white, male mold has been broken?
zzyzx
@WaterGirl: Peter Davison is the 5th Doctor, not the 4th. “Davidson” is a common misspelling of his last name which is a way of driving die hards crazy as we try to stop ourselves from correcting it.
Mag
I think any kind of numbering of the Doctors Who is meaningless now thanks to Moffat’s insertion of a war Doctor and Chibnall’s rejiggering continuity in the series 12’s finale.
Simpler just refer to a Doctor as the Hartnell Doctor or the Tennant Doctor than to use a number.
scav
And, never ever expect agreement among Whovians. I’m in the adore Moffat camp — although I can see his weaknesses, the swings where he connects are stunning. And while Russell T had some brilliant episodes as well, there are nadirs there. and John Nathan-Turner? I generally just aim to let whoever’s in charge tell their story: rather like the doctors regenerate into something different yet connected, so does the production team. But then, I do sometimes love a bubblewrap monster on a wobbly set.
Keith
I have seen every doctor from William Hartnell on. He actually remains a favorite of mine. He only departed the series due to ill-health, which was something of a loss – and, as it was unexpected, is the true origin story of why the show runners had to resort to rebirth/reincarnation for the Doctor.
I am saving the recent incarnation featuring Jodie Whittaker for a quarantined binge-view.
Baud
I never watched Doctor Who but here’s some thread theme music.
zzyzx
I was introduced via the 4th like so many people as it aired on Maryland Public Broadcasting in the 80s. The Logopolis/Castrovalva end of the 4th/beginning of the 5th episodes were ones that I watched so much that I realized I had them almost memorized when I got them again as an adult. Sylvester McCoy and Ace are probably my favorite old pairing and Matt Smith/Amy/Rory my favorite new.
Leto
Bow ties are cool…
senyordave
I loved her in Sigmund and the Sea Monsters.
NotMax
“This videotape is only labeled ‘SF Mix.’ What’s on it?”
“Don’t rightly recall except am sure Who’s on first.”
WaterGirl
@Baud: Speaking of TARDIS, is it always a phone booth? Or does that change over time, as well?
scav
@WaterGirl: The TARDIS is supposed to change, only it doesn’t, All hail the chameleon circuit and its brokenness!
jackmac
I’m suddenly motivated to binge and revisit the previous Dr. Who season. ‘Hamilton’ has been on almost nonstop in my house during the past week, so it’s time for a change of pace!
zzyzx
@WaterGirl: Always except for one episode (6th Doctor’s Attack of the Cybermen) where the chameleon circuit (what’s supposed to make it blend in) was fixed for an episode… kind of. It did not make more effective disguises at all.
WaterGirl
@scav:
I don’t understand what that means.
trollhattan
One of the best bits in “Sid and Nancy” was when some of the lads suddenly break into Dalek imitations, “Exterminate, exterminate!”
Just wanted to note that.
Having watched it in chunks, out of sequence and starting back to when the Daleks seemed too hopelessly cheesy to be arch enemies, I don’t have informed fan status–that would be my kid who is encyclopedic and also has several sonic screwdrivers from various Doctors. Weeping angels gave her nightmares. I have missed several series entirely and the DVR is not terribly reliable grabbing new episodes.
Guess my favorite Doctor has to be David Tennant and I had a hard time squaring his uber criminal in “Jessica Jones” with his Doctor. Whittaker is just fine as the Doctor and having a cadre of companions rather than just one is an interesting twist. She projects a relentless positivity that suits the role.
What does the shipping crate for a tardis look like?
Jay
These days, I root for the Dalaks.
When they run “ Independance Day”, I cheer when the aliens blow up the White Supremacy House,
When I watch “Olympus us has Fallen”, I think, meh, Special Election.
jrkstpete
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Efg-hIGegTM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXdRts6kJC0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysn7sMWjQ4g
eddie blake
@Leto:
fezzes are cool.
scav
@WaterGirl: It’s supposed to blend in with the background, become something ordinary, like a shape-chaning chameleon. So, in 60’s UK, it became a police box. And then got stuck in the form.
eta. Watch the Master’s Tardis. His circuit works.
zzyzx
@WaterGirl: The TARDIS as designed is supposed to naturally blend into its surroundings. Other ones do that. The Doctor’s TARDIS doesn’t.
Jay
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hwaKlUWwyyE
Gvg
I am only a sister of a who watcher but one of the oddest to me facts is that originally the BBC did not archive TV episodes. they broadcast them and they were done. I think this was all TV not just Dr.who. They didn’t have reruns I guess. Anyway this means there are still lost episodes that people remember but you can’t just go out and buy them. My sister started watching in the 80’s and over the years some episodes have been found, often in other countries where I guess original broadcast tapes were saved? I think some were found in South Africa and some in Australia. It’s really weird to me. Also the worldwide who fans traded bootleg copies for years because the fans were better at keeping copies than the BBC. I think they started gathering them and release copies slowly around the 80’s.
Also for many year part of the cannon was Time lords had a certain number of regenerations only. As he stayed popular and the number of Dr.s increased, fans kept wondering what would happen. This doctor is beyond that number and it was a big story how they were going to resolve that. I gather they just wrote something about a reset start over but I didn’t understand it.
Citizen Alan
I like Jodie Whittaker as an actress and was looking forward to her tenure. Unfortunately, I viscerally hate Chris Chibnall as showrunner. IMO, the finale of the most recent season basically shat on 50 years of continuity in general and the entire Steven Moffat era in particular. I’ve been following DW since 1980, and I’m not sure if I’ll bother to continue. Yet another thing about 2020 that has sucked utterly.
eddie blake
@WaterGirl:
so the doctor’s TaRDiS is supposed to blend in with its environment and time period. it appeared in britain at one point and the device that allows the blending broke. it’s stuck as a police-box now, until someone fixes it, but since it’s become a national icon, i doubt that’s going to happen.
wvng
At its best the show can be incandescent. Van Gogh Visits the Gallery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubTJI_UphPk
neabinorb
I don’t believe the Doctor is immortal. They seem to think that they can be killed and they were always convinced that they had a finite number of regenerations (12, I think). My favorite is Matt Smith but mainly because Amy Pond had a great story and, of course, River Song.
trollhattan
@Gvg:
Adding to the weirdness, they have audio only of some early episodes that they have animated and broadcast. So very odd to watch.
It’s not on the level of NASA reusing Apollo mission video tapes for budgetary reasons, but still…. Monte Python series episodes narrowly escaped a similar fate.
KD
If u want the best Dr Who episode (which can almost work as a stand-alone) watch “Blink.”
Gvg
@WaterGirl: he stole a glitchy one. If it worked it would shape change. A new working one would probably have been guarded. I think he is a rebel Time Lord but don’t know from what.
Its also a frequent plot twist for it to need repairs in order to flee the latest trouble…or it used to be, maybe they got tired of that.
Major Major Major Major
My favorite showrunner was Davies. Schlocky, yes, but with much firmer roots in series’s past tone. And no fucking Moffat arcs, though they did have some of the best Moffat episodes. (I basically had to check out after the first couple Moffat seasons.)
Davies would also do things like come up with the ancient organization The Shadow Proclamation, which is an anagram for Doctor Who Has A Time Plan.
ETA he also brought back a companion from the 1970s which was rad. The Stolen Earth arc is my favorite sequence in the series.
Jay
WaterGirl
@scav: I had no idea. I love that.
Maeve
I grew up with Tom Baker, favorite classic Doctor and all others seemed wrong until New Who
like several new who’s (haven’t seen much of of Jodi since I wait for it to to stream free with prime) but if I had to choose … I’d choose Matt Smith – whom I hated in the role the first time I saw it but then I got his character. ( Bow ties are cool. Also Fezzes.
For companions I choose Donna Noble. I also love River Song. Guess I like the cantankerous ones. Which supposedly would include Clara but her story arc was stupid.
WaterGirl
@zzyzx: So other people have TARDIS also. (what’s the plural of TARDIS?)
WaterGirl
@Jay: You link doesn’t show what that is – what is it?
WaterGirl
@Gvg: That’s crazy that they didn’t keep copies of shows. Totally nuts.
Major Major Major Major
@WaterGirl: The TARDIS is an instrument of war developed by the Doctor’s race, the Timelords. He basically stole his from the armory.
FlyingToaster
@WaterGirl: Again, back to when Hartnell’s doctor stole it.
He needed to get a TARDIS that wouldn’t be tracked or missed. So he went to the decommisioning line and wandered about. Clara Oswald, in her “falling through his timestream” mode, told him which one to steal.
At that point it was a plain silver tube.
He fetched his granddaughter, loaded her aboard, and set off for Earth, circa 1963. The TARDIS landed just inside of the gate of a junkyard in London, down the street from Coal Hill School. To blend in with its surroundings, it adopted the shape of a London concrete Police phone box. And got stuck.
The Doctor gave his granddaughter an English name, Susan Foreman, and enrolled her at Coal Hill School. In fairly short order, two of her teachers ended up inadvertently joining them for a ride on the TARDIS, and, well, you know the rest.
Seanly
I like Doctor Who. As with many other commenters, Tom Baker is my fave, but to be 100% honest, Jodi Whittaker’s Doctor is up there. David Tennant, Matt Smith, Peter Davison & Jodi Whittaker all did very well with the Doctor. Peter Capaldi is a good actor, but his time as the Doctor was beginning to be weighed down too much by showrunner Moffatt’s convoluted mythology.
The TARDIS always has the appearance of an old London police call box (though I think it can change the appearance if it desires). The exact color and the style of the box varies a bit (I think mostly between the original run & the reboot). The interior is unique for each doctor in the same way that each doctor is a bit different from the others. https://www.oldpolicecellsmuseum.org.uk/content/history/police_history/brief-history-police-box
One thing I didn’t like about some of the reboot stuff is that the old enemies were very amped up – like Daleks have taken over the known universe or Cybermen have taken over the known universe. Makes the stakes a little too big & then the logical consistency of being able to defeat them but can one truly destroy some multigalactic evil civilization? Showrunners Davies & Moffat (and other writers, etc) did a lot of great work, but sometimes the timey-whimey stuff (phrase used a lot by the 11th doctor). Some of it worked well while some of it was too cute by half.
Oh and the companions are often hosed by the Doctor. There have been ones who died and other unhappy endings are common.
WaterGirl
@Citizen Alan: That’s got to be a disappointment for you.
RSA
@Emma from FL:
I’m a Tennant fan, but Eccleston is a close second–he started things off again! He had the required dryness, “Lots of planets have a north,” but more emotional depth, I thought, than some of the older doctors.
trollhattan
@Jay:
DeVos is a fucking ghoul.
Which is why she still has the job in Year 4.
Major Major Major Major
Oh, and Donna is the best companion ever.
@RSA: Eccleston was supposed to play a soldier with PTSD and did a great job at it!
Litlebritdifrnt
There is a delightful moment in the transition of Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi when Clara doesn’t know who he is, Matt Smith calls her from the past and tells her to look at him. Really look at him. And then she sees.
WaterGirl
@Gvg: Okay, that makes sense.
HinTN
@trollhattan:
It’s bigger on the inside.
Weeping Angels was an amazing and terrifying concept.
WaterGirl
@Major Major Major Major: Do show runners change when the doctor changes?
FlyingToaster
@Citizen Alan: Yeah, that last episode genuinely sucked; however, given that the Master is both a liar, and has been duped before, I don’t assume that anything about that storyline is actually true.
WaterGirl
@Major Major Major Major: So some people love Moffat as the Doctor and some people hate him?
Also, at the end of one of the episodes I watched this weekend, someone died and they all stood in a circle and together recited some prayer-like thing that everyone seemed to know. Is that a thing on the show?
WaterGirl
@Major Major Major Major: Huh. But the Doctors don’t use the TARDIS as an instrument of war, but instead it seems to be an instrument of good?
Is there an overall purpose for the Doctor? Step in and save the day? Just go wherever s/he feels like going? I don’t get how that works. Sometimes it almost feels like a quantum leap kind of thing.
philpm
One big thing to watch for is that the current Doctor will occasionally recall or reference something that happened to one of the previous incarnations.
jackmac
@Gvg:
“A thing happened,” the Doctor told River Song in “The Husbands of River Song.”
WaterGirl
@FlyingToaster: Interesting backstory.
trollhattan
O/T stop me if you’ve heard this one before.
Tech bros….
Jay
@WaterGirl:
r/c Dalek tooling around a motor way telling ppl to stay the fuck home and self isolate.
Eolirin
@Maeve: Who is HBO Max streaming exclusive now.
Major Major Major Major
@WaterGirl: Moffat was showrunner and a writer. He’s known for complex self-referential stories, and writing every woman as though she were his ex-wife. By the end of his run it had become incomprehensible and he’d really made a mess of the women’s arcs. IMO. But he also wrote some strong stuff. I liked him better as an individual contributor, he has some very strong episodes and miniseries. (He’s also showrunner for Sherlock, which has all of the problems I just mentioned. I do recommend the first two seasons.)
@WaterGirl: Not always, Davies did two Doctors.
Gaffa
Chris Chibnall is an excellent showrunner for the Doctor, and he and Jodie are making some awesome episodes. He’s a huge tonal change compared to all the previous showrunners since the reboot, however, in that his take on the Doctor is very much a pre-reboot focus (the Doctor is a wanderer who helps people as they come across them, instead of the Most Important Being in the Universe) — which shouldn’t be too surprising, as he’s very open about the 5th (Davison) being his own personal favorite.
So, even without the addition of the first-ever woman playing the character, you’d still have a bunch of complaints from new fans of the show who were not used to the idea of the Doctor being less important than the stories they enter, which was pretty much the case for the first two showrunners since the reboot. Davies and Moffat did some awesome stuff, but they also very much made the stories about the Doctor and why the Doctor is so awesome and…that’s OK, I guess. I’d much rather have the Cosmic Hobo than the Time Lord Victorious myself, however.
Chibs has also brought the historicals back in a big way, which as an old-time Who fan I really love. As you’re a new fan: originally (as in the 1960s originally) the show was only optioned by the BBC because they were told that the show would alternate between stories set in the future (which would teach kids about science) vs. stories set in Earth’s past (which would teach kids about history). (Un)fortunately (???) for history, however, the second storyline of the Doctor ever introduced the recurring villains that literally caused a Beatlemania-level of public interest and fan excitement — the Daleks. And after Dalek-mania, it was very tough to get the Doctor to stick to the 50/50 historical split the original mandate called for.
Since the 21st Century reboot of the show there have been the occasional historical, but Chibnall has given a heck of a lot more than the last two showrunners. It’s just a nice change of pace after Davies trying to threaten the universe every season in increasingly stupid ways or Moffat getting lost in his own cleverness (which he was more prone to do than amaze us with it, sadly).
It’s a wonderful show with so many interpretations that you’re in for a great ride as long as you accept the basic premise — there’s a renegade Time Lord with a box that can go anywhere at any time, and they have adventures because they hate seeing good people suffer under jerks.
My original Doctor was the Fourth (Tom Baker, of “The Scarf” meme fame), but I have to admit to perhaps having to move to Whitaker as my new favorite (Smith nearly won me over as 11), but all of the Doctors have been wonderful in their own way.
If you love the show, may I recommend the award-winning all-women Dr. Who podcast “Verity” as well? It’s so tough finding good non-white-male voices in science fiction fandom who put out consistent quality product that I especially want to give the wonderful hosts of Verity a shout out (there’s tons of other quality Who-casts as well — Radio Free Skaro comes to mind as an easy other choice). And bonus trivia question answer: MacGyver was the show the creators of the BBC made to be “Doctor Who” to an American audience.
WaterGirl
@Seanly:
Hosed as in killed? It seems like they are buddies, that doesn’t make sense. Is the Doctor sometimes irresponsible? Or can sometimes even the Doctor not save the day? So companions die. Interesting.
CatFacts
Love Doctor Who. I haven’t watched many of the pre-2005 episodes, though, mostly for lack of time. I have mixed feelings on the most recent series. I love Whittaker as an actress and was excited for a female Doctor, but I think the writing and direction has let her down.
Way too many static shots and exposition dumps. While I like the Thirteenth Doctor’s positivity, I’m also disappointed that they’ve toned down the spikier sides of the character’s personality. She does swan in and take charge, but I wish she were allowed to do it more, and to have more emotional range in the role like the four male Doctors before her did.
WaterGirl
@philpm:
Now I’m confused. I assumed the Doctor has an awareness of all the Doctors s/he has been before. Is that not the case?
FlyingToaster
@WaterGirl: No, showrunners last a LOT longer.
Doctors run 1-6 years (6 years was Tom Baker, right?). Two were 1 movie sequence or story arc and done (Paul McGann, John Hurt). Generally, it’s up to the health/mental health/schedule of the actor, if they see any reason to stay or if they’ve got other gigs ready to start. Capaldi was simultaneously Doctor and Richlieu; Eccleston came to the US and got his green card for Heroes; Tennant is working every damn day as is Smith.
Eolirin
@WaterGirl: Moffat was a show runner, and yes the audience is split on him. No, those usually last longer than a doctor. But often a show runner leaving is also a signal for a doctor to leave too.
Gaffa
@WaterGirl: The Doctor travels because the Doctor loves the universe, really. Just seeing things first hand and meeting new people — very different from the old school Time Lord paradigm of watching with cold and indifferent logic at the universe passing within the Transduction Barrier protecting their home planet of Gallifrey.
The Doctor gets no money or compensation for what they do; they just do it to be a good person. The Doctor’s TARDIS could certainly be a weapon of war (Time Lords have war TARDISes, which are terrifying), but in comparison to “modern” TARDISes, the Doctor flies an old broken-down Type 40D TARDIS they managed to steal from a repair shop on Gallifrey when they first decided to escape their planet — roughly akin nowadays to stealing a Model T Ford still in need of an engine realignment instead of a modern Lambourghini.
Why did the Doctor leave Gallifrey? After almost 60 years, all we’ve ever learned is there was some ill-defined political turmoil, and the Doctor (and his granddaughter) thought it better to leave in an old TARDIS than stick around.
WaterGirl
@Jay:
what is this?
r/c Dalek
Major Major Major Major
@WaterGirl:
You can do a lot with them; it’s a very complex device, even more so when you consider that it’s sapient (see the very good Neil Gaiman-penned “The Doctor’s Wife” if you’re wanting a close look). His also doesn’t quite work right. He’s no stranger to overwhelming firepower, though he’d like those days to be in his past. The 9th Doctor is fresh from the Time War, which he’d like to never speak of again, thank you very much. (“Day of the Doctor” has three Doctors in it and explores this some more.)
Yeah, it’s an episodic children’s show about a mad wizard in a box. Sort of a Space Wanderer picaresque deal. There are some longer arcs (see above) but it’s all pretty ad-hoc.
Seanly
@Maeve:
Donna was one of the most f*cked over companions (short of death). Amy Pond & River Song were great (and both the actresses are very good at their craft). I love Graham & Yasmin and like Ryan
What is the purpose of the Doctor? Well, he can’t truly control where the TARDIS goes (thematically, he was at the whim of the TARDIS whereas now it’s more of an “oh I meant to go to Victorian England to show you something but now we’re somewhere else, how odd”. He ends up being where he is needed – both just to save the day of a few astronauts or all the way up to saving the universe.
I do appreciate that stakes for the 13th Doctor aren’t always saving the entire universe. Just give us good stories showing someone doing good.
WaterGirl
@Major Major Major Major:
That’s why I knew the name! thank you
eddie blake
@Gvg:
i FORGOT he stole a “broken” one.
also. yes, vincent in the gallery. MAGNIFICENT. kinda tear up every time.
Major Major Major Major
@WaterGirl: Companions often have tragic or mixed endings, which is weird since they’re also audience stand-ins, but yeah that’s to be expected.
WaterGirl
@Gaffa:
That works for me!
Kirk Spencer
I am astounded at how mild the responses have been. Normally this is a question that belongs with pineapple on pizza, best bbq, beans or not in chili, Kirk or Picard, that sort of thing.
I’m meh about the Doctor, but my wiser half is an absolute fan. Hers is the 4th doctor, Tom Baker.
Percysowner
@WaterGirl: Hosed in several ways. Some are left behind and forgotten. Some died, most lived and left on their own, but others were forced out. The worst example is Donna Noble played by Catherine Tate. She was a fantastic companion, the best of the current series, IMHO, and one of the best of all time. The actress was only signed for one series and had major, major character development. Then, well if you ever watch the series you’ll know, but GOD I HATED her ending.
wvng
@WaterGirl: The Doctor ends up being in the precise place that needs him to save the Earth (usually, but sometimes some other place). It has never been clear to me how this happens.
WaterGirl
@Gaffa:
Interesting about MacGyver!
So this podcast is about science fiction? If I don’t read/watch a lot of science fiction, would it make sense to me?
Gaffa
@wvng: The usual copout for why the Doctor is in the right place at the right time is that the TARDIS brought them there “because”.
FlyingToaster
@WaterGirl: I started watching the series in syndication in grad school (~1984); Pertwee, T. Baker, Davison, C. Baker, McCoy. Then I came to Bwahstin and saw the series from the beginning: Hartwell, Troughton, Pertwee, T. Baker, Davison. When WGBH stopped showing them.
A few summers back BBC showed all of the Tom Baker’s episodes on Sunday mornings, so WarriorGirl and I watched all of them. Doctor Who is her only “no, I watch that on TV” show.
WaterGirl
@CatFacts: Interesting take! I have nothing to compare the current Doctor to.
edit: Maybe it’s like your mom’s macaroni and cheese. However she makes it, that’s what you think macaroni & cheese is supposed to be.
Major Major Major Major
@Kirk Spencer: Douglas Adams was story editor for him.
Adams’s 4-episode arc City Of Death would later become Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency.
Tony Jay
I was never much of a Whovian as a kid, and though I did enjoy some of Tom Baker’s adventures I kind of drifted away during Davidson’s tenure. The central idea of a super-smart alien with a time-machine as the ‘mysterious stranger’ who turns up just when he’s most needed gripped me, but even then I was too much time of a snob to turn a blind eye to shoddy BBC special effects. They were shit, sue me.
The reboot was different. Soooooo excited to see what a 21st century Doctor Who would be like and Eccleston didn’t disappoint. Russel T Davies poured every liquid ounce of his geek creativity into each episode, never shying away from showing the damage his new mythology of a genocidal Time War had done to the Doctor, wretched with PTSD and survivor’s guilt, desperate to find a purpose again and knowing he simply couldn’t do it alone. Enter Rose Tyler and we were off to the races.
It really hits it’s stride with Tennent’s run, because, y’know, David bloody Tennent, but also because it lights on the idea that each Regeneration is the Doctor becoming the person he wants and needs to be. Eccleston’s twitchy survivor Doctor becoming Tennet’s wide-eyed cocky thrillseeker becoming Smith’s slightly absent-minded universal do-gooder becoming Capaldi’s grumpy grown-up with things to do and no time to waste on fixing your problems… which he’s only fixing because he’s the bloody Doctor becoming Whittaker’s manic genius in love with the goodness within everyone.
Hand on heart, Whittaker has been sadly let down by the writers and the decision to turn the show into a Grand Tour of Worthy People In Recent History You May Not Appreciate The Worthiness Of. The first series was okay, but by all the gods stop telling me how awesome/awful this historical personage they’ve just bumped into is. I don’t want to watch an hour long bitesize history aimed at 12 year olds, thanks, and I don’t need to be smacked over the head with Aesops quite so predictably.
That said, I’ll still watch it. Because I’m a Whovian now, and that’s how we roll.
Yutsano
@Major Major Major Major:
Pistols at dawn good sir! No one surpasses Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith. And I ADORED Catherine Tate as Donna Noble. And Ace is a big contender. It’s really too bad they didn’t continue with Sophie and Sylvester. They were fantastic*.
Side note: where the FUCK is Alex Kingston? When Jodie was announced she was practically giddy at the idea of being the spouse again. It would also tidy a small polt point in “The Husbands of River Song”. Which I swear I was the only person who enjoyed that.
*This list is not complete, as I’m a bit of a contrarian and Peter Davison is my favourite old school Doctor. But honestly there hasn’t been a Companion I haven’t liked. But I do have a scale.
Bruuuuce
@Citizen Alan: I disagree with you about what happened in the latest series finale. Apparently, what Chibnall has done is to pick up on a very old set of intentions written into the original series. Whether we like it or not (and I have very mixed feelings about it), there’s plenty of continuity built in that sets it up.
I enjoy almost all the Doctors in the reboot (perhaps especially the War Doctor (WaterGirl: DO make a point of seeing both the short story “The Night of the Doctor” and the 50th anniversary episode “The Day of the Doctor”; they do refer to an episode in the original series, but you can go back and pick it up later)) except Matt Smith. (An actor portraying the Doctor needs to be able to do three things: comedy, action, and gravitas. Smith is utterly lacking in the last.)
Donna Noble is unsurpassed among Companions, and got one of the worst fates EVER, in any dramatic series of any sort anywhere or time. But Catherine Tate’s chemistry with David Tennant is spectacular, at all times.
And oh, showrunners: Can we please see the fate of Ace, at long last?
KD
Watch “Blink” for the best episode (and is pretty much standalone)
Gaffa
@WaterGirl: Verity is a podcast explicitly about Dr. Who. But the ladies who host it are articulate and fiery and passionate and awesome, and I cannot recommend it more to someone who is also a fan of the show.
Yeah, they will be bringing up names of characters and shows you haven’t seen now and then (that’s inescapable when you’re a podcast about a show with a 60 year history), but they’re pretty light on required back-knowledge to start listening, and they usually focus in for one topic per show. And their reviews after a new show are always a blast.
Since all of their episodes are available for download, and you’re just starting Whitaker’s season, you could see if the show is for you by listening to their review show of “The Woman Who Fell to Earth” and see if you like it, perhaps?
LongHairedWeirdo
What annoys me about hearing this is, there’s no need to retcon. He was on his 12th body, the absolute, final possible, regeneration he could perform. He was dying, and a deus ex machina in the form of a recharge from Gallifrey allowed him to regenerate again – and this, clearly, puts him in a state that no other time lord had been in.
Why should the same rules apply?
Major Major Major Major
@wvng:
To be fair, the doctor is quite a tourist, they just never make episodes out of the relaxing beach holidays.
Lacuna Synechdoche
Count me in as another in the Matt Smith (Dr. Who) / Karen Gillan (Amy Pond) / Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams) / Alex Kingston (River Song) camp.
Also find it interesting that everyone refers to Smith by his real name, but to Gillan, Kingston, and Darvill by their characters names.
WaterGirl
@Eolirin: That makes sense, thanks.
Eolirin
@Yutsano: Bill Potts is best. :P
Emma from FL
@Gvg: A few years ago they found a bunch of old episodes in the storage of a station in Nigeria. The squeals were heard on the moon.
Eolirin
@LongHairedWeirdo: Nope. The Master has also had the regeneration limit lifted. It’s established in classic Who that this was a thing that could be done.
And it wasn’t the doctor that gender swapped on regeneration during Moffat’s run. There’s no way to avoid this just being normal now.
Bruuuuce
@Yutsano: There have been a few Companions I loathed. Adric, of course (in the Unholy Trio of Adric, Will Robinson, and Wesley Crusher, he was by far the most annoying!), and Peri are top of the list. But most have been excellent.
KD
Loved Donna. And River Song. And Amy Pond. Also – Catherine Tate and David Tennant in Comic Relief: https://youtu.be/WxB1gB6K-2A
WaterGirl
@Gaffa: Really interesting backstory. thank you
FlyingToaster
@WaterGirl:
Not exactly.
What a Time Lord is supposed to do after Regeneration is take it easy, sleep a lot, and allow the memories from the previous incarnation to integrate.
The Doctor, however, tends to regenerate, um, under fire. So resting and integrating memories tends to not happen, at least, not initially.
Capaldi’s Doctor couldn’t remember how to fly the TARDIS. Whittaker’s Doctor fell out of the TARDIS and through the roof of a moving BritRail train. Hurt’s Doctor was forcibly regenerated by the Sisterhood of Karn.
So the Doctor has a tendency not to remember things. At least, not initially.
SFAW
@wvng:
Great choice.
WaterGirl
@Major Major Major Major: Thank you, that’s very helpful!
WaterGirl
@Percysowner: Like a “you pissed off Shonda Rhimes so you are written out of the series” kind of thing?
“Some are left behind and forgotten”? As in you get separated and left behind on a planet and the Doctor says “oh well” and shrugs her shoulders?
CatFacts
One of the fun things about the show is that it changes pretty frequently. Almost every few years there’s a new actor playing the Doctor or a new showrunner. The Doctor gains and loses new friends, too. If you don’t like one, try the next! Or try them all!
Basically for the 21st century Doctor Who, Russell T. Davies was the showrunner from 2005-2009 (Christopher Eccleston and then David Tennant as the Doctor); Steven Moffat was the showrunner from 2010-2017 (Matt Smith and then Peter Capaldi as the Doctor), and Chris Chibnall was the showrunner from 2018-present (Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor). Each one has their own personal style.
Seanly
@WaterGirl:
The Doctor can be irresponsible. Whittaker’s Doctor is a little scatterbrained like many of the male doctors (though I feel that isn’t a good trait to give the first female doctor).
For what began as a children’s show, there is a lot of death in the show & this includes the companions.
As Whittaker’s 2 current seasons progress, the Doctor’s cavalier attitude about the companions’ safety comes up.
WaterGirl
@wvng: Interesting. So far with the season I am watching, it’s not so much saving the earth as it is saving this or that set of people in these circumstances.
SectionH
I’m a big fan of New Who, but never could get into the “classic” show, to the extent that after about 4 years of the reboot, and many recs from “the kids,” my DiL handed me their DVD of the first (new) series, and said, “Watch it!” So I did, and have been hooked ever since.
Favorite Doctors: David Tennant (10) and Matt Smith (11). Pretty much a tie. I like Eccleston quite a lot. I was really looking forward to Peter Capaldi’s Doctor, but although there are quite a lot of excellent episodes, there are others I really hate.
I like Jodie as the Doctor, but sadly don’t lovelovelove her, and I really wanted to.
@Citizen Alan: I haven’t seen the last 2 episodes of the most recent series. Maybe I should keep it that way, at least until Series 13 is ready to watch.
@Yutsano: Sorry, even though I do love Sarah Jane – enough that I have the Sarah Jane Adventures, yes I do – Donna’s still the best. Well, imo. As far as Alex Kingston coming back, I should think that’s on Chibnall. At least we did get a brief reappearance of Captain Jack.
oatler.
Louise Jameson my favorite Companion, because, you know.
WaterGirl
@Tony Jay: That’s all really interesting, thank you. I’m thinking I will come back and read this thread when I get to the end of the first season with Jodi Whittaker, and then again after the second.
eddie blake
as far as companions go, there are a lot i like, but my favorite has gotta be captain jack harkness.
that dude is so cool you could keep a side of meat in him for a month.
NeenerNeener
@wvng: If I remember the the Gaiman episode “The Doctor’s Wife” correctly, the Tardis (embodied in Suranne Jones) tells him she takes him where he’s needed.
WaterGirl
@Bruuuuce:
I wouldn’t mind being an, umm, companion to David Tennant.
wvng
@Gaffa: “because” is as good a reason as any.
JMG
I am an old, and an American, so for me Tom Baker is the only doctor. I only watch the Christmas specials now because my grown children, who’re very used to the idea of ever-changing doctors, insist. Some of them have been very good.
wvng
@KD: “Blink” was terrifying.
Major Major Major Major
@WaterGirl: Billie Piper (played Rose) once joked that he really ought to be called David Ten-inch.
SectionH
Btw, Britbox has an enormous bunch of classic Who. All the episodes BBC has (I think there are some still missing) – from the first Doctor through the 7th. 26 seasons…
Gaffa
One thing to remember that, even officially, on Doctor Who “canon” is basically just a good idea, and if the current story makes more sense by ignoring things that were done thirty years ago (or even last year), then they ignore the old stories shamelessly and without fear. Much like Mystery Science Theatre, remind yourself that it’s just a show and that you should really just relax.
But as to what is more-or-less canon for like what a Time Lord is for WaterGirl…
A humanoid (usually?) race from the planet Gallifrey. They were the first race to develop time travel technology, and insured they’d remain that way by then traveling through time and annihilating other races that seemed to be close to coming to the same discoveries at the same time as them (the Time Lords have since calmed down a lot about keeping time travel out of the hands of other races, but they were right utter bastards from the get-go about it).
A Time Lord is slightly stronger, much tougher, and much more resilient than an average human. Famously, they also have two hearts compared to our human one (so it’s pretty easy to detect the Doctor as an alien even with a stethoscope). Some have telepathic powers — the Doctor is on the upper limit of their ability with this, while their arch-enemy the Master is probably at the limit — while others do not. Time Lords (but maybe not average Gallifreyans?) also have the ability to regenerate their body into a new form and personality after sustaining lethal damage. As a new fan, you can ignore arguments about a twelve regeneration limit and the Eye of Harmony and heaven forbid the Looms of Lungbarrow until you feel you need to deal with tons of fan wankery; none of these were in the show when originally conceived, and they’ll all be ignored anyway when the new showrunner wants to change things (as per the First Law of Who).
The Time Lords’ real advantage is their insane level of technological sophistication, which outstrips every other race in the universe (except, when necessary to the plot, the Daleks, and the mathematical knowledge of the Krakenites). If you’re aware of the old adage that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, the Time Lords are so ludicrously advanced they can take it and swap it around — if your magic cannot accomplish what Time Lord technology can, it’s probably just rubbish tech.
In show, we’ve seen Time Lords be able to use tractor beams to drag entire planets out of orbit from a distance of many dozens of *galaxies* away; use home-made black holes to power all of their devices; have scanners able to focus in on a scene taking place in galaxies so far away that the light will never reach Earth before the death of the universe; and so on. They have tech so ancient, advanced and dangerous that *they have forgotten themselves* what it was made to do (the Staff and Sash of Rassillon, for instance).
Even the Doctor’s humble TARDIS (which is, again, a broken down cuckoo clock compared to modern Time Lord technology) is invulnerable to all harm beyond the most advanced weapons in the universe, can casually tow a black hole to a different orbit in a different galaxy because it’s in the way, and probably weighs more than the entire Earth if it were to manifest wholly on a planet. And it has a swimming pool and library, which are always exciting to see — NuWho hasn’t taken us on many trips inside the TARDIS, but there’s tons of space inside there beyond the front chamber where the Doctor pilots the thing.
Bruuuuce
If you find you like Doctor Who, there have been three significant modern spinoffs, each with a very different tone. The Doctor figures into all of them, one way or another.
Torchwood (another anagram of “Doctor Who”) is by far the most adult of the series. It’s violent, lusty, and sometimes quite raw. It can be utterly brilliant, though one of the series is also a very definite watch-once-for-completeness’ sake.
The Sarah Jane Adventures stars the late Elisabeth Sladen as the same Sarah Jane she played in DW, continuing to have adventures on Earth and protecting it from aliens (and sometimes protecting the aliens, as appropriate). It’s very much a kids’ or young adult audience show, and is quite watchable. Sadly, Ms Sladen died during the final series, so it feels slightly incomplete.
Class was a less successful attempt to set up another Earth-based connection for the Doctor. It was, IMO, just okay, though it might have improved (as so many shows do), had it made it past its first series. It has the fewest tie-ins to the main DW continuity of the three.
wvng
@Lacuna Synechdoche: The very first episode with Smith and Amelia Pond is just so much fun.
Woodrow/asim
@zzyzx: I did both because I was writing and hadn’t ate today :)
WaterGirl
@Gaffa: Thank you! I just added the Veritas episodes that correspond to the first 5 episodes from season 11 (the shows I have already watched).
I’ll try the first one tonight before bedtime.
Gaffa
@WaterGirl: Sweet! Always happy to talk Who here! Post some quick takes if nothing else!
Miss Bianca
I am fascinated by this conversation, since I’ve never known where – or whether – to jump into Doctor Who. The only incarnation of the Doctor I have therefore seen is the one from the 1965 movie, Dr Who and the Daleks, who just happens to be Peter Cushing!
wvng
@WaterGirl: In, I think, the second episode with Smith as the Doctor and Amelia Pond you see one of the best examples of a companion reaching deep to restore the Doctor’s “humanity” from a very dark place. It was set in England far in the future, in space, and there is a whale.
WaterGirl
@FlyingToaster: So interesting!
WaterGirl
@Seanly: Huh. She doesn’t seem cavalier to me. In the episodes I’ve watched so far she is always asking “are you sure? It may not be safe”.
scav
@Bruuuuce: Mel! arghh! That was a real dry spell there for a bit.
Gaffa
@WaterGirl: Yeah, I’m not getting that impression of 13 at all either. Compared to previous incarnations, Whitaker is immensely concerned about the well-being of her “fam”.
WaterGirl
@Gaffa: That’s a really fun and interesting perspective, thanks.
Auntie Beak
I wasn’t an old-school Dr. Whovian. I got into it when I broke my ankle hiking and had to stay inside for 3 months, and I started with the Tom Eccleston Dr. I LOVED LOVED LOVED the David Tennant/Matt Smith stretch. Peter Capaldi did nothing for me, and I didn’t watch more than half of one or two episodes, mainly because I couldn’t understand a frickin thing he said. But when I saw Jodie Whitaker was taking over I was thrilled. I love everything about her.
Also, Matt Smith’s companion Amelia Pond reminded me of my niece, and I loved her, too.
trollhattan
@Bruuuuce:
Watch and enjoyed “Torchwood” for the first couple series and really enjoyed it when the story revolved more around Eve Cooper. Lost interest when the playfulness seemed to drain away and don’t know much about the last couple series.
WaterGirl
@Miss Bianca: I can highly recommend jumping in on the first episode with Jodi Whittaker – Season 11.
But since I haven’t watched any of the others, I can’t speak to them.
Tony Jay
@Miss Bianca:
Just start with the 2005 reboot, it’s much more likely to hold your interest than a British kids TV show from the 60s to the 80s.
The Doctor is a techno-wizard in a time-travelling box that’s bigger in the inside than the outside who just went through a traumatic wartime experience and would like to get back to seeing everything there ever was or will be while helping people along the way, but he isn’t sure how to get back into the groove after so long away and might need some help grounding himself in the post-war universe.
And….. Scene!
...now I try to be amused
I’ve watched Doctor Who since Doctor Three (Jon Pertwee) on PBS in the 1970s. My favorite Doctor by a hair is Nine (Christopher Eccleston). His gift was inspiring people to become heroes, often at the cost of their lives, which didn’t help his survivor’s guilt and death wish any. The one he most inspired was his companion Rose Tyler. She and the Doctor were so devoted they would die for each other, and in a sense they did. The first reboot season had the first DW episode that made me cry.
IMO Eccleston was the best actor to play the Doctor.
@wvng:
The theory is that the TARDIS can spot trouble and she (yes, the TARDIS is called “she”) takes the Doctor there. She knows that’s what the Doctor wants.
WaterGirl
@Gaffa: I have to say that it’s scary that I now understand Jodi Whittaker to be the 13th Doctor but she arrives in Season 11.
Emma from FL
@Percysowner: Me too.
Bruuuuce
@scav: Yeah, Mel was bad. But Peri was the one I despised, as being the epitome of “Save me! Eeeeek!” uselessness at pretty much all times.
WaterGirl
@Auntie Beak: Could I skip around between Doctors?
Say, watch all of Jodi Whittaker and then jump to David Tennant, who I also love as an actor?
Gaffa
@WaterGirl: Well, it’s Season 11 of the reboot, which started at Doctor #9.
Bruuuuce
@WaterGirl: You may encounter a bit of pedantry that, while I use it, I am not married to (but I have seen others be): Old Who had Seasons, New Who has Series. (I think that’s the BBC’s usage.)
WaterGirl
@…now I try to be amused:
I know I’ve used the word interesting about a hundred times in this thread, but that’s a great take.
And yes, I find it very interesting!
Gaffa
@WaterGirl: Nothing wrong with skipping between Doctors! Especially pre-reboot, the stories are kinda insular and don’t have to be watched in any particular order (usually).
Since the reboot each Doctor has kinda had their own storyline that ends with the change of Doctor and/or showrunner, so it works fine there as well.
WaterGirl
@Emma from FL: @Percysowner:
I hated the ending of LOST so much that I have rewritten it and decided that the last 20-30 minutes of the show never happened.
Bruuuuce
@trollhattan: The series Children of Earth (series 3) was chilling and hard to watch, but quite good. Miracle Day, not nearly so much.
WaterGirl
@Gaffa: Sounds good. I don’t have much interest in starting at the very beginning beginning. :-)
Searcher
@WaterGirl: Seems appropriate for a time travel show.
David Tennant is also the voice of Scrooge McDuck in the new Duck Tales (as the parent of a small child, I have seen each episode approximately 16 times). Catherine Tate also guests occasionally as Magica De Spell.
The Pale Scot
Having not read anything yet, I’ll put out that Jodie’s Doctor is still “cooking” and has a ways to go. Christopher Eccleston is the mildly deranged survivor of an apocalyptic, genocidal war. David Tennant is the hero determined to save us all. Matt Smith is the war weary veteran who avoids thinking about his past. Peter Capaldi is the somewhat remote and brusque survivor not interested in examining his or humans motivations.
It took me a season to warm up to Capaldi after tsunami of charm David and Matt wielded. Moffet is no longer running the show so it’s a new game. I look forward to the new crew coming up with new cool stuff. I’d love for Donna Noble to show up, the comedy dialog writes itself.
Lacuna Synechdoche
Yep, I love the screwball comedy-like pace and timing of their dialogue in that episode.
Emma from FL
@trollhattan: The runners tried to set up a Doctor/Rose relationship between Jack and Gwen, and they hated it when so many female fans fixated on Jack/Ianto instead. There’s this funny clip on YouTube of John Barrowman at some sort of church bazaar surrounded by fifty-something women asking about Jack and Ianto.
I stopped watching halfway through Children of Earth. The Gwen show got too damn tiresome. And I say that as someone who at first really, really liked Gwen.
But then Russell likes Cinderella stories.
swbarnes2
@eddie blake: First rule, the Doctor lies.
Miss Bianca
@Bruuuuce: Oh, a penny just dropped for me. Catherine Tate was David Tennant’s Companion? So *that’s* why they were cast together in that Much Ado about Nothing I’ve been trying to get through! I wondered, because she’s just terrible as Beatrice, and I was thinking, “this guy is pretty good as Benedick, why did they cast this other awful person as Beatrice?”
I can only guess they had *some* sort of chemistry as Doctor and Companion, which is completely unapparent to me.
LightCastle
Of course there is a Doctor Who thread when I’m out and I miss that all.
philpm
@WaterGirl: That is the case. It can be hard to catch them if you haven’t seen prior series though.
eddie blake
@swbarnes2:
well, i mean, come on! who would trust a madman in a box?
Lacuna Synechdoche
Seconded. The first run of the show just doesn’t hold up to what modern viewers expect of a sci-fi show.
If you’re new to the show, the first run is better viewed as a historical antecedent to what it became – if and when you become interested in seeing the earlier stories.
But because the production values are so shoddy, and the whole atmosphere of the first run is so dated and slowly-paced, it’s unlikely a new viewer would find it interesting until they already know the basic story-line from the latest incarnation, and want to see how it began.
That’s my take anyway. YMMV.
The Pale Scot
@Leto: a Fez is even cooler
JeffH
@Emma from FL: Ah yes, the heady days of the Omnirumor. I still think there’s one hell of a story to be told about what was going on behind the scenes there. If for no other reason why everyone was convinced 3 stories were being returned before it suddenly changed to 2 a month or so before the final announcement. Sadly the guy who found the episodes is proving to be a gigantic jerk, so getting that story might be tough.
And I echo the recommendations for the Verity podcast. (Named after Verity Lambert, the first producer of the show back in 1963 who went on to become a major figure in British tv.) Very smart commentary among a group of people who clearly love talking to each other.
Bruuuuce
@Miss Bianca: Yes, she was his Companion in Series 4 (and was introduced in the earlier Christmas special “The Runaway Bride”). I don’t think I’ve seen that Much Ado…, though given the comic synergy between the two of them, I’d be surprised if it weren’t good.
I did see Tennant as Hamlet, though. Man, does his long, skinny build help to see him as a teenager despite his actual age.
The Pale Scot
@WaterGirl: The Tardis’s interior changes with every regeneration of the Doctor. Except the pool is always down that way over to the right
Sloane Ranger
I’ve been a fan since Hartnell days. Although the Doctor is now an out and out hero, people tend to forget he didn’t start that way. The original idea was that the 2 teachers who wandered into the TARDIS (acronym for Time and Relative Dimensions in Space) would be the heroes and the Doctor would be a mysterious and slightly untrustworthy alien who “drove” the heroes from story to story. In the 1st story, The Tribe of Gum, he picks up a rock and clearly intends to brain the injured Stone Age man with it, while in the next story, The Dead Planet he fakes a TARDIS breakdown so he can explore the planet and ends up giving everyone radiation poisoning.
The programme was originally commissioned as having educational benefits. Hence one teacher taught science and the other history to cover the idea it would alternate between historical and futuristic (science based) stories but, over the course of the series, the Doctor took over especially after the teachers were returned to their own time.
My favourite Doctor was Jon Pertwee but I also have soft spots for Patrick Troughton and Tom Baker. Favourite modern Doctor, David Tennant but I don’t dislike any of them.
The Pertwee era was mainly set on Earth to save on production costs and the Doctor works with a multi national military group called UNIT (United Nations Intelligence Taskforce) which was set up to protect Earth from alien threats. It was led by my all time favourite ‘companion’, Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart.
All the Doctors name drop but Pertwee raised it to an art form. He was always telling anecdotes about famous people. ” As I said to Napoleon, Boney, an army marches on its stomach “. In one episode he persuades a Red Chinese diplomat of his good intentions by reminiscing about the time he spent with Mao during the Long March.
Sorry for going on so long. I am a big fan.
Lacuna Synechdoche
Actually, I think it’s their anti-chemistry that her fans appreciated. There have been frequent female companions that had a kind of romantic chemistry with the Doctor; Noble’s role and attitude were a change of pace in how she wanted nothing to do with the Doctor in that way.
Bruuuuce
@The Pale Scot: Also, the basic layout of the flight deck/main control room is always the same: six-sided control panel at the center, some sort of vertically pumping object when the TARDIS is in motion, and no chairs by the control panels. It’s possible that the Doctor, being a one-Time Lord crew in a six-Time Lord craft, has removed them for better movement around the controls, but that’s never been explicit as far as I can recall.
Bruuuuce
@Lacuna Synechdoche: I call it chemistry, but it’s comic, not romantic. I apologize if I implied otherwise in any way.
WaterGirl
@The Pale Scot: She was even surprised at the TARDIS interior in the Ghost Monument episode (#3 of her first year). So it must change sometimes even without a new Doctor. ?
WaterGirl
@Sloane Ranger: No apologies, those are fun stories.
There go two miscreants
@wvng: Van Gogh Visits the Gallery
I love love love the Musee d’Orsay! And that scene brings tears to my eyes every time.
WaterGirl
I’m going to close the computer and watch Perry Mason. I’ll check back in the morning.
Hoping that next Sunday evening folks will be willing to talk Perry Mason again – we’ll be at the halfway point in the series at that point.
Lacuna Synechdoche
No need, I was just clearing up what Miss Bianca seemed perplexed by, not critiquing your characterization. My apologies if it read otherwise, that was not my intent.
planetjanet
Watergirl, so glad you have discovered the Doctor. I first watched in on PBS, Tom Baker was the first Doctor for me and thought he was the best for a long time. I may be the only one who loves Sylvester McCoy. He had such great sense of humor, made the Doctor fun. The biggest change in the reboot is that the Doctor now can have a full range of emotions and has made it a much more powerful series. In the original starting in the sixties, it was too taboo to have a man and a much younger woman traveling together, so the relationship with the companions was emphatically platonic. The Doctor ended up being almost emotionless. Slowly the relationships with the companions changed until with Matt Smiths’ Doctor and Clara Oswald it was almost a love story. When Peter Capaldi took over as the Doctor, the change in the relationship with Clara was quite tense. Happy you are now a Whoovian with us.
Citizen Alan
The only thing listed in that article that remotely supports the retcon is a throwaway scene in a single Hinchcliffe episode (Brain of Morbius) that hinted at other Doctors before Hartnell. There are 2 reasons I loathed The Timeless Children enough to probably drop the series.
Brachiator
Fun Doctor Who thread. I am a recent fan. I had seen a few episodes before, but really came on board with the Matt Smith era. Love this Doctor, the Ponds and River Song. But also really liked many Peter Capaldi stories.
Unfortunately, I have to catch up with the latest Doctor, but have enjoyed the stories I’ve seen.
I’ve learned that fandom is huge, and at times it seems that there are more sects and schisms than organized religion.
But at best people come together to celebrate the Doctor and are eager to share their affection and insights.
It may have been mentioned before, but such podcasts as The Two Minute Time Lord, Verity and Radio Free Skaro are tremendously useful resources. Friendly also, and I think they are newbie friendly.
Lacuna Synechdoche
Probably better to first watch Chris Eccleston’s run as the Doctor in the initial season of the reboot.
It’s only one season long, and it sets up a lot of the backstory for Tennant’s run – and especially for Rose Tyler’s (Billie Piper’s) story, whose run as a companion begins with Eccleston and continues with Tennant.
PaulWartenberg
Been watching it since the Fourth Doctor, probably around 1979 when my local PBS in Clearwater/Tampa picked up his series.
I’ve ended up not having a personal favorite – each Doctor ends up being their own take, with positive quirks and bad stories – but if it’s anything with the Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Tenth Doctors I will stop and watch it.
The Companions rank in this order: Sarah Jane, Leela, Ace, Sarah Jane, Jamie, K9, and more Sarah Jane.
The Doctor is akin to The Wanderer in archetype, between the Flying Dutchman who can never find a safe port, and the Wandering Jew forced to live forever to witness our days. It’s come up a lot more in the modern era, especially as they play into the storyline of The Doctor’s home planet Gallifrey lost to war against the Doctor’s archenemy the Daleks, and then madness of the Doctor’s arch-rival the Master. The current plot twist – that the Doctor had been secretly a Timeless Child whose memories have been altered by the Time Lords for nefarious purposes – is part of that.
Miss Bianca
@Bruuuuce: The production is decent, but Tate plays Beatrice as a vulgar, coarse, broad…well, broad. But then, her whole family is portrayed as kind of loud and vulgar and nouveaux riches – like the director watched too much Miami Vice back in the day. Which…works? I guess? – as a concept: I just don’t happen to care for it.
Tennant is slapsticky to the point of being almost too much, for my taste, but very funny. I guess I’ll gird my loins to get through the rest. But now I know why some of my Doctor Who-loving fellow thespians liked it so much!
Citizen Alan
@planetjanet: I too consider Sylvester McCoy my favorite Doctor.
Bruuuuce
@Citizen Alan: I agree, the slaughter of Gallifrey by the Master is abominable, despicable, and hateful. I apply those to the character, not to the series (as yet). Again, I believe that Chibnall — wisely or otherwise — is consciously fulfilling the Cartmel Masterplan, and that like it or not, that was a legitimate part of the series many years gone. It shook me when it was revealed; over some time, I have gotten to the point of understanding it better.
Still not a great fan of the way Thirteen has been treated by the writers and showrunner, for the most part, but then, I was ready for a change from Moffat. and wow, did we get that.
Bruuuuce
@Miss Bianca: Thanks. I’ll be prepared when I get around to it.
donnah
David Tennant was my favorite, hands down. I sobbed in his last episode when he transitioned. I also loved Torchwood and John Barrowman, who is the handsomest man on earth.
JimV
I guess Tom Baker is still my #1 favorite, but now Matt Smith is 1A. Like any long-running series the quality is uneven, depending on the writing. I haven’t much enjoyed the episodes Ms. Whittaker has been in–mainly because I don’t find her companions interesting.
If I had to pick one episode (currently available at Amazon and other places) it would be “The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe” one of the Christmas Specials with Matt Smith as the Doctor. Everyone here deserves to see it. (I wouldn’t let just anybody in on it, though.)
Wikipedia will give you probably more information on “The Doctor” than you want to know. E.g., “Tardis” stands for Time and Relative Dimensions in Space. I first started watching it in the 1970’s. I didn’t know how great Tom Baker was–until I saw others in the role. But I did know he was great.
Some aliens had him a sort of yoke device (like the one at the end of the the first and best “Hellboy” movie) and he managed to free himself and knock down the alien with it. “I could say, ‘The yoke’s on you’–if I were the sort of person who says that sort of thing.” he then said with his trade-mark grin. And with the permanent twinkle in his eyes.
sdhays
@neabinorb: True, s/he’s not 100% immortal. S/he can be killed, but it’s very, very difficult and if not killed, s/he would live essentially forever. I guess I’d call that “essentially immortal”. “Almost immortal”?
The Pale Scot
Watergirl
@WaterGirl:
Yeaaa ya can, but since you can stream it sequentially why not start with Eccleston. There are so many Easter eggs and foreshadowings that you’d miss out on. The apprehension on meeting a new doctor and the pleasurable satisfaction that comes when you realize you’re not going to be disappointed, well, it’s worth it. Especially the Tennant shows, which tends to build on things that happened a season or more ago
Tony Jay
@Lacuna Synechdoche:
My mileage varies not a jot. I concur completely.
The Pale Scot
@WaterGirl: IIRC, she fell out of it in the beginning of the first episode when she was still regenerating, As others of said bio and neural functions are sub optimal during that time so when Shen finds the Tardis it would be the first time that doctor has seen it
Marci Kiser
“Every time the TARDIS materializes in a new location, within the first nanosecond of landing, it analyzes its surroundings, calculates a twelve-dimensional data map of everything within a thousand mile radius, and determines which outer shell would blend in best with the environment.
And then it disguises itself as a police telephone box from 1963.”
I like Jodie Whitaker for universally-shared reasons and loathe Chris Chibnall for thoroughly practical reasons… between the misogynistic rape fantasy that was his Camelot and the lobotomy he gave every female character in Broadchurch, having him write the first female Doctor is like hiring Roman Polanski to make a film about the victims of Jeffrey Epstein.
Penn
Because the show has been running for almost 60 years it has been almost any kind of SF you can imagine. Sometimes multiple types in the same episode.
Continuity is only a suggestion.
Different Doctors and showrunners can have quite different idea of what’s important, so different eras can feel quite different.
I enjoy all of the Doctors for different reasons, aside from maybe Colin Baker (and it’s not his fault, he had terrible scripts).
Treating each episode as a new experience is a good way to go into it, you can go from an Alien pastiche to Robin Hood to Brave New World in the span of a season, and it all just sort of works. Don’t get hung up on the details, they aren’t important.
Mostly, just enjoy the ride. The best episodes are subline, and even the bad ones are usually interesting.
Ked
Tennant is the One True Doctor. But there’s been a hell of a lot of other good ones, both old Who and new. I’ve not really felt like show runner is quite the defining thing, so much as there are really good seasons and really bad seasons, often from the same team.
Everyone cites the Fourth Doctor as a favorite, but I strongly recommend the Third for the low-budget Bond-ian shlock. If there’s one thing not to like in that period it’s how often they reuse the same plot (unscrupulous businessmen do deal/dig up alien/monster/pollutant of the week), but it’s the only old Doctor that always seems to be fully in control of himself and (mostly) cognizant of the dangers around him.
A couple of summers ago. Twitch streamed every old Who show they could get the rights to. (Which was everything except later Daleks since the rights holders were stingy.) It was glorious, the old series intersecting with modern memeing irreverence. I finally got to see sixth and seventh Doctor content that never made it to the PBS reruns.
…and let’s be honest, the later seasons were pretty much a mess. The whole Trial arc was a nice idea which ended in the most britishly grotesque mess of low-budget symbolic psychodrama. Everyone liked Ace, but they never really let the character shine. The ultimate hiatus was a mercy killing.
But second-third-fourth Doctor is all good. Worth the watch. Fifth is where I feel the show started going wrong – the character was just too… weak, and the question mark fetish showed up. Ew.
Maeve
@Miss Bianca:
Actually she didn’t have “chemistry” with him in Doctor Who – which is why it was a great character and my favorite companion. She was reluctantly dragged along and was always questioning him. Why she’s my favorite companion
Maeve
@Miss Bianca:
sounds like she played a similar character in Doctor Who – one of her favorite pronouncement was “Oy!” – which as an American I don’t get the full cultural significance but I understand to be lower class. But there was also a lot of story about her family etc, impact of WW2, similar evacuation in a Doctor Who plot, and about ordinary “vulgar” person rising to “nobility”.
She’s my favorite because she was vulgar, she wasn’t particularly young or pretty and she didn’t put up with shit.
Richard Ryley
While the Doctor changes (regenerates) with each new actor and the showrunner and companions change as they grow tired of the role, I think the TARDIS is the one thing that is never intended to change. Even police boxes have changed in England and yet the chameleon circuit remains broken. That blue box, and that distinctive sound effect are the one constant in the show.
In universe, I think it’s established that the TARDIS is sentient, and she just likes the shape. And she goes where she wants.
The interior of the TARDIS changes fairly often, and there may even be multiple control rooms. Some Doctors have had multiple control rooms, and most have made minor modifications at times. There are multiple room inside the TARDIS including bedrooms for all the companions.
Oh, and I agree that while the Doctor may be immortal, and the 13th has discovered that she may not even subject to the 12 regeneration limit, she most certainly can die. Regeneration can fail, and being killed while regenerating would definitely be fatal.
My favorite Doctor is the Seventh, although I really like the Fourth, and all of the new series Doctors. I’ve seen a lot more of Eccleston and Tennant than Smith and Capaldi, but they all sound fun. You can skip around Doctors all you like. Rather than recommend a Doctor, though, I thought I’d sum up their personalities so you can guess at which you’ll like.
First (Hartnell) – An abrasive, crotchety old man, who hides a grandfatherly affection for his companions. Including his actual granddaughter.
Second (Troughton) – Hides his intellect behind a clownish, easily distracted persona. Best known for his mop of black hair, thick coat, and playing a recorder. First to use the sonic screwdriver.
Third (Pertwee) – The Doctor as James Bond. A dapper, adventurous Doctor, he was stuck on Earth after being caught by the Time Lords and forced to regenerate. Drove around in a yellow car called Bessie. The first Doctor episodes in color.
Fourth (Tom Baker) – Described in show as “all teeth and curls”. Plus the iconic floppy hat and yards long scarf often connected to the Doctor. A complex, charismatic character at the same time arrogant and compassionate.
Fifth (Davison) – A young, human, fallibile Doctor dressed in a cricket outfit. I think of Whittaker’s Doctor, with her greater focus on friendship and companions, as this Doctor’s spiritual successor. He lacked his predecessors’ intellect and focus, though, and it shows in his greater failures, including the death of Adric.
Sixth (Colin Baker) – The Doctor at his worst; arrogant, egotistical, careless and scheming. I personally believe he was a failed regeneration, because the Fifth Doctor was poisoned and almost didn’t survive. Colin Baker settled into the role, but fan reaction was negative, and he was forced to leave the role. I hear he’s been redeemed in the Big Finish audio plays, which I have yet to check out.
Seventh (McCoy) – A cunning, manipulative chessmaster that seems to have unlocked many of his old memories. Almost like the First Doctor without the crotchetyness. While he can be uncharacteristically cruel, it turns out he does have his companions best interests at heart.
Eighth (McGann) – We only have two all too short looks at this excellent Doctor. Problematically, he claims to be half human. However, he is a clever and bold adventurer, and he is the Doctor that regenerates into the War Doctor, sacrificing his ideals to save the universe.
Ninth (Eccleston) – The first Doctor of NuWho, he is suffering from guilt and PTSD after the Time War. More than any other Doctor, he carries the weight of the death that follows him around. He is still an adventurer, but now with a dark edge that he hopes will warn away all but the most determined companions.
Tenth (Tennant) – A younger, and more relaxed adventurer, that still comes with a dark, almost vengeful undercurrent. He continues what is the Doctor’s first romantic relationship, although the Eighth Doctor hinted that his relationship with his female companion might go this way.
Eleventh (Smith) – I have not seen much of this Doctor, but what I have seen is impressive. I particularly like the revelation of the War Doctor during this period, and his “death” and regeneration. (As he wasn’t supposed to have one left)
Twelfth (Capaldi) – I’ve seen nothing of this Doctor, but again, I’d like to. He physically reminds me of the First and Third Doctors, and I think the personality fits, too.
Thirteenth (Whittaker) – Again, she reminds me of the Fifth Doctor, and I’ve heard her compared to the Fourth and Sixth too. The idea that she is more caring and compassionate that usual for the Doctor, relying a lot more on her companions, is very like the Fifth Doctor, who often had three companions too. It will be interesting if she explores the dark side of that compassion, opening herself up to hurt and be hurt by her companions as the Fifth Doctor often was.
As for a list of companions, that would be a whole other post. I’ll leave it there for now.
Joey Maloney
This thread is probably dead now, but has anyone mentioned that the TARDIS can be explored in Google Maps?
Original Lee
I notice nobody mentions Colin Baker, who was IMO the worst Doctor ever. Of course, his companion was Peri, the worst companion ever. Although Tegan ran a close second to Peri.
zombie rotten mcdonald
About once a year I re-binge the entire re-boot, and sometimes it is trickier than others depending on where licensing is at. Currently, all reboot episodes are available on HBOMax. Amazon Prime has some older ones.
One minor comment:what I have seen s that while regeneration essentially brings the Doctor back, it is never a perfect copy, and the new corporeal body has an effect on the Doctor’s personality.
I am completely on board with the idea of Donna Noble as one of the best companions ever, including one of the most hilarious introduction stories. I do, however, disagree that she was done hard by. She sacrificed much to save the universe, becoming Doctor Donna, and couldn’t sustain it, so had to sacrifice all her memories. She still accomplished all that, and the Ood are singing songs about her. no further spoilers there.
Agree on the common feelings that Vincent and Blink are standout episodes.
Also, love the new ‘Fam’ and the loss of Grace in the first episode was a gut punch.
zombie rotten mcdonald
@Maeve: hilariously, Tennant used it to show they were sharing some brain…
zombie rotten mcdonald
@Maeve: negative chemistry is still chemistry. Friction is a great generator for drama.
zombie rotten mcdonald
@Penn: LOL, i love the ‘continuity is only a suggestion’ which seems to be modern operating standard
zombie rotten mcdonald
@Joey Maloney: come on, it’s a thread about Doctor Who. What does death even mean?
zombie rotten mcdonald
@The Pale Scot: Eccleston is awesome, and the transition to Tennant is pretty adept, IMHZO. Older episodes can be approached more episodically, although they mostly have multi-episode arcs which can be more difficult to find…
zombie rotten mcdonald
I SO MUCH want to see Alex Kingston come back as River Song with the newest Doctor.
Jeffery
My favorite doctor was David Tennant. I especially liked the episode called “Blink”. The storyline on this particular episode I don’t think has been matched.
Before the BBC got wise to things people would post episodes weekly on YouTube. I watched all of Tennant’s four seasons that way.
You might check your library to see if they have the DVDs of past seasons.
AdamK
@Leto: Fezzes are cool.
bluefoot
@RSA: I’m with you on Eccleston. I’ve never understood the Eccleston hate. His Doctor was haunted by what he had seen/experienced and was trying to find his balance again. Eccleston did a great job with that, I think. Plus he was rebooting the series; pretty much any choice would have seemed like the wrong one.
I watched old Who from John Pertwee onward. I did manage to see a handful of older ones with Hartnell and Trouhgton. I got busy and lost interest (and then didn’t have a tv for a decade or two) somewhere in the McCoy era. I haven’t had much opportunity to watch new Who, unfortunately.
WaterGirl
@Richard Ryley: That is awesome. Thank you!
Padraig
Favorite Doctor: David Tennant
favorite Doctor who was inexplicably not cast, thus making me unfairly predisposed against Jodi Whittaker: Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
i mean – how would she not have been f***ing perfection?
bluefoot
@Sloane Ranger: I love the Brigadier. My favorite companion as well. Even if he really wasn’t a companion.
Kosh III
We started watching in early 1981 when a local independent station showed it at 11pm M-F in the original half-hour format. Then we watched on PBS.
Favorite DW is #7 Colin Baker. I liked his rough edges. But Peri was my least favorite companion.
Next is Baker, Tennant and Davison.
Favorite Companions: Sara Jane, K-9, Donna, Turlough and Adric.
Best performance ever was #2 PT when he played DW and the villain Salamander in The Enemy of the World.
Favorite villain was The Rani; she was also a rogue Time Lord. Favorite Master is the current one mostly because he is so fraking hot.
Kosh III
Plus Captain Jack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DaddyJ
As a total Doctor Who nerd, I have watched the entire series.
The first episode premiered one day after the assassination of JFK (that premiere broadcast got poor ratings, not suprisingly). That’s a lot of episodes!
All of the Doctors embody variations on beloved archetypal teacher/authority figures. Since what British culture values in benign authority figures has varied over the decades, they have wide-ranging “flavors”…
– First Doctor: The least “likeable” Doctor. Irascible, cold, selfish, once outright malign (he’s gleeful as he watches Nero’s burning of Rome). Your ball-busting icicle Oxford Don, the one you can rarely please. He grows in humanity thanks to his contact with the first accidental companions.
– Second Doctor: An early beatnik/hippy/idiot-savant character. Your wierd but life-changing art college professor. Alternates between fierce and buffoonish. One of my favorites, but sadly most of the 2nd Doctor episodes are lost, discarded in a BBC purge of archives.
– Third Doctor: A debonair, charming “man-of-action” type. The type of British schoolteacher who was blowing up bridges in Europe for the SOE three decades before. Clearly an attempt to add a little James Bond to the formula. His storyline has added interest because the Timelords have wiped his memory and crippled his Tardis.
– Fouth Doctor: Byronic, Olympian, The Smartest Guy in the Room. Arrogance mixed with winning charm, mixed with a little bit of Harpo Marx, if Harpo had advanced language skills. Your mind-blowing philosophy professor.
– Fifth Doctor: The Honorable Schoolboy on the tenure track. Anxious, persnickety, unsure of himself at times, always rises to the occasion after a false start due to his natural generosity and warmth. The first Doctor who seems to really care for the humans around him; the first Doctor who loses a companion.
– Sixth Doctor: A sort of callback to the Fourth Doctor, but the Byronic arrogance is unleavened by charm. Awful fashion sense. This series rather marred by unfortunate choices by the producer of that time.
– Seventh Doctor: Vaguely reminiscent of the Second Doctor at first, but his goofy eccentricities evolve into something strange and sinister before the end. Starts hanging out with an incipient terrorist. The last of the “original” Doctors.
– Eighth Doctor: A one-shot (on visual media) Doctor. Perhaps the best-looking Doctor. Can’t say much about his character as it is mostly developed via audio plays I haven’t heard.
– Ninth Doctor: The first working-class, non-Oxfordian Doctor. Strong Manchester accent. Super intense personality, no love of human b.s., but exhibits winning childlike glee when nobody dies. You’d love to have a pint or two with this one.
– Tenth Doctor: A “ladies man” doctor. Smart arse, mercurial. First Doctor to experience love and love lost. A little too aware of his own godhood.
– Eleventh Doctor: Your completely off-the-wall, goofball older brother, elevated to a position of authority and trying for tweedy acceptability but failing. Gawky, lovable, humane.
– Twelfth Doctor: The autism of the First, Second and Seventh Doctors made explicit. A crabbed weary old survivor who can kill you with a look. A department head who has seen it all but still managed to retain an iota of sympathy for the students. His rigid control dissolves hilariously when things fall apart.
– Thirteenth Doctor: Somewhat like the Fifth Doctor with less anxiety. The most awesome camp counselor, youth leader you ever had. Seems to have some kind of inner life that nobody gets at, ever.
WaterGirl
@DaddyJ: I am loving these takes on all the Doctors.
Blue Galangal
@Original Lee:
Strong concur: Colin Baker was by far the worst Doctor, but IMHO Adric was an even worse companion.
In best of order: Tom Baker (he *reveled* in the role), Sylvester McCoy (loved his enigmatic eyes + ACE!!!), Christopher Eccleston, John Hurt (OMG OMG OMG), and of course David Tennant, whom I was prepared to hate but my how he grew on me. I’m also fond of Jon Pertwee, Patrick Troughton, and what bits I’ve seen of William Hartnell. Matt Smith was okay but Saint Amy sort of destroyed him for me (River Song was OTOH the best idea – her timeline made my brain hurt). I wouldn’t give you a nickel for Peter Davison, and Peter Capaldi was just trying too hard. I never much cared for Paul McGann – but it wasn’t his fault they were trying to Americanize the show. We’ve watched Jodi Whittaker, and she’s doing a great job, but there’s just too much white male privilege that is not being taken into account and it’s frankly unbelievable.
DaddyJ
@Blue Galangal: I agree they seem to be mostly ignoring the elephant in the room with regards to Jodi Whittaker’s Doctor, but I am not sure how I feel about it. I think Chibnall et al. do not want to write stories about the challenges facing a Doctor who finds themself suddenly female, they want to write stories about an alien time-traveler. I think they think that the fact she presents as a humanoid female wouldn’t matter to the Doctor so should not matter to us. At first there was very little backstory reference in the Whittaker shows, as if they wanted to start with a clean slate. So you can get a fantastic episode harkening back to the original history-for-kids concept set during the partition of India. But I think the last season showed they have been feeling pressure to get back to fan favorite formulas, and those eps been a mixed bag IMO. The very last eps, in which they suggest a panoply of alternate-universe Doctors, suggests to me they do want to break out of the box of white male authority but after 50+ years that is a strong box. A huge challenge for such a show; I wish them well!
Sasha
I’m still deeply disappointed that the 13th Doctor isn’t Gillian Anderson.
Mysteo
@WaterGirl: OMG…The Doctor is beyond understanding…the c-circut in “Sexy” which is the Doctor’s ship, is stuck as “police box” while the one the Doctor stole and Clara Oswald and Lady Me are in is stuck as Americian Diner.
The Doctor is, supposedly, one of a trinity of beings who created our space/time universe. In the 14th, depending on counting, Doctor, in the show with tbe Mirror she meets (again) one of the other of the three. The third is Rasimon(sp). There are web sites devoted to trying to sort this out. It is complex, as besides the show and it’s spin offs, such as “The Adventures of Sara Jane”, there are radio shows, books and graphic novels, all of which add to the back story
WaterGirl
@Mysteo: That’s way over my head at this point!