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I personally like the new guy, Matt Smith the most. He matches the eccentricity level that the last Doctors set a standard for and goes above and beyond. And as much as I hate to make this a point he's the first Doctor I've ever seen so I grew more attached to him. Thought I also liked David Tennant as the Doctor.

It's Paul MaGann for me.
I love the audio adventures he did and gave a really strong performance in the TV movie.

My second would be Matt Smith.
He is made of awesome!

I can't pick. I like most of them in their own way.

I think I still have to go with Tom Baker. He really set the standard for eccentric genius.

Matt Smith is doing a great job though. So far, he's nailed the character. His doctor seems to have a wild mix of the best traits of his predecessors. He's kind of a mix of Tennant with a bit of Troughton whimsy thrown in, a touch of Hartnell's grandfatherly kindness and his own youthful geekiness.

About the only Doctors I really didn't care as much for were Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy, but they were OK, and to be fair, the whole show was kind of slipping then. And Hartnell can be a little dull to watch. McGann I only saw in the TV movie, and Eric Roberts stole the show there in a bad/good sort of way.

Of the original Doctors I really liked, I'd probably rank them Tom Baker, Pertwee, Troughton and Davison (or Davison then Troughton). Of the new series, Tennant is still the best, but Smith is still relatively new. Eccleston is a close third, but that might have more to do with him only doing one season when the show was just getting started. He was very good. Don't ask me to rank old and new together, because it's a little too much like apples and oranges for me. The long hiatus has clouded the choice for me, with significantly improved visual effects pulling one way and nostalgia pulling the other.

Tom Baker, no contest.  Jon Pertwee is a close second.

Matt Smith. Granted he is still kinda 'new', but he portrays it perfectly.

Bonus points for Amy Pond.

Billie Piper.  Oh wait, she wasn't a doctor.  :teddyr:  I'd have to go with Peter Davison.  He was the Doctor when I first started watching the show so he'll always be "my" Doctor.  Tom Baker was great as well.  Both of them seemed very normal compared to the guys today.

Baker baby!

(http://images.wikia.com/tardis/images/8/8a/Tom-baker-thinking.jpg)

I like them all but out of all of them I'll pick Tom Baker because he was my very first Doctor I watched in the mid 70's. :smile:

I'd probably choose Tom Baker as my favourite actor to have played the Doctor just ahead of Patrick Troughton and David Tennant.

There's never been a Doctor I haven't liked. You can't make Doctor Who suck.

(http://reprog.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/doctors.jpg)


WHO'S THE MAN!

People tend to like the Doctor they saw first. For me it was Tom Baker. He really played the part as if he were were an alien. Laughing in the face of danger, but getting upset over the little things. The show was at it's peak durring Baker's run. The best stories "Talons of Weng Chieng," "Pyramids of Mars," "Genesis of the Daleks," were all in his era. The chemistry he had with Elisabeth Sladen (R.I.P.) was amazing. The second season with Tom and Sarah Jane was the best. I also liked the next season with Leela a lot too. My second favorite Doctor is Jon Pertwee, he was so charismatic. His repeats were in heavy rotation on PBS when I was a kid. So Tom, Jon and Peter Davidson were the Doctors I saw as a kid. The show started to suck in the late 80's but I don't blame it on Colin Baker or Sylvester McCoy, they were both good in the role. But the writting really went downhill. David Tennant is the best of the new series doctors.

I've liked most versions or most eventually grew on me. My favourite though is Patrick Troughton followed closely by Tom Baker, then William Hartnell and then Christoper Eccleston.

Colin Baker and David Tennant gave it their best shots, though.

Troughton is underrated, that's for sure. I imagine that's because the Doctor didn't become as internationally known until the Pertwee and Baker years. Could also be that the colour episodes have been more frequently aired. I know a bunch of the Troughton episodes are lost.

Troughton was funny. He really established the character as we know him. The most popular Doctors tend to be the ones who go with that whimsical, irreverent, lovable, eccentric genius model. Of the ones who took a more serious approach to the character, I like Pertwee the best, as a proper English gentleman who can kick butt when he needs to. But even that Doctor had his comical moments.

Sadly so many Troughton episodes were lost. I never saw the first two Doctors untill the 90's on VHS. I always knew just from what little I had seen of Pat in "The Three, Five and Two Doctor's" that he must have been a great Doctor. When I first saw "Tomb of the Cybermen" on VHS, he met my every expectation. The show did have it's dull moments with Hartnell, I just didn't have the patience when I first saw his episodes. But now that I'm older I can appreciate the Hartnell era more. If not for Bill there would have been no Doctor Who, and without Pat, the show would not have continued.

I was lucky that back in the 80s, one of the TV stations I got used to show Doctor Who every week in lieu of a cheap Sunday afternoon movie. They'd just run a whole serial in an afternoon, one episode after the next. And they did them in order, starting at the beginning. I got to see quite a lot of Hartnell and Troughton. I also got much more familiar with Pertwee, since I hadn't seen as much of him.

It was great. A couple of hours of classic Doctor Who on Sunday, daily Tom Baker episodes every weeknight after dinner on a public station, and the new weekly episode (Davison, Colin Baker, McCoy) that was currently airing in Canada. I always liked the Doctor, but I got to be quite a fan during those teenage years.

When I was 12 my local PBS station literally bombarded the airwaves with Doctor Who. Tom Baker episodes every day at 5. Jon Pertwee every night at 11. A complete Baker serial on Saturday afternoon at 2. And the new Peter Davidson episodes at 7 on Sunday night. Being my favorite show, I loved it of course. This only lasted for a few months. By 1989 they had cut back to just one serial on Saturday and in 1990 stopped airing them altogether. I had to suffer with four or five VHS releases untill I got a DVD player in 2001. Now Amazon.com get's about 50% of my yearly imcome!

1)Tom Baker
2)Patrick Troughton
3)Christopher Eccleston
4)Jon Pertwee
5)Colin Baker

This is coming from someone who has only see the episodes of Doctors 4 through 8 with one episode from Doctor 9, but with the celebration of the show's 50th anniversary, I have been reading a lot on the Doctor: fiction, non-fiction, graphic, etc., and within the confines of the character I think that each of the actors brought something unique to the Doctor. And now with Peter Capaldi playing the 12th Doctor, if you want to be specific, the Doctor can regenerate only one more time, as he is restricted to 12 regenerates--supposedly; therefore, as has been suggested in the past, I'd like to see an actress as the Doctor's final regenerate. Thus we'd have 12 Jokers and a Queen.

The Matt Smith Doctor WAS his 12th regeneration if you followed the show's history..Capaldi's Doctor is the first in a whole new regeneration cycle as seen in the most recent story, TIME OF THE DOCTOR. The Time Lords renewed his life cycle for saving Gallifrey in DAY OF THE DOCTOR. It's because they dont count the War Doctor(John Hurt) incarnation as THE DOCTOR, that Smith was labeled the Eleventh. The Doctor, from Capaldi onwards is good for at least another dozen incarnations now.

That's interesting, Ticonderoga 64. Thank your for posting that piece of information, but not every fan of the show believes that Capaldi starts a new regeneration cycle. Believing instead that Capaldi is just one more regeneration in the old regeneration cycle, and anything else is just cheating on the part of the show's TV producers. But we shatll see, what we will see, how long the show lasts: new regeneration cycle or not. As who believed back when the show started in 1963, that the show would last as long as it has. Thank you again for your post.

You're welcome! :teddyr: While I realize that every fan may not believe that there is a new regeneration cycle, according to the show's current mythos(and production team), that is just what occurred at the climax of TIME OF THE DOCTOR and the Doctor says as much. I wouldnt say it is cheating as there was a precedence for it as shown with the Master in THE FIVE DOCTORS and UTOPIA where we saw the Time Lords offer the Master just such an option for his aid in the events in FIVE DOCTORS and later on in UTOPIA where we discover that he WAS given a new life cycle to fight for them in the Time War. If this could be done for him, why not the Doctor?

Hartnell: First saw his episodes in the late 1980s after our local PBS station finally ran all the others then available. In a way it's hard to criticize Hartnell because as the first Doctor he really was, I suppose, THEE Doctor as the part was conceived to be, but having come to him after seeing Doctors 3,4,5,6, I found him....somewhat unlikable? All in all I've rate him a C, and his episodes a B+.

Troughton: Saw him after the Hartnell episodes ran. As has been pointed out, so much of his work is presumably lost today. I liked Troughton better than Hartnell and really liked some of the companions but of all the Doctors, his antics slipped from good weird into bad weird a few too many times. I'd give him a C, his episodes a B+.

Pertwee: He grew on me. His flash and debonair style were uniquely his own and he put a stamp on the role no one else has quite picked up. I liked the Master, introduced in his tenure, and all the gadgets and Venuvian Karate were fun, but I got my fill of UNIT and this Doctor's earthbound status which kept him tied down from exploring the universe as much as the first two Doctors did. (Something this era has in common with the more earth-oriented modern series.) I'll give him a B+, and his episodes a C+.

Tom Baker: Probably the most iconic Doctor as well as the one who played the role the longest. He arguably had more great episodes than any other Doctor (not one bad moment in The Key To Time season) really defined the part and cast a shadow that is still there now. I'd say he deserves an A+ for his role, and his episodes get an A+ also.

Davison: Overall the most likable Doctor, the most boyish (though Matt Smith was younger) and the last Doctor, I believe, to do a strictly historical episode (Black Orchid) so common in the series' early days. He had great companions, some truly enjoyable storylines, and was the last of the old guard before the rocky times that followed for the next two Doctors, especially poor Colin Baker. Davison gets an A+ as the Doctor and his episodes get an A.

Colin Baker: Personally I have always liked the guy and think he held up the show during a rough point in its history. His interaction with Peri was as good as any Doctor/companion relationship that came before or after, and a few of the episodes during his run were brilliant. I think sometimes Baker gets slapped for criticisms that should more fairly be aimed at John Nathan-Turner who set Baker’s Doctor up to be the onscreen jerk he could sometimes seem to be. Baker as the Doctor: B+, his episodes: B+.

McCoy: McCoy really tried and like Baker was dealt a bad hand. I never warmed to him but do think he had some good stories during his brief run. If you take the time to figure out what is actually going on in Ghostlight, it's a complex tale worthy of any era of Doctor Who, but it's easy to miss what it's all about. McCoy also insisted that there be no violence done by his Doctor, which....hamstrung the plots a few times. McCoy as the Doctor: C+. His episodes: B-.

McGann: I hated his movie and never considered it canon until I found out how much work McGann did during Doctor Who's wilderness years, turning out great radio serials and playing the role in an animated graphic novel that finally finished Shada after twenty years. I actually came to think McGann was a worthy addition to Doctor Who and rather liked him. McGann as the eighth Doctor: B+. His episodes B.

Eccleston: While he grew on me “a bit” Eccleston never felt like Doctor Who and I think back on his tenure as a dress rehearsal that worked the kinks out of the series re-boot. He had a couple of good moments and some of the episodes of his season rank among the classics, but… I’ll give him a C- and his episodes a B.

Tennant: I never thought I’d come to like a Doctor in the revival era better than those of the classic Who (and I’d take the classic episodes over the 21st century ones hands down) but Tennant achieved the impossible and became my favorite Doctor. Maybe five or so  episodes he was in are among the best ever in the series and I hated to see him go. An A+ to him and an A to his era.

Smith: The youngest Doctor, and in his own way the most energetically odd. It took a season to get used to him after Tennant left but I like Matt Smith and wish he’d stayed one more season as I don’t think we’d tapped him out just yet. Smith gave us arguably the best relationship with his traveling companions EVER in the entire canon of Doctor Who, and a few of the story arcs of his years worked brilliantly. I’ll miss him! Smith’s Doctor: A-, the episodes of his era B.

(Sorry, slow morning at work and I had a half-hour to kill!)

People have noted Romana's serial regenerations in The Key To Time, when she walked in and out of her dressing room appearing in many different bodies before settling on one as proof that there isn't a limit on the number of regenerations or else why would she throw away so many of her lives on "dressing up." Also the fact we've now had it revealed to us that there have been several other Doctors beyond the ones we have known (Hurt's Doctor, Cushing's Doctor, plus the Valeyard and who knows who else) seems to point to the cap on the number of potential regenerations being hooey. Maybe the whole thing was an urban legend the Doctor mistakenly believed in, maybe scientists have cured the limitations since the first Doctor's time, maybe there's more to it than we think. I can't see a successful show coming to a halt just because of some obscure rule in its own mythology. The beauty of sci-fi is there's always a loophole!

Romana's "choices" in DESTINY OF THE DALEKS were not actual regenerations but temporary forms while she was regenerating until she found a suitable incarnation. As for the Valyard, he is not an actual regeneration of the Doctor, but an amalgamation of the Doctor's darker side from somewhere near the Doctor's FINAL incarnation as the story stated at the time. It's why he wanted the Doctor's remaining regenerations in TRIAL OF A TIME LORD, he had none of his own. The Cushing Doctor doesnt even count as belonging to the show's incarnations. His two stories in the cinema were remakes of THE DALEKS and THE DALEK INVASION OF EARTH. Hurt's Doctor was right in line with the 12 incarnations theme if you know the history so the concept of limited regenerations is far from hooey as you refer to it.  The Doctor himself admits that the Tennant Doctor wasted a regeneration by using it to heal himself rather than change as shown in JOURNEY'S END. Because of this, the Smith Doctor found himself as the final incarnation of his natural life until the Time Lords stepped in. Far from being an obscure "urban legend", the theme of limited regenerations was started back in the '70's and has continued by being continually referenced throughout the show's history since that time. No one has said anything about ending the show due to this, and as I previously stated, the current production team gave the Doctor a whole new life cycle as of the most recent tale, TIME OF THE DOCTOR. It has been established in the past that the Time Lords have the ability to grant such a boon to members of their race when they deem it necessary, such as in the Master's case. Now it is the Doctor's turn. Simple. No more, no less.

You make up some interesting theories. Tell ya what, 64, if they cancel the show because of the twelve regen rule, I'll buy you the complete box set.

Impressive post above ER, you really know your Doctor Who. I'd probably rank Hartnell and Troughton higher and I liked Eccleston more but otherwise, I'm pretty much in agreement.

Thanks, but I have the available episodes already. As for my theories, well, they arent. They are long established facts that appeared in the show's long history.

The proof is in the viewing history:

http://youtu.be/ZFXZiQFUE-s (http://youtu.be/ZFXZiQFUE-s)

Looks good!

http://youtu.be/TivqZTq5u6Y (http://youtu.be/TivqZTq5u6Y)

My formative Dr Who period was in the late 70's to early 80's, with the ABC repeating Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker stories until the new seasons were delivered.  With that foundation in place, I watched as it went through Peter Davison, Colin Baker, and Sylvester McCoy.

Tom Baker will remain my favourite for being showing the Doctor as a manic genius with a penchant for flippancy in the face of danger, and utter weirdness.  Jon Pertwee was great fun, and the stories were magnificent, but his character didn't grab me as much as Tom's.

The Peter Davison era had some amazing stories, and I consider them to be a high point in the original run of Dr Who, but I must admit that the Doctor himself seemed a little bland.  Didn't really like the Colin Baker set, and the Sylvester McCoy set became more and more woeful. 

When I heard that McCoy used to drop ferrets down his pants as part of an act, it didn't bode well.  Not to mention the bizarre and unexplained stories like The Greatest Show In The Galaxy, or the blatant rip off of the 'they're on top of us!' radar scene straight out of Aliens.  Gah.

I have yet to see any of the new series since McCoy!  The Paul McGann movie, well, it was kind of okay and I certainly don't count it as canon.

For me, it's Tom Baker.  He is the (fourth) man.

For all the talk of bringing seriousness back to Doctor Who, Peter Capaldi's episodes have had as much slapstick as anything Matt Smith's incarnation featured. Early days yet to be passing judgment on Capaldi's Doctor, but beyond his performance, over the last season and a half I have begun to have a nagging fear that the creative energy within the series itself may have peaked. Hopefully not.