The year was 1963, An Unearthly Child was the episode title, BBC One was the channel.
Which Who is your favorite? I’m a total heretic, I really love #11.
19 thoughts on “Happy Anniversary, Doctor”
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The year was 1963, An Unearthly Child was the episode title, BBC One was the channel.
Which Who is your favorite? I’m a total heretic, I really love #11.
Comments are closed.
I remember watching Doctor Who when I was a kid on public broadcasting, so technically I guess that makes Tom Baker my first Doctor.
But the show never stuck with me until the relaunch in 1995, so it’s a tie between David Tennant (10) and Matt Smith (11) for me.
Of course, now there is a plan to bring Doctor Who to the big screen. No word on who will play the Doctor (David Yates, the director, says he is not planning to cast Matt Smith in the role) and it’s implied that this will be a reimagining or quasi-reboot of the franchise.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/doctor-who/8890289/Doctor-Who-to-be-turned-into-Hollywood-film-by-David-Yates.html
I was not a fan until relatively recently. Like Star Trek, it was a favorite obsession of my ex’s that I never could get into. But Smith charmed me, and then I fell in love with the Amy/Rory story and River Song. So I’m going backwards through the older ones. I like 9 better than 10 but I’m not sure why. Tennant just doesn’t grab me.
Have you seen the new minisodes that were part of the latest DVD release a couple days ago? They’re already up on Youtube
Tennant’s bug-eye thing always bothered me.
I still have my Tom Baker Dr. Who scarf around somewhere… Years ago everyone knew the reference when someone showed up with several yards of scarf casually draped around their neck.
Without hesitation, Ten. I can see why people lurve Tom Baker–Four–he was a hippie, for fuckssake!, but the Russell T Davies–hereafter RTD–years and David Tennant’s total dedication to the role made him MY Doctor, and I think probably the Doctor who’ll go down as the series’ best. (Also too, though I loved Steven Moffat’s scripts for the Nine/Ten RTD years, I just can’t bring myself to love Moffat’s version of the show like I did RTD’s. He’s just not cut out to be a showrunner, although many think otherwise. He milks the wibblywobblytimeywimey WAY too much, at the expense of the superlative characterization that made RTD’s run so good. Thus, even though I quite like the current cast, I’ve fallen out of love with the show, and it breaks my heart. It saw me through five years where I really needed a Doctor to get me out of my obsession with US political idiocy, and RTD, Nine and Ten were something I looked forward to weekly. That having been said, I loved last series’ “The Doctor’s Wife”, but I think that was largely down to Neil Gaiman’s authorship.)
And one small quibble…the series premiered on BBC, not BBC One–BBC Two didn’t happen till 1964.
Anna, I watched the Eccleston episodes for the first time just a month or so ago and I was surprised how good Billie Piper was in them. I’ve never been much of a fan of hers in other things. She was very appealing in her first year, I thought.
It’s not just the actor, of course, it’s the version of the character they write for him, and on both counts I thought the Christopher Eccleston Doctor – #9 – was awesome. This Matt Smith thing now is meh – it keeps reminding me of unfortunate regional theater performances of “Taming of the Shrew” with the thigh-slapping and eye-twinkling.
Somewhere else I saw a suggestion that they should get Helen Mirren to be the Doctor for the movie. THAT, I’d line up to see.
#9. Angry guy in a leather jacket? Eccleston is my Doctor.
Matt Smith is OK once you get used to the anorexic appearance, but there is only on Dr. Who, and that is Tom Baker
I’m an anomaly in that I love 5. Actually, I like them all except 6, but 5 remains slightly my favourite. I started watching with 4, but liked the vulnerability Davison brought. Of the modern set, I love Eccleston for the same reasons as tatere. I like Smith alot, but Anna is dead on about Moffat’s problems as showrunner.
As for Mirren as Doctor, I would go for it. I have written to the BBC in the past that they should make Tilda Swinton the Doctor.
ZOMG YES Tilda Swinton.
But, to the original question: #4, followed by #9.
I have a hard time choosing between Nine and Ten… Nine by a nose. The Doctor with survivor’s guilt and a death wish who found a reason to go on living in Rose. Another reason is that Christopher Eccleston is the best actor who ever played the Doctor.
One thing I liked about both of RTD’s Doctors was how they inspired other people to become heroes. My favorite companion is Rose, the first person we saw Doctor Nine inspire to become a hero. Rose and the Doctor were willing to die for each other. In a sense, both of themdid die for each other.
Tom Baker will always be the Doctor in my book. I tried to like Peter Davison, but he’s always going to be Tristan Farnon to me, and not the Doctor.
ZOMG YES Tilda Swinton.
That’s the reaction I usually get.
I am so in love with this plan in my mind, even though it will never happen.
azportsider, that Tristan problem seems to be the primary objection to Davison I hear from people who grew up watching at that time. (I only saw All Creatures later, so it wasn’t a problem for me.)
baker was my 1st dr. but i love #5 davidson. #6 grew on me. haven’t seen any other than #3 and some #2.
I watched the occasional Who back in the 70s so Tom Baker will always be my “original” Dr., but it really only became a can’t-miss show with the reboot, and so I’d have to say #10 — even when other factors might have been weak, Tennant put everything he had into his Doctor — Tennant WAS the doctor in a way I haven’t seen before or since.
Oh, I never could get into 6. Probably the only one I actively dislike. Maybe I should give him another shot?
Actually, my 1st Doctor was … David Tennant. I do like him better than Matt Smith. Why?
Quien Sabe?
Gotta agree with the people who liked #9 much more than #10. I know there are a lot of people who LOVE Tennant, but to me, he was just too much of a drama queen, and those stupid faces he was always making just turned me off. Eccleston, now, he was terrific, never over-emoting, always with a suggestion of danger and grief to him.
That he was my first doctor makes some difference, but I also like Matt Smith better than David Tennant, so I suspect the primacy of Eccleston isn’t just because he was my first.
Tom Baker FTW – the man is an amusing mess perfect for the role. I first saw it during the Pertwee years which were a little 70’s British awkward drama.
Other trivia
Colin Baker used to live near me; very own to earth chap, unlike Tom Yorke who could double as the guy who goes about saying “Prescious”
My friend supplied the cyberman helmet for the first scene when they brought back the show; the beeb didn’t have any so put a call out to fans.