I finally know why The Doctor is so popular

Well, in fairness, almost none of the Doctors really WOW me with their first appearances. I haven't seen Troughton's (I think his is one of the "lost" episodes). But I've seen Pertwee's, T. Baker's, Davison's, and McCoy's up through Tennant's. I've got C. Baker's first episode (the Twin Dilemma) in my Netflix queue, and it should be showing up soon.

Generally, I think part of the issue with the first few episodes is that the writers are trying to get a sense for who this character is, based on only a general outline. Plus, the actors themselves aren't familiar with the character, and the writers aren't familiar with the actors so they can't write for them. It usually improves as everyone gets a bit more familiar with who this new Doctor is.
 
McGann has done a lot of audio shows as the 8th Doctor. I wonder if some of those cover the war?

I don't THINK they do, but I've not heard any of them. Nor have I read the novels (which are quite expensive stateside -- $13-15 a piece, I believe, and there's TONS of them). I've actually not heard any of the audio dramas. I gather their canonicity is questionable.
 
Well, in fairness, almost none of the Doctors really WOW me with their first appearances.

Yep. That's why the jury is still out. :) He's got potential, I'm just waiting for him to hit his groove. For Eccleston is was "The Unquiet Dead" and for Tennant it was "The Girl in the Fireplace". These weren't their best ones but they were the ones when I first started seeing them as the Doctor.
 
Tennant was the Doctor to me by 5 minutes into new Earth. Eccleston was a bit different because I was really confused for a while why this guy was playing the Doctor when I saw that other actor playing him on sci fi a few months earlier.
 
Eccleston was, as I said, my "first" Doctor, so I had no real preconceived notions except what limited exposure I had to Tom Baker as a kid when I was flipping through channels and stumbled across bits of an episode here or there during the 80s. Going back and watching Eccleston's run, I'd say his first true episode as his version of the Doctor was The End of the World. What got me was how he transitioned from his normal goofy, happy-go-lucky persona to the deeply wounded persona as the Tree talks to him about being the last of his people. When you watch the rest of the series, that moment right there is a HUGE part of the Ninth Doctor.

With Tennant...it's tough to say. His portrayal is consistent, but I think Girl in the Fireplace is the first time we get a sense of his more emotional, romantic side, which is something most of the other Doctors didn't touch on (although I could've seen part of that coming through if McGann's Eighth Doctor had gotten his own series). Although New Earth is the first to touch on the "Lonely God" bit, which is another part of him. However, the moment where he turns cold and kills the Sycorax leader in The Christmas Invasion is also a bit of the Tenth Doctor (although you see moments of that with the Ninth Doctor, too). That sort of ruthlessness and willingness to impose his own ethical structure, rather than be a complete relativist is interesting.


Anyway, I really enjoyed Tennant's run and Eccleston's as well. The only Doctor I really didn't like was the Sixth Doctor, but that wasn't even Colin Baker's fault. That came more as a result of weak writing and an inability to progress the character. Unfortunately, for the bulk of C. Baker's run, he was just "The obnoxious Doctor with the equally obnoxious outfit." There was so much more potential there, though.
 
I think of the end of Xmas Invasion as more of an Eccleston moment acted out by Tennant. I don't think they'd really found his character yet. After that episode he became really pacifist for a while. Eccleston was definitely more "no second chances" than Tennant.
 
Yeah, that's part of the issue with distinguishing between Ninth and Tenth Doctors. I find that the Tenth Doctor is far more romantic in nature, but he still retains some of the ruthlessness of the Ninth Doctor. I find the Tenth Doctor consistently offering to take good looking women along with him, and his attempts at personal relationships only seem to emphasize the whole "Lonely God" thing. He can get close, but can't get too close. By contrast, the Ninth Doctor was a bit more distant and standoffish. Less prone to trying to make a real personal connection and give in to some need to find love the way the Tenth Doctor seemed. That said, during both tenures, the writers would play on the whole "crush on the Doctor" thing, which while interesting, got a bit old after a while.

I'm very much hoping that the Eleventh Doctor doesn't go down that path by having the new companion (and every female he meets) fall for him.
 
Well, in fairness, almost none of the Doctors really WOW me with their first appearances. I haven't seen Troughton's (I think his is one of the "lost" episodes).
His tenure does indeed suffer the most from episodes being missing, but there's still many DVDs-worth left, many on Netflix. He's a lot of fun!
 
Oh, Troughton's a TERRIFIC Doctor. I really enjoy his era. I actually REALLY liked the reconstructed animated episodes they did for that one with the Cybermen. Great stuff.
 
Haha fortunately, they release recovered old episodes with some frequency. They just released The War Games this year (great series, by the way), and they've just put out a three-disc series from the Pertwee era about the Daleks. Prior to that, they'd released a few old Hartnell episodes, including The Keys of Marinus, which was pretty good overall. I think there are one or two Baker discs left to be released stateside (Horns of Nimon, I think). So, basically, you can get your fix on occasion if you just wait long enough. :)
 
For me Troughton was the first Doctor to establish what the Doctor really is. If the production quality and scripts back then were as good as they are now I'm confident that he would have been my favourite. He had just the right mix of grumpiness, light heartedness, intensity and goofiness. It's a real shame I wasn't a kid in the 60's 'cause I would have *LOVED* seeing all of his episodes.

Tomb of the Cybermen is one of my favourite stories. I always laugh out loud when he accidentally grabs Jamey's hand instead of Victoria's and the talk that follows.

"You look very nice in that dress Victoria."

"Don't you think it's a bit..."

"A bit short? Well I shouldn't worry about that, look at Jamey's."

"Hey!"

:lol
 
I don't have a hate on for Jon Pertwee, I think we just got off on the wrong foot with all that "trapped on Earth" crap. :lol
I'm the same way. UNIT and the Brigadier bore me. Alien arrives, bullets are useless, soldiers die, Brigadier is clueless, the Doctor figures it out, repeat.

Mind you, I haven't seen any of those eps in 20 years. I'm going through them in order via Netflix, and I'm coming up on Pertwee now. We'll see how it goes.

Gonna miss Troughton, though.
 
I actually like Pertwee's stuff. Partially because the switch to color really changes the feel of the show, but also because Pertwee's Doctor can be kind of action-packed. I also liked some of the themes in that era about how scientists and government bureaucrats could be dangerous for toying with the wrong things. The Green Slime (or whatever that one's called) is a fantastic serial. Oh! And, of course, the first appearances of Roger Delgado as The Master! No disrespect to Anthony Ainley or any of the others, but he was always my favorite.
 
I think the show works because the Doctor is as much an idea as a character. Everyone has his own take on the part, but they all sort of fit the greater pattern.

Eccleston was my first, but I think Tennant was better. Matt Smith seems to be off to a great start.

And Karen Gillan? *swoon*. red headed Scots will be the death of me! ;)
 
Tom Baker was the best Dr.. My dad owns every episode whether it's DVD or one's that you can't get on DVD, which he has taped on video from 20 years + ago..


....well that's possible for some of the later episodes of the old series, but not for some Hartnell or Patrick episodes, even some Pertwee I think.
 
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