Sorry, but I have to call BS on the 8th Doctor being ranked so high. McGann is disregarded and rightly so - not only because the Fox movie was crap but because he frequently sounds disinterested and like he has no idea what he is reading in his audio adventures. And the fact that the BBC elected to rewrite Douglas Adams' lost story 'Shada' into an 8th Doctor vehicle.... rubbish.

Hopefully this article will turn people on to some great "Classic" Doctor episodes. Although, BBC finally releasing whole seasons instead of bite-sized chunks might help as well.

Jesus Christ. Get the telemovie out of this article, what are you on.

But, to be more polite, and I don't mean to be, as the Americans put it, a 'fanboy', but it's sad this wasn't written by someone who's been a fan of the show for at least a few years. You can kinda tell.

But still, good job - I know it can be hard dealing with alcoholism and the rest.

Colin Baker?.... BAKER????? AT NO.1!?!?!?!?!?!
Good call, I can see it. Not my favorite Doctor, but, easily the one that stands out the most.

oh noes!! someone on the interbutts has an opinion that differs from mine! i must inform him of this greivous error in a whirling hurricane of indignation and fanboyism!

I always enjoy these Doctor Who blog postings on Topless Robot mainly because I have no idea what you guys are talking about. I think I've watched maybe two or three Doctor Who episodes and I might have seen part of the FOX Doctor Who television movie (pilot). I think we like the guy with the scarf because his character looks unique.

William Hartnell's always been my favorite doctor.

Ah, the controversy of the telefilm is never-ending.

liquidhalcyon, I can see the benefit of season releases for Classic Who, but I think it would rob us of the very extensive extras that come with each DVD. And each DVD includes an entire Doctor Who serial, usually 4-6 episodes or so, so it's not too bad for the price. I suppose the BBC could do what was done for Red Dwarf and release "Just the Shows" collections as an alternative.

good list nice to see some who fans like the other doctors besides tom baker and David Tennet too bad that thanks to most of the second doctors adventures no longer existing that fans will never get doctor who the complete series ever on dvd and nice the first doctor let his grandaugher find what she deserved

I had a couple of problems with Peter Davison's tenure as the Doctor. First was his botched regeneration which meant we didn't see much of him for the first part of the series and second I can't stop thinking of him as Tristan from 'All Creatures Great and Small'

You picked the right Doctor for #1. Colin Baker is incredibly underrated. His Doctor gave us a taste of the darker side; The bellicose, angry, bombastic, arrogant side of the Doctor that we knew was in there from the beginning. He was the Doctor uncensored by tact.

And although I don't love the American telemovie, I have to defend it. It's canon. McGann was not a bad Doctor, and I really think a lot of Doctor Who fans resent him simply because his one and only filmed adventure was American in nature, and opened up the "half human" boondoggle (which we now know is no big deal. Timelords can regenerate into other species or genders.) Yes, the choice of Eric Roberts as the possessed body holding The Master was curious, but the movie tried pretty hard to keep Doctor Who going during a time when the BBC couldn't do it themselves.

And- going back to the 6th Doctor- let us not forget that his primary companion for almost his entire run was the delicious and mentally-resilient Peri. Nicola Bryant made Doctor Who *very* interesting to my adolescent mind.

It's good to see poor old Colin get a bit of positive recognition, especially for his excellent turns in Big Finish. It's a toss up between Colin and Peter for my favourite Doctor, but Colin is certainly the one who is most underrated generally.

Kevin,

Having bought a couple of the serial DVD's, there's no difference between the extras that come with those, and the final DVD of extras that come with the seasons of New Who.

From what I hear Colin Bakers performances in the audio plays have been very well received and have helped reverse the opinion of #6 a lot. I feel like Davison, Eccleston and McCoy could and should have been higher. Watching Time Crash where #5 and #10 meet brought a tear to me eye, a shout back to another era. #5 was probably the most humane of all the Doctors. McCoy never got the full chance to shine since Doctor Who by that time was a limping mess, and I can only wonder how well he may have been had he been done in the Baker-era. But I remember McCoy with a certain fondness, he was the first Doctor I saw. Eccleston deserved better than what RTD gave him, but he made the most of his single season, and it was awesome.

Agreed on the 6th being at the top of an underrated list - largely because he's the one that winds up with the best Big Finish adventures (McCoy just loses something in audio form, and Davison's last couple have been VERY flat).

2 and 3 can't really be underrated because everyone of regards them as iconic and doesn't really have a bad word to say about either; in fact, you could argue that each saved the show itself in different ways (Troughton from the loss of the lead character, Pertwee from near-cancellation). I mean, sure, they get overshadowed by Tennant and Baker, but it's not like people don't recognise how good either was.

1 *is* very underrated, however, because - as has been joked about - half of his episodes are missing and the rest are in black and white. And his one colour appearance was being played by someone else!

8 I've never liked, at all. Actually, I kinda like the movie in that it fits more with the modern series than anything else, but McGann's Doctor never developed much in the way of a personality.

I already said my piece on Davison last week, so no more gushing about him. I still love how Tennant apparently insisted upon having his credit reverted to "The Doctor" because that's how Davison was billed. You're never going to see such a ridiculous Doctor Who geek in the lead role again, especially now that if Smith lasts for any length of time it's increasingly likely that any 30 - 35 year old actors will have their opinions of the show largely shaped by the modern series with only passing references to the original run.

liquidhalcyon, if each season release of Doctor Who included the same amount of extra materials that all the serials in that season would have come with on their own DVDs, that would be kick-ass.

ZeroCorpse, have you ever seen the "Companions" book and its saucy pictures of Peri and Jo Grant (the famous nude with Dalek shots)? If any of us had that in the 1980s, puberty might have erupted much sooner. :-D

"It's a shame Eccleston only stuck around for one year, as he was probably the best actor to ever play the Doctor."

Absolutely! I would have loved a couple more series with the 9th Doctor. Eccleston had a lot on his shoulders as the first 'New' Doctor, and I think he deserves a lot more recognition for how successfully and convincingly he brought the character back to life. He really was excellent.

Stephen: William Hartnell *did* appear in colour in the series; in The Three Doctors.

Maybe Colin Baker would have been received better at the time if Michael Grade hadn't been on a personal crusade to ruin and cancel the series (which had nothing at all to do with him boffing Baker's ex-wife, Liza Goddard, after their divorce).

Doctor Number 9, in some ways beats out 10 (i know it's hard to fathom), soley on he was the best Doctor at actually emotionally reacting to the situation at hand. He was the perfect doctor with his manic depressive mood swings and maniacal deliveries in scenes. God, why would he become Destro....

"Stephen: William Hartnell *did* appear in colour in the series; in The Three Doctors."

Ah, good point. I remembered that he was there at the start of The Five Doctors in black-and-white, but forgot that the cut-aways in that one were actually filmed in colour.

Supposedly, dictator Robert Muggame has the original tapes of the first two Doctors (big Dr. Who fan and will not release them, supposedly...) . So other than genocide, we have that to hate him for.

I agree completely with this list. McGann and Colin are probably some of the best Doctors around thanks to the audios.
Heck, Colin's been voted the most popular Audio Doctor in magazine fan polls because of the work with Big Finish.

Excellent list, TR!

I found an link to that article chadwicktron mentioned regarding Robert Mugabe http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/article2255640.ece If it's in The Sun, it must be real!

There are reasons I dislike Colin Baker's Six, and it's not because of his Doctor's actions. He was a really inconsistent actor, like he didn't know how he wanted to play him. It was a bad time for the series though, so it's not by any stretch all his fault.
I'd say a tie between Five and Ten for my top Doctor.

@ Cuntlord:

Right on My Brothah!!!

The third Doctor was always my favorite. I loved his short temper and general frustration with everything at that point. His car, his sonic screwdriver, his martial arts mastery, and his fashion sense made him more of an action-adventure Doctor. He could also be quite funny, especially in those few occasions when he was paired up with Patrick Troughton and they would bicker amongst himself. (Gotta love those multiple Doctor story phrasings)

Colin Baker's audio stories have made him far more tolerable to me, so I definitely agree with him as number 1. I didn't like him at the time because his costume was taking the whole "the Doctor has a funny outfit" idea a little too far. It was hard to listen to anything he said because his patchwork jacket was so loud and distracting. When he was still wearing Peter Davison's outfit he looked fine, if a little Garfunkelish.

I totally had this dream last night that I flew to Zimbabwe in an effort to get Robert Mugabe to share his lost Doctor Who episodes, like I was some cross between a nerd ambassador and Indiana Jones.

The Eighth Doctor's my favourite.

He impressed in the TV movie, but the soul of the character can be found in the novels and comics and especially the audios and anything you like about the Tenth Doctor was inspired by those; he was the first Doctor to tell his companion he loved to, to sacrifice himself for her and to destroy his home planet in order to save the universe.

Colin Baker was a doctor? Was he that blond fella who kept getting in the way of me seeing Peri?

Great list. I always felt that it was a testimony to Colin's Doc that the show was still watchable despite some abysmal writing during his tenure. And those C. Baker fans that wondered what might have been if they had some better writers got a partial answer in Eccleston's season...

Colin Baker? no 1...he's the reason I stopped watching the classic series. I don't want to watch an actor who I can tell is just acting. I want to watch someone who can pull me in and make me beleive it's real. Colin was crap.

Christopher Eccleston will always be my doctor because of his mysteriousness and non forgiving nature. His emotion was nothing short of Perfect. So sad to see him go. He was the true image of the doctor who had lost everything in the time war. He is clearly overshadowed by 10 and part of this reason is the 4 seasons DT has done and partly because i know for a fact many people only watched DT because he was so good looking. I don't think Dr Who ever had so many female fans.