It needs something big and momentous. So I think I should do some personal overview of all of Doctor Who. Favourite stories, least favourite stories, general impressions etc. After all, what’s the point in watching it all if you can’t brag about it. This could be a big post, so it’s going behind a jump.

First Doctor - William Hartnell

Favourite Stories - The Daleks, The Celestial Toymaker
Least Favourite Stories - The Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Eve, The Web Planet

It’s almost a shame that the founding Doctor should be one of the show’s least focussed on, but it’s clear the show was finding its feet here. Surprisingly, Hartnell’s stories are probably the most wide-ranging, from historical dramas like Marco Polo, space operas like The Daleks’ Master Plan, and overt comedies like The Gunfighters. As a result, it’s quite hard to categorise this Doctor. He seems quite grandfatherly in later stories, but in An Unearthly Child and The Edge of Destruction in particular he’s really quite frightening. I think I know stories the least too (I haven’t heard The Savages or The Smugglers in years, and would really struggle to tell you the plots), and I even by myself think he’s underrated.

Second Doctor - Patrick Troughton

Favourite Stories - The Web of Fear, The Evil of the Daleks
Least Favourite Stories - The Highlanders, The Wheel in Space

Of all the Doctors, he is the most poorly represented by the archives, which hold only six full stories of his. Yet he remains one of the most popular as well, and with good reason. I think Troughton really brought the feel of the Doctor as we know him know, making the character funny without turning the show into a comedy. The stories also greatly improved, and you can almost take your pick from Season 5 and have a complete classic (The Wheel in Space being the rather dull exception). Until Smith turned up, he was my favourite.

Third Doctor - Jon Pertwee

Favourite Stories - Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Daemons
Least Favourite Stories - Colony in Space, The Monster of Peladon

The most serious Doctor, and sometimes a little dry as a result, I think there was a real danger in Pertwee’s era. Season 7 in particular is so gritty, and another series in which every story works. Season 9, however, is far more patchy, with some good moments (eg The Daisy speech) being wrapped in some below-par stories (The Time Monster). Nevertheless, though I can’t pretend to be as much of a fan of Pertwee as many are, but I think he gets overlooked a great deal more now than he should.

Fourth Doctor - Tom Baker

Favourite Stories - City of Death, The Deadly Assassin
Least Favourite Stories - The Armageddon Factor, Underworld

This is the Doctor I had most trouble deciding which my least favourite stories would be, simply because I think they are all so watchable. That doesn’t make it my favourite era, but even a frequently-mocked story like The Power of Kroll or The Creature from the Pit is not dull. Tom Baker may not have been the best actor in the role, but he completely makes the role his, or perhaps even him. The humour returns (some would say goes too far by Season 17, though I rather like it), the horror comes to the fore, and we get the most fondly-remembered era in the show’s history.

Fifth Doctor - Peter Davison

Favourite Stories - The Caves of Androzani, Earthshock
Least Favourite Stories - Time-Flight, Warriors of the Deep

The easiest Doctor to find “best” and “worst” stories for, Davison is probably the only consistently good thing about his era. I am rewarming to him, but I cooled dramatically in my teens, finding his Doctor bland and unremarkable. This is unfair, and though he is less “alien” than most of the other Doctors, there are some interesting ideas at play in his tenure. 

Sixth Doctor - Colin Baker

Favourite Stories - Revelation of the Daleks, The Two Doctors
Least Favourite Stories - Timelash, The Twin Dilemma

Probably the most unpopular Doctor in general, Colin, as has been pointed out many times, was certainly given some poor scripts and the worst costume on television.  However, Revelation of the Daleks remains one of my favourite stories of all time, very dark yet quite funny, making it seem less bleak and more engaging. That his tenure was so short is frustrating, but he has been well served by the spin-off media, particularly the Big Finish audio dramas.

Seventh Doctor - Sylvester McCoy

Favourite Stories - The Curse of Fenric, Remembrance of the Daleks
Least Favourite Stories - Time and the Rani, Paradise Towers

Season 24 is awful. Absolutely awful. Without a doubt the worst start to any Doctor ever. Season 26, on the other hand, is brilliant, with the enigmatic Cartmell Masterplan kicking into action and re-establishing some mystery in the character, which would carry on wonderfully into the New Adventures. So this Doctor is a character of two halves, one terrible yet forgotten, the other wonderful and embellished. Such a shame so many had turned off before the latter.

Eighth Doctor - Paul McGann

Only Story - The Movie

Hard to talk about Paul McGann when he only properly exists in spin-off media (though in my opinion, the Eighth Doctor comic strips and audio adventures are the best spin-offs out there). The Movie gets a lot of stick, some of it unfairly, and some of it justified, but overall, it is simply a fun romp with delusions of grandeur. The character of the Doctor again seems more human and more sympathetic, yet hints at more. It would have been nice to see more Eighth Doctor on the television.

Ninth Doctor - Christopher Eccleston

Favourite Stories - The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, The Unquiet Dead
Least Favourite Stories - Boom Town, Aliens of London/World War Three

Despite having fewer episodes than most Doctors, Eccleston’s character feels like he was around long enough. He’s just what the show needed, an established actor providing a stop-gap, but his character is more than that. He is battle-scarred, but also undergoing a journey back the fun personality he was, and as such, a perfect re-introduction.

Tenth Doctor - David Tennant

Favourite Stories - Human Nature/The Family of Blood, Blink
Least Favourite Stories - The Doctor’s Daughter, Planet of the Dead

I don’t rate the Tenth Doctor as highly as most people seem to. Like the Fifth, I think that Tennant is consistently brilliant, but his character is too vague and far too human, yet he has some brilliant stories.  Even though Series Two is probably the weakest series since the return, it can still boast Tooth and Claw, The Girl in the Fireplace and The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit, which are great yarns, and there are no stories which I would not happily sit through were they to be on, but I would be unlikely to seek them out regularly.

Eleventh Doctor - Matt Smith

Favourite Stories - The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone, Vincent & The Doctor
Least Favourite Stories - Victory of the Daleks, The Beast Below

I love Smith and his Doctor, and as I’m writing this, the new series has kicked off in similar style. Smith captures the wonder of the show, seemingly like a child in places, and yet clearly as bright as anyone. The eccentricity and alien-ness are back in a way we haven’t seen since Baker, and they work so well. The story-threads in his series also add to the show, as can be seen by the levels of speculation on the internet.

And, while I’m at it…

Dr. Who - Peter Cushing

Favourite Film - Dr. Who and the Daleks
Least Favourite Film - Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150AD

Cushing gets very overlooked by fandom, which, in one respect, is fair enough, since he is obviously playing a different character to the one in the show. But the Dalek movies are such fun that they deserve to be spoken of more, and Cushing’s Dr. Who is adorable.

Ninth Doctor - Rowan Atkinson

The Curse of Fatal Death

Still one of the funniest things ever written about Doctor Who, and well-played as well.

Ninth Doctor - Richard E Grant

The Scream of the Shalka

Dear God, no! Bash-your-head-against-the-desk awful. Grant, elsewhere a good actor, was so astonishingly bad in this potential online production that it makes you relieved the series came back if only to stop this abomination from continuing.

And that’s all folks.