I came a bit late to the Doctor Who love. Growing up in the US, it was only shown on PBS at 1:00am on Thursday, and I usually had some very important sleeping to do at that time. It wasn’t until I moved to the UK and got drawn into the series reboot that I became a fan, due in large part to Christopher Eccleston’s fabulous turn. I loved his sad, wounded Doctor and his strange awkwardness around humanity, despite his love for them. I had nothing to compare his performance to and thought it was absolutely wonderful. I was, therefore, most annoyed to find out that he’d only taken the role for a season and David Tennant would be taking over as the Tenth Doctor.
And, for the first few episodes of Tennant’s season, I maintained that annoyance. He was too quirky! Too light and fluffy! Where was the depth I had come to treasure with the Ninth Doctor? It wasn’t that I didn’t like it; I just missed Eccleston.
But Tennant is a wily Doctor, full of hidden mysteries and surprises, and I could not help but be charmed. And I’m not sure if he developed into the role or if I simply overcame my prejudices, but soon I was seeing layers in his interpretation that Eccleston never explored. Tennant’s Doctor undoubtedly feels love and pain; he has also learned how to distance themselves from them over the course of 900 years, creating a striking blend of compassion and coldness. His gleeful whimsy is balanced by a potential for cruelty. Not bad for a 36-year-old actor, really. Tennant owns this role, and I am certain to be extremely annoyed again when he decides to pass the torch to the Eleventh Doctor.
All this came up after watching the mini-scene the BBC showed this weekend during their Children in Need telethon. This scene is intended to bridge the gap between the end of the last season and this year’s Christmas special. Recently, I’ve been a bit worried about the series, with the news of Catherine Tate’s return (I hated her in last year’s Christmas special) and the rumors of Lily Allen coming on board, but this short clip restored my faith.
Because David Tennant is just brilliant. Any actor who can say, “Not a lot of men can carry off a decorative vegetable,” with a straight face should have their contract renewed immediately, just on principle. He is joyful and charming and warm and sad and oh! Just watch it already.
What do you think? Do you have a favorite Doctor? And where does Tennant fit on your list of the best Doctors of all time?
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November 20th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
I’m loving Tennant. He’s my Doctor. I did grow up with McCoy I suppose, because I remember him with Ace, but I don’t think I watched it religiously, or else I wasn’t that in love with it to remember it well all these years later. I really liked Eccleston and love watching those episodes again, but it’s Tennant all the way.
November 20th, 2007 at 10:02 pm
I’ll have to watch more of the old Doctors and get to know 1-7 a bit better (I’ve been reliably informed that I should skip 8 altogether). I’m sure I’ll have quite a bit of time to catch up once the current shows end their seasons sometime around…oh, next week or so.
November 21st, 2007 at 9:58 pm
Awww, I finally watched that clip and it made me just a little bjt teary, because, being more or less the same vintage as David Tennant, Peter Davidson was my Doctor too, when I was a little kid, and you could see that Tennant meant every word of that speech. Sniff.
November 22nd, 2007 at 7:29 pm
I never watched Doctor Who much when I was growing up, and got addicted to it watching reruns on UKGold before the new series was announced. I do very much like David Tennant, but also Peter Davison. I actually quite like McCoy too, for all he got a bit of a rough deal with stories. Then again, they’ve not really had bad choices for the actors, with the possible exception of Colin Baker.
November 30th, 2007 at 9:04 am
I think, these days, that everyone’s Doctor is likely to be the one they grew up on. For people my age in the US, that’s going to depend on which set of episodes the local PBS station was playing… and so many of us my age have no idea that there even WERE any Doctors other than:
Tom Baker.
He was the one who crossed the bridge to America, for whatever reason. He was the one who was on most of our PBS (and occasionally, some UHF station) screens. The bug eyes, the ridiculous scarf, and Sarah Jane perkily asking “what do we do now, Doctor?”
PBS stations re-ran his episodes so much that I was REALLY confused the one night they ran “The Five Doctors” out of order… who was this person claiming to be the Doctor… and why were there more of them?
He was -my- Doctor. Peter Davison, I kept seeing as Tristan Farnum (though I did eventually come to appreciate him). Colin Baker.. well, the less said the better. Sylvester McCoy was cheated by an increasingly tired franchise, and Paul McGann was cheated by a fairly horrid movie. Pertwee was backfill, and there weren’t enough episodes of the first two to really make any impact on me.
I wish Eccleston had done more episodes — I like Tennant, he’s grown into the role, but Eccleston had such a madcap -alien- quality to him. His time was far too short.
December 1st, 2007 at 12:07 pm
Hans, you’ve definitely convinced me to watch some old series of Doctor Who this holiday so that I can form a more complete picture of all the Doctors. I’m perhaps the most intrigued by Colin Baker — call it morbid curiosity.
December 17th, 2007 at 3:12 am
There’s a pretty good overview of the stuff that’s available on DVD here:
http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/ask_the_a_v_club_november_30
Also, there are some Tom Baker episodes scheduled for the new year:
UKTV Drama http://www.uktv.co.uk/drama
(All times 1 hour later on UKTV Drama + 1)
Tom Baker in episodic form coming in January. Episodes air weekdays unless otherwise noted.
2 to 7 January 12:20PM and 5PM GMT Classic 12.01 “Robot” 4 pts
8 to 11 January 12:20PM and 5PM GMT Classic 12.02 “The Ark In Space” 4 pts
13 to 14 January 12:20PM and 5PM GMT Classic 12.03 “The Sontaran Experiment” 2 pts
15 to 20 January 12:20PM and 5PM GMT Classic 12.05 “Revenge Of The Cybermen” 4 pts
21 to 24 January 12:20PM and 5PM GMT Classic 13.01 “Terror Of The Zygons” 4 pts
28 to 31 January 12:20PM and 5PM GMT Classic 13.02 “Planet Of Evil” 4 pts
(info from This Week in Doctor Who)
They aren’t showing 12.04 “Genesis of the Daleks” because of rights issues with the Terry Nation estate. It is available on DVD though.
January 5th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
The latest This Week in Doctor Who has an update on the Tom Baker stuff showing on UKTV Drama. It looks like they’re showing omnibus editions at the weekends as well (late Saturday night with a repeat on Sunday morning) - which is just as well as getting to see it during the week could be quite tricky.
The schedule currently looks like this:
Saturday 11:15PM, Sunday 8AM GMT “Robot” pt 1 of 4
Saturday 11:50PM, Sunday 8:40AM GMT “Robot” pt 2 of 4
Late Saturday 12:25AM, Sunday 9:20AM GMT “Robot” pt 3 of 4
Late Saturday 1AM, Sunday 10AM, Monday 12:20 and 5PM GMT “Robot” pt 4 of 4
Classic Season 12, Episodes 1 through 4. Doctor: Tom Baker.
Tuesday 12:20PM and 5PM, 12 January 11:35PM, 13 January 8AM GMT “The Ark In Space” pt 1 of 4
Wednesday 12:20PM and 5PM, Late 12 January 12:10AM, 13 January 8:40AM GMT “The Ark In Space” pt 2 of 4
Thursday 12:20PM and 5PM, Late 12 January 12:45AM, 13 January 9:20AM GMT “The Ark In Space” pt 3 of 4
Friday 12:20PM and 5PM, Late 12 January 1:20AM, 13 January 10AM GMT “The Ark In Space” pt 4 of 4
Classic Season 12, Episodes 5 through 8. Doctor: Tom Baker.
14 January 12:20PM and 5PM GMT “The Sontaran Experiment” pt 1
15 January 12:20PM and 5PM GMT “The Sontaran Experiment” pt 2
16 January 12:20PM and 5PM, 19 January 11:35PM, 20 January 8AM GMT “Revenge Of The Cybermen” pt 1
17 January 12:20PM and 5PM, Late 19 January 12:10AM, 20 January 8:40AM GMT “Revenge Of The Cybermen” pt 2
18 January 12:20PM and 5PM, Late 19 January 12:45AM, 20 January 9:20AM GMT “Revenge Of The Cybermen” pt 3
Late 19 January 1:25AM, 20 January 10AM, 21 January 12:20PM and 5PM GMT “Revenge Of The Cybermen” pt 4
22 January 12:20PM and 5PM GMT “Terror Of The Zygons” pt 1
23 January 12:20PM and 5PM GMT “Terror Of The Zygons” pt 2
24 January 12:20PM and 5PM GMT “Terror Of The Zygons” pt 3
25 January 12:20PM and 5PM GMT “Terror Of The Zygons” pt 4
28 January 12:20PM and 5PM GMT “Planet Of Evil” pt 1
29 January 12:20PM and 5PM GMT “Planet Of Evil” pt 2
30 January 12:20PM and 5PM GMT “Planet Of Evil” pt 3
31 January 12:20PM and 5PM GMT “Planet Of Evil” pt 4
November 17th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Hi All,
Although I really liked Tom Baker as The Doctor,
I must say, I really liked Patrick Troughton as a
person. I had the pleasure of doing a children’s radio
show with him in Chicago back in the late 1980s. He
was a wonderful man, with a great sense of humor.
I’ll never forget how he reacted when I asked,”Why
didn’t The Brigadier ever learn that bullets don’t
stop monster?”
” Nor bazookas” he yelled and broke up the set with
laughter.
When he learned my wife was a medical doctor he signed
a Doctor Who paperback novel, ” To Dr. Cindy from Dr. Who
Two.”
Great guy. I’m sad that we’ll never work together again.
Gary “Keeper of The Secrets” Nosacek