What is your favourite incarnation of The Doctor?

[DJ Yung Crunk]

Space-time traveller, cosmic hobo, twelve time handsome fellow: The Doctor has been Britain's favourite alien for over fifty years. How does he stay so young? What's his secret? Well some clever clogs in the BBC offices some many years ago had the ingenious plan of writing actor changes into the canon. Picture, then, the Kirk vs. Picard civil war but with twelve contestants instead of two. Let us continue this noble tradition by selecting a favourite Doctor of ours and explain why he's our favourite! A good reason, too. None of this "he was my first" nonsense. Why, if we went by that criteria, Richard Crane from freshman year would be inundated with voicemail messages. Well, more than he is now. Oh, Ricky, why deny your heart for a moment longer?

So as not to succumb to Hugh Grant and Peter Cushing anarchy, let's stick to the canon numbered doctors only for consideration. I know we're all champing at the bit to praise Michael Jayston but that's for another thread. Let's all have a respectful, meaningful dialogue in the topic and consider all opinions. Except those who select Ten. Dogpile those guys. It's the only way they'll learn. Right then, allow me to get the ball rolling.

http://scifiandtvtalk.typepad.com/.a/6a01348361f24a970c017d4061b4c3970c-320wi
This sexy bastard

The stud pictured above is the first Doctor. The numero uno. The original model. For the tragic fact that many of his episodes were thoughtlessly discarded by the BBC in the sixties he remains a difficult one to love. Even if they survive you have to deal with 1960's BBC production values. A hurdle, yes. But for the patient, wise and open-minded the First Doctor is the best written, most developed and most complete incarnation of the character to date. His three years on the show gave him the finest character arc of any character in the history of the franchise. His initial impressions as a cold and distant alien gave way to moments of emotional vulnerability and poignancy that picked up as his guards slipped away. Hartnell's performance gives the character the appropriate presence and gravitas needed, but it were his moments of vulnerability that lasted. All of this aside, there's just the fact that the First Doctor simply has the best episodes to his name. Marco Polo was the moment the show ascended from children's television to legitimate and lasting drama. The Dalek Invasion of Earth remains as epic and taut now as it did fifty years ago. I can also say, without hyperbole or exaggeration, that The Aztecs is the series' finest hour. All subsequent television episodes pale.

For these reasons and more the First Doctor is, as the new series would put it, "my" Doctor.

[factotum]

Tom Baker, no question. He managed to get the character's essential alien nature across better than any of the Doctors around that time, IMHO; plus it helped he was in some really awesome stories.

[Aotrs Commander]

Eleven, Ten and Four, in that order.

[DJ Yung Crunk]

Eleven, Ten and Four, in that order.

Why's that, pray tell?

[Eldan]

I like the seventh Doctor, as represented by the audio. The quiet, sneaky, suspicious (in both ways of the word) doctor who always has a secret plan.

[Aotrs Commander]

Eleven had me from "basically, run," and whose supporting cast (Amy, Rory, River) was by far the best I've seen thus far (in my opinion, obviously); he also had that ruthless edge to him as well.

Ten was very good, with only the maudlin-y bits at the end of the run (not really Tennant's fault) being not so good.

Tom Baker was Tom Baker, does it need any further qualification...?

[DJ Yung Crunk]

I like the seventh Doctor, as represented by the audio. The quiet, sneaky, suspicious (in both ways of the word) doctor who always has a secret plan.

If there's one Doctor I don't want to meet it's him. Not because I think he's unlikeable. But because Seven is terrifying.


Tom Baker was Tom Baker, does it need any further qualification...?

Would you hate me if I said "Yes"?

[Aedilred]

I think it's hard to separate one's "favourite Doctor" from one's "favourite period in the show" and, moreover, from one's "favourite actor playing the Doctor". All of these are different considerations, albeit with some inevitable influence on one another. Crunk's nomination of the First Doctor doesn't surprise me, because (and I say this affectionately) he's a Who hipster who doesn't really like any of the developments in the show over the last fifty years. But the three considerations also seem kind of jumbled together in his explanation. Moreover, I disagree with him about at least two of them: Hartnell had what is to a modern eye an alarming tendency to flub his lines, which makes his take on the Doctor look a little amateurish; what's more, for all that the show was probably at its peak of originality at the time, it was also still developing its mythology to the extent that it at times comes across as a rough prototype for what was to follow rather than a fully-integrated part of the show. Not that that same criticism can't be levelled at a number of other phases in Who history, but the First Doctor's tenure stands out.

For my part, I don't think I've seen enough Classic Who to make a firm judgment. Of the twelve Doctors (not including the War Doctor) I've seen the complete TV works of six of them, nothing from two of them, aside from multi-Doctor episodes, and cherry-picked the other four. So for all that I can roll my eyes at the dismal quality of some of the serials or the worst excesses of RTD that I have seen, there could be similar turkeys hiding in the oeuvre of some of the others which I just haven't encountered, and I don't have the time or frankly the interest (even if I did have the money) to sit through hundreds of hours of Who, many of which are probably going to be pretty indifferent, just to become better-informed on the subject.

So with that in mind I approach the question cautiously. In terms of my favourite actor to play the Doctor, and indeed judging by quality of material, I find it hard to ignore Peter Capaldi and the latest series, which I think in terms of consistent quality at least is about as good as I've seen from Who. But in making the judgment I'm also trying to ignore that, because inasmuch as it's about the incarnation of the Doctor and not about everything that surrounds him, those factors aren't directly relevant.

With that in mind, I think my favourite Doctor is probably the Fifth. He is, probably, the most unambiguously Good of the Doctors (as far as I'm aware) with hardly any of the darkness which makes some of the later Doctors both compelling and repellent at times. His period on the show was also one of the last gasps of the show's original pulling-power, with a corresponding effect on production quality. Yes, there were hilarious missteps, but it also feels like one of the last times the Classic Who writers had a real chance to stretch their legs and do whatever they wanted, as after that there was for much of the remaining time a concerted effort at an executive level to kill the show off. But that's digressing from the key point, I guess. I also can't help but like him for the cricket factor, I must admit.

But I'm also not sure he qualifies as "my" Doctor. I grew up largely in the Who dark age: too young to watch Classic Who while it was still on; too uninformed to make any real sense of the TV movie; too old to watch NuWho with the uncritical enthusiasm of childhood. I watched all of the Ninth's run "live" but had lost interest sufficiently that I stopped doing so early in the tenure of the Tenth Doctor and only caught the odd episode thereafter. But I was reintroduced to it early in the Eleveth's run and that time it hooked me, to the extent I caught myself up on his episodes and stuck with it right the way through. He wasn't the first Doctor whose regeneration I witnessed "live", but he was the first one I was sad to see go. So inasmuch as any Doctor is "mine", it's probably the Eleventh. Then again, I suspect a lot of that is also down to the factors I'm consciously trying to discard: I much prefer Moffat's material to RTD's, on the whole, and found that the Eleventh's run engaged me at least superficially on an adult level in a way that the Ninth and Tenth Doctors' material rarely had.

So we're back to the Fifth again, albeit with many caveats.

[DJ Yung Crunk]

I think it's hard to separate one's "favourite Doctor" from one's "favourite period in the show" and, moreover, from one's "favourite actor playing the Doctor". All of these are different considerations, albeit with some inevitable influence on one another. Crunk's nomination of the First Doctor doesn't surprise me, because (and I say this affectionately) he's a Who hipster who doesn't really like any of the developments in the show over the last fifty years.

No denying that.


But the three considerations also seem kind of jumbled together in his explanation.

I wasn't expecting this level of scrutiny. If you'd like I can take another crack at it.


Moreover, I disagree with him about at least two of them: Hartnell had what is to a modern eye an alarming tendency to flub his lines, which makes his take on the Doctor look a little amateurish;

Yeah, those flubs are a bit rough. But when he was on point he was on point.


what's more, for all that the show was probably at its peak of originality at the time, it was also still developing its mythology to the extent that it at times comes across as a rough prototype for what was to follow rather than a fully-integrated part of the show. Not that that same criticism can't be levelled at a number of other phases in Who history, but the First Doctor's tenure stands out.

Well that's actually a point in its favour for me. All this mythology is fun, but it's superficial. Doctor Who is about the moment-to-moment stories, y'know? The Tenth Planet is your straight horror/thriller story in a claustrophobic environment. It's not "a cyberman story". Its appeal isn't that there are cybermen in it and look at the cybermen remember the cybermen?

The Doctor Who mythology is all well and good and a lot of episodes use it really well. I just prefer the mystery. When The Doctor hints ominously at the prospect of returning home at the end of The Massacre there's this real presence and mystery to it that makes it all the sweeter. Maybe I just prefer Gallifrey as an abstract concept? Who knows?

[BWR]

Four, no contest.
I was introduced to DW by my grandfather soon after I had discovered Star Wars (so, about the age of 4 or 5), and most of the ones showed at the time were Four. Even rewatching the old stories a few years ago they stand out (on the whole) as damn good. Four's period had the good fortune of great writers and an amazing persona and portrayal by Baker.

[thorgrim29]

I have been watching since 2005 and have not watched the older stuff, so bear that in mind. That being said I like all 4 of them. Tennant and Capaldi are the best actors of the 4 (and Tennant probably edges Capaldi out a bit), but I think 9 and 11 are the more compelling characters. 9 was the shell-shocked veteran who was slowly relearning how to have fun, and 11 was the Doctor embracing his darker side a bit more after 10's Messiah delusions ran their course. Capaldi hasn't really had good really episodes yet, and 11 and 9 I feel were a bit more consistent than 10 (who had high highs and low lows).

Sooooooooo overall I'd say 11, but Rory and Amy help him a lot so on his own strengths I would probably go for 10. For best companion in that time I'd say Rory/Amy and Martha.

[Hopeless]

Eleven for me, I was put off after learning who'd been picked to play this role but I have to say I enjoyed this era especially.

Capaldi unlike Smith had the problem that his companion overshadowed him, there are good bits but when you have Eleven with Amy and Rory... well even Captain Jack Harkness would have problems topping that and even Tennant having the largest number of companions in one episode has trouble matching that even with Donna arguably the best companion of the new era backing him!
Five was my first doctor, I've been picking up and watching various serials managing to watch through Five up to Eight's only movie but haven't listened to the audio releases which I hear are especially good so I haven't watched enough of Four to honestly be able to compare him to the new era.

Eleven got me with his quip about doing something he hasn't done for a long time and when Amy & Rory asked what he meant he replied, "A home visit!"

But the Five Doctors is still my favourite and most played dvd, then Day of the Doctor maybe one day I'll pick up Genesis of the Daleks and only then will I be in the position to even consider changing my position on Four!

[Aedilred]

I have been watching since 2005 and have not watched the older stuff, so bear that in mind. That being said I like all 4 of them. Tennant and Capaldi are the best actors of the 4 (and Tennant probably edges Capaldi out a bit), but I think 9 and 11 are the more compelling characters. 9 was the shell-shocked veteran who was slowly relearning how to have fun, and 11 was the Doctor embracing his darker side a bit more after 10's Messiah delusions ran their course. Capaldi hasn't really had good really episodes yet, and 11 and 9 I feel were a bit more consistent than 10 (who had high highs and low lows).

Sooooooooo overall I'd say 11, but Rory and Amy help him a lot so on his own strengths I would probably go for 10. For best companion in that time I'd say Rory/Amy and Martha.

I have to be honest, I'm not seeing where the love for Tennant as an actor comes from. As far as Who goes, anyway - some of his other work has been better. He only seems to operate at the extremes of his range, with relatively little subtlety; he has an unfortunate tendency to gurn (of which, at least, judging by his brief appearance in Extras, he was aware) and in particular bares his teeth a lot in a way that I came to find really rather distracting. Watch some footage of him running sometimes (and RTD loved making him run) and it's like he's leading his whole body with his teeth.

Maybe this is the fault of the direction as much as anything (as I say, some of his other work has been rather better) or the writing. But still, it's a major reason why the Tenth Doctor has never really done it for me.

[digiman619]

I've only watched the new Dr. Who series (getting access to the earlier stuff is going to be really difficult for me), so of the ones I've seen, my favorite doctors are in order: 9, 11, War, 12, 10

[Red Fel]

I think I'll echo much of the internet on this point:

https://kristinsfantasies.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/x-mas2008b.jpg

For me, "first" is a complicated issue. I first became aware of Doctor Who when I was fairly young, but even being aware of it I never truly sat down and watched it at any length. If I had to choose based on awareness, I would say Tom Baker; by the time I came into it, his name was closely linked with the franchise as a whole, and so much of what I knew of the Doctor came from Baker. Sure, I went back and watched whatever I could find of the classics, on Netflix or what-have-you. And I loved the professorial Hartnell, the clownish Troughton, and the suave pseudo-spy Pertwee.

That said, the first time I truly had the chance to sit down, watch, and experience the Doctor for myself was the reboot. Christopher Eccleston. His Doctor was manic, furious, and cruel, yet oddly silly in places. Still, his acting was sharp and his character was profound; I still remember one particularly moving moment, during The Doctor Dances:

http://blog.chron.com/tubular/files/2016/02/tumblr_morivf9goy1s4f9fto1_400.gif

In this moment, I got to see the Doctor, not just as some sort of clever science fiction hero, but as a frightened and scarred person who, for one brief moment, got the chance to do something beautiful, and was completely captivated by it. Or this scene, from Dalek:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/54/29/25/542925d4d92a7d318e72eb54cbbe6e70.jpg

I was familiar with the Daleks. Genocidal Nazi-esque mutant creatures in metal murder-shells who sought to end all non-Dalek life. Basically the embodiment of Evil in the Who-niverse. The Doctor always outsmarted them, stopped them; sometimes angrily, sometimes sadly, sometimes stoically. But this scene was pure venom. Eccleston gave the role a level of malice and hatred I had never seen nor heard from the Doctor. It was incredible.

Eccleston represented a tidal shift in the franchise. Something darker, something more intense. For me, he will always be my first Doctor, and my favorite.

[Ravian]

I have to be honest, I'm not seeing where the love for Tennant as an actor comes from. As far as Who goes, anyway - some of his other work has been better. He only seems to operate at the extremes of his range, with relatively little subtlety; he has an unfortunate tendency to gurn (of which, at least, judging by his brief appearance in Extras, he was aware) and in particular bares his teeth a lot in a way that I came to find really rather distracting. Watch some footage of him running sometimes (and RTD loved making him run) and it's like he's leading his whole body with his teeth.

Maybe this is the fault of the direction as much as anything (as I say, some of his other work has been rather better) or the writing. But still, it's a major reason why the Tenth Doctor has never really done it for me.

I'm a big Tennant fan, but I admit I come from the perspective of largely only seeing the New Who (and I still haven't gotten around to watching anything after Day of the Doctor.)

As such I think the main appeal is that while Tennant does tend to operate in extremes, he does those extremes very well, and I think being able to pull off those extremes is a very important part of being the Doctor.

In comparison, Eccleston always struck me as never really getting much of the humor or light-hearted parts of the role. Meanwhile Smith, while definitely my second place, never really struck me as able to be scary, which I thought is also valuable for grasping the darker aspects of the darker.

Tennant was able to operate well in both those areas, and while its true that there often isn't a ton of room in between, I prefer a Doctor that can do both funny and scary well, then one who flounders on one of the two.

[Dienekes]

11 and 4 were my favorites, since they felt the most strange and alien to me. But then I've only dipped into the old Doctors from time to time. But from the curmudgeonly grandpa to the eccentric love interest that the others have had they never actually made me feel like I was watching an alien Time Lord come interact with humans. Just another human with a weird backstory.

Though having only watched a few of the episodes that were considered good, I also quite like 7, for just being a devious manipulative bastard. He does loose some points for the hypocrisy of being so anti-violence yet still trying to talk people into committing suicide. I've never been a fan of that kind of hypocrisy.

[Ebon_Drake]

Possibly an oddball choice, but it's Pertwee for me. He had real presence whenever he was on the screen and brought a range of qualities to the character. He was charming, intelligent, authoritative, suave, determined, decisive, but also aloof and cold at times. I loved his interactions with the Brigadier and his run also introduced Delgado's Master and Sarah Jane Smith, the best of all companions. His look was somewhere between a Victorian gentleman and a magician: flamboyant and outlandish, but with an air of class and refinement to it and without the garishness of later outfits. His physicality and love of gimmicky transports are silly in retrospect, but they've got a goofy charm and set him apart from the other doctors. It may be anathema to some, but I'll never get tired of the Doctor disarming someone with a quick burst of Venusian Aikido.

I'm not quite sure how I managed to watch his tenure, I'm too young to have seen its original broadcast so I think it must have been repeated in the early 90s, along with Tom Baker's run. I do know that one of my most vivid Who memories as a kid was the episode with the Autons where the shop dummies came alive, smashed out of the window and started shooting people - 9's version of that sequence was a pale imitation. And I do giggle whenever I think about that entire episode that was purely devoted to a car, helicopter and hovercraft chase sequence. Dude sure loved his motor vehicles.

I'm a fan of Hartnell too, and I regret not having had much exposure to Troughton's episodes. I also love a good underdog, so I'll give a mention to Paul McGann - a fine actor for the role who managed to shine despite the dross of the TV movie. I'm glad he's managed to be involved in so many audio plays and loved his brief turn in Night of the Doctor.

[Lord Raziere]

Eccleston/Nine was my first as well, and I really liked him, he did seem to bring emotion and such to The Doctor, and the weaknesses behind him.

However my favorite is Eleven. Ten was good yes, but Eleven is kind of the Doctor finally getting over all the darkness and being happy for once, and had a certain knowledge about being himself, wasn't afraid to be silly.

Capaldi/12......eh......he is good, but I still like Eleven best.

[Rater202]

11 is my Doctor. I cried my eyes out when he regenerated. And before he regenerated. Although I have to admit seeing the Daleks freak out when he started regenerating was awesome enough to temporarily halt the tears.

The first bit of official Doctor Who Media I'd seen that interested me was a clip of 11's "I am Talking" speech and I was hooked.

[Starwulf]

Whichever version was playing on the PBS channel when I was about 8-10 years old(So 1989-91). I can see the images just enough in my head to realize how corny it all looked, but I absolutely loved it. He had a little robotic dog I think, and then later a robot the size of a trashcan following him around. Was awesome! Haven't enjoyed any of the Dr. Who's since.

[the_fennecfox]

The first time I saw Doctor Who, it was with 10. For me he will always be the one I picture when thinking of the show.

[Androgeus]

Am I allowed to like all Doctors equally?

[Hopeless]

Am I allowed to like all Doctors equally?

Yes you can!:smallsmile:

[DJ Yung Crunk]

Am I allowed to like all Doctors equally?

It's unlikely, but I suppose it's not impossible.

Something tells me this isn't an academic question.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Capaldi and Eccleston are the ones who stick out to me the most. Eccleston made a massive impression on me (despite not actually being my first Doctor, that was a random Tennant episode), and his grief and desire to repent was incredible. I'll never forget that moment from The Doctor Dances, as mentioned above. To me, that defined my image of The Doctor.

Capaldi really sold me during the latest season of the show, as a furious, driven, reckless, desperate Doctor. He's put out the most intense performances I've seen, and brings a powerful gravitas to the show, while occasionally going back off into eccentric old uncle territory, which is fabulous.

I don't have very much experience of Classic Who, though.

[BWR]

Capaldi would rank higher with me if not for the fact he had generally horrible stories, bad writing in general and Clara (and nuWho's in general obsession with his companions).
Capaldi could be bloody amazing if given better material to work with. As it is...

[Cikomyr]

Nine is my base Doctor. He was energetic and manic, but these behaviors had weights to them. You always felt his enthusiasm, rage and panic, as opposed to Ten, which i believe acted manic for Manic's sake. He was a babblermouth by nature, whereas Nine was focused, he just went along his train of thoughts damn quickly.

The Doctor i feel i would have liked the most, based on SFDebris's show, is probably Two. Throughton was marvelously clownish and silly, and yet ever the chessmaster. Where Seven might be the real Grand Manipulator, Two just caught you offguard so much you underestimated the silly Cosmic Hobbo.

Plus, he has a great monologue as to how to deal with the death of your loved ones. You can see that while Hartnell's Doctor might have been the Time Lord who ran away, Throughton is when the Doctor really rebelled against the idea of being a Time Lord.

[Kitten Champion]

I think probably Tom Baker. I, as I said in the other thread, haven't seen much of the classic stuff beyond a smattering of the better episodes so my perception is admittedly warped here. However, I keep getting kind of put off by the tendency of the modern show to make the Doctor character hyperactive and eccentric in a "look how quirky he is!"-sort of way.

Tom Baker's character was far more relaxed, kind of **** but still pretty likeable which is a difficult mix to pull off, and he pulled off the alienation of the character in subtle ways that were amusing rather than obtrusive.

[tomandtish]

I think I'll echo much of the internet on this point:

https://kristinsfantasies.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/x-mas2008b.jpg

For me, "first" is a complicated issue. I first became aware of Doctor Who when I was fairly young, but even being aware of it I never truly sat down and watched it at any length. If I had to choose based on awareness, I would say Tom Baker; by the time I came into it, his name was closely linked with the franchise as a whole, and so much of what I knew of the Doctor came from Baker. Sure, I went back and watched whatever I could find of the classics, on Netflix or what-have-you. And I loved the professorial Hartnell, the clownish Troughton, and the suave pseudo-spy Pertwee.

That said, the first time I truly had the chance to sit down, watch, and experience the Doctor for myself was the reboot. Christopher Eccleston. His Doctor was manic, furious, and cruel, yet oddly silly in places. Still, his acting was sharp and his character was profound; I still remember one particularly moving moment, during The Doctor Dances:

http://blog.chron.com/tubular/files/2016/02/tumblr_morivf9goy1s4f9fto1_400.gif

In this moment, I got to see the Doctor, not just as some sort of clever science fiction hero, but as a frightened and scarred person who, for one brief moment, got the chance to do something beautiful, and was completely captivated by it. Or this scene, from Dalek:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/54/29/25/542925d4d92a7d318e72eb54cbbe6e70.jpg

I was familiar with the Daleks. Genocidal Nazi-esque mutant creatures in metal murder-shells who sought to end all non-Dalek life. Basically the embodiment of Evil in the Who-niverse. The Doctor always outsmarted them, stopped them; sometimes angrily, sometimes sadly, sometimes stoically. But this scene was pure venom. Eccleston gave the role a level of malice and hatred I had never seen nor heard from the Doctor. It was incredible.

Eccleston represented a tidal shift in the franchise. Something darker, something more intense. For me, he will always be my first Doctor, and my favorite.


As usual, RedFel says it perfectly, and he even has the right Doctor. Eccleston was my first real Doctor. I'd caught pieces here and there but never got into the show before then. Eccleston is the one who made me love the show.

[digiman619]

As a side discussion, can we mention are favorite and least favorite Companions? Favorite for me (Remember I haven't seem 1-8) are the Ponds, least favorite is Donna Noble. All she does is yell!

[Red Fel]

As a side discussion, can we mention are favorite and least favorite Companions? Favorite for me (Remember I haven't seem 1-8) are the Ponds, least favorite is Donna Noble. All she does is yell!

I think part of why I like Donna is that she comes after a dry spell.

Let me explain this part. In my mind, the point of the companion is to act as a foil, being the offsetting human element to the Doctor's alien nature, and to share the audience's sense of wonder and excitement (and, often, fear). Some companions did this amazingly well - we can all hold Sarah Jane out as one of the best. She was fun, energetic, and extremely human, to offset the Doctor's oddities; she was also constantly inquisitive and fascinated by the wonderful and strange places they visited. The Ponds fill that same space - their whole family dynamic offset the listless solitude towards which the Doctor naturally gravitated, forcing him to develop human connections. (His withdrawal after they left the show demonstrates their humanizing effect on him.) Other companions did this less well - for example, Romana. Despite being the Doctor's equal in many ways - or perhaps because of it - it was less like watching the Doctor struggle with his emotional connections, and more just two Doctors hobo-ing around timespace.

When Eccleston brought the show back, though, we got Rose. Yeah, she was fascinated by the amazing places and things and such, and just ignorant enough to be an audience stand-in. But as time went on, she became a romantic character rather than a foil. She wasn't so much offsetting the Doctor and anchoring his emotions; she was a love interest. It changed the dynamic of the Doctor-companion relationship, and frankly got really old. And if you're not romantically attracted to a time traveling centuries-old alien, having your audience stand-in spend each episode going gaga over him can be awkward and distracting. Then she left, and along came Martha, who - despite being awesome and smart and assertive in ways Rose was not - was hopelessly puppy-dog crushing on the Doctor. It was painful.

And then, after the long dry spell, we got Donna. A companion in the classic sense. She forced the Doctor to recall compassion. She helped the Doctor to find humor. She was acting as the foil, the classic humanizing element, without the romantic flavoring. It was fun; it was pure, concentrated fun. And then...

... Well, we still have the audio adventures, at least.

Roundabout way of saying that, yeah, Donna would probably be my favorite of the New!Who companions. I couldn't really enjoy the Ponds as much, because it became very much about them specifically; it was less the Doctor's adventures with the Ponds, and more the Ponds' adventures (starring their friend, the Doctor). And while that was definitely a different change, and a nice touch, I got a bit tired of watching the sitcom dynamic in my sci-fi/mystery/adventure. I like the stories from one episode to the next; character development is good, but I want it to be about the story as seen by the characters, not the characters while story is happening behind them.

Classic!Who, though, I have to give to Sarah Jane. She was just a treat. Miss Sladen will be sorely missed.

[Dienekes]

Companions: Ace and the Ponds (together) probably make the best. Because Ace is just awesome and the Ponds played off each other very well.
The Brigadier and Wilf form a close second.
Donna, Rory, and Amy alone are a step behind. I like companions who can tell the Doctor to shut up (or in Rory's case punch him in his smug face). And Donna and Rory did that often, while Amy was more the generic companion girl but even she got a few times to really call the Doctor out.

Least would be Rose. I used to think that she had a fine run that was ruined by making the Doctor obsessed with her after she left. But, the more I go back to watch or think about her episodes the more horrible she comes off as.

[Ravian]

As a side discussion, can we mention are favorite and least favorite Companions? Favorite for me (Remember I haven't seem 1-8) are the Ponds, least favorite is Donna Noble. All she does is yell!

That as may be, Donna always struck me as a companion that was actually able to keep step with the Doctor in terms of banter. Martha will always the most competent of the New Who companions, but she and Rose (ugh rose) always seemed to have problems contributing anything more than being a straight woman for the doctor.

I did love the Ponds though, they were what mostly kept me watching through Smith's run. I'm pretty sure most of the reason why I haven't gotten around to watching any of Capaldi's run was because Clara really just didn't impress me.

Honestly I sometimes think that the Companions are more important for the show than the Doctor. Every actor leaves their own impact to the character of the Doctor, but ultimately the Doctor is still broadly the same character. We can look for every little subtle difference in a given Doctor, but ultimately we can still recognize when an actor is being the Doctor regardless of those differences. Meanwhile the Companions are just as essential for the show, and because they are all distinct characters, they can make even more difference to the quality.

[Aedilred]

I love Clara, but I will cop to that being probably largely on the basis of her first two appearances, which weren't entirely representative of the character we later got. Oswin and Victorian Clara had rather more about them than Clara Prime turned out to. But then, having a relatively bland companion who still engages interest periodically isn't the worst thing in the world: I'd probably rather that than having an obnoxious companion, or having the companion take over the show.

Which, unfortunately, is a criticism I have to level at most of the other NuWho companions. Rose and the Ponds took over the show; Donna got up my nose. Part of the reason I don't like Donna is doubtless because she's played by Catherine Tate and she seemed to bring a lot of her more irritating sketch characters to the role, but I suspect it's also because RTD just isn't very good at writing strong female characters. All the individuals that make me want to hurl TVs/monitors from windows appear in RTD's run, and all of them are women - Jackie Tyler, Francine Jones, Donna Noble. There are times when Donna is more tolerable, as the character softens, but much of the time she's also just really abrasive. The Moff has his misses too, admittedly, most notably the way Amy has a tendency to turn into such an awful harpy you wonder what either the Doctor or Rory ever saw in her, but he also has characters like River, Missy and Osgood to his credit. Adelaide Brooke, to be fair, was fine, as was Sarah Jane in her NuWho appearances, but a lot of RTD's female characters are dodgy in one way or another.

All that said I think the best companion of the RTD era by a fair distance was Wilf. Although there is an element of mawkishness to the character and the episodes in which he appears, Bernard Cribbins sells it with such understated sincerity that I can overlook a lot of that while watching at least, and he has some of the best chemistry with David Tennant, too.

From Classic Who I must admit I probably haven't watched enough episodes of those companions generally considered first-rate (Sarah Jane, the Brigadier, Ace) to make a truly informed selection. From what I've seen of her, Sarah Jane is fine, but there also seems to me relatively little memorable about her character: in the mould of the Peri or Nyssa etc. whose main job is for the Doctor to bounce off she's probably the best of them that I've seen but that might also just be exposure talking. My favourite, controversially, would be Adric, as almost the exact converse of that archetype and also, for me at least, hitting the right buttons as far as irritation factor goes: a character designed to be periodically insufferable, and therefore an albeit perverse pleasure to watch, rather than the Donna&co. model of "gob with a heart of hold but the balance is all wrong". While Turlough's episodes are desperately hit and miss, and he has a rather unattractive rat-like aspect at times, he too was an enjoyable companion: it's probably not a coincidence that the two characters I've chosen are two of those generally most consistently antagonistic to the Doctor. It's also probably not a coincidence that both of them spend a lot of their time standing next to Tegan, who I can't stand.

[BWR]

The Brigadier is very high on the list, and I have a soft spot for Jamie.
Other than that, Ace probably edges out Leela.

Of nuWho Jack Harkness is pretty awesome and easily the best we have had, much better even than many (most?) oldWho companions.
Amy and Rory were OK to start with but DW degenerated to the Amy and Rory show, which I disliked. Rose was OK for the first episode but got worse with every episode to the point where I wanted to punch everyone in the face. Martha was good except for the falling in love with the Doctor bit, but at least he wasn't obsessed with her and she moved on. Donna was mostly meh but then we got DoctorDonna, and Clara is even worse than Rose.

[factotum]

I'm a little puzzled about the love for Sarah Jane Smith as a companion, myself. Elisabeth Sladen was a fine actress, and is sorely missed, but the character she played was typical for a female character in the 70s--e.g. screaming a lot and having to be rescued all the time. I much preferred Leela as a companion, because she was a much tougher character.

Least favourite companion? Well, I'd be hard put to argue against Rose in that role--she was OK to start with, but the whole I-wuv-the-Doctor thing got very old very quickly, and it got even worse when the affection was reciprocated. This is at least one good thing about the Capaldi/Clara dynamic--the showrunners are fully aware that having Clara being in love with someone of Capaldi's age would be super creepy, so the relationship between the two is more like the Doctor/companion relationships of the old series.

[DJ Yung Crunk]

Best companions? Barbara, Evelyn, Lucie, Jamie, Mel, Leela, Turlough, Donna and Bernice. From that lot, I'd say Barbara and Evelyn are tied for first. I like no-nonsense women who challenge the Doctor when he's being an *******. That's a lot of the time, of course. It helps that Barbara plays a vital role in the all time greatest Doctor Who story. Mel might seem like an odd choice, given how loathed she is. But all the criticisms of her are ridiculous. She screams, sure. But she's self-reliant, arguably even more competent than The Doctor, optimistic and incredibly likeable. The EU does her better, granted. The Fires of Vulcan is essential.

Worst companions? Most of the new ones, honestly. Donna excepting, of course. Rose, Martha and Amy are all different cuts of the "Doctor cheerleader" mould. Rory and Clara are total non-entities with one-dimensional personalities. Jack and River are excruciatingly bad fanfiction tier characters. The latter reads like "What if Bernice was completely unlikeable?" From the classic series and EU, though, Adric had a nasty habit of doing more harm than good. Grant was a major pushover. Ben and Polly literally didn't have personalities. C'Rizz was a stupid concept. Kamelion just didn't work.

EDIT: Oh, dang! I forgot Chris and Roz for the worst. Man, worst characters in the history of fiction right there. When one of them dies my first response shouldn't be. "Right, where's the champagne?" Pretty emblematic of what was wrong with the Virgin novels towards the end, there.

[Eldan]

Hmm. Difficult. I think I'll do this in parts.

New Series... Probably Donna for best. For a lot of arguments that were already mentioned. Worst Rose, no contest. Honourable Mention: Wilf.

Old Series... Ace or Romana, I suppose. Can't really decide. A lto of contenders for worst here. I don't like either Adric or Turlough. I found Peri annoying. There's probably more.

Big Finish: Evelyn is best. She's probably the best companion ever. I mean, there's some I've never seen, but I can't imagine them besting her. Worst, hm. I can't think of many that were really, really bad. Probly C'rizz. Even the way they spell that name annoying.

I also seem to like Hex. Though that may also be because he hangs out with Seven and Ace and has some really well-written stories. In any case, him existing makes Rory the second best male nurse to hang around with the Doctor.

[Angrist]

[QUOTE=Ebon_Drake;20656722]Possibly an oddball choice, but it's Pertwee for me.

I loved Pertwee too, I always thought he was cool. And that wardrobe, shagadelic baby.

[dariathalon]

Possibly an oddball choice, but it's Pertwee for me. He had real presence whenever he was on the screen and brought a range of qualities to the character. He was charming, intelligent, authoritative, suave, determined, decisive, but also aloof and cold at times. I loved his interactions with the Brigadier and his run also introduced Delgado's Master and Sarah Jane Smith, the best of all companions. His look was somewhere between a Victorian gentleman and a magician: flamboyant and outlandish, but with an air of class and refinement to it and without the garishness of later outfits. His physicality and love of gimmicky transports are silly in retrospect, but they've got a goofy charm and set him apart from the other doctors. It may be anathema to some, but I'll never get tired of the Doctor disarming someone with a quick burst of Venusian Aikido.

I'm not quite sure how I managed to watch his tenure, I'm too young to have seen its original broadcast so I think it must have been repeated in the early 90s, along with Tom Baker's run. I do know that one of my most vivid Who memories as a kid was the episode with the Autons where the shop dummies came alive, smashed out of the window and started shooting people - 9's version of that sequence was a pale imitation. And I do giggle whenever I think about that entire episode that was purely devoted to a car, helicopter and hovercraft chase sequence. Dude sure loved his motor vehicles.

I'm a fan of Hartnell too, and I regret not having had much exposure to Troughton's episodes. I also love a good underdog, so I'll give a mention to Paul McGann - a fine actor for the role who managed to shine despite the dross of the TV movie. I'm glad he's managed to be involved in so many audio plays and loved his brief turn in Night of the Doctor.

Yep. This, pretty much exactly. I was reading through the thread as I contemplated how I would explain my answer of Pertwee, when I came across this post. I've tried (and floundered) to explain his appeal to me before, so when I read this post I thought yes, that's pretty much it. Ebon's points about Hartnell and McGann were good too, though I'd also pop McCoy into that list for the way he always seems to know and be plotting more than the viewer could ever guess at. I think we must have pretty similar tastes when it comes to classic who. I do really like some of the new who doctors too, but they're already pretty well represented in the thread.

The only thing I might disagree with is Ebon's characterization of Sarah Jane as the best companion ever. She's certainly a very good companion, but one or two others (like the aforementioned Brigadier) top her in my book. Other top choices would be Barbara, Sergeant Benton, Leela, Ace, Donna, I could list others too, but the list is already pretty long.

[VincentTakeda]

I'm gonna go with Tennant. He and I would get along famously.

[DJ Yung Crunk]

Pertwee's not an oddball choice. He's ****ing awesome. Have you seen season 7? Greatest season in the history of show, easily. I mean, between Spearhead from Space, Doctor Who and the Silurians and Inferno that's, like, the greatest ratio of outstanding serials in a single year I can think of.

[LordRahl6]

Going to have to go with DJ on this one. Even without seeing a lot of rest, without Bill the others wouldn't exist.:smallcool:

[Friv]

Apparently I'm also a dirty Doctor Who hipster. My favorite Doctor is Patrick Troughton, who criminally hasn't had a cool picture posted yet.

http://application.denofgeek.com/pics/tv/dw.cliffs/2nd.jpg

So, the Second Doctor is still early days, and a lot of stuff is being nailed down. He hasn't quite developed the hero persona that we usually think of, but the First Doctor's general dislike of humanity has finished being worn away already. Often, the Second Doctor's thing is arriving in a dangerous situation, insisting that it's too dangerous for himself or his companions to get involved, idly throwing off some theory because his curiosity has gotten the better of him, and then getting dragged into the mess because he can't actually bear to let go. (For newer viewers, the entire "crying child" scene with the Eleventh Doctor and Amy in the Beast Below is an accurate image to hold.)

He's basically a sweetheart, generally, and feels older than his years. But every once in a while, he gets actually angry, instead of merely flustered and sputtering, and when he does he stands his ground.

(Also he has Jamie, his One True Love and I don't care what anyone says. ;) )

My favorite companions are Donna and the Brigadier, and my greatest sorrow is that they never got to interact with each other because it would have been GLORIOUS.

[DJ Yung Crunk]

Apparently I'm also a dirty Doctor Who hipster. My favorite Doctor is Patrick Troughton, who criminally hasn't had a cool picture posted yet.

Hipster nothing. Know who else thinks Troughton was the best? Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Sylvester McCoy, Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi.

[dps]

I'm a little puzzled about the love for Sarah Jane Smith as a companion, myself. Elisabeth Sladen was a fine actress, and is sorely missed, but the character she played was typical for a female character in the 70s--e.g. screaming a lot and having to be rescued all the time. I much preferred Leela as a companion, because she was a much tougher character.


While I prefer Leela as well, I think that description sells Sarah Jane Smith a bit short. She was probably actually written better with Pertwee than with Baker.

[themaque]

My favorite Doctor... hard to decide. ...

10
My Doctor. Yes he's mostly all over the place and he overacts and he just... I love him.

7
oh yes, He's quirky and clever and scary. He's what I want to be when playing a wizard.

2
He's smart but loving and goofy. He plays the clown and is still the chessmaster.

11
I actually saw a lot of 2 in his earlier performances with a dash of older meaner doctors.

And... I don't like 4. I know I know just... WAIT before you kill me. I can't really justify it but... I've NEVER liked him. Something about him puts me on edge.

Now, being that 10 is my favorite, You would assume that I love rose. And you would be right, but my favorite companion is Donna. oh, how I HATED Donna. She was loud, annoying, grating, and just the WORST.

But when I was watching through again... I realise her first appearance is just her WORST day ever. No wonder she's PO'ed. And after that... she has a practical level headedness that pairs well with the doctor. Cut through the BS take no nonsense and look at things from the real world.

The Ponds are probably my second favorite.

[factotum]

While I prefer Leela as well, I think that description sells Sarah Jane Smith a bit short. She was probably actually written better with Pertwee than with Baker.

If she *was* better written with Pertwee then that's a fair point--I didn't see many Pertwee episodes (being only four years old when he regenerated into Tom Baker), so can't judge her on those. For the same reason I can't judge Pertwee himself, Troughton, or Hartnell because I haven't seen enough of their run.

[BWR]

And... I don't like 4. I know I know just... WAIT before you kill me. .

Can we kill you now?

[themaque]

Can we kill you now?

Not until May. I want to finish organizing my board games for my next of Kin, then I can die happy.

[BWR]

Not until May. I want to finish organizing my board games for my next of Kin, then I can die happy.

Works for me. I have to develop the desire to kill people first.

[dps]

If she *was* better written with Pertwee then that's a fair point--I didn't see many Pertwee episodes (being only four years old when he regenerated into Tom Baker), so can't judge her on those. For the same reason I can't judge Pertwee himself, Troughton, or Hartnell because I haven't seen enough of their run.

I think I probably saw all or close to all of both Pertwee's and Tom Baker's episodes on PBS (in Pertwee's case, it was a few years after he'd already left the role), but it's been so long ago that I don't remember a huge amount of detail about those stories. For example, just relying on my memory, I would have sworn that Leela came after Romana, but that's not the case (though given the way my local PBS station presented the show, I very well might have seen Romana's episodes before Leela's).

Anyway, as far as Sarah Jane is concerned, she was an investigative reporter, and got involved with UNIT and the Doctor through that. And that was basically how she was portrayed during Three's run--as an intrepid reporter. But as time went on, with the Doctor's exile from Earth ended, his regeneration into Four, and fewer and fewer stories set on present day Earth, UNIT was phased out as a regular part of the program, and Sarah Jane's role as a reporter was more-or-less forgotten IIRC.

[DJ Yung Crunk]

As long as we're talking Doctors we don't like, I have to admit the only three that never worked for me were Nine, Ten and Eleven.

Nine was good conceptually, but he hasn't a single good story to his name. Not one. Anyone who says The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances couldn't be grasping for more mediocre straws. That would have passed as a mediocre episode in Three's era. I do like the concept, though. Sort of a more straight faced, businesslike Doctor. A little reserved, a little more direct, a little less frivolity. Something with that kind of intensity might have worked well in the hands of a competent writer. Sadly, we were shafted with Russell T. Davies; a man who, presumably, looked upon George Lucas's writing of the prequel trilogy less as a caution and more as a challenge.

Ten does, at least, have three good stories to his name; Blink, Midnight and The Eyeless. But he also tanked pretty hard with Utopia/Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords and the abominably awful The End of Time. Overall Ten is just the worst characterised and poorly written of the lot. He mugs, he preens, he angsts and he swoons but beneath all the theatrics is a very shallow character. Not even a character really. A loose set of ideas to frame bombastic emotional set pieces, each one more pompous and ridiculous than the last. Oh, he's crying again, huh? Thanks slow zoom and screeching choir, I know this is supposed to be an emotional moment, you can relax. Ten's era did a lot of bending over backwards to obscure that the writing was just not all there. He switches motivations and moods on a dime and so many episodes lack proper resolutions, instead character give each other meaningful glances while Murray Gold leans on an entire string section.

Eleven came off like Two-for-morons. It doesn't help that Matt Smith is a fantastically bad actor. Not the worst to play The Doctor, granted, but where you can look at Tennant's failings and admit they were probably more to do with writing and direction there's really no getting around it in this case. He overgestures with his body and underemotes with his face. Not that a good performance would have made him a more compelling character. He's a market tested ironic-faux-cool hipster that is destined to age poorly. Funny as a cyst, too. Oh, look, he's wearing a fez now. That's odd. I'm not laughing. But I'll take that lolrandom nonsense over his pitiful attempts to be dramatic. His regeneration scene had me cringing. When you give Six's regeneration a run for its money, it's time to go back to the drawing board.

[Aedilred]

snip

Well, I couldn't disagree with you more about the Eleventh Doctor, in almost any respect. Not all his episodes were winners, and there were times when he missed the mark, but overall I give him a big tick. In fact I'd credit the Eleventh (whether that be Smith or Moffat) almost entirely with my current interest in Who, having been successively underwhelmed and then turned off altogether during the previous NuWho run.

I'm inclined to agree with you about the other two, though, albeit I thought Utopia was alright - but maybe that's just Derek Jacobi. I think part of the problem the Ninth Doctor faces, which carries over to an extent into his successor, is that the setting in which he operates seems very domestic. I don't know whether there were budgetary concerns or whether RTD was a little nervous about the character's appeal, but much of his tenure seems like it was written with a big post-it-note saying "ACCESSIBILITY" under his nose (and a slightly smaller one saying "DIVERSITY", probably). It runs through everything from the Ninth Doctor's bland costume to insufferable characters like Jackie Tyler to the setting itself. I did a brief count the other day of where each of the NuWho Doctors spends their time: contemporary Earth, alt-Earth (past, present or alternate universe) or anywhere else. Under RTD, contemporary Earth was the most common setting(!) followed by alt-Earth, and the Ninth Doctor spends all his episodes there or thereabouts: the furthest away he gets is satellites from which he observes the Earth. It just doesn't do justice to the character. As you say, the Moff's episodes during the Ninth's era were ok but nothing to write home about, and that they stand out so far above their fellows goes to show how weak so much of the rest of those episodes were.

That said I'm minded to cut RTD a bit of slack. He had a difficult job in resurrecting a series about which many people were pessimistic and in a timeslot and demographic role which is notoriously difficult to get right. That he succeeded in making a spectacular hit goes greatly to his credit. As far as the "DIVERSITY" angle goes, on a rewatch I find that often rather cringey and insufferable, and RTD's era has dated badly on the whole (worse, I think, than bits of the Eleventh's will, despite your pessimism) but I must admit that at the time, some of the more egregious RTD-isms - Captain Jack, for instance - appeared much more refreshing and exciting than they now do. It's been suggested that RTD, initially through Queer as Folk and probably more significantly through Who, deserves quite a lot of credit for helping change public perception as regards diversity (principally in terms of sexuality, but in other ways too) and that the episodes have dated as a result is secondary to the fact that they ultimately succeeded in eroding some of the prejudice they set out to challenge.

As such it's all a bit of a muddle. I think RTD is, ultimately, not a particularly good writer, and many of the episodes he penned in person are among the dodgiest in all of NuWho. His "finales" are almost uniformly awful: Army of Ghosts/Doomsday is probably the best of the bunch, but still pretty weak. And for all that you criticise the Eleventh as a "market tested ironic-faux-cool hipster" I think RTD is guilty of elements of a corresponding approach right across his Who oeuvre. But his concept work is often pretty good, and if he had limited himself to coming up with the set-ups for stories and then leaving it to other, more capable writers, to execute the plot and dialogue (with a degree of editorial oversight, of course) then I think his era could have been a lot rosier.

[DJ Yung Crunk]

Just because the Russel T. Davies era will age worse doesn't mean that Eleven will age well. I'd argue it's difficult to compare, since they're both going to age poorly for completely different reason.

[Aedilred]

Just because the Russel T. Davies era will age worse doesn't mean that Eleven will age well. I'd argue it's difficult to compare, since they're both going to age poorly for completely different reason.

Well honestly I don't think we're ever going to see eye to eye about the Eleventh Doctor, and my above post wasn't really about him.

But I also think much of the early Doctors' stuff has aged poorly too. In terms of production, that's obvious: the first two were in black and white, of course, and often not particularly good black and white, with a level of fuzziness that can make it difficult to tell what's going on. The props and special effects are obviously done on a bit of a budget, the set has a famous tendency to resemble the quarry behind the BBC studio, the camerawork is unimaginative, and a lot of the acting from the supporting cast is an order of magnitude worse than anything in NuWho. And for all that the long serial format often gave stories time to breathe, it could cut both ways, and lead to long, meandering meals being made out of plots that could have been dealt with much more quickly. Quite a lot of Classic Who is almost maddeningly slow at times - which while it makes a dramatic contrast with the exaggerated mania of some NuWho, isn't necessarily better. The Doctor's companions, especially the female ones, have a tendency to be a revolving selection of blank canvases for the Doctor to bounce off; as one of the actresses remarked (I forget which, which says something in itself), the bulk of their dialogue boils down to "what is it, Doctor?" And it's just as much "of its time" as much of NuWho is: why, almost right out of the gate in An Unearthly Child you have the characters laughing about the idea of decimalisation of the currency, which happened in 1971.

While I'm not entirely a Whig when it comes to television (the quality of the top level of documentary and comedy has not, I think, markedly improved over the decades) I do think that there has certainly over the last twenty years and very possibly longer been a noticeable increase in quality, especially when it comes to drama, and that while much of that improvement has been at the top end, the average standard has been lifted almost beyond recognition. It's also worth noting that in terms of footage - although much of it has been lost - early Who threw a lot more mud at the wall than NuWho has, so if some of it happens to be "better" than anything the modern Who has managed that might just be a matter of probability. I think ultimately very few Classic Who episodes, at least of those that I've seen, actually stand the test of time and would hold up in the modern era on the basis on which they were originally made. If they were broadcast now as new, nobody would watch them.

So I think we have to be careful, because Classic Who is so obviously dated that we shrug that dating aside and watch it as classic television, with nostalgia goggles firmly on, forgiving all the ways in which it's aged. NuWho we don't, even though the earlier episodes are now more than ten years old - in Classic terms, we're now watching Tom Baker, and the Eccleston episodes are equivalent to early Hartnell in terms of time elapsed. For all that I gripe and whine, then, about some of the crappiness of the RTD era, I'm still viewing it as contemporary television, which isn't how I watch Classic Who and probably isn't fair even on its own terms: we extend Classic Who a generosity and indulgence that we don't do for NuWho. It makes it very hard to compare the two like-for-like and I think if I did manage to strip my filters and preconceptions completely I'd probably adjudge NuWho as, if not necessarily superior, certainly no worse on the whole.

[DJ Yung Crunk]

The difference is that what dates Classic Who is superficial (for the most part), while what dates RTD is fundamental. The sets are wobbly and the ideals are a bit conservative, yes. But the quality of the writing makes that tolerable, at least for me. It's not universal. The writing in, say, The Underwater Menace is nowhere near good enough for me to immerse myself past how shockingly bad it looks.

I will concede that the serial format could get long winded at times. This is why I'm not exactly on board with fan favourites like The Daleks or The Dalek Invasion of Earth. Really, the biggest problem with the serial format is the way they had to force conflict at intervals to justify a cliffhanger. And some of them were weak. But on the whole I think 90 minutes tells better stories than 45. Nothing is universal, but on averages I'd say that's true.

Don't conflate my dislike of the new series to some doe-eyed idealistic adoration for the classic series. Actually one could argue that the classic series occupies major extremes. While I don't think the revival even comes close to the likes of The Aztecs or The Face of Evil I'll also admit Last of the Time Lords at its most insulting and juvenile is, at least, not as excruciating as Timelash or Arc of Infinity or Zagreus. It's just the highs that make me appreciate the original series better. When the writing was good it was timeless. The revival wouldn't know 'timeless writing' if David Mamet came up and shook its hand.

Final point. I'm sure classic Who doesn't hold up to contemporary televsion, but I think they want different things. I get less of a "TV drama" vibe of Doctor Who and more of "sci-fi anthology" air to it. That's why I generally prefer the audios. It's not a super visual show. It's more about the concepts and the socratics. Doctor Who, when it's good, about concepts and ideas. That's why Listen was a masterpiece. Because it was a legitimate classic quality episode in tone and intent.

Why must we fight, Aedilred? The children are asking questions.