The Doctor

Television is riddled with characters who were played by multiple actors: Darrin Stephens, Vivian Banks, Morgan Matthews, Becky Conner... Quite often, cast changes indicate a bit of shark-jumping. Very, very rarely is it made one of the main themes of a show, but ever since 1967, the classic British series Doctor Who has done just that.

Considering how absolutely terrified I am of change, I should not be comfortable with this show wherein there is never any guarantee from week to week that any of the characters - including the titular Doctor - will remain the same. But I am more than comfortable, I am utterly obsessed and, rather perversely, find great solace in it. There aren't many companions that I don't love and the actors have all done wonderful jobs bringing these characters to life, but the thing that sells and has always sold the show is The Doctor himself, in all his many guises.

First, we had One, portrayed by William Hartnell from 1963 to 1966. Hartnell's Doctor was perhaps the least likeable incarnation, but that is hardly a slight to the character. In those early days of the show, the writers hadn't quite decided just how alien their star alien actually was, and fans of the new series would be surprised to see just how crotchety the Good Doctor started out. He disliked modern (at the time) England, he chastised his younger companions for using slang words like "okay," and the only advanced technology (by our standards, that is...) he ever expressed interest in was already in the TARDIS. But he wasn't all grumbling and stubbornness; One was, in many ways, still a kid at heart. He loved exploring, teasing his companions, and devising new and ever more entertaining ways to outsmart his foes...and he had a giggle that was just too much fun.

I had several reasons to dislike the Second Doctor (played by Patrick Troughton from 1966 until 1969), and I wasn't exactly looking forward to meeting him. But within the first ten minutes of his first episode, I had already decided I loved him. In Two, we got not just a time-traveling scientist pining for his granddaughter, but also a much more demonstratively affectionate Doctor who never loses sight of how important his companions are to him. Two proves that it is possible to be a white face and a red nose*, often at the same time. And, indeed, Two is kind of the Clownish Doctor; he plays at the beach every single time they land near one, he gleefully "borrows" a helicopter because he's always wanted to fly one, and he just generally likes to have fun. Troughton's Doctor was sweet and understated, but he also had quite a temper and seemed just a bit too keen on explosives. But mostly he was sweet** and mild and just a bit insane...and utterly magnificent.

The Third Doctor (played by Jon Pertwee from 1970 until 1974) was the original angsty Doctor. The very first time we see him is when he topples face-first out of the TARDIS, and he spends the next four serials trapped on earth and trying to get his bearings back. He is an unforgiving adversary, a very peevish employee (but don't let him hear you suggesting he works for anyone...), a confrontational and surprisingly physical combatant, and he's downright mean to some of his friends. But he is also extremely sweet, tender, protective, delightfully sarcastic, and slyly witty; he fences and wrestles and somehow makes it seem Doctorly. The twinkle in his eye makes you chuckle, you can't help but feel for him when he is in pain, and he actually deigns to tell stories from his past exploits, rather than just enigmatically alluding to them. He irritates me a bit when he insults the Brigadier for no good reason, but the way he interacts with The Master as though they really did grow up together more than makes up for it.

Nearly six years after my first encounter with The Doctor, almost 16 months after my initial inDoctrination, and just over a year after my first viewing of "An Unearthly Child," I finally met Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor. To be perfectly honest, Four was the Doctor that I was least curious about, and least interested to meet. Never mind that he was the Doctor during Douglas Adams' tenure***. Tom Baker seemed to be the over-hyped, long-lived prima donna who stood as final barrier between me and the Doctor I always wanted most to meet. By the time I actually got to 1975, though, I was so completely in love with The Doctor as a whole that I would have made myself like him one way or another...but it turned out to be an easy task, really. He's too violent and unpredictable and not quite unreservedly friendly enough to ever be one of my favourites, but I can TOTALLY see why he is so popular. In trying to describe what it is that makes Four Four, I have a hard time singling out any truly unique characteristics, but much of this is due to the fact that many of the post-Baker T Doctors used his as a sort of template. He WAS unique in the beginning, and he will always stand as Supreme Bugnut Insane Lunatic Dork. Even given my own preferences, it's easy to see why Four was (and still is, in many circles) the reigning fan favourite, and why he will likely always stand as the seminal Doctor.

By the time Tom Baker left the show, he had redefined the role and was the only Doctor that much of the audience had ever known. The man who stepped into the part after him had almost as difficult a job cut out for him as Patrick Troughton did as the first "replacement" Doctor. As it turns out, Peter Davison also had to overcome the fact that, at 29, he was more than a decade younger than any previous Doctor, and he was already very well known to BBC viewers as the roguishly immature Tristan Farnon on All Greatures Great and Small. Meanwhile, back in 2008, I had been anticipating meeting Five for six years and had just seen "Time Crash," and I was beginning to worry that he wouldn't live up to my expectations once I finally started "Castrovalva." I had absolutely no reason to be concerned. Five is surprisingly mature and reserved for so "young" a Doctor, but he is also ridiculously adorable, extremely paternal in all the right ways, and, well, let's be honest, pretty sort of marvelous. If I had watched the show in the proper order as I had intended, he would almost undoubtedly have been My Doctor. Alas, he was beaten to the punch...but that's certainly not his fault.

My first experience with the show was The Enemy Within, and, though I was hardly won over on the series by this somewhat horrible production, I was intrigued enough by the Eighth Doctor to want to know more about the character. And, although my previous familiarity with Paul McGann as Lieutenant Bush in Horatio Hornblower and my mad love for his eyes certainly influenced my initial Doctor encounter, it didn't define it. McGann's portrayal is complicated, in that I have a mental image of Eight as this incredibly sweet, mild**** sort of absent-minded professor type (like a sedate Two), but I know deep down that he is one of the most intense and spontaneous of The Doctor's incarnations. His regeneration may not have been the most emotional (largely because the movie just didn't quite work right – it really should have been more effective), but it most likely lead to the most scarring, both emotionally and physically. It is significant that Eight's regeneration worked the way it did, and that it took place on the eve of the "New Millennium" (which, of course, actually began in 2001, but whatever); McGann's Doctor highlighted some of the darker, angstier themes from the Pertwee Era that, while they couldn't have known it at the time, segued quite well into the 2005 series and the massive change Russell T. Davies and crew would make to The Doctor's history.

Enter Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor and the Last of the Time Lords (the schtick, not the episode - that came later). When the Sci-Fi Channel first started airing the new series, my AIM away message for when I watched it read, "Let's see if this Christopher Eccleston chappie is as good as Paul McGann and Peter Davison." ***** Oh, how he was. We only got slightly more time with him than we did with Eight, but my goodness. That wonderfully dorky grin, that manic laugh, that...style! I still haven't seen sixteen seasons' worth of the show, but I am quite confident in saying Nine is the only Doctor who has ever kicked in a door...and he does it while still maintaining an air of geekly magnificent. That takes serious talent. I still didn't know enough about Wholore to understand why the creators didn't seem too concerned about their leading man leaving after only one season, and I was NOT happy that that fanTAStic grin wouldn't be coming back; I was dead set against liking this new beanpole with the unfortunate addiction to hair product.

To say that I was pleasantly surprised would be quite an understatement because, though Eight will always and forever be my first Doctor, and Nine was the one who really convinced me to keep coming back for more, Ten is My Doctor. The peculiarity of David Tennant's having been a fanboy since childhood****** makes his excitement palpable, and it lends something very special to the performance. And what a manic performance it is... Ten is hardly the first Doctor to gleefully bounce around the TARDIS, but the fact that he is able to maintain that level of glee in the face of all he has seen over the centuries - and over the past decade or so of the show, in particular - makes him absolutely without doubt My Doctor.

The Doctor has been through Tartarus; he has lost everyone, gotten a few back, then lost them all over again. He is a much more weary Time Lord now than he once was, but he managed to retain an exuberance that belies his years. Life has exhausted him, but still he rejoices in it. He knows that, no matter what he does, he will get hurt again, but he just has to keep trying anyway. He wants to be alone, and he wants to surround himself with people he loves, and he wants to live life to the fullest, and he just wants it all to finally be over and done with, and he wants to leave his mark on the world, and he wants to go unnoticed...and, dagnabit, he wants to see Ian Dury and the Blockheads.

Run away from the onslaught of Time Lord Angst!
Page posted December 31, 2007.