I always tend to skip the third Doctor stories, especially the ones with Jo Grant. If I remember correctly, when I collected the videos, the only Pertwee one I had was the Three Doctors.

However, I was watching Carnival of Monsters the other day and I realised how natural Jo is. She has quite a good role with the Doctor. Added to this the third Doctor isn't even that bad...

Most of the target novelisations I read were 3rd Doctor stories, in fact some of my fave stories were there, Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Colony In Space, Day of the daleks (I forget the titles but the one with the Ogrons) and that Dalek one when they are in the jungle...

I even quite like the Sea Devils...

But I still have no real love for the 3rd Doctor and I find this confusing. Anyone have a similar experience with Mr Pertwee or another Doctor?

You are not alone. While some stories were great, I too never really enjoyed Jon Pertwees Doctor as much as the others. Whether it was just it was constantly earth based or whether Pertwee played the role as some sort of pantomime villain I don't know. But my doctor he certainly isn't.

Now, Pertwee as Worzel Gummidge, that's a completely different story...................................

The only thing that put me off the 3rd Doctor was the first two years or so, when it was always set on Earth, involved UNIT every story....and that awful 2nd year in which The Master (brilliant though he was) appeared in the entire run. It got very repetitive. I was so glad when he got the Tardis back!

Yes, the UNIT involvement did indeed become a tad monotonous. It tried too hard to evolve I think (that and a lack of budgeting) and sort of forgot what it should be. Tom Baker's era became the Who plateau.

He was actually my first Doctor (through repeats, I hasten to add, not original airings) but with a greater appreciation of the show I've found him become one of my least favourites. I feel his performance largely lacks the alien quality that is quite essential to the character. He was just too human.

BINGO! That's it! too human. Brilliant. Fancy you coming on this thread and summing up the problem immediately!

And yet I still think Tennant was too human, and people like him. I think the answer is much simpler: of all the Doctors, he was the one who played it almost dead straight. There's very little humour in his performance, and humour is an essential part of who the Doctor is.

[quote=tingramretro;44018488]And yet I still think Tennant was too human, and people like him. I think the answer is much simpler: of all the Doctors, he was the one who played it almost dead straight. There's very little humour in his performance, and humour is an essential part of who the Doctor is.[/QUOTE]

I agree, I actually put that in a post the other day. I really hated the straight-laced nature of the 3rd Doctor. Compare his persona to the 11th Doctor and humour-wise they are miles apart, that's why I like Smith's Doctor so much, he's funny and eccentric, everything Pertwee wasn't. The other reason I don't like his Doctor so much is, as another poster has already mentioned, I associate his Doctor with the Earthbound stories and the exile scenerio I hate so much. The few times I watch the stories in order, I can't wait to get to Tom Baker where The Doctor became more funny and eccentric and moved back to more spacey adventures.

To redress the balance, though, he wasn't all bad. I liked the fact he took no shite from anyone and was more of an action Doctor, and Pertwee played him really well, but he will never be one of my favourites.

One further point: everyone has Doctors they don't like as well those that they do. What someone likes in one Doctor another doesn't, it's a question of taste. I don't like Ecclestone much but can see from reading on the forum he has plenty of fans!!!!

My problem with the third Doctor's era is that they seem to be consciously and deliberately making low ambition genre television, possibly even to the same extent as the first series of Torchwood. Which is probably a similar concern to the scope of the stories being very repetitive.

The players themselves always seem competent enough, especially in the period before the Brigadier turns into a buffoon, and some of the early endeavours to make it all feel more like the real world are great but are too quickly undone and to my mind pretty much all of it from when the Master turns up is just plain uninteresting.

You echo my sentiments entirely!



The irony being, of course, that prior to playing the third Doctor, Jon Pertwee was best known as a comic actor.

I was 4 when Pertwee became the Dr, so I fell in love with the show during his tenure.

Some interesting points raised here, and I suppose he was quite straight, the humour tended to spring from other people's reactions to things he'd say quite seriously. I loved his interaction with the Brig, and I loved that he was more of an actin hero than other Doctors - perhaps not quite the mandate for the show originally, but i think it worked.

Jo Grant was one of the lesser companions in my mind, awfully acted by katy Manning, it will be interesting to see how her acting has changed over the years...

I was scared to death of Jon Pertwee's doctor when I was little, even more than the Daleks!

Pertwee was my first Doctor, I love him to bits. I thought he was the most capable, with inner strength. Don't understand the negativity myself his in my top three Doctors. I hate all that bumbling mad professor type Doctor so boringly predictable.

Like I said in my previous post, different Doctors suit different people. Is there a Doctor you're not keen on?

Honestly, no. I think I can watch all the Doctors. What's more important for me is the quality of the stories. In some eras it was incredibly poor but each Doctor has a stand out story. Of course I have preferences but I don't dislike any. Now their companions...um better leave that for another day. Watching the Green Death again!

Well it's the same ith companions as with Doctors, most people dislike Adric and Mel, some like them, all down to opinion.

Never mind - Pertwee was the only one of the early Doctors that I liked, with

Troughton a close second and all the others nowhere. McCoy killed the character - no wonder the BBC axed the show during his stretch.

Crap. McCoy was and is a great Doctor. The BBC axed Doctor Who because they'd been wanting it gone for several years, the reasons are well documented, so I don't see why people are still parroting this idiotic fallacy.

1970-73 was a tad dull. The writing became very militaristic and slow. I think they were really trying to appeal to older viewers and make the show seem more sophisticated. In truth it just made the writers drag out 4 episode stories to 6 episodes. I recently saw 'The Sea Devils' and was really shocked by how slow and boring it was.

Its an opinion and a valid one. Not everyone believes every statement the BBC puts out.

I wouldn't go so far as to call McCoy great but he wasn't crap either. Like Colin Baker, he was the victim of poor production decisons, BBC hatred against the show at the time and in McCoy's case, some really crappy stories. In a lot of the crappier ones like Paradise Towers, he was the only good thing in it.

In my opinion McCoy was the worst Dr by a country mile, the guy is just not a good enough actor.....

McCoy could only go with what he was given and that wasn't much. The documentary on the Silver Nemesis dvd shows it was a complete mess behind the scenes.

Whereas I think McCoy was really very brilliant, easily better than Jon Pertwee.

What i liked about McCoy was his quirkiness, that little touch of Troughton he put in sometimes where he could be mischeivous, like the blowing up and popping of the crisp packet in Battlefield. You always felt he was in control and even when he wasn't, it was never long before he actually was!!!!