Anything after John Nathan-Turner got his claws into DW was flawed if not downright spoiled, with a few great stories like The Caves of Androzani, The Curse of Fenric and one or two others to remind us of what might have been in an alternate 1980s.

The best elements of Tom Baker, Jon Pertwee and Patrick Troughton would combine to make an unbeatable Who, but no one seems to have bigged up old William Hartnell, who had real presence and an amusing way of fluffing his lines but soldiering on regardless (and if he hadn't created such strong figure of mysterious interest, the series could well have limped into oblivion after its second year). I think - for my money - the best Doctor was Tom Baker when accompanied by Sarah-Jane Smith. The Companion made a crucial difference to how well a Doctor performed, and Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah, and Wendy Padbury's Zoe to Troughton were my favourites.

In terms of acting ability I would say Troughton followed by Davison.

Challenge accepted

I think you're right - the episode was called the Daemons and featured The Master summoning up mythical creatures to do battle with the Doctor.

Take a look at the video cover art here:

http://www.gallifreyone.com/episodep...ster%20Pearson

No, I don't mean that one.

I mean can you recall the scene I was talking about which I thought involved the Autons?

The scene where the Doctor enters a room. All around the room are some figures stood against the walls. The Doctor does something in the middle of the room (presses a button, or pulls a lever, or something), and all these figures start moving and slowly walk to the centre of the room encircling the Doctor,..then the episode finishes like that on a cliffhanger.

I "thought" it was Patrick Troughton as the Doctor,..but I may be wrong. And the images I have of the Autons might have been a seperate episode that I've gotten mixed up with this scene I'm talking about.
They are from the earliest of my childhood memories, so I'm sure I could well have got them mixed up a bit.

Do you or anyone else remember that episode I described?




(By the way, yes I know about the Daemons, and just looking at that cover it looked scary. That stone gargoyle thing scared the shit out of me.
And did I read in one of these Doctor Who threads that Chris Eccleston faces a gargoyle creature?
Sounds like they may be resurrecting the Daemaons again, which I am looking forward to if true.)

The best elements of Tom Baker, Jon Pertwee and Patrick Troughton would combine to make an unbeatable Who

I agree. If they had a Doctor who brought back something of the spirit of those three Doctors it would blow us away.

I think that maybe hardly anyone here ever saw William Hartnell as the Doctor, so that's why he hasn't got many votes.
I read somewhere that in the early William Hartnel days Doctor Who was actually broadcast live wasn't it?
That might be why you saw him fluff his lines a lot, and had to continue regardless anyway.

allrightmate does this help ?

Cant decide between Baker and Pertwee , both brilliant to my then young eyes. Its only seeing the repeats that I can see the hamming they got up to, great fun anyway.

Agree about the female support being important. Katy Manning and Elizabeth Sladen were both excellent and lovely actresses (probably still are).

I think you might mean The Mind Robber that had some robotic nsties in it.

everyone will have there own dr who. this will be because , their fav will be the one who they grew up with. so for mine it was jon pertwee, will baker a second..
after he left, (killed at jodgrell bank in my part of the world) i then stoped watching it. as the ones after were pathetic................

Fave Dr Who series for me is 'Remembrance of the Daleks'. The daleks have always unsettled me a bit, and the series is memorable for a very unusual line I never thought I'd hear. this one:

Davros- (Ranting) WE SHALL BECOME ALL POWER...

7th Dr. ...POWERFUL! CRUSH THE LESSER RACES! CONQUER THE GALAXY! UNIMAGINABLE POWER! UNLIMITED RICE PUDDING ! ! ! ETC. ! ! ! ETC.! ! !

Does anyone have that spoof Dalek 'Worst Case Scenario' Survival Guide with Ms Pauline ( ? ) 'Mynah Bird' Mole in it?

Assistants - best one was probably Sarah Jane Smith, though Jo (Katy Manning ?) had the best scream with Nyssa coming a close second in the fashion department.
Best enemy - Sea Devils
Most frightening episode, the welsh mines with enormous maggots.


However without Cushing, the poll really has no value in the real world.

I only ever watched it as a child and as one poster rightly said, most people's favourite doctor was from the age of about 8. Mine was Patrick Troughton, I always found William Hartnell a bit scary and weird! Best assistant - Fraser Hines, used to fancy him like mad!

Well, I only came to Doctor Who last year (at 24), so this "your favourite doctor tends to be the one you saw when you were eight" doesn't really apply to me. It's probably for the best, I'd have ended up with Sylvester McCoy otherwise

But I do wonder whether I prefer Tom Baker because he's the one I saw first (in Talons of Weng Chiang), or because he's the doctor whose stories I've mostly been watching (due availability & people's recommendations). And I also wonder whether I've been avoiding the 1980s Doctors, the ones I could have seen broadcast for the first time in my lifetime, because at some level I don't think they would have been as good as something made in the 1970s. Or is it because no one has been gushing about them anywhere. It's difficult to say... but the bits I've seen haven't really inspired me either. Maybe one day I'll have seen all the doctors in at least one story, but I doubt that day is coming very soon.

I will admit that temptation got the better of me and I downloaded "Rose" to watch. I've seen it, deleted it, and now I can't wait for March 28!

For those who haven't or don't know, it was the same version that was shown as a Press preview, so it had a Delia Derbyshire theme arrangement rather than Murray Gold's, which is heard during the snipets seen between programmes on BBC, and I think some of the effects are not as refined as they will be by transmission time.

In reference to My quote from James' post above, she is really NOT that bad, and I went into it with negative expectations. From all accounts, her turn in The Canterbury Tales had shown what a good actress she is, and helped her land the role. I was quite surprised as to how good she is.

Oh, a couple of little touches which I thought were nice (in a Jazz Club sort of way):



Oh by the way, my fave Doctor was Colin Baker, if only he had decent decent stories! The best Doctor has to be Tom, though

My fav Doctor has to be William Hartnell, I was not born till 73 so never saw any of his episodes till the 80's then you just saw the same ones An Unearthly Child etc. But I think he was the darkest and of course he rather like Peter Davison was the only Doctor to ever have companions killed. Hartnell would frequently pt his companions in danger and do a runner. Someone mentioned Peter Davison had too many companions, well in Hartnells time he almost consistantly had four with him.
If you look at Hartnell's years they were magnificent yes the historical stories could be a little "anal" But other stories were great Tenth Planet & Keys Of Marinus were highly memorable. Patrick Troughtons stories were also very dark, and very memorable.
Anyone out there who has not seen much of either Doctor should head off to Ebay and treat themselves.

One of my favorite stories was Earthshock, the excitement when the Cybermen first appeared and the sadness/happiness when Adric died made it a real treat. Even now in my 30 somethings I still get a slight shiver over me like I did in the early 80's.

I'd like to point out I didn't see the episodes when originally broadcast (happily I'm much too young ), but on UK Gold five or six years ago

They certainly didn't broacast even the early episodes live though, that would have been a complete shambles (they recorded onto videotape, which often got re-used which is why there are so many gaps in the archive of the 60's - they hadn't reckoned on the commercial possibilities of video recorders in the future - kinda ironic given it is Doctor Who we're discussing)!

William Hartnell got my vote too - and I would never downplay the significance of his contribution, because his portrayal was absolutely vital in the development in the public mind of the respect and love we all now have for the hallowed role of The Doctor.

I remember precisely - I was 17 at the time - the close proximity of the start of the original series: An Unearthly Child - to the assassination of John Kennedy - and I can't help but wonder whether having been robbed of the experience of Camelot, we were looking for some new home for our dreams of a brighter future as we finally moved on from the post-war austerity period.

Anyway - I digress - Bill Hartnell was a lovely man and played Dr Who in a meaningful and inspiring way, such that the later incarnations / transformations simply could not have happened without him. For me - he IS The Doctor. And as for Susan - she was the perfect Assistant. [And the word must always be Assistant, and NOT companion - don't ever let the PC brigade attempt to rewrite history on that issue!]

Of course, an assistant linked with a Doctor as a companion would be like disclosing Debbie McGee as partly responsible for helping Paul Daniels sausage disappear on a nightly basis.

Can't somebody PLEASE correct the spelling of Jon Pertwee's name?

Yes, and who's this Sylvestor McCoy chap?

I found the chemistry between Eccleston and Piper to be palpable and effortless. Roll on the new series...

OT - Although I wasn't born until the 70's, Zoe Heriot comes a close second to Sarah Jane Smith in the companions!

No, it has to be Paul McGann for me, despite the fact that I grew up with Jon Pertwee. The Doctor on a motorcycle! Yum!

Cookiecrumbler, I think you misunderstood.

I was replying to the negative veiws of Miss Piper saying that I found her very good, and would rather see her in the role than the other two I mentioned!

She's better than I thought she'd be but she's obviously needing to settle into the role.

Unless, of course, those thingsgave yet to happen.