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in reply to The best Doctor:

Hmm - tricky one this. I see the recent series (Eccleston and Tennant) as so very different from what went before it's comparing apples and elephants. The old doctors had to make do with such crappy sets (I believe at one time the budget for scenery was two hundred GBP/episode), they had to play it tongue in cheek. The new doctors take themselves much more seriously.

If I have to choose one, it has to be Baker (Tom, not Colin), with Troughton getting an honourable mention. Of the recent two, I'd give Tennant the edge - Eccleston is a touch too grumpy. But both are good, and the difference in writers is more significant - give me Steven Moffat over Russell T. Davies any day.

Polonius

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: The best Doctor:
by Gavin (Archbishop) on Jul 02, 2007 at 11:58 UTC
    You must have been too young! and missed the early episodes with William Hartnell in the 60’s the black and white filming gave a claustrophobic and atmospheric feel the Daleks were really scary then, they seem almost comical now in the 00’s by comparison!

    Gavin
Re^2: The best Doctor:
by agianni (Hermit) on Jul 02, 2007 at 19:27 UTC
    I remember seeing a Tom Baker episode and realizing that one of the props was a humidifier we had, except it was painted gold in an attempt to make it look like a piece of computing machinery. Ah, the days of aluminum foil covered boxes. Cue the analog synths and the dramatically slowly walking monsters.
    perl -e 'split//,q{john hurl, pest caretaker}and(map{print @_[$_]}(joi +n(q{},map{sprintf(qq{%010u},$_)}(2**2*307*4993,5*101*641*5261,7*59*79 +*36997,13*17*71*45131,3**2*67*89*167*181))=~/\d{2}/g));'
Re^2: The best Doctor:
by Jonathan (Curate) on Jul 03, 2007 at 14:01 UTC
    > give me Steven Moffat over Russell T. Davies any day.

    Yup.

    Though I don't agree about Eccleston being grumpy - far from it. And I find Tennants endless gurning annoying.

    A couple of excellent stories like 'Fathers day', 'The Empty child' and 'Dalek' but a lot of the new Doctors stories are not very good and are often derivative.

    Also I think the new Doctor Who stories are adversely affected by the BBC's endless multi-cultural political bias. The Madame Pompadore story where her best friend was of African descent was a classic example. A multi-cultural 18th Century - amazing.

      Though I don't agree about Eccleston being grumpy - far from it. And I find Tennants endless gurning annoying.

      You know, I may have done Eccleston an injustice. The funny thing is, although it's not very long since I've seen them, I actually don't remember his performances very well. (That probably says more about my incipient senility than about him - and I do remember being blown away by The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances.) I should make a point of watching him again.

      Polonius