Ranking All 13 Doctors From Worst To Best Article

[M. Robert Gibson]

I've just come across this ranking article

Doctor Who: Ranking All 13 Doctors From Worst To Best

From Hartnell to Whittaker, who reigns supreme?

whatculture.com

13. The Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker)
12. The Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker)
11. The First Doctor (William Hartnell)
10. The Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison)
9. The Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee)
8. The Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston)
7. The Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann)
6. The Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy)
5. The Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton)
4. The Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
3. The Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi)
2. The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker)
1. The Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith)

Positions 9 and 6 should be the other way around
Positions 2 and 1 should be the other way around

I'd have to think a bit more about the others

Let the battle commence

 

[Anthoney]

I'd switch 4 and 1.
Then switch 9 and 5.

I might have to redo the whole list. I've spent the last few months watching classic Who on Britbox. I really liked 3 and I liked 8 more than I thought I would.

 

[Dave]

I'm probably in a minority, but it is all wrong to me. I didn't rate their 1 or 6 so they would be much further down the list. I'd keep their 12 at the bottom. I'd probably move their 9 to 1. However, what makes it so wrong for me is that they say 13 is in that position because one Season is not long enough to judge her, then they put McGann at 7, after only 2 hours of screen time?

 

[SilentRoamer]

That site is awful - I hate list sites where they put everything on a different page just to generate more click revenue. For that reason, I didn't even bother reading the article.

Terrible website practice from a very click baitey looking site. No thanks.

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

That site is awful - I hate list sites where they put everything on a different page just to generate more click revenue

Me too

I always install uBlock Origin, switch to advanced user mode and block all third-party scripts and frames, although it works very well 'out-of-the-box'
Sometimes I have to allow through some scripts for a site to work eg jQuery, but once the site is working good enough, I save the rule and never have to bother again.

I also explicitly block Facebook, Twitter, Google domains unless I'm on their sites
It's amazing how much faster the web is without ads and trackers

It's not very intuitive but there are a few tutorials out there

The Ultimate Superuser's Guide to uBlock Origin - Make Tech Easier

While uBlock Origin is a powerful and versatile ad blocker, its design is also a little obscure. Here we'll show how to get the most out of uBlock Origin.

www.maketecheasier.com

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

Here's their list (without their reasoning)
13. The Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker)
12. The Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker)
11. The First Doctor (William Hartnell)
10. The Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison)
9. The Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee)
8. The Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston)
7. The Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann)
6. The Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy)
5. The Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton)
4. The Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
3. The Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi)
2. The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker)
1. The Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith)

I was going to post this last night but the site started to get all funny, so I gave up.

 

[AlexH]

I've only seen the modern Doctor Who and it's difficult to separate the Doctor from the overall quality of the episodes and series they're in.

I also think it's unfair to rank Jodie Whittaker after only one series, but then again, Christopher Eccleston (who I thought was excellent) only did one. I'm not aware of how many past Doctors did.

 

[nixie]

My choices would be

13. Paul McCann
12.Colin Baker
11. Peter Davidson
10. Sylvester McCoy
9. William Hartnell
8. Patrick Troughton
7. Christopher Eccleston
6. Jodi Whittaker
5. Peter Capaldi
4. David Tennant
3. Jon Pertwee
2. Matt Smith
1. Tom Baker

 

[BT Jones]

It's very hard to judge Jodie when she's still going and the majority of the writing (and directing) for her stories has been, in my opinion, substandard. My family go through the modern ones every so often and each time we reach the end of a particular doctor, I say: THAT was my favourite.

But in terms of the actor that ticked the most boxes, I number 1 is probably Peter Capaldi. Apart from being a terrific actor, I actually think he captured the 'alien-ness' of the Doctor more than anyone else.

 

[.matthew.]

I have no idea how Matt Smith is above David Tennant in anyone's book (although he didn't have to carry that unfunny comedian woman).

Also they missed out John Hurt, who only had the single episode but I liked him. Wanted a whole War Doctor season.

 

[hitmouse]

They also missed Peter Cushing.

 

[Avelino de Castro]

I'd switch 2 to 1 and 9 to 2 that s just my preference

 

[Avelino de Castro]

Tom Baker should be first followed immediately by Pertwee

 

[sule]

So I did a modicum of sleuthing and pulled together a number of different rankings I could find around the web to see the 'average' ranking of each incarnation of the Doctor. I took a Doctor's ranks from each list, added those numbers together and divided by the number of rankings I polled (6 for most of the Doctors). The following ranking is each Doctor's place according to their averaged rank among the lists. I've put the average ranking in parentheses next to each Doctor.

*As some of the lists I found were fairly old, some of them either left Jodie Whitaker off or gave her the bottom ranking because she had just been announced. These are also not my personal rankings, just the average of a few I found*

15. Peter Cushing (14)
14. Colin Baker (12)
13. Jodie Whitaker (12)
12. John Hurt (11.33)
11. Paul McGann (10.67)
10. Sylvester McCoy (9.5)
9. William Hartnell (9.5)
8. Peter Davison (9)
7. Jon Pertwee (6.83)
6. Patrick Troughton (5.83)
5. Christopher Eccleston (5)
4. Peter Capaldi (4.83)
3. Matt Smith (2.83)
2. David Tennant (1.83)
1. Tom Baker (1.83)

Rankings: Looper (Article 10 Feb 2020); WhatCulture (YT 5 April 2017, Article 23 March 2019); WatchMojo (YT 29 Sep. 2019); ShortList (date unknown); Business Insider (Article 11 April 2017)

 

[Burrunjor]

I have no idea how Matt Smith is above David Tennant in anyone's book (although he didn't have to carry that unfunny comedian woman).

Also they missed out John Hurt, who only had the single episode but I liked him. Wanted a whole War Doctor season.

Matt Smith was years ahead of Tennant. Tennant just played the Doctor as a boring, straight forward hero. His eccentricity was also really forced.

Matt meanwhile was genuinely quirky, had more alien qualities, and did the old man in a young man's body really well. He also had a more consistent morality, IE he didn't condemn aliens to an eternity of torture one week, then hug his psycho, sadistic, mass murdering archenemy the next. He didn't condemn his clone for wiping out the Daleks one week, and then happily send his own people to hell without a seconds thought the next.

Having said that Matt did suffer from some terrible Moffatisms like slapping Clara on the arse, and all the jack the lad stuff.

For me the list is bogus, though I'm glad to see Jodie at the bottom, personally I wouldn't include her at all.

For me it would go 9,10 and 12 at the bottom, in no particular order, 3, 4 and 1 at the top (in that order) and then all the rest apart from Jodie in the middle.

9 is a just a pound shop version of Angel and Xena, 10 is just a bland straight forward romantic hero, Capaldi is let down by atrocious writing and Jodie and Jo are taking the piss. Matt as far as I'm concerned is the only proper Doctor since the original.

 

[.matthew.]

Ha, well I'd argue that Tennant's up and down morality was far more interesting. He was constantly struggling between order and chaos, the man of peace and the man the time war made him. This gave him a compelling personality and storyline arcs.

As you said, Matt Smith was consistent, ie: boring, dull, predictable

Also, you criticise Tennant for playing him as a boring, straight hero in one sentence then praise Smith for being consistent in another. If anyone was the straight hero character that could do no wrong and had no emotional depth, it'd be Smith.

That said, I did like some of Smith's episodes, and it was probably the writing of the long series arcs that let him down more than anything else.