Well, some of us around here are real big fans of Dr. Who, which is a British science-fiction series that if you don't already know about, we're not going to bother to initiate you here. With so many other (and better) sources available online, we thought we'd instead give fans out there some of our (rather strong) opinions, as well as some interesting statistical analysis we've done.
[[[ This paragraph was just added in 2008. I only popped in to point out how this page is staggeringly out of date and silly now. But I'll leave it be for historical purposes and just mention that the "really big chart" mentioned in the next paragraph is in fact the oldest piece of content on this site. Before we even had dial-up, we'd drawn this chart on several pieces of paper, then transcribed it to the web later. ]]]
So, if you are a fan, you may be interested (or not) in some of the following: First, can you name all eighteen actors (not counting stand-ins) who have portrayed The Doctor? If not, we've put together a small chart that shows the total air-time and number of episodes for each one. Secondly, we put together this really big chart of the companions and recurring villians for every story in the series. Expanding upon this, finally, we have an (obscenely tedious) mathmematical breakdown of original material compared to recurring villians in the program. Another thing that comes back is the repetitive story title. I've put together several pages on this subject, starting with this Introduction.
Of all the books we've come across, our personal recommendation is The Discontinuity Guide by Paul Cornell, Martin Day, and Keith Topping. It's more than just information on the series: It's opinions and theories that spark interesting conversations amongst fans. Opinions can be very interesting on something so large as Dr. Who, and what follows are our own.
First, here's our own ten best lists of favorite stories, which reveal more about how little of the program Richard and Robin have seen than anything else (see below). Rowland and Patrick have more credibility, but certainly don't follow mainstream fandom favorites.
On a broader scale, we present speculation on what we would consider the best overall Doctor Who season. Our arguments here have changed over the years upon more repeat viewings of the black-and-white years. Tom Baker's first and last seasons both have a lot of strengths (Harry was great, Romana was II) and McCoy's brief three seasons introduce a lot of new ideas (largely thanks to Andrew Cartmel), but if you go way back to season two with William Hartnell, I think you'll be very surprised at how mature the program had already become. The strong writing in the early years, coupled with some great acting by guest stars, make stories like The Romans and The Crusade a pleasure to behold. What limitations in budget may have dampened still makes what was attempted in The Web Planet and The Chase all the more amazing that they were willing to try. So, if the writing in Doctor Who is what overcomes the productions other limitations, that puts the fourteenth season (Tom Baker in The Deadly Assassin, The Face Of Evil, and The Talons of Weng-Chiang) and the nineteenth season (Peter Davison in Four To Doomsday, Kinda, and Black Orchid) at the top of our list.
Even more broadly, we generally agree that the era of the fifth Doctor is the best in the series overall, from production to writing to acting. Peter Davison is superb, giving the character the vulnerability that we can relate to, while still possessing the genius and wit that make him our hero. Despite overwhelming fan criticism to the contrary, we feel John Nathan-Turner breathes new and greater life into the show, giving us back The Master with style, giving us several diverse companions to be weak and foolish as necessary, while each still containing some talent in certain situations. This even includes Adric, the fans' most hated companion, so we're willing to go out on a limb. Of course, he's followed closely by Mel in revulsion, but we don't like her either. Ace was much cooler. We welcome all commentary on this commentary. We've written our assessment of each Doctor's era below.
First -- Second -- Third -- Fourth -- Fifth -- Sixth -- Seventh -- Eighth
And as broadly as we can be, we present our view that Doctor Who can be considered three different series consecutively, with distinctly different character motivations and styles of presentation:
