I watched a few of the older ones when I was older, but I really got into it when they revived it with the ninth Doctor. I'll probably have to agree with Mafia on this one.

i would also have to say David Tennant. i love doctor who sooooo much lol

...They all still confuse the hell out of me? LOL

I don't know the numbers...

-Tom Baker I liked, he reminds me of a cheekier Sherlock Holmes...
-Some blond guy...with a vest (and celery, for some reason) was alright...
-Christopher Eccelston kind of bored me, to be honest...but I only saw him once
-David Tennant I like as an actor period, so he was fun to watch...
-I want to punch Matt Smith in the face, I can't try and get into DW with him in this role...his face and character and acting just screams "Hit me! PLEASE hit me, right in the kisser, PLEASE!"

Matt Smith is good, but not great. My only problem with the last few seasons that Steven Moffat took over as head writer, and while he's still good, he's no Russell T. Davies.

Tennant all the way.

My favorite? Tom Baker.

Patrick Troughton - the Second Doctor.

Tom Baker ;)

Yeah, David Tennant it is, though Matt Smith is alright. I didn't watch many of the older ones.

After watching the Doctor since the 1970's, I'll stick with Tom Baker.

Old Doctor's I love: Jon Pertwee, Patrick Troughton, Tom Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Colin Baker (although Peri Brown was annoying as a companion) - My favorite was probably Tom Baker.

New Doctors - I like Matt Smith but David Tennant is my favorite. Eccleston was too dark. Plus Tennant's term is when we get introduced to Torchwood.

Over all, I have to rate Tom Baker just a bit above David Tennant, but I think the new series is better over all. The writing is great and the effects so superior to the old Doctor's. But they are a very different medium, having gone from serials to a longer self-contained format.

Tom Baker as doctor, Sarah Jane as companion, best line, "Eldrad must live!"

Tom Baker and Jon Pertwee

Old Who - it's always the doctor you grew up with. For me that's Tom Baker. I don't remember Pertwee or earlier, and I remember the decline through Davidson, Baker (the worst doctor for me) and McCoy.

For New Who, I can't choose - I think Chris Ecclestone is a fine actor, and I'm sad he didn't do more than 1 series. Tennant is probably 'the' new Doctor in most people's heads, but Matt Smith is also amazing.

And I'm sorry, but anyone who thinks RTD is a better writer than The Moff is wrong. Much as I like their bodies of work (RTD's best work was 'The Second Coming', Moffat's is series 1-3 of 'Coupling'), Moffat is consistently better, and darker than RTD. Doctor Who should be scary, not have farting aliens in fat suits.

I'll be honest:

Granted I'm a Who Newbie...and I DO like the dark episodes--I like darker Tom Baker ones I've seen--but...and this is granted a bias, but...

I'll take Doctor who-meets-Shakespeare-and-Witches vs. Who the HELL is this River Song person and a plot that throws me for a logical loop every time I try and catch on and catch up...

As a new fan trying to get into the series, it makes it convoluted--and for a show to continue, and gain new fans (like moia) it can't be so...

obi - convoluted is good. Too much TV keeps things simple, and has a reset button each week. TV that actually begins to require attention to follow the story is better. The best shows combine on off moments of brilliance (Blink, The Girl In The Fireplace, Midnight) with arc plots that run (in this case) over multiple series, and things you didn't even realise were plot points (such as the Doctor reisting Amy in the forest, when eeryone thought it was a continuity error)

And NewWho isn't that complex - I got that River was Amy's daughter as soon as she was preganant (and then wasn't) ;)

There's a difference between complexity and convolution, though...

And this just feels convoluted, like its grasping at straws to tie far too many plot points its raised together and reconcile it with the whole time travel concept somehow...

I'm just saying if I didn't know there were OTHER episodes, older, better ones, which had depth and yet didn't need to go on and on like this series...

I wouldn't bother to try figuring things out at all.

I point to The West Wing as a great example of a show that was complex, had many arcs...

But was never (Well, almost never, Season 5 was rough, but 1/7 so-so ones isn't bad) convoluted, you always knew what was going on...

Which is as it should be, so you could ask not "What?" but "WHY?"



And that's what all the best books and shows and plays--watching Ian McKellan's "King Lear" right now!--make you do, is ask "WHY?"

Spend too much time on "what," and it gets bogged down; I just finished "The Brothers Karamazov," 702 pages that could easily have been 500, but it spends the whole last third NOT making us ask why Ivan is driven mad by the whole God/no God thing, or why Aloysha has reacted as he has to Zossima's death and if he'll keep his faith or lose it, and why he'd do either, and why a God would allow evil, as Ivan asked...

But rather, it focus on what happened one night with a murder, and goes on and on and repeats itself like twelve of thirteen times over the same points...it plods!

And this last series...it felt plodding at times, I just wanted to shout "GET ON WITH IT!"

Not for a fast, TV-answer, but jsut because the pacing is set back when I get the feeling of delay, delay, retread, explain this, explain away that, cover this base, try and make sense of that...

It's Doctor Who!

I don't exactly turn in for the perfect exercises of logic...I gave up on that the moment I saw those humans get captured for the umpteenth time and the Doctor save them and the Trashcans of Doom somehow defeated despite their logical superiority...

And the Magical Sonic Screwdriver, that can do whatever the plot requires. :)

It's OK, it's about the absurdity and ideas, part Sherlock Holmes and part Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...THAT'S FINE!

GO WITH THAT!

The Hitch Hiker's Guide never stops to try and make sense of EVERYTHING...it's just "42, that's the answer to everything...why? 'Cause it is! Oh, and keep your towel with you!"

Improbability Drive...Police Box of Power...

Same difference to me.

So I was happy to see Doctor-meets-Shakespeare, or in the old series, Doctor-vs.-prototype-Nazi-Dalek-people...

Just go with it...stop trying to make it all make sense, it's absurdist, not Star Trek!

If I want technobabble and a logical plot and structure, I'll watch Picard or Kirk.
If I want a crazy good time that feels campy or creepy--with a dash of Shakespeare or spme other historical figure, or the awesome Trashcans of Doom--I'll watch the Doctor.

You can be artistic AND absurdist...

It needs to stop trying to make sense of its nonsense and just embrace it...

So sayeth the opinionated newbie. :)

@obi - You just don't get it... And that's OK.