He was my Doctor growing up, so he'll always be my favourite. He had 3 top tier companions all of whom he developed an excellent rapport with. He had the original and by some distance the best Master. His costume variants, particularly in later series, were wonderful. Many of the costume variants specific to just one story. Considering the financial constraints at the time I do wonder how much those numerous velvet jackets and Inverness Capes took out of the budget. From what I've read the Letts / Dicks stewardship of the show was a very happy one with cast and crew all enjoying their work and I think this comes across throughout Pertwees run. His best stories are peak Dr Who and have yet to be bettered.
As I recall from Pertwee’s 1st autobiography, the cape was something he inherited from his grandfather and some of the jackets were his own smoking jackets.
7 will always be "The" Doctor for me as he was the one when I was a kid, but I fell in love with 3 watching repeats on Gold in the late 90's. He's not my favourite Doctor (that'd be either 2 or 6) but this is my favorite era. Love the whole UNIT thing and being trapped on earth tinkering with the TARDIS. Brilliant.
My memories of Troughton are hazy and fleeting but as an 8-year old when Spearhead From Space first aired, Pertwee’s authoritative debut left an indelible impression on me.
Feel like what Pertwee did with the role, that comforting authoritative, butting heads with authority, slightly patrician aesthete, is something that can never be recaptured; subsequent doctors being darker, sillier, or both at once. A great retrospective
For me the first four Doctors had the strongest identities that haven’t been surpassed. My first memories of the Third Doctor is that he had a calming warmth of a benevolent uncle or grandfather. When I saw his performances in earlier season he is definitely more abrasive and quite pompous at times which was quite a surprise but I guess the production team were still exploring this incarnation of The Doctor. Regardless his portrayal of the Doctor is still very special to me. But since I have discovered the first two doctors I would my ranking is 1. William Hartnell, 2. Patrick Troughton 3. Jon Pertwee but these are three magnificent actors with qualities that go way beyond many other actors.
Hi Chris. Great summary. My number 1 is Pertwee, with Hartnell a very close second. In fact, I like them both equally, so although Troughton is my least favourite of the three so far, he's my second favourite Doctor. My ranking is not going to change with the arrival of Baker, who I always found too sinister and creepy to watch. I 'm not looking forward to this next era, but I know you'll make it more tolerable with your thoughtful reviews. And at least we have a couple of seasons of Sarah-Jane to look forward to!
In my mind the 3rd Doctor is The Doctor (plus he had a chart topping singe proving that point lol) I think his aggressive and horrible side in season 8 is due to a knock on effect what UNIT did in the previous season esp the Silurians. His irritation to Jo is down to a young inexperienced assistant who used Nepotism to get her position. I think it's this season he says "Humans" in a bitter tone showing his contempt for them as normally he's only on Earth for short periods but with his exile he's seeing more and more of Man kinds behaviour esp the negative side which makes him jaded. That's what I always though lol. Plus he's the only Doctor to pull of suede/velvet jackets and ruffle shirts lol.
The third doctor being pissed off earlier in his era makes absolute sense, because he’s suffered a forced regeneration and being exiled. So once he gets a bit more freedom he lightens up.
@@stephenreed2093 And my issue isn't that, it's how Pertwee plays it. Tom has similar moments but sells them far better in my opinion. The Fourth doesn't come across unlikeable to me, the Third (at times) does
He was the first Doctor I encountered (as someone born between part's two & three of "The Highlanders!") and, although I began to like watching the show during that time, I always felt that he was a bit too shouty for my liking! Of course, years later, I found out that the people he was shouting at were either villains or idiots!
I think one of the first things that come to mind with the Third Doctor is how physical he is fighting the bad guys. That Venusian Aikedo is well utilized and is great with the sword. Definitely a "man of action." I also feel that his exile on Earth really affected his mood a lot of the time. He felt somewhat like the First Doctor of his 1st two seasons. At the same time though, you can easily feel his love of Earth. He tries really hard to help make peace between humanity and alien creatures whenever possible (often failing). You can however, tell where his loyalties always lie with. Like I said in at least one of the season reviews, Jon Pertwee and Roger Delgado have amazing chemistry together. Even though the Doctor and Master are enemies, you can definitely feel the closeness of the 2. The best relationship by far is between the Doctor and Jo Grant. While the Doctor was needlessly hard on Jo, especially at first, they develop what I feel is an older brother-younger sister type bond. Their goodbye in the Green Death was so very nicely executed that I'm not sure there is a better companion exit in the future. Here are his TV rankings: 1. Inferno (10/10) 2. Spearhead From Space (10/10) 3. The Time Warrior (10/10) 4. The Three Doctors (10/10) 5. The Ambassadors of Death (10/10) 6. The Silurians (10/10) 7. The Green Death (9/10) 8. The Daemons (9/10) 9. The Curse of Peladon (9/10) 10. Planet of the Daleks (9/10) 11. The Time Monster (9/10) 12. The Sea Devils (8/10) 13. Frontier in Space (8/10) 14. Colony in Space (8/10) 15. Terror of the Autons (8/10) 16. Planet of the Spiders (7/10) 17. Monster of Peladon (7/10) 18. Carnival of Monsters (7/10) 19. The Mind of Evil (7/10) 20. Day of the Daleks (7/10) 21. The Mutants (6/10) 22. The Claws of Axos (6/10) 23. Death to the Daleks (5/10) 24. Invasion of the Dinosaurs (3/10) With 24 stories, this averages out to exactly 8. While this is the best score yet out of the 3 doctors, I like Pertwee the 3rd best of the 3 Doctors so far. Hartnell, Troughton, Pertwee. Now, here's the updated top 10 Doctor Who TV stories (all 10/10 now): 1. Enemy of the World (Season Five: 2nd Doctor) 2. Inferno (Season Seven: 3rd Doctor) 3. The Time Meddler (Season Two: 1st Doctor) 4. Spearhead From Space (Season Seven: 3rd Doctor) 5. Marco Polo (Season One: 1st Doctor) 6. The Time Warrior (Season Eleven: 3rd Doctor) 7. The Evil of the Daleks (Season Four: 2nd Doctor) 8. The Three Doctors (Season Ten: 3rd Doctor) 9. The Ambassadors of Death (Season Seven: 3rd Doctor) 10. The Silurians (Season Seven: 3rd Doctor) 3rd Doctor Big Finish rankings: 1. The Sacrifice of Jo Grant (10/10) 2. Primord (10/10) 3. The Rise of the New Humans (10/10) 4. The Annihilators (9/10) 5. Operation Hellfire (9/10) 6. Intelligence for War (9/10) 7. The Conservators (9/10) 8. The Conquest of Far (9/10) 9. Find and Replace (9/10) 10. The Unzal Incursion (9/10) 11. The Tyrants of Logic (9/10) 12. Supernature (8/10) 13. Conspiracy in Space (8/10) 14. Storm of the Horofax (8/10) 15. The Last Post (8/10) 16. The Blue Tooth (8/10) 17. The Gulf (8/10) 18. Rivers of Light (7/10) 19. Poison of the Daleks (7/10) 20. The Iron Shore (7/10) 21. The Quintessence (7/10) 22. The Sentinels of the New Dawn (7/10) 23. The Magician's Oath (7/10) 24. The Hidden Realm (6/10) 25. The Devil's Hoofprints (6/10) 26. Old Soldiers (6/10) 27. The Scream of Ghosts (6/10) 28. The Scorchies (6/10) 29. The Transcendence of Ephros (4/10) The Third Doctor's output for this marathon is 53 stories and 228 episodes with a 7.89 average. So, Big Finish brought down this Doctor's score, but only slightly. 171 stories and 683 episodes have been watched and listened to so far this marathon. The all time average is 7.81. Big Finish Top 10 Doctor Who(all 10/10 now): 1. The Crash of UK-201 (1st Doctor with Vicki and Steven) 2. Entanglement (1st Doctor with Vicki and Steven) 3. The Sacrifice of Jo Grant (3rd Doctor with Jo Jones (Grant) and Kate Lethbridge-Stewart) 4. The Invention of Death (1st Doctor with Ian, Barbara, and Susan) 5. Tick-tock World (1st Doctor with Ian, Barbara, and Susan) 6. The Flames of Cadiz (1st Doctor with Ian, Barbara, and Susan) 7. The Yes Men (2nd Doctor with Ben, Polly, and Jamie) 8. The Resistance (2nd Doctor with Ben, Polly, and Jamie) 9. Primord (3rd Doctor with Liz and Jo) 10. The Rise of the New Humans (3rd Doctor with Jo) The current actors in the roles of the 3rd Doctor (Tim Treloar), Liz Shaw (Daisy Ashford), Sarah Jane (Sadie Miller), and the Brigadier (Jon Culshaw) for Big Finish are all great in the parts. Convincing sound alikes. Daisy and Sadie are especially good in their Mothers roles. Hope to hear more from all of them.
For me, Jon Pertwee will always be the definitive Doctor. Maybe not always my favourite Doctor- that tends to vary considerably, but the definitive baseline "Doctor". Like you, when I was growing up and becoming aware of the show in the early 1990s, Jon Pertwee was its most enthusiastic ambassador. He owned the 30 Years in the TARDIS documentary with easy aplomb, he was the BBC's go-to spokesman on any news relating to the show or any article they wanted to promote in any programme about the show, and his affection for the series and engagement with its fans- in an era where Tom Baker still didn't quite feel comfortable re-emerging and the 1980s Doctors generally seemed to prefer to move on- was remarkable. "Paradise of Death" and "The Ghosts of N-Space" don't have a terribly good reputation now, when we have 60 years worth of material on tap, but, at the time- that Barry Letts and Jon Pertwee and the others, from one of the show's most well-regarded eras, had just decided and managed to go ahead and make new stories- this was a time before Big Finish, after all- was incredible. I might be more critical of the season eight performance if it felt more accidental- I certainly don't buy the "Tory" accusations hurled about by Paul Cornell and the like- but it feels more to me as if the abrasive, overbearing aspects of the character at this point are deliberate, and there to make a point There's a clearly intentional contrast with the Master- smooth, soft-voiced, personable, hypnotic, who can insinuate himself into any social milieu with the minimum of fuss and almost effortlessly present himself as the ideal friend and ally to anyone with whom he wishes an alliance- and yet is an out and out villain, a vicious monster beneath his charming exterior. In contrast the Doctor strides in, puts everybody's backs up with his thoughtless and petty remarks, generally manages to annoy everyone he meets in thirty seconds flat, often requiring a lot of effort by Jo to smooth ruffled feathers- and yet is actually there to save everyone's lives and has the best interests of everyone at heart.
Fun to hear your thoughts as always. £35 on Hartnell's £46 on Pertwee's, and £65 on Troughton's, expensive stuff! Disappointing to see that if you type "why is a mouse when it spins" into youtube you just get a load of computer mice videos
Seriously tho’, I believe Jon took the character brief ‘super intelligent alien stranded on a planet he protects and learns to love’ and played it to perfection. I believe his Doctor had a genuine character arc through his tenure mainly down to Pertwees portrayal. The best of his stories are simply the best of ALL Doctor Who! 😁
Out of the three Doctors you've reviewed so far I would rank them: 1. William Hartnell (overall place- 5th) 2. Jon Pertwee (overall place- 7th) 3. Patrick Troughton (overall place- 9th) So, although I prefer Hartnell and five other Doctors to Pertwee, I would make so bold a claim that the Pertwee era is the chief reason for the longevity of Doctor Who; more so than the preceding Hartnell era and Troughton era; and I think by the Tom Baker era the long-term future of the show was already secured by the Pertwee era. I believe the Tom Baker era was able to ride on the waves. I think if it hadn't been for the successes of the Pertwee era the show might not have lasted as long. If you would like to hear (or read) my cogent arguments for such outrageous a claim, ask here and you shall receive!
As a veteran Whovian, I never warmed to Jon Pertwee from day one. Firstly, I just couldn't get past the lisp. ("The clawth of Axthoth") Secondly, in real life he argued against re-introducing the Daleks back into the show, he was quoted claiming he never liked them. Thirdly, his Doctor's costume and persona were just a total rip-off of an earlier 1960s show: Adam Adamant.Very obvious at the time. Tennant, Eccleston, Tom Baker and Troughton are my top four Doctors..... by a long way.
He was my Doctor growing up, so he'll always be my favourite. He had 3 top tier companions all of whom he developed an excellent rapport with. He had the original and by some distance the best Master. His costume variants, particularly in later series, were wonderful. Many of the costume variants specific to just one story. Considering the financial constraints at the time I do wonder how much those numerous velvet jackets and Inverness Capes took out of the budget. From what I've read the Letts / Dicks stewardship of the show was a very happy one with cast and crew all enjoying their work and I think this comes across throughout Pertwees run. His best stories are peak Dr Who and have yet to be bettered.
As I recall from Pertwee’s 1st autobiography, the cape was something he inherited from his grandfather and some of the jackets were his own smoking jackets.
7 will always be "The" Doctor for me as he was the one when I was a kid, but I fell in love with 3 watching repeats on Gold in the late 90's. He's not my favourite Doctor (that'd be either 2 or 6) but this is my favorite era. Love the whole UNIT thing and being trapped on earth tinkering with the TARDIS. Brilliant.
My memories of Troughton are hazy and fleeting but as an 8-year old when Spearhead From Space first aired, Pertwee’s authoritative debut left an indelible impression on me.
One one of my favourite periods of the show and possibly the most consistent one m.
Feel like what Pertwee did with the role, that comforting authoritative, butting heads with authority, slightly patrician aesthete, is something that can never be recaptured; subsequent doctors being darker, sillier, or both at once. A great retrospective
For me the first four Doctors had the strongest identities that haven’t been surpassed. My first memories of the Third Doctor is that he had a calming warmth of a benevolent uncle or grandfather. When I saw his performances in earlier season he is definitely more abrasive and quite pompous at times which was quite a surprise but I guess the production team were still exploring this incarnation of The Doctor. Regardless his portrayal of the Doctor is still very special to me. But since I have discovered the first two doctors I would my ranking is 1. William Hartnell, 2. Patrick Troughton 3. Jon Pertwee but these are three magnificent actors with qualities that go way beyond many other actors.
Hi Chris. Great summary. My number 1 is Pertwee, with Hartnell a very close second. In fact, I like them both equally, so although Troughton is my least favourite of the three so far, he's my second favourite Doctor. My ranking is not going to change with the arrival of Baker, who I always found too sinister and creepy to watch. I 'm not looking forward to this next era, but I know you'll make it more tolerable with your thoughtful reviews. And at least we have a couple of seasons of Sarah-Jane to look forward to!
In my mind the 3rd Doctor is The Doctor (plus he had a chart topping singe proving that point lol) I think his aggressive and horrible side in season 8 is due to a knock on effect what UNIT did in the previous season esp the Silurians. His irritation to Jo is down to a young inexperienced assistant who used Nepotism to get her position. I think it's this season he says "Humans" in a bitter tone showing his contempt for them as normally he's only on Earth for short periods but with his exile he's seeing more and more of Man kinds behaviour esp the negative side which makes him jaded. That's what I always though lol.
Plus he's the only Doctor to pull of suede/velvet jackets and ruffle shirts lol.
The third doctor being pissed off earlier in his era makes absolute sense, because he’s suffered a forced regeneration and being exiled. So once he gets a bit more freedom he lightens up.
@@stephenreed2093 And my issue isn't that, it's how Pertwee plays it. Tom has similar moments but sells them far better in my opinion. The Fourth doesn't come across unlikeable to me, the Third (at times) does
He was the first Doctor I encountered (as someone born between part's two & three of "The Highlanders!") and, although I began to like watching the show during that time, I always felt that he was a bit too shouty for my liking!
Of course, years later, I found out that the people he was shouting at were either villains or idiots!
Here in Australia i got to meet Jon back in 91 i was gobsmacked i didn't no what to say to him love Jon
I think one of the first things that come to mind with the Third Doctor is how physical he is fighting the bad guys. That Venusian Aikedo is well utilized and is great with the sword. Definitely a "man of action." I also feel that his exile on Earth really affected his mood a lot of the time. He felt somewhat like the First Doctor of his 1st two seasons. At the same time though, you can easily feel his love of Earth. He tries really hard to help make peace between humanity and alien creatures whenever possible (often failing). You can however, tell where his loyalties always lie with.
Like I said in at least one of the season reviews, Jon Pertwee and Roger Delgado have amazing chemistry together. Even though the Doctor and Master are enemies, you can definitely feel the closeness of the 2.
The best relationship by far is between the Doctor and Jo Grant. While the Doctor was needlessly hard on Jo, especially at first, they develop what I feel is an older brother-younger sister type bond. Their goodbye in the Green Death was so very nicely executed that I'm not sure there is a better companion exit in the future.
Here are his TV rankings:
1. Inferno (10/10)
2. Spearhead From Space (10/10)
3. The Time Warrior (10/10)
4. The Three Doctors (10/10)
5. The Ambassadors of Death (10/10)
6. The Silurians (10/10)
7. The Green Death (9/10)
8. The Daemons (9/10)
9. The Curse of Peladon (9/10)
10. Planet of the Daleks (9/10)
11. The Time Monster (9/10)
12. The Sea Devils (8/10)
13. Frontier in Space (8/10)
14. Colony in Space (8/10)
15. Terror of the Autons (8/10)
16. Planet of the Spiders (7/10)
17. Monster of Peladon (7/10)
18. Carnival of Monsters (7/10)
19. The Mind of Evil (7/10)
20. Day of the Daleks (7/10)
21. The Mutants (6/10)
22. The Claws of Axos (6/10)
23. Death to the Daleks (5/10)
24. Invasion of the Dinosaurs (3/10)
With 24 stories, this averages out to exactly 8. While this is the best score yet out of the 3 doctors, I like Pertwee the 3rd best of the 3 Doctors so far. Hartnell, Troughton, Pertwee.
Now, here's the updated top 10 Doctor Who TV stories (all 10/10 now):
1. Enemy of the World (Season Five: 2nd Doctor)
2. Inferno (Season Seven: 3rd Doctor)
3. The Time Meddler (Season Two: 1st Doctor)
4. Spearhead From Space (Season Seven: 3rd Doctor)
5. Marco Polo (Season One: 1st Doctor)
6. The Time Warrior (Season Eleven: 3rd Doctor)
7. The Evil of the Daleks (Season Four: 2nd Doctor)
8. The Three Doctors (Season Ten: 3rd Doctor)
9. The Ambassadors of Death (Season Seven: 3rd Doctor)
10. The Silurians (Season Seven: 3rd Doctor)
3rd Doctor Big Finish rankings:
1. The Sacrifice of Jo Grant (10/10)
2. Primord (10/10)
3. The Rise of the New Humans (10/10)
4. The Annihilators (9/10)
5. Operation Hellfire (9/10)
6. Intelligence for War (9/10)
7. The Conservators (9/10)
8. The Conquest of Far (9/10)
9. Find and Replace (9/10)
10. The Unzal Incursion (9/10)
11. The Tyrants of Logic (9/10)
12. Supernature (8/10)
13. Conspiracy in Space (8/10)
14. Storm of the Horofax (8/10)
15. The Last Post (8/10)
16. The Blue Tooth (8/10)
17. The Gulf (8/10)
18. Rivers of Light (7/10)
19. Poison of the Daleks (7/10)
20. The Iron Shore (7/10)
21. The Quintessence (7/10)
22. The Sentinels of the New Dawn (7/10)
23. The Magician's Oath (7/10)
24. The Hidden Realm (6/10)
25. The Devil's Hoofprints (6/10)
26. Old Soldiers (6/10)
27. The Scream of Ghosts (6/10)
28. The Scorchies (6/10)
29. The Transcendence of Ephros (4/10)
The Third Doctor's output for this marathon is 53 stories and 228 episodes with a 7.89 average. So, Big Finish brought down this Doctor's score, but only slightly. 171 stories and 683 episodes have been watched and listened to so far this marathon. The all time average is 7.81.
Big Finish Top 10 Doctor Who(all 10/10 now):
1. The Crash of UK-201 (1st Doctor with Vicki and Steven)
2. Entanglement (1st Doctor with Vicki and Steven)
3. The Sacrifice of Jo Grant (3rd Doctor with Jo Jones (Grant) and Kate Lethbridge-Stewart)
4. The Invention of Death (1st Doctor with Ian, Barbara, and Susan)
5. Tick-tock World (1st Doctor with Ian, Barbara, and Susan)
6. The Flames of Cadiz (1st Doctor with Ian, Barbara, and Susan)
7. The Yes Men (2nd Doctor with Ben, Polly, and Jamie)
8. The Resistance (2nd Doctor with Ben, Polly, and Jamie)
9. Primord (3rd Doctor with Liz and Jo)
10. The Rise of the New Humans (3rd Doctor with Jo)
The current actors in the roles of the 3rd Doctor (Tim Treloar), Liz Shaw (Daisy Ashford), Sarah Jane (Sadie Miller), and the Brigadier (Jon Culshaw) for Big Finish are all great in the parts. Convincing sound alikes.
Daisy and Sadie are especially good in their Mothers roles. Hope to hear more from all of them.
For me, Jon Pertwee will always be the definitive Doctor. Maybe not always my favourite Doctor- that tends to vary considerably, but the definitive baseline "Doctor". Like you, when I was growing up and becoming aware of the show in the early 1990s, Jon Pertwee was its most enthusiastic ambassador. He owned the 30 Years in the TARDIS documentary with easy aplomb, he was the BBC's go-to spokesman on any news relating to the show or any article they wanted to promote in any programme about the show, and his affection for the series and engagement with its fans- in an era where Tom Baker still didn't quite feel comfortable re-emerging and the 1980s Doctors generally seemed to prefer to move on- was remarkable.
"Paradise of Death" and "The Ghosts of N-Space" don't have a terribly good reputation now, when we have 60 years worth of material on tap, but, at the time- that Barry Letts and Jon Pertwee and the others, from one of the show's most well-regarded eras, had just decided and managed to go ahead and make new stories- this was a time before Big Finish, after all- was incredible.
I might be more critical of the season eight performance if it felt more accidental- I certainly don't buy the "Tory" accusations hurled about by Paul Cornell and the like- but it feels more to me as if the abrasive, overbearing aspects of the character at this point are deliberate, and there to make a point There's a clearly intentional contrast with the Master- smooth, soft-voiced, personable, hypnotic, who can insinuate himself into any social milieu with the minimum of fuss and almost effortlessly present himself as the ideal friend and ally to anyone with whom he wishes an alliance- and yet is an out and out villain, a vicious monster beneath his charming exterior. In contrast the Doctor strides in, puts everybody's backs up with his thoughtless and petty remarks, generally manages to annoy everyone he meets in thirty seconds flat, often requiring a lot of effort by Jo to smooth ruffled feathers- and yet is actually there to save everyone's lives and has the best interests of everyone at heart.
Science fiction is a great platform to talk about certain issues without really talking about them
Fun to hear your thoughts as always. £35 on Hartnell's £46 on Pertwee's, and £65 on Troughton's, expensive stuff!
Disappointing to see that if you type "why is a mouse when it spins" into youtube you just get a load of computer mice videos
Wait till the 6th Doctor outfit that will be expensive 😂
Keep up the good work Chris! 🙌🏾
Great retrospective
"I'm not a cosplayer" you are now mofo! Can't wait for Sixie. You made your bed :D
Pat Butcher as Dracula? 😂 probably not one for the non-Brits there….
Seriously tho’, I believe Jon took the character brief ‘super intelligent alien stranded on a planet he protects and learns to love’ and played it to perfection. I believe his Doctor had a genuine character arc through his tenure mainly down to Pertwees portrayal. The best of his stories are simply the best of ALL Doctor Who! 😁
Out of the three Doctors you've reviewed so far I would rank them:
1. William Hartnell (overall place- 5th)
2. Jon Pertwee (overall place- 7th)
3. Patrick Troughton (overall place- 9th)
So, although I prefer Hartnell and five other Doctors to Pertwee, I would make so bold a claim that the Pertwee era is the chief reason for the longevity of Doctor Who; more so than the preceding Hartnell era and Troughton era; and I think by the Tom Baker era the long-term future of the show was already secured by the Pertwee era. I believe the Tom Baker era was able to ride on the waves. I think if it hadn't been for the successes of the Pertwee era the show might not have lasted as long. If you would like to hear (or read) my cogent arguments for such outrageous a claim, ask here and you shall receive!
As a veteran Whovian, I never warmed to Jon Pertwee from day one. Firstly, I just couldn't get past the lisp. ("The clawth of Axthoth")
Secondly, in real life he argued against re-introducing the Daleks back into the show, he was quoted claiming he never liked them.
Thirdly, his Doctor's costume and persona were just a total rip-off of an earlier 1960s show: Adam Adamant.Very obvious at the time.
Tennant, Eccleston, Tom Baker and Troughton are my top four Doctors..... by a long way.