Doctor Who Fandom Challenge

[miss_s_b]

I've seen a bunch of people doing this on G+ and tumblr, so I'm going to join in. By the look of the graphic it's been around for a while, so I don't think I'm going to upset anyone by not sticking to the right days. I'm choosing to "start" it on the first of January, so I'll do both day one and day two below to catch up and then the rest of them on the right days.



Day 1: Favourite Doctor

Six. It's a very clear memory for me, the "oh thank God for that" feeling when Peter Davison turned into Colin Baker. Looking back, I think I was probably a bit harsh on 5, but to my pre-teen self he just seemed so WEEDY. I LOVED Colin's big, brash loudness. In the hands of a lesser actor Six could easily have been everything that his detractors accuse him of and worse; but somehow Colin imbues a depth of emotion that makes even his most worrying moments interest. Watch his face, or, on audio, listen to the cadences in his voice.

I like flawed-but-lovable in a character - it's why I've fallen so hard for Jonny Lee Miller's Sherlock in Elementary - and Six has that in buckets.

Day 2: Favourite Companion

This is harder. Peri, Sarah-Jane, Martha, Charlie, Liz Shaw, Zoe-and-Jamie, Nyssa. It could have been - should have been - Ace. But I take the view of Ace that a lot of boys take of Adric - I felt like she was taking the piss out of me. It's interesting that Holly LOVES Ace... In the end, though, I think I shall have to plump for Evelyn, who is the perfect foil to Six.

Day three's post is here
Day four's post is here
Day five's post is here.
Day six's post is here.
Day seven's post is here.
Day eight's post is here.
Days nine and ten got answered together here.
Days eleven and twelve got answered together here.
Days thirteen and fourteen got answered together here.
Day fifteen is here.
Days sixteen and seventeen got answered together here.
Day eighteen is sort of answered here, although really it's answered on the same entry as sixteen and seventeen because "actor" is not a gendered word to me.
Day nineteen's post is here.
Days twenty to twenty-one are here.
And the final day is here.

I fully recommend Nostalgia's ALL THE ANSWERS AT ONCE post, too.

Comments

[magister]

Best Doctor. To an extent, this varies depending on who I have watched most recently. The ones who are in with a chance are Hartnell, Troughton, Baker (T), Baker (C), McCoy, Eccleston and Smith. Pertwee and Davison don't quite feel Doctorish in how they're written, although I'd rate Davison as one of the best actors to have played the role. Tennant is out because I simply did not like the mockney laddish element of the characterisation. McGann never got sufficient chance on TV to show what he could do.

Of the rest, Hartnell at his best was a match for anyone, but sadly his best became less frequent as his health deteriorated. Tom Baker was my first Doctor, but while he was often sublime, his characterisation varied so much that at times he barely seems to be playing the same character. Colin I have a great deal of time for, both as an actor and as a person, but was let down by poor scripts and a godawful costume. McCoy I'm very fond of and can convince as an alien - both on and off screen - but has occasional moments of overacting and should never under any circumstances be asked to shout. Eccleston was superb at showing a damaged and raging man hiding behind a facade, but only made 13 episodes, which rules him out for me. Given how other Doctors, such as the first, changed, I would have loved to have seen him do more. As for Smith, I think he's the best attempt at a traditional Doctor since the programme returned and a fine actor.

On the other hand, Smith has said that his biggest influence was Pat Troughton. I thnk Troughton is the actor whose performance was most consistent and who also had the hardest job in convincing the public that the programme could continue with a new actor. I think what seals it is that Troughton's Doctor is the model for what I want to see in the new series and never have - someone unobtrusive who quietly wanders round, watching and listening to people, apparetly harmless until someone notices that the nuclear reactor has been set to self-destruct and that there's a small scruffy man sitting in the corner looking innocent.

Favourite companon. Easy, this one. Barbara. She's clever, resourceful, level-headed and can save a planet with a cardigan. Plus her rant at the Doctor in Edge of Destruction is possibly the single biggest factor in starting the change from the man we see in the first couple of stories to the one we'll see for the rest of the series.

[miss_s_b]

Man I can't believe I forgot Barbara :(

[strangecharm]

You're so right about Evelyn, though

[strangecharm]

I really really need to watch more Troughton. (I agreed so much with everything you said up until then that this is the obvious conclusion to come to!)

Andrew's told me a lot how much I'd like him, but we didn't have much of his stuff until recently, when he's been getting around to the stuff that only exists in weird reconstructed formats. And the quasi-radio plays and stuff actually can be even better suited to me than TV, so that's hardly a drawback.

[magister]

The other point about Troughton is how good and how different he is in other roles. There's a BBC version of Treasure Island where he's one of the pirates a d is, predictably, excellent. He's a lapsed priest on the original Omen and is in the Harryhausen Jason and the Argonauts. What you really should see, if you haven't already, is the BBC Box of Delights, where he's a thousand year old Punch and Judy man and is utterly captivating.

[strangecharm]

Well that's handy: Andrew just bought a Box of Delights DVD the other day after someone else was talking about it, and keeps saying we should watch it soon.

[magister]

Lovely series. You've also got Robert Stephens and Patricia Quinn as the villains. I think you'll enjoy it - do let me know what you think.

[pmoodie]

I think Tom Baker is still my favourite Doctor, although my rosy view of him got tarnished a little when we re-watched all my classic DVDs recently. For his first three seasons he was on fire, and then things started to falter. Still, from 1974 - 1978, before he lost focus and started to wink at the audience, he was my Doctor.

It's harder for me to pin down a favourite companion because there have been so many good ones, and it's all about the chemistry with the Doctor for me. I'd like to go with Peri, but I'll be terribly predictable and go with Sarah Jane Smith instead. When she was well written, she was plucky, intelligent, resourceful, brave, and was iconic in a way that many companions aren't. A lot of that was probably down to Lis Sladen, who was wonderful.

[sassy_scot]

You've enticed me into doing this now! I thought at first I'd do one a week rather than one a day, but decided to get it all out of the way before Conference prep starts taking over all my life...

[nostalgia]

YAY, SIX!

[miss_s_b]

Oh yes indeed.