The conceit seems to have been that the daughter represents the humanising conscience of amoral science. Since Carol Ann Ford wanted out and the Doctor didn’t have an unlimited supply of grand-daughters, she was replaced by a continuing run of (mostly) female assistants. Many of the Hartnell Whos were erased forever, though efforts continue to recover them, mostly from foreign archives. Jon Pertwee (1970-74) Dandy. Exiled to Earth by the Time Lords for his interfering ways, Pertwee was stuck with those stuffy UNIT chaps for pretty much his entire time as The Doctor. The smoking jacket and opera cloak marked him out as an aesthete, and his impeccable manners and decorum may owe a little to Peter Cushing’s kindlier film roles (Cushing himself played The Doctor twice, see end of article). Where the Doctor’s characteristic diplomacy failed, Pertwee was the first to wade in, with a knack for then-trendy karate that did not seem to follow The Doctor into later incarnations. Tom Baker (1974-81) Madman. The most recognisable and iconic face of Doctor Who, he started out all jelly babies and mad Cheshire-cat grins, but could be very short-tempered and moody even with his beloved Sarah Jane. Baker’s Doctor immediately dumped the UNIT bores and Bessie – Pertwee’s jalopy – to set back off in adventures in time and space, many of which were inspired by the very popular Hammer films which were showing on a weekend loop in the 1970s. Thus Baker’s Doctor met the equivalent of Frankenstein, Dracula, Fu Manchu and many other schlock-horror stalwarts, as well as starring in possibly the best Who story ever, Genesis Of The Daleks.Peter Davison (1981-84) Public school prefect. Davison’s non-descript character and beige ‘cricketer’ tones were a shock after the eccentric extremes of Baker, and to be fair, he couldn’t have had a harder act to follow. Chosen as a younger Doctor that would be immediately recognisable to the public, due to his stint as Tristan in the popular All Creatures Great And Small, Davison was hardly ever off the screen for the first half of the eighties, arguably over-exposed. Davison’s Doctor was frequently brusque and impatient, and seemed to have a veritable herd of assistants to dilute any accusations of impropriety! David Tennant (2006 – )Influential big brother. Pretty boy and very accomplished actor Tennant made only one mistake in interpreting the tenth Doctor, but unfortunately it was a doozey: he kept too many of Eccleston’s annoying characteristics, including the grandstanding sermons and the inane grinning. Despite this, he is among the most credible of the action-hero Doctors, with genuine gravity and presence, as well as good comic timing that is not always well-served by the quality of the jokes. Those impressed to see that Tennant has knocked Tom Baker off the top spot of ‘Favourite Doctors Of All Time’ in polls might be advised to play the longer odds, since Sylvester McCoy also managed this trick at the end of his tenure in 1990. Extra DoctorsPeter Cushing Cushing was a shoe-in to play The Doctor at some point, although his appearance in the films Doctor Who And The Daleks and Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 AD present the character as a human inventor rather than a Gallifrean time lord. The Daleks are brightly coloured and the presence of Roy Castle and/or Bernard Cribbins was an ill-omen. The character also referred to himself as ‘Doctor Who’.Richard E. GrantHe’s not going to understudy anybody! Withnail joined ‘I’ in the role, playing the ‘unofficial’ ninth doctor in the Flash-based webcast Scream of the Shalka. News of the show’s TV revival stole the thunder from this low-budget attempt to continue the series, and the worst news was that Grant either didn’t get offered or didn’t want to take his role to TV.
