Youngest Doctor

Last night one of the local PBS stations aired two old Dr Who stories from the late '60s, The Mind Robber, and the Krotons, staring Patrick Troughton, Wendy Padbury and Frazer Hines.  I'd been under the impression that most of the Second Doctor serials had been lost and was quite pleasantly surprised to see these two delightful stories for the first time.  There is so much less pretense and so much more fun than in the current productions.  One thing that I really noticed was that the second doctor was playing a slightly befuddled but wise grandfatherly character, which really makes sense.  All the modern doctors are played by attractive younger people and the grandfatherly wisdom comes out as strident and juvenile.


William Hartnell, 1908-1975, 1st Doctor 1963-66.  age 55-58.  He seemed much older
Patrick Troughton 1920-1987, 2nd Doctor 1966-69.  age 46-49.  He too seemed older
John Pertwee 1919-1996,        3rd Doctor 1970-74.  age 51-55.
Tom Baker  1934-             4th Doctor 1974-81.  age 40-47.
Peter Davison 1951-         5th Doctor 1981-84.  age 30-34.  The first young doctor.  He pulled it off.
Colin Baker 1943-            6th Doctor, 1984-86 age 41-43.
Sylvester McCoy 1943-   7th Doctor, 1986-89.  age 43-46.
Christopher Eccleston 1974-  9th Doctor, 2005.  age 31.
David Tennant 1971-        10th Doctor 2005-10, age 34-39.  crippled by /terrible/ writing.
Matt Smith 1982-              11th Doctor 2010-14, age 28-31.
Peter Capaldi 1958-           12th Doctor 2014-17, age 56-59
Jodie Whittaker 1982-       13th Doctor, 2017-     age 35-

In order of age:
Matt Smith, Peter Davison, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, Jodie Whittaker, Tom Baker, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Patrick Troughton, John Pertwee, William Hartnell, Peter Capaldi.

My favorites:
Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Patrick Troughton, John Pertwee, Peter Capaldi, Jodie Whittaker, William Hartnell, Sylvester McCoy, David Tennant, Christopher Eccleston, Matt Smith, Colin Baker.

As far as I'm concerned, Colin Baker killed the show, he was so bad.  I'm not sure how much of this was bad writing and how much was the actor and his sidekick, the almost-as-bad Perpugiliam,  played by english actress Nicola Bryant pretending, incompetently, to be an American.   Sylvester McCoy was way better than Colin Baker, but not better enough to recover.  The 21st century reboot has yet to reach the highs of the Tom Baker-Peter Davison era.