Inspired by DontBlink’s post inviting people to rank the Doctors, I also want to test my forum skills by creating a poll
Now that we have quite a few of them, I wanted to ask for people’s favourite “mayfly” Doctors. For anyone who hasn’t heard this term before, this is something Steven Moffat came up with to describe the non-numbered incarnations of the Doctor who appear in the show, starting with John Hurt’s War Doctor. To widen the scope of this poll a bit, let’s take this to include any distinct non-numbered incarnation who appears as the lead in an official piece of Doctor Who media (sorry, no fan Doctors!)
Therefore, you can have John Hurt, Peter Cushing, Rowan Atkinson, Michael Jayston or Colin Baker, but you can’t have (to my knowledge) Sacha Dhawan, Philip Hinchcliffe, Tim Treloar or Tom Baker - and no, the last ones in each category aren’t mistakes
I’ve put the main ones in the poll, but please comment with any that I haven’t included!
I want to like the Fugitive Doctor more than I do and the War Doctor doesn’t do much for me (as much as I admire Hurt) because the Time War isn’t a favourite concept of mine.
So I’ve plumped for Peter Cushing’s Movie Doctor, Rowan Atkinson (specifically) from Fatal Death and my favourite from these, the ever-wonderful David Warner’s Unbound.
Interesting choices! I haven’t actually seen the Cushing movies, and it’s been a long time since I’ve seen Curse of the Fatal Death, but I absolutely agree on David Warner. I once saw his incarnation described as a mixture of the new who and classic who incarnations, which I think makes a lot of sense - he has that undercurrent of trauma and danger that the new who Doctors have, but he’s also a bit more aristocratic, in the style of the classic Doctors.
I love David Warner’s Doctor! He’s such a joy – grumpy, kind, tired, with a touch of real darkness we don’t see very often. And his relationship with Benny is wonderful!
He’s probably one of my favourite Doctors – he definitely beats a good few of the ’proper’ incarnations…
Warner’s Unbound is truly wonderful, I’m sad we don’t have more of him. Literally every episode with him and Benny is a delight, they’re such a good duo.
I also have a fondness for War - though his range can be a bit shaky, I like it when they really make him different to the Doctor as we know them
That’s another interesting one! What do you like about David Collings’ Doctor in Full Fathom Five? I know the general theme of his incarnation, but I haven’t listened to the story.
Seconded on War and Warner - have you heard Morbius the Mighty? It follows on from the Begins range and has become my favourite War Doctor story. I’m really looking forward to Fallen Heroes next month as well!
One day I’ll drop an essay explaining how War is the most compassionate and emotional Doctor of all but is forced to try desensitizing himself at every turn and make himself believe he’s this warrior now and that everything that happens in the time war is a billion times worse through his sensitive eyes and everyone else still sees him as the Doctor while he only sees tragedy and he’s such a sad little meow meow and i love him so very very much but i don’t think we’re all yet ready for that.
Warner’s Unbound Doctor is what every NuWho Doctor wishes they could be. (huge superlative oversimplification sorry not sorry)
Ended up going with Martin, Warner and Hurt/Carley for this one. Big love to Shalka and Mr. Dr. Who (Cushing)!
If I had to choose my big Favorite would be probably Warner, he just gets it all. Great Doctor, great Performer, a superb Chemistry with Benny & great Stories.
We already had a similar poll with a pretty good discussion
But it’s the Warner Unbound and War Doctors for me because they’re the best developed. I’m still undecided on Fugitive because I want to see (or hear) more of her.
I did wonder if someone might have created a similar poll before now (but I was too lazy to check ) - thank you for providing the link
War, Fugitive and Warner definitely seems to be the most popular choices. If you haven’t listened to the Fugitive Doctor boxset yet, I would definitely recommend it - they do a lot to distinguish her as an incarnation, and I came away from it with a much bigger appreciation for her.
I have listened to it, and I liked it well enough. I just don’t think that it still established her as vastly different from other incarnations of the Doctor, which is sorta what I’m hoping she’d be. I mean, she didn’t recognise the Daleks,, and she’s perhaps a tiny bit tougher than most incarnations, but that’s about it.
But I’m excited to see where BF is taking her in future box sets!
Absolutely have to go with Fugitive after the killer audios that were released this year. Probably the quickest I’ve ever come around to a Doctor. If you haven’t listened, PLEASE do. The music alone is worth it, and it has some truly epic moments.
He’s such a joy – grumpy, kind, tired, with a touch of real darkness we don’t see very often. And his relationship with Benny is wonderful!
) - thank you for providing the link 