BOOK OF LISTS: APPENDIX FIVE - DOCTORS: FROM WORST TO BEST

And so, in the dying days of 2020, we reach our final BOOK OF LISTS Appendix. The one you've all been waiting for (in my delusional view of things, I'm picturing you all in sheer suspense, right now): where does the thirteenth Doctor rank in my preferences? 

HOW DID THAT LIST LOOK BEFORE? 

As usual, we'll set things up by showing you how the rankings looked before this latest development. If you want to read the entries, yourself, they start right here: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/11/book-of-lists-doctors-from-worst-to.html. You can, of course, just keep moving on to the next entry to learn the rest of them. If you do read that first entry, however, then you should be warned: Some very controversial things get said. 

If you don't want to read all the essays, I've put the list together, here. I think, just by looking at it, you can guess why I said things are a bit controversial. As always, this is from least favorite to most. I stress this extra hard because many of you would think I'm doing things backwards, this time!

Ten-b (David Tennant) 

Three (Jon Pertwee)

Ten (David Tennant, again)

Four (Tom Baker)

War (John Hurt)

Nine (Christopher Eccleston)

Eight (Paul McGann) 

Twelve (Peter Capaldi)

Five (Peter Davison)

Two (Patrick Troughton)

Seven (Sylvester McCoy)

One (William Hartnell) 

Eleven (Matt Smith) 

'Ole Sixie (Colin Baker)

There it is. In all its glory. I'm still amazed I didn't receive more death-threats than I did for the Doctors I put on the bottom. Also, some people have called me completely nuts for making Colin my favorite incarnation. But, seriously, he was awesome. And the coat totally kicked ass! 

* SPECIAL NOTE: For those of you wondering who Doctor Ten-b might be, click on the link I provided just before the list. I explain it a bit there. 

** SPECIAL SPECIAL NOTE: Really, I love that coat! 

AN ADDITION THAT YOU MAY NOT HAVE REALIZED

So I've been claiming that this essay will be the one that reveals where Thirteen will fit in this weird arrangement of my demented preferences. But there's actually two incarnations that I need to rank. She has had enough presence in the show that she deserves to receive an official position in here. So we're also going to assign a spot to the Ruth Doctor. 

Does this mean the Timeless Child in her first and ensuing incarnations that we see in the flashbacks should also get ranked? What about the faces we see in Brain of Morbius? Those are instances that are similar to the judgement I used in my RANKING THE MASTERS series. We just don't see enough of them to be able to make a proper call. Most of them, in fact, were only onscreen for a fraction of a second. You can't really form much of an opinion off of so little. It may be that we see more of that first incarnation of the Timeless Child in a future episode (it would be very interesting if we do). If she does return, she might make it onto the list. It really depends on just how much we see of her. At this point, however, a few flashback scenes are not enough. She hasn't even spoken any dialogue, yet!

"What about Brandon?" some of you may be asking, "He seems to be another hidden incarnation of the Doctor." He does get quite a bit of screentime during Ascension of the Cybermen. Maybe I should analyse the character a bit and also assign him a spot... 

Brandon, however, is governed by the same rules as the Derek Jacobi Master. Most of the time that we have seen him, his true identity has been ripped away from him. So we can't really judge how good of a Doctor he is because he's not actually acting like the Doctor. He's acting like the false identity that he's been given. To me, this makes it impossible to compare him to other Doctors. 

RUTH DOCTOR REVIEW FIRST 

As has been the case with my other posts like this, I like to write up a review of my choice before revealing its position on the list. We will start with the latest Blink-And-You'll-Miss-Them (and get attacked by a Weeping Angel) Doctor. 

A significant part of what will make this Doctor stick out in our memory was the stunning revelation of her existence. Something like this was done before, of course, with the War Doctor. That was a very suspenseful and effective moment. But I still think this reveal worked even better. The War Doctor got very dramatic music and cinematography. It was all quite intense. But I actually liked how much more simplistic this one was. Our jaw drops far harder just by watching a bit of dirt get cleared off a police box and then Jo Martin introducing herself as the Doctor. The minimalism of it all actually gets it to succeed way better. 

We get an immediate impression that, whoever this new version of the Doctor is, she's pretty bad-ass. She is holding a big nasty rifle in her hand as she introduces herself. The TARDIS console even seems to have a handle on it to hang the weapon from. She does try to re-assure Thirteen that she doesn't believe in causing harm but the nasty trick she plays on Gat seems to negate this. It's an interesting edge to give the character - making her just a bit more violent than the Doctor normally is. But I don't feel that it goes too far. Deep down inside, the Doctor does still seem to be there. But it does lead us to believe that this must be a younger version of our hero. One who still hasn't quite fully formed her moral compass. 

Jo Martin does a great job of solidifying the character to us, too. As is the case with Doctors like this, they have little time to establish themselves. So they need to be competent actors. The moment she smashes the fire alarm chameleon arch thingy, she brings her Doctor to life beautifully. So much so, that some fans have actually said they wish Jo Martin was playing Thirteen rather than Jodie Whittaker. While I think such a compliment is a bit mean-spirited, it does say something about Martin's skills. 

The second appearance of this Doctor in The Timeless Children is truly amazing. In just a few short sentences, Thirteen needs to be uplifted, given a hint as to how to defeat her enemy, and told how to escape the Matrix. All of this is done magnificently through Ruth's oh-so-brief conversation with her. It's some great dialogue that is also delivered perfectly. This moment really gets me to fall in love with this incarnation. So much is done in such a small scene. And Martin and Whittaker pull it off. I love the intensity of her "No time for rest..." line. It's almost throwaway dialogue, but it still gets tremendous attention from the actress. It really is a great little moment. 

It seems highly likely that we will see, at least, a bit more of this incarnation to better flesh out the whole mystery of the Timeless Child. I won't lie, I look forward to it. 

AND NOW, THIRTEEN'S REVIEW 

If you've been following this blog at all, (particularly some of the UNADULTERATED BOORISH OPINION essays I've recently written.  Like this one, for instance: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2018/12/unadulterated-boorish-opinion-female.html), you know that I have taken a very positive stance about this current era of the show. Other people out there might be complaining about it, but I think it's doing quite well. I thought Series Eleven was solid and Series Twelve was downright amazing. One of, if not the best, seasons of the New Series. 

With  that in mind, you can probably guess that I'm really enjoying Doctor Thirteen. And you'd be correct in that assumption. The character bears a strong resemblance to both Ten and Eleven. Both of them were overeager fanboys. Whittaker, of course, is an overeager fangirl - but it still amounts to the same thing. This seems to be a bit of a "default setting" for a New Who Doctor. You do get the occasional variation with Capaldi or Eccleston, but the Doctor's general personality, these days, tends to follow this pattern.

I feel that every actor that plays the Doctor in such a manner seems to improve upon the performance. There is a huge gap between how much I like Ten versus how I appreciate Eleven. That difference is there because I believe Matt Smith and Steven Moffat did a much better job of crafting a character of this nature. I feel, however, that Whittaker and Chibnall are doing this even better. Thirteen's boundless enthusiasm and endless optimism (tempered with a just a touch of realistic cynicism) make her an endless delight to watch. I love how much she talks to herself, too. It's especially funny in Timeless Children when she realizes she must be feeling better cause she's having conversations out loud again when there's no one around. 

I've mentioned before but will state it again: I'm particularly happy to see such a prominent moral compass in this incarnation. Her strong desire to avoid violence as much as possible is a nice thing to see after several years of Doctors being just a little too undoctorish, sometimes (ie: possibly pushing cyborgs out of escape pods or sending Solomon to his death or even letting Cassandra die right in front of him during the very second episode of the whole show!). Admittedly, those virtues do slide a little bit, here and there, but this is still the Doctor with the purest heart since the show has been revived. I really like her for that. 

Some have complained that Series Eleven gave us a Doctor who was far too light and airy. I think, now, we can see why the character was played out in such a manner. When the Doctor starts going to darker places in Series Twelve, we feel it all the more succinctly. She seemed so bright and cheery for so long. That gets taken away from her at the end of Spyfall - Part Two and comes back to rear its ugly head a few more times over the course of the season. When this does happen, it's always a deeply intense moment. Particularly during The Haunting of Villa Diodati when she makes her famous Flat Team Structure speech. We really feel the weight of it because of the time it took for it to finally happen. It reminds me of how the fifth Doctor was during Season Nineteen until he finally gets in a fight with the Cyberleader. There's a great build-up, there. This really shows some tremendous foresight on Chibnall's behalf. He was definitely planning ahead with things. It made even smaller gestures like the Doctor suddenly pushing the Master to the ground while he taunts her in the Matrix have a ridiculously huge impact. This is the first time we've seen the Doctor exhibit behavior like this in this incarnation. Getting such a gesture to only take place after two seasons made it very dramatic. It really was such a simple little act that still ended up flooring me. All because of the way the character has been constructed over a gradual period of time.   

I look forward to seeing where this whole Timeless Child storyline will continue to go. I know some are very upset over the revelation of the Doctor's secret origins, but I'm quite intrigued by the whole thing and want to learn more. 

I also enjoyed the whole the three companion dynamic, but am eager to see just the Doctor and Yaz in the TARDIS. Both characters will get much more attention, now. Some interesting stuff should grow out of that. 

To me, the thirteenth Doctor's future looks very bright. I love what Jodie is doing with the role and think Chibnall is an awesome Head Writer. Not everyone feels that way (and some are being quite vocal about it!), but I'm of a very different mind. 

To me, the show is moving in a great direction. I can't wait to see where it goes next.  

RANKINGS

This will be another one of those lists that is going to get re-structured a fair amount. In my original entries I mentioned, already, that this is a fairly fluid issue. My feelings on a Doctor can change over time. But I still wanted to commit to some sort of order of preference when I compiled it all. 

For the most part, how I first ranked the Doctors from the past will remain the same. So that highly controversial Bottom Four sticks. No one's position changes there. Even though many of you savagely disagree with the choices I made!

As we get to those shorter-lived incarnations, things start to change up. As I mention in the actual Blink-and-You'll-Miss-Them (and get attacked by a Weeping Angel) essay, it's difficult for me to get too attached to a Doctor that is only around for a short period of time. For the most part, they can't really climb any higher than the point I've put them at. 

I do like the Ruth Doctor a little bit better than the War Doctor. But I don't think she beats Nine. So I'm placing her between the two. Here's how that chunk of the list will look, then: 

War (John Hurt)

Ruth (Jo Martin) 

Nine (Christopher Eccleston)

Eight (Paul McGann)

It's possible that, as I see more of the Ruth Doctor, she may achieve a better position. 

Our Lower and Upper Mid-Ranges also won't see any real changes. Admittedly, Twelve had the potential to climb a bit since a whole other season was produced with him as the Doctor after the list was made. It was a very strong season and Capaldi was excellent in it, but my opinion on these Doctors remain the same. 

And so, now, we reach what used to be the Top Three. They are now the Top Four. That's just how much I love Thirteen. She's made it up this high. 

If you should go back and read what I wrote about Colin Baker's Doctor, you'll notice that I actually favor him a bit more just because he's something of an underdog. So much criticism was levelled at his period of the show. And so much of it seemed so unfounded. I loved how beautifully arrogant the incarnation was. But, on top of that, I stand up for him just that little bit more because I felt he was treated so unfairly. 

A similar thing is happening with Jodie Whittaker. In fact, a lot of this really resembles what we were seeing in the late 80s. Certain people just seemed impossible to satisfy and they had to let you know about it. So, just like Colin, I do love her portrayal enormously. But I also become just that little bit more loyal to her because of the adversity she's facing. 

Which means that she is now my second-favorite Doctor. Only behind the Great 'Ole Sixie, himself. Which also means she is now my favorite Doctor from the New Series. I still like Matt a lot, too. But I like Jodie that little bit better. 

However, I'm still going to change the Top Four structure just a little bit more. Oddly enough, I just don't feel comfortable with two New Who Doctors so close to the top. It's weird, I know. But the List just no longer feels right, that way. So I'm also switching Eleven with One. Does that make any real sense? Not in the slightest. But, these are my preferences, so I don't feel any need to justify myself too much!   

Here's how the Top Four now looks: 

Eleven (Matt Smith) 

One (William Hartnell) 

Thirteen (Jodie Whittaker) 

Six (Colin "The Man" Baker)

Like Ruth, Thirteen has the potential to climb higher as we see more of her. But it will be difficult for her to beat Colin. My love of Six runs deep...

And that's where the first and second female Doctors fit in the scheme of things. Both, I feel, are doing quite well. Overall, I think the role suits a woman as much as a man. In fact, I might even believe that the character is better suited to an actress. How's that for being controversial?! 

And you thought putting Tennant and Tom Baker so close to the bottom was crazy!! 

There we go: All the major updates that were needed for my BOOK OF LISTS have been made. And we got it done just before the year was over. 

2020 has been a crazy year for all of us, I'm sure. But I hope you're all doing okay, out there. I also hope that my blog has been a nice diversion for some of you while you've been stuck indoors.  Feel free to keep doing that if you need to. The number of hits that I see on a daily basis always warms my heart! Thanks, so much, for all of your support. I appreciate it deeply. 

Happy New Year!