LogFAQs > #968596317

7. 7th Doctor (Sylvester McCoy)

Best Serial: Paradise Towers (Season 24, Serial 2)
Worst Serial: Time and the Rani (Season 24, Serial 1)

If you were to ask me what is needed as an absolute baseline for an actor to have done in performing as the Doctor, I would point to Sylvester McCoy's seven. He has all of the Doctor's best traits: he's the smartest man in the room, he's quirky, his fashion sense is on-point, he definitely seems out of touch with the common folk due to his alien nature, but he also is able to understand human nature and express a certain level of empathy for those around him. Now, do I think all of the Doctors I rank above him have all of these same traits? Not entirely; but they make up for it in different ways, and in fact, most of them go above and beyond, whereas McCoy's Doctor is, as I said, the baseline of my expectations.

I will say, Sylvester McCoy, is probably the safest Doctor to show to someone who wants to understand the character and the show in his entirety. I wouldn't suggest the reboot, due to how different the format is, and I wouldn't suggest either Baker due to how different the lengths of their reigns are. And Hartnell's black and white, so that's a whole thing. You COULD go Davison, but as I've stated, he's very human and doesn't exactly click as the Doctor. ANYWAY, McCoy does a great job following up from a 6th Doctor run that the producers didn't enjoy, and while he was a great return to form (following in the footsteps of an as-of-yet unranked Tom Baker), I feel like the producers were almost gunshy about giving him more meat to his role after they bit off more than they could chew with Colin Baker.

One thing that definitely stands out about McCoy though, and this is perhaps his defining trait, is how easy he made being the Doctor look. I don't mean the acting; rather, McCoy's Doctor feels like the most competent Doctor somehow. He's not a "fly by the seat of your pants" kind of Doctor who has a last minute epiphany to save the day. No, I loved watching serials where he was just in-control and had a plan and executed it perfectly. There were times when he'd have saved the day by episode two in a four-episode serial, and the rest of the plot was just the other characters reaching the same conclusions he had long before. This sort of over-powered characterization COULD have been irritating, but it just made it fun to see this quirky little man running circles around everyone else.

Hint for #6: Alright, I've taken out three classic Doctors in a row, so time for a reboot Doctor.