Doctor Who

Interestingly, Matt Smith actually had weaker stories than both of his predecessors and his immediate successor. The reason he's at the top is because he balanced perfectly between human and alien, never leaning too far in either direction like the other Doctors did.

David Tennant had stronger stories than Matt Smith so literally the only reason he's lower on the list is because he emphasised the Doctor's human side more than the alien side.

If he hadn't nailed the role after William Hartnell stepped down, Doctor Who wouldn't have survived longer than 3 years, never mind half a century. Need I say more?

An actor from a very different time, William Hartnell seemed to, intentionally or otherwise, employ a technique that John Hurt would bring to the role 5 decades later. Raw honesty. Every flubbed line, every poorly aged aspect of early Doctor Who speaks of a show that was made from pure creative passion and an actor who was speaking from the heart.

The best actor who's ever played the Doctor, John Hurt is, ironically, also the most underrated due to his lack of screen time. In the short time he had though, he showed how the "Am I a good man?" character arc SHOULD have been played, handling it with more charm, vulnerability and self-awareness in a single episode than Peter Capaldi did in his entire debut season. Honestly, I wish he and Capaldi had been swapped around. I would have happily watched 3 seasons of Hurt but I only put up with Capaldi because I was so invested in Clara.

Chris Ecclestone had the third most well written character arc of any Doctor, after William Hartnell and Peter Capaldi. Unlike Hartnell, he left the role willingly and unlike Capaldi, he actually knew how to be charming and was a good enough actor to pull off his character arc without coming across as an insecure, sociopathic misanthrope looking for approval.

Yeah, sue me, I love Colin Baker's Doctor. Similar to Matt Smith, Baker was such a good actor that he could elevate any material the writers threw at him through sheer charisma and passion.

The only reason Tom is beneath Colin is because he's not as good an actor. He certainly had better stories but he was, by his own admission, just being Tom Baker. You're not acting if you're just being yourself while a camera's pointed at you.

Jon Pertwee had the ability to treat the insane scenarios the Doctor found himself in with a completely straight face, which really sold that the repeated invasions of earth or the machinations of the Master were just another Tuesday to him. Also his chemistry with Roger Delgado set the basis for all that the Master would become, including Missy's redemption arc which had been planned in Pertwee's era but didn't come to fruition until Steven Moffat's final season.

Granted, David Bradley is supposed to be the same Doctor as William Hartnell but he's such a good actor that he deserves a spot on the list. If he was his own Doctor instead of filling in for a long dead actor, he would probably be higher.

Sylvester McCoy was even more unfortunate than Colin Baker in terms of the behind the scenes disasters that plagued Doctor Who. However, after a rather iffy first season, he came into his own as one of the most alien incarnations. I kind of got the feeling that McCoy's perception of time was more advanced than the average Time Lord, or even the Doctor's other incarnations, which helped his machiavellian schemes. This even leads me to think that he was more aware of the 12 Doctors' ("No sir! All THIRTEEN!") plan to save Gallifrey which no other Doctor would have been able to retain due to the scrambled timelines.

By far the most overrated Doctor of all time, and one of the most overrated Scottish actors on top of that, Peter Capaldi was the perfect example of an actor who would be suitable for 1 specific Doctor, but ended up playing the wrong incarnation. If he had been the War Doctor, I would have no complaints but the more introspective and nuanced character arc of Seasons 8 and 9 were beyond Capaldi's abilities. People try to deflect blame onto the writing or Clara or anybody except the real source of the problem, which is Capaldi himself. They can't bear the idea that this lifelong fan isn't as good an actor as they thought he was. Instead of a good man questioning his morality, I saw a sociopath seeking validation and the fact that he treated everybody around him like garbage tells me that he wasn't being sincere about his desire to be a good man. The scripts were very clear that this Doctor was intended to be a gruff man with a soft heart, so the cold hearted sociopath was simply Capaldi screwing up his performances. Honestly, if he'd brought more of HIMSELF to the role, something that most previous Doctors did, instead of trying to disconnect his real personality from the Doctor, it would have worked much better. I know Capaldi's a self-aware and self-critical man in real life but NONE of that self-awareness came across in a Doctor who needed it the most, so it's kind of baffling that he managed to screw up the character so badly when he has all the traits he needed to succeed. The Doctor could only get away with being a sociopath in the Time War but John Hurt acted circles around Capaldi because he managed to AVOID falling into that trap, despite playing the only Doctor who could actually get away with doing so. By the time Capaldi corrected his mistakes in Season 9, he'd already cemented himself as one of the weakest Doctors and managing to redeem himself in the later half of his second season doesn't make up for the horrible impression he made in his first.

I haven't listened to his audio work and even if I had, you can only get half of the performance through voice acting. The fact that Paul McGann was the best part of a bad TV movie doesn't say much. It was cool to see him again in Night of the Doctor but I feel like that succeeds largely due to Steven Moffat's writing and the nostalgia of seeing a Classic Doctor rather than the quality of McGann's actual performance.

Honestly, I respect Peter Davison more as a person than as the Doctor. He was one of the very few who publicly stated that he had doubts about Jodie Whittaker and considering the disaster that Doctor Who became under her and Chris Chibnall, his concerns were well founded. As the Doctor however, Davison kind of fades into the background and doesn't really have a well-defined character, something that he admitted he found difficult so he only felt like he truly got the Doctor right in his final episode.

Jo Martin should have been the first female Doctor from the start. She wouldn't have been able to save Chris Chibnall's terrible writing but she clearly respected both the character and the show so, similar to Colin Baker, I think she could have elevated the material she was given. Unfortunately, she was literally just a diversity hire who could have been much more if the BBC weren't operating on the bigotry of low expectations.

To be honest, I don't consider Jodie Whittaker to be the Doctor at all. A female Doctor could have worked but neither Whittaker nor Chibnall had any clue how to handle Doctor Who. The saddest thing is that this has actively ruined other actresses chances of getting the role. They'll have to work at least 3 times as hard to win people over because if another female Doctor is announced, people will automatically remember that the first one destroyed Doctor Who, forcing Russell T Davies and David Tennant to come in at the eleventh hour in a desperate attempt to save the show.