FIRTH%TARTAN@CMU-CS-C.ARPA (03/20/84)
Upto the showing of The Five Doctors, the Doctors had been: 1. William Hartnell (1963-1966) - now alas deceased "He was an irascible, snappy old man ... a brilliant eccentric old man who had no patience at all with us common mortals" [ all quotes from the BBC Dr Who 20th Anniversary Special ] When Mr Hartnell had to leave, through ill-health, the series authors came up with the idea of having the Docotr "regenerate", which he did at the end of "The Tenth Planet" amid scenes of snowy desolation in Antarctica. 2. Patrick Troughton (1966-1969) "I started off by making him very clownish, and going over the top really, partly to make a very clean break from Bill's Doctor" This was the twit with the flute, and some rather unappealing silly companions. Mr Troughton also played in The Six Wives of Henry VIII. At the end of The War Games, the Time Lords finally caught up with the Doctor, and enforced another regeneration. They also stopped him travelling in time and space by removing part of his Tardis. 3. Jon Pertwee (1969-1974) "... my Doctor was the Dandy!" In my opinion, the best Doctor. The +XIX opera gear was great, and the adventures were well plotted (probably because the writers couldn't just dump the Tardis somewhere strange and waste three reels teasing us about just where or when they all were). This was also the Doctor of UNIT, Brig. Lethbridge-Stewart, and Katy Manning. It is rumoured that Mr Pertwee was very upset when Miss Manning left the series to get married, and his emotion at the end of The Green Death was not all unreal. In fact, Mr Pertwee stayed for a further 4 stories, and regenerated in Planet of the Spiders, after almost being destroyed when the Great One exploded. 4. Tom Baker (1974-1979) "What the Doctor did have, he [Mr Baker] hopes, was a certain childlike quality, a genuine curiosity about anything and everything, ... the capacity for being constantly surprised" Mr Baker could also play well with the Companions: the cross- characterisation with Louise Jameson and Lalla Ward was far more believable that the stuff in the old days, when the Doctor was omnicompetent and all the girls had to do was scream at the right moment. He regenerated after Logopolis, ostensibly because he had been injured falling off a radio telescope; in fact to marry Lalla Ward. He later appeared as Rasputin in a BBC play (and Lalla Ward was Ophelia in that dreadfully limp BBC Hamlet). 5. Peter Davison (1979-1983) "I felt it was very important to put back the idea that the Doctor was vulnerable, and could be defeated" The last of the five. I haven't even seen the sixth yet, so can't comment. The Dr Who 20th Anniversary Special (Copyright BBC MCMLXXXIII) is obtainable from BBC Publications 35 Marylebone High Street London W1M 4AA England price 30/- or L1-50 in that damned decimal money. "Doctor, are you SURE this is Pittsburgh?" - Robert Firth -------