Celebrating the actors who have brought the Time Lord to life.
Every Doctor Who fan has their Doctor – whether it’s the one that meant the most to them growing up, or a more recent iteration that’s captured their heart.
As it turns out, the stars and writers at the heart of the show are no different. Ahead of Doctor Who turning 60, we caught up with various Doctor Who legends, including Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Arthur Darvill, Steven Moffat and Alex Kingston to ask the age-old question: “Who’s your Doctor?”
Of course, some of them couldn’t resist breaking the rules and giving us more than one, but we’ll let it slide…
Check out their answers below!
Sophie Aldred – Ace
“Of course it’s Sylvester McCoy but then of course I’ve got Jodie [Whittaker] as well. I love them all, I seriously do.
“I think that everybody who’s played the Doctor has been an extraordinary person in real life in some way. If you meet them all, and I have been so fortunate, my only alive Doctor that I’m missing is Peter Capaldi – I’d love to meet him.
“Sadly I was too late for Patrick Troughton and of course I didn’t meet William Hartnell but all the rest of them I’ve met and I just think they’re all extraordinary. There’s something special about all of them.”
Arthur Darvill – Rory Williams
“Matt [Smith]! It has to be. I just think he was brilliant and the balance between the stoic and the silly and the balance between the really heartfelt and the flippant was just such a brilliant take on it.
“Obviously it was all in Steven [Moffat]’s writing but Matt really is such a skilful brilliant actor and watching his work ethic… we’re the same age but it was really amazing being on set and seeing how hard he had to work on that. And he was so committed to it.
“He makes it look so easy and it was really inspiring. I just think he’s a brilliant actor and I love working with him.”
Alex Kingston – River Song
“I think my Doctor was Jon Pertwee. I loved Patrick Troughton’s trews. I was a very small child but I found Patrick Troughton – I think I had a crush on Patrick Troughton actually, and I loved his tartan trews… but really, Jon Pertwee was my Doctor.”
Sylvester McCoy – The Seventh Doctor
“It was way back in the ’60s, I lived in a bedsit in Belsize Park and downstairs was a friend – he had a television and I didn’t have a television. We were doing the pools together, the football pools. We’d go down together and watch the television for the results and this funny little programme came on afterwards and we watched it and became hooked, we became fans of Doctor Who, and it was Patrick Troughton.
“I’d seen Patrick Troughton growing up as a child on many things on television and he always had a comic thing about him and he could also be serious, so he was all round a wonderful character actor.”
Steven Moffat – former showrunner
“Doctor Who! That’s my favourite Doctor. Why have one hero when you can have 15? Why limit yourself? The one I’m watching, as with James Bond. I like the James Bond I’m watching right now. That’s my favourite. If you mean which Doctors I grew up with, I sort of grew up with Jon Pertwee, and I saw him turn into Tom Baker and then I saw him turn into Peter Davison, so that was quite a special period of my life.
“But I carried on watching… I suppose one person I’d like to mention in this context – I have no favourites, genuinely – but one person I’d like to mention is Sylvester McCoy because when he came on as the Doctor for the first time, I’d just got to the pompous Doctor Who fan stage where I was aware that maybe I’d got a bit hung up on a children’s show and it was maybe a bit silly and I should be watching something else so I didn’t enjoy it the way I should have. But in later years, I came to realise what a wonderful Doctor he is.
“The fact that he took the Doctor away from being a posh bloke to a very distinctly not posh bloke is incredibly important for the future of the series. I’ve also got to know Sylvester a bit of late and he’s such a wonderful man. He’s very much like the Doctor himself.”
Katy Manning – Jo Grant
“I always find this a bit hard to answer because, from a close friendship, it’s got to be Jon [Pertwee] because we had this huge bond, this wonderful friendship.
“But I have enjoyed every single thing that all of the actors have brought to their version of the Doctor. I can’t pick a favourite, I really can’t.”
Sacha Dhawan – The Master
“I’m gonna say Jodie. Of course it’s gonna be Jodie! But I say that because audiences see what’s going on and they see the performance but for me, why I say Jodie, is because I get to work with her behind the scenes, I get to know Jodie.
“I’ve never worked with an actress like it – she’s amazing at what she does but she’s the only actress I’ve worked with that really understands what it means to be number one on a call sheet.
“When you’re number one, you have a responsibility to look after your fellow team and it’s a lot of pressure, especially when you’re playing the Doctor, you’ve got lots of dialogue, you’re away from home for months on end, but she still manages to look after everybody.”
Mark Gatiss – writer and actor
“Jon Pertwee! It’s indivisible from your first experience and your first love. There are so many brilliant Doctor Whos, of course there are, but I find it rather lovely in my advanced age when you talk to someone who has every bit as much affection for a Doctor that you were scarcely aware of because you were a grown-up.”
Toby Whithouse – writer
“I was asked this question when I was writing for Matt [Smith] and I think my answer was, ‘Oh, Matt!’
“But given that he was the last one I wrote for, probably Peter [Capaldi]. And I got to know Peter quite well and Peter’s just the most incredible man. I’d probably say either Peter or Tom Baker.”
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