And the Doctors

Okay, let's do this. This is really going to hurt at the end, trying to figure out who gets stuck in last place.

1. Tom Baker (4). Um, duh.

2. Patrick Troughton (2). Simply magical.

(these two are a few light-years ahead of all the others)

3. David Tennant (10). He's clearly doing throwbacks to Peter Davison, but Tom's madcap lunacy shines through on more than one occasion.

4. Jon Pertwee (3). James Bond - Lothario + in space = Third Doctor. (Snappy dresser, too.)

5. Sylvester McCoy (7). He got off to a rocky start, and his script quality was always sketchy at best (JNT had a thing about not letting old hands write for the show, which was stupid^infinity).
6. Tie. Paul McGann (8). The Shada remake gives us an example of what could have been, had we only had a decent script. He was witty and charming and reminded me of Pertwee (who died just before the telemovie aired) in every way that matters. Christopher Eccleston (9). Manic and loony, just as the Doctor should be. They both come in so low because neither had a great deal of time in the part; given a couple more years, either one could be up in 3rd or 4th place.

8. Peter Davison (5). Coming in for only three short years in between the two most bombastic Doctors would make anybody seem bland. To his credit, Peter underplayed the part, which was exactly what the role needed after 7 years of Tom Baker. Unfortunately, he came off as a weakling. He'd rate higher if he could have, on occasion, saved some people. That, and he bears the unfortunate distinction of being the first Doctor to be stuck in a bad costume. A cricket theme would have been all right, but the end result was too much.

...Okay. I'm not really in a last-place mood, and William Hartnell (1) and Colin Baker (6) both have redeeming qualities. Hartnell comes in so low because he wasn't much more than a typical absent-minded scientist (and yes, there were real-life reasons, tragically, for his absent-mindedness) and Colin's Doctor, as I've said before, was an awesome character but was just all wrong for The Doctor. Ergo, cop-out and tie for 9th place.