With a strange production schedule that will only provide one lonely new episode of ‘Doctor Who’ this calendar year (the “holiday special” episode titled “Revolution of the Daleks, currently slated to air in December 2020), fans have been starving for content about everyone’s favorite oft-regenerating space-traveling Time Lord. Thanks to a recent poll, at least now we have a definitive(ish) answer to which incarnation of the Doctor is the favorite among the show’s fans.
Popular UK site RadioTimes conducted a poll of over 50,000 fans recently, and the results were quite a close race – but in the end, the victor was the Tenth Doctor, brought to life on-screen by David Tennant from 2005-2010. It’s clear that fans have a special place in their hearts for the modern-era Doctors, as Tennant’s first-place finish was a less than 1% margin of victor over the current Thirteenth Doctor, Jodie Whittaker, and third-place finisher Peter Capaldi, aka the Twelfth Doctor. As RadioTimes reports of Tennant and Whittaker’s “photo finish:”
Both actors took 21% of the overall poll vote with over 10,000 votes apiece, with Tennant squeaking ahead with just 100 extra votes in the final count. At other points, Whittaker had been leading the poll or was just below eventual third place winner Peter Capaldi, Whittaker’s predecessor in the role (playing the Twelfth Doctor from 2013-2017) who claimed 18% in the final count.
Here are the results of all 13 entrants (John Hurt’s War Doctor was not included in this pool, nor was Jo Martin’s “Ruth Doctor” from the most recent season) and their finishing spots:
- David Tennant 10518 / 21%
- Jodie Whittaker 10423 / 21%
- Peter Capaldi 8897 / 18%
- Matt Smith 7637 / 16%
- Tom Baker 3977 / 8%
- William Hartnell 1983 / 4%
- Paul McGann 1427 / 3%
- Christopher Eccleston 1144 / 2%
- Jon Pertwee 1038 / 2%
- Patrick Troughton 915 / 2%
- Sylvester McCoy 462 / 1%
- Colin Baker 359 / 1%
- Peter Davison 351 / 1%
What say you, Who fan readers – do you agree or disagree with these standings? Who is your personal favorite Doctor? (Me, it’s Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy, because he was my “first Doctor,” although I damn well do love me some Peter Capaldi.) Sound off in the comments below!
