Patrick Troughton is Best Doctor, Admits Peter Davison

Philip Bates is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

I always like to hear Doctors praising other Doctors: Fifth Doctor, Peter Davison has said that Patrick Troughton is the best Doctor.

Now, many of us don’t have favourites, but it seems Davison does – and credits Troughton as paving the way for all those who have come after him. He says:

“I watched both William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton but I think [Troughton] had the hardest job. If Patrick hadn’t done his job as well as he did, we wouldn’t be where we are now. For with him they decided to invent the idea of regeneration. Before his first episode I remember thinking, ‘I’m going to hate this’ but he won me over. He brought so much that was new to it, a vulnerability. He had the hardest job but did it so well and, of course, we owe him an enormous debt.”

Indeed, Patrick had a tough job to do, but he did it so brilliantly and has inspired so many incarnations since. You can certainly see his influence in the Fifth Doctor and the Eleventh (as Matt Smith was so impressed with Tomb of the Cybermen). Davison, of course, is the father-in-law of David Tennant, so added:

“I think I might also have to mention the Tenth Doctor [as a favourite].”

The Fifth and Tenth Doctors met in 2007’s short, Time Crash, and Davison says that while he’s not as encyclopedic as Tennant, he does naturally class himself as One Of Us:

“I’ve watched nearly every episode and would call myself a fan. But I couldn’t look at a photo and say, ‘That’s from such an episode and it’s taken 10 minutes into it.'”

Davison met Troughton in The Five Doctors, and strangely enough, companion Mark Strickson (Turlough) was also a big fan of the Second Doctor. In our exclusive interview, Strickson told Kasterborous:

“I was able to meet My Doctor, which is Pat Troughton, and things like that. We’ve always got ‘our Doctor’ as Doctor Who fans, y’know? He was lovely! He’s an absolutely gorgeous guy.”

Peter also likes another Peter: Capaldi, who is filming Series 9 as we speak! He says:

“I think he’s great. He has a different take on it. I interviewed him for BBC America last year and he was very interesting.”

I know Davison can’t say anything that even vaguely sounds like ‘I was pretty great too’ but y’know what? He was. He is, in fact! I’ve always been a fan of his, both as a person and as the Doctor. He faced a similar problem to Patrick Troughton, having to reinvent the role after Tom Baker’s seven-year tenure. And he did so amazingly.

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