The Doctor is one of the most unusual leading characters on television. An alien who travels in time and space in a police box is an interesting idea already, but its really his ability to regenerate that makes him stand out more than anything else.
The Doctor can change in every single way, not just his face, but his entire personality and way of doing things
At first glance there is no similarity between any of the Doctors, but when you look at it more closely you can see that all of the different Doctors are all linked by a number of subtle, yet defining traits.
They all do follow on from each other in some ways. The Doctors character is also shaped as much by what happens to him, as it is by regeneration.
For instance the Third Doctor had a more rebellious streak to him after being forced to remain on earth by the time lords, whilst 9, 10 and even 11 were all more emotional and at times unstable due to the Time War.
I personally think you can group all of the Doctors into 4 different categories, with each category representing a defining trait of his personality.
There are the darker Doctors, the fun eccentric Doctors, the dashing hero Doctors and finally the more vulnerable Doctor.
This is not to say that any actor who has played the Doctors performance has been derivative of any other. Personally I think all of them have been excellent, though my 3 favourites are definitely Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker and William Hartnell. Still I do think by and large you can group certain Doctors together as being more of a type than others, and that’s what I am going to be doing here in my analysis of the Doctors character.
The Darker Doctors/ 1st Doctor, 6th Doctor, 9th Doctor
These Doctors all represent the darker side of the Doctors personality that has been brought to the fore. These Doctors all have a real anger and ruthless streak about them.
All other Doctors can be ruthless like 10 killing the leader of the Sycrocrax, 7 destroying the Daleks and Skaro, but these Doctors will happily dispatch all or most of their enemies in nasty and gruesome ways.
Examples include the first Doctor trying to bludgeon a caveman to death whilst he is wounded and unconscious in “An Unearthly Child”. 6 casually tossing two men into an acid bath in “Vengeance on Varos”, and 9 burning Lady Cassandra to death in “The End of the World”.
These Doctors also are far more arrogant than the others. Peri once commented to 6 that by the time he had finished congratulating himself, they’ll probably all be dead. 1’s arrogance meanwhile always got him into trouble, such as in the first Dalek story when he does literally spend too long congratulating himself (on something that didn’t even work), and as a result he and Susan are captured. 9 meanwhile refuses to listen to Rose in “The Unquiet Dead” and as a result not only does this cost a young woman her life, but very nearly causes humanity to be wiped out too.
These Doctors have a somewhat more strained relationship with their companions as a result. Examples include 1 electrocuting Ian and Barbara, and poisoning them at one point, and 6 strangling Peri.
Even 9 and Rose have a some what more strained relationship at times than 10 and Rose ever did.
At the same time however these Doctors also have arguably much closer relationships to their companions too, as their companions are the ones who hold them back and ultimately make them better people. Ian literally stops 1 from murdering the caveman, whilst Rose also stops 9 from gunning the confused and helpless Metaltron down in cold blood.
All of these Doctors also go through the same development too where they start out alien, grumpy, even downright unpleasant and callous in some ways, but the influence of their human companions makes them a better person. By the end of 1’s time he has changed considerably.
Gone is the callous wanderer who was happy to let the Thals wander into the Daleks trap (that was all his fault to start with) and in his place is the hero from “The Daleks Masterplan, who is willing to give his life to save his companions and the earth from their plans.
Similarly by the end of the 9th Doctors brief tenure, he had become a more merciful character who gives the Slitheen a second chance, and who proves he is no longer capable of slaughtering innocents in order to stop the Daleks like he seemingly did in the Time War.
The 6th Doctor was also to have gone down a similar development, sadly however “Trial of a Time Lord” as well as Colin’s abrupt and unprofessional sacking from the role (on account of a certain vindictive shit) ruined these plans. Still if you listen to the Big Finish Audios you can see how Colin would have finished his Doctors story arc, with the 6th Doctor much like the 1st, and the 9th, thanks to the influence of Evelyn and Peri becoming a much happier, friendlier and likable character than the arrogant blowhard we saw in the first few stories.
All of these Doctors are darker, not simply because the Doctor changes when he regenerates, but more because of the circumstances around them which help bring their darker side to the fore.
The 1st Doctor is on the run from his people. He has broken their laws, he knows if they catch him the punishment will be severe for he and for Susan. He is also exploring a universe he knows nothing about, that is dangerous and hostile and he is also scared that his grand daughter is slowly slipping away from him.
Unlike the Doctor, Susan wants to find one place she can feel at home. This is obvious even from the start of an Unearthly Child where she grows attached to Coal Hill School a bit too much. The first Doctor is shaped by this into a more frightened, angry character who is actually scared of everything around him, but covers it up with his unbelievable arrogance.
With Ian and Barbara’s help he becomes much braver however and eventually lets Susan go and becomes the hero we all know.
6 meanwhile is darker because of the traumatic regeneration from 5. 5’s death was worse than any other Doctors before him. He wasn’t even sure if he was going to regenerate commenting as he lay, dying in agony “it feels different this time”. It is even hinted that 5’s regeneration to 6 didn’t go right and thus 6’s mind was completely unstable to begin with. 9 meanwhile had more reason than any other as he had incorrectly believed that he had slaughtered billions of people in the time war. He was obviously still traumatised by this atrocity and it took Rose’s help for him to get through it.
All of these Doctors form much closer attachments to their companions by the end of their time.. Shades of these Doctors can be found in all of the others. Every Doctor can have a ruthless streak, and every Doctor can be arrogant, but in this type of Doctor those characteristics are dominant.
The Fun, Eccentric Doctor/ 2nd Doctor, 4th Doctor, 7th Doctor, 11th Doctor
These Doctors represent the more fun loving, cool, funny side of the character. This is what I think the Doctor is naturally like. All of the other types are caused by specific events, but this is kind of the Doctors default position. Naturally the Doctor is very eccentric, even on Gallifrey and he is also somewhat childish too.
He is someone who hates being told what to do and just wants to have fun. That’s really the reason he left Gallifrey in the first place. He left because he wanted to live every day, like he was on holiday, just cruising the universe, hanging out with all the best people throughout history, and having fun with his friends like Amy Pond, Rose Tyler and Martha Jones, rather than get a dreary, low paying 9-5 job on Gallifrey.
I’d say these are the Doctors that the pubic most thinks of when thinking of the character. The funny, clown like, childish alien with weird clothes like a bow tie and a long scarf. All of these Doctors emerge at happy points in the Doctors life.
2 emerges when the Doctor feels more content. He has now found a planet, Earth that he has a fondness for. He has also now faced the worst the universe has to offer. He knows Susan has gone off and found somewhere she belongs, and he feels confident that the time lords will not find him as he has been on the run so long. Indeed had it not been for his need to summon them in “The War Games” they probably never would have found him.
4 meanwhile comes at probably the happiest point in his life. The Doctor is now finally free to roam the galaxy as he wishes. The time lords have given him free permission to do so forever, so he is completely free from their shackles. On top of that he also has a family of people, metaphorically speaking of course on earth, The Brigadier, Sarah Jane, Benton.
7 also emerges in a more stable period of his life when the Doctor has shaken off all of the issues he had from his sixth incarnation.
11 meanwhile similarly had more distance from the time war than his immediate predecessors. 9 had just come from it and was still horrified, 10 meanwhile was still trying to figure out what his place was in a post time lord universe. 11 however knew it and could put the war behind him. Therefore he was a much happier person. 11 also discovered that he had saved Gallifrey later in his life too.
However whilst these Doctors are definitely much happier characters they can also be more sneaky and manipulative at the same time. They can often use their seemingly bumbling, clownish exterior to mask their true motives. 2 and 7 did this all of the time, but 11 and 4 were also more than capable too such as in “City of Death”. These Doctors also could be ruthless if need be.
They weren’t like 1, 6 and 9 whose first option was often to kill, but still if provoked then yes they could be every bit as ruthless. 4 poisons Professor Solon when he refuses to halt his experiments to revive Morbius, the worst villain the Time Lord race has ever produced. 11 condemns Solomon the trader to death, when he feels he has gone too far, 2 effectively wipes out the Daleks in Evil of the Daleks, whilst 7 also attempts to exterminate the Daleks and murder Davros in Remembrance.
In these moments you can see how Doctors like 1, 6 and 9 would emerge. 2, 4, 7 and 11 have that side to them as well, they just keep it in check.
The More Sensitive, Vulnerable and Fallable Doctor/ 5th Doctor, 8th Doctor
These Doctors I feel represent the Doctors compassion and empathy more than other types. They are Doctors who feel a need to save everybody. All of the other Doctors can be callous at certain times such as 4’s reaction to Lawrence Scarman being tortured to death by his own possessed brother in “Pyramids of Mars”. 5 and 8 however would never have that reaction.
8 famously in “The Night of the Doctor” refuses to abandon a complete stranger who despises him to die and ends up losing his life as a result. Ironically because these Doctors care however that makes them somewhat more fallable to the events surrounding them.
They tend to fail more than other Doctors, with 5 being the first to lose a companion since 1. I think its partly down to the failures that they suffer that they end up becoming more conflicted characters who in contrast to the somewhat bombastic and egotistical other Doctors are constantly doubting their actions and decisions.
The Dashing, Heroic, Charismatic, Human Doctor/ 3rd Doctor, 10th Doctor
These Doctors are the two who set out to be heroes. All the other Doctors merely have a strong sense of justice and morality and stumble their way into situations.
3 and 10 are far more virtuous than other Doctors and will often spare even their vilest enemies such as Dalek Caan. 10 even goes to the extent of sparing the man who seemingly murdered his daughter. (Though even then they are still not above murdering their enemies if they have too such as 10 killing the leader of the Sycrocrax, and 3 trying to murder the Master in The Mind of Evil.)
Both set out to be heroes because of the unusual situations they find themselves in. 3 is exiled to earth and for the first time he see’s how vulnerable earth is. Before he has always just flitted in and out of the planet, but now he has been forced to live there and can see the danger it is in; not just from aliens, but also even from humanity itself who very nearly destroy the planet in “Inferno”.
The Third Doctor therefore feels it is his duty whilst he is exiled there to protect the earth, and set an example to the humans around him, hence why he might go out of his way to be merciful to even the worst villains he encounters.
Similarly 10 finds that he is the last of the Time Lords. 9 was still too horrified to take that in, but 10 who has managed to bury some of the trauma can, and he now see’s it as his job to carry on their legacy and protect all of time and space. More than any other Doctor 10 has the weight of all of time on his weary shoulders, and much like 3 he feels he needs to be a hero rather than merely a traveller with a strong moral sense, and also like 3 he feels he needs to set an example to all those around him.
Both 10 and 3 are also somewhat more human than other Doctors. Despite 3’s flamboyant dress sense, he and 10 are probably the least eccentric Doctors.
Both are very honest trustworthy heroes (this was why 3 was always my favourite as a kid as I always felt safest with him, and I don’t doubt many people felt the same way about 10 growing up)
Both I feel are more human because they spend more time on earth than the other Doctors do. 3 is exiled there and 10 came to see earth as a replacement for Gallifrey in some ways.
Whilst 3 and 10 may in some ways be the most heroic and likable at the same time they both also come to believe their own image of themselves and just like 1, 6 and 9 their arrogance can lead to their downfall.
3 often tries to reason with every enemy he comes into contact with regardless of how evil they may be. He assumes that he can still get through to them. 10 similarly often tries this as seen with Dalek Caan, which allows the Dalek to escape and leads to more chaos when Caan saves Davros. 10’s arrogance also goes to his head in “The Waters of Mars” when he believes that rather than simply uphold the Time Lords laws he can defy them and declares himself “Time Lord Victorious!”.
Now as for the current Doctor 12 I am not sure where exactly to group him quite yet. It is early days remember in his era and to be honest I don’t really like to say what type of Doctor someone is until after their era is done and I can watch their full development. Still I’d say that 12 is perhaps more of a darker Doctor which would make sense after all that 11 went through on Trenzalore. 12 has already proven to me more ruthless than 11 ever was, however I also feel there may be shades of the more heroic and dashing Doctor in this incarnation as well. Only time will tell, but those are definitely the two I’d say 12 follows.
As for the War Doctor well he is the only one I would say doesn’t follow any model, but that’s because he was meant to be an anamoly in the Doctors life. War was created to be a warrior, someone who would kill without mercy or compassion to fight in the war, thus he was not like the Doctor at all, even physically he looked different with his more dishevelled and unshaven look.
However I quite liked the fact that through the War Doctor, we saw what a hero the Doctor truly was as even when he was created to be ruthless, he still could not bring himself to slaughter the innocents on Gallifrey. In the end he did what he would always do and found another way out. One that completely eluded everyone else, even the other time lords, that cheats and breaks all the rules.
I know a lot of people weren’t happy with the War Doctor and I can understand why. They wanted to see Paul McGann again, and they felt it messed with the numbering system, and finally they felt it also undid the idea of the doctor destroying his own people.
Personally however I loved the War Doctor. I felt he summed up why we all love the character of the Doctor, by showing us that ultimately though he does have a dark side, he can never be truly corrupted. Even by the Sisterhood of Karn’s magic.
He will always remain the same man underneath and always do the right thing. He will never be someone who slaughters innocents on Gallifrey, or anywhere else for the greater good. He will always find a way out.
The fact that its not just the War Doctor but all of them that join in, and save Gallifrey including the then future 12th Doctor reinforces all the Doctors would have reacted the same way in this situation. Much like Captain Kirk, the Doctor does not believe in a no win scenario.
Its important to always remember that the many different Doctors are the same character underneath. Even if you don’t agree with my analysis in particular I still think it is important to remember that all of the different Doctors are merely different aspects of the same character, rather than 13 different characters.
I have recently developed a theory about Doctor Who canon. Now I am aware that a lot of people including Steven Moffat believe that Doctor Who does not have a canon, but I disagree. If Doctor Who did not have a canon then it would be like the surrealist British comedy Mighty Boosh anything could happen.
In the Mighty Boosh main characters die and then re emerge completely fine then next week with no explanation, others back stories change without explanation. Both of these things have happened to the Hitcher one of the main villains of the series who was pressured into getting a large thumb one week by his family, and was then an orphan the next, and who was melted into a puddle in one episode and then re appeared fine the next. With Doctor Who however it isn’t like that.
Adric dies and that’s that he doesn’t show up completely fine the next week he is gone and his death has a significant effect on the main characters, Rose leaves the Doctor and that remains unchanged and once again has a significant effect on the main character unlike the Hitchers death. However I do agree that Who has a more flexible canon than other series as it involves time travel and certain events not fixed points but certain events can be re written such as the events of the ninth Doctor story “Dalek” that must have been erased by The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End as Dalek shows nobody being aware of Daleks or aliens in 2012 whilst “The Stolen Earth” shows the Daleks stealing and invading the earth in 2009. Thus whilst I wouldn’t say Who has no canon I do agree that its canon can be changed a lot more easily than other series.
Which leads me on to my next point that the bulk of Steven Moffat era Doctor Who, from “The Big Bang” onwards takes place in a different universe to all of the previous seasons of Doctor Who.
Now I have many reasons for thinking this. First of all in series 5 of the new Doctor Who the Time Fields begin to rip apart the universe despite the Alliances best efforts to stop them until eventually all of creation except for the earth is reduced to nothing. The Doctor however is able to bring the universe back by flying the Pandorica which contains particles of the original universe in it into the exploding TARDIS which is still exploding at every point in history and in doing so rebuilds the universe as it was.
However the only thing is the universe isn’t as it was. The Earth Invasions from the Russell T Davies era such as the Daleks stealing the Earth, Cybermen invading every major city, Slitheen crashing into Big Ben for instance now never happened. Mankind no longer knows about aliens in the early 21st Century despite it being “when everything changes” also the rule regarding “fixed points” in time is vastly different in the Davies and the Moffat era as is the ending of the Time War. In the Davies era fixed points in time are merely events that the Time Lords have decided are too important and must always happen hence why the 10th Doctor is able to break one in “the Waters of Mars” without reality collapsing. In the Moffat era fixed points however must always happen because if they don’t the universe will be destroyed as seen in “The Wedding of River Song” when River breaks one and all of time is threatened. These numerous discrepancies have lead many Whovians to believe that the Doctor didn’t restore everything as it was when he rebooted the universe in “The Big Bang”, some events were left out such as the Daleks stealing the earth and also Rory’s death at the hands of the Silurian Restac.
However I am going to go one step further and say that the Doctor created a new universe at the end of the Big Bang one that was similar to the old one but ultimately different in a number of ways. This is backed up by what the Doctor says in the episode itself. When explaining to River how he is going to bring back the universe the Doctor compares it to cloning a human being from a cell. Thing is when you clone someone you don’t bring the original back to life you create a copy of the original so the fact that the Doctor compares rebooting the universe to cloning suggests to me at least that that is what he did he created a new universe from what was left of the old one and all adventures in the Big Bang from this point on take place in this new universe which is similar to the old one sure but is also different in a number of ways. The Doctor, Rory, River and Amy meanwhile are all that is left from the old universe. They are integrated into the new one and its timeline and they have memories of the old one yes, but they are now part of the new universe whilst everyone else is merely a new Universe clone.
This is how I look at it.
Old Doctor Who Universe (1963-2010)
This is the universe where every story from “An Unearthly Child” to “The Big Bang” takes place.
In this universe the rules regarding fixed points in time where different. They were merely moments the Time Lords had decided could never be changed. They could actually be changed however if one were so bold as to go against the laws of the Time Lords which the Doctor does after the Time Lords are gone in “The Waters of Mars”. Thus in this reality time can be rewritten a lot more easily which is how the Daleks have two different origins as seen in “The Mutants” and “Genesis of the Daleks”, and the Earth is destroyed in two different ways in “The Ark” and “The End of the World” and how Henry Van Statten doesn’t know what a Dalek is despite them stealing the earth three years earlier. All 3 cases were of time being re written.
In this reality aside from the Time Lords there are also creatures called Reapers that appear whenever time is changed.
Time Lords in this reality could not change gender. This explained why it was never even hinted at in Classic Who and why we saw whole Time Lords burn out regeneration cycles and not change gender.
In this reality the Doctor also never became the War Doctor it was the 8th Doctor who fought in the war. There were only 11 Doctors at this universes end.
The Master was perhaps the Doctors brother explaining the Ainley Master’s comments “wont you even show mercy to your own” in “The Planet of Fire”.
The Master was also killed when he went back into the Time War, when he blasted Rassilon in order to save the Doctor in “The End of Time”.
In this reality the Time War went differently too. The High Council were in more control and tried to destroy all of creation leading to the 8th Doctor burning them all alongside the Daleks, also the Time War was perhaps a much more drawn out brutal affair and by its end it became the “hell” the Doctor described with creatures like “The Nightmare Child” and the “Skaro Degradations” all running about, rather than just Daleks and Time Lords.
The Zygons home planet was destroyed by a solar flare.
The Rift existed in this reality a portal between Cardiff and numerous other time periods and dimensions and planets.
In this reality the new Dalek race created in Victory of the Daleks destroyed the old Daleks and became the only Dalek race in existence.
In this reality Earth was invaded by Daleks, Cybermen, Slitheen, Sontarans and Sycrocrax in the early 21st Century leading to mankind becoming aware of aliens in the 21st Century hence Jacks comments of 21st Century is “when everything changes”.
In this reality mankind first ventured out into the stars when Adeliade having been inspired by the sight of a Dalek during their 2009 invasion went to Mars and sacrificed herself for the good of mankind. This lead to her children and her children’s children travelling into space and forging a legacy that would lead to mankind enduring to the end of time.
The 7th Doctor destroyed Skaro prior to the Time War using the Hand of Omega.
The Great Intelligence is a cold and logical being in this reality hence his comments in “the Web of Fear” that “revenge is a petty human emotion”.
Rory Williams was shot dead by the Silurian Restac.
This universe ultimately is destroyed when the time fields merge and erase it all except for the earth. The 11th Doctor however using the Pandorica is able to create a new Universe from the “DNA” of the old one. He River, Rory and Amy the last survivors of the old universe are integrated into the new universe and their histories are rewritten accordingly, however they still have the memories of the old one. For instance Amy remembers travelling with the Doctor and growing up with her parents even though the two things never happened at the same time. Her life with her parents was in this reality in the original she had no parents when she travelled with the Doctor. This new universe has a similar history to the old, but ultimately it is different in a lot of places and has different rules.
New Doctor Who Universe(2010-present)
This is the universe that was created at the end of “The Big Bang” and every story since has taken place in this one. It has many differences to the original Whoniverse.
In this reality fixed points are moments that cannot be changed because if they are then the universe and time itself come undone. Thus time is harder to change in this reality as it is not just merely a case of answering to the Time Lords its a case of destroying the universe if you change a particular event.
The Reapers do not exist as there is no need for them due to the laws surrounding fixed points.
The War Doctor existed in this reality which perhaps changed the course of the war.
The Master was clearly NOT the Doctors brother in this universe.
The Zygons home planet was destroyed much later in the Time War.
The Time War ended differently. Here the War Council in the later years where able to gain more control over Gallifrey and prevent the High Council from carrying out its plans to eradicate all of time itself. Though the Doctor still tried to use the moment the fact that Gallifrey was not so corrupt caused him to eventually spare them. In the original universe because it was Rassilon and the High Council perhaps not even the Moment itself wished to spare them and allowed the Doctor to use it. Here however the Doctors saved Gallifrey and thus it did not perish in this reality.
The Time War also ended differently in that towards the end it only involved the Daleks and the Time Lords which explains why we never saw the Nightmare Child or any of those other monsters 10 talked about in “The End of Time”. In “The Day of the Doctor” the end of the time war just looked like a standard space battle rather than “hell”.
In this reality Time Lords are gender fluid and change gender all of the time when they regenerate such as the Corsair and Missy.
Perhaps the 4th Doctor did not die during the events of “Logopolis”, but instead lived to being a ripe old age explaining the mysterious Curator we see in “Day of the Doctor”. However the Curators comments at the same time imply that he is a future regeneration who has assumed the face of the 4th Doctor, so 4 may have still met his end this way.
The battle of Canary Wharf still happened, but the Daleks stealing and invading the Earth didn’t which explains how the Valiant is still around in “Dark Water/ Death in Heaven”.
Earth was also never invaded by the Slitheen, the Sycrocrax and the Sontarans, and the Battle of Canary Wharf was covered up by the government. Thus mankind in the early 21st Century remained blissfully unaware of aliens.
The 7th Doctor did not destroy Skaro it survived even the Time War itself and was later occupied by the new race of Daleks which explains how Skaro is still around in “Asylum of the Daleks” despite being destroyed in “Rememberance of the Daleks” as Rememberance took place in the old universe.
Also as the Doctor didn’t use the Moment to destroy the Daleks this is how the Dalek Asylum survived to. In the original universe the Doctor used the moment to burn them all with only two Daleks the Emperor and the Metaltron surviving (as well as the Cult who were in the nothingness between universes)
The new race of Daleks who were created in “Victory of the Daleks” did not destroy the old Daleks who had created them but instead kept them as a servant race. This explains why in “Asylum of the Daleks” which is after “The Big Bang” there are the old Daleks alongside the new ones who are their masters. Here the old Daleks were not destroyed just made into the servants of the new Dalek race. Perhaps the Cult of Skaro emergency temporal shifted to where the progenator device in “Victory of the Daleks” was instead of Manhatten, and used it instead to create the new race of Daleks. Thus Caan never went back and rescued Davros, as the cult did the Ironside trick instead and created the new paradigm Daleks who as I mentioned enslaved the cult rather than destroy them and created a servant race of Daleks from the cults DNA. This would explain why we saw a black Dalek resembling Sec in the Dalek Asylum. That’s where he ended up here rather than dying in Manhatten.
Daleks in this reality considered it offensive to destroy other Daleks as they hated destroying such divine hatred, unlike the Daleks of the original universe who as evidenced by the numerous Dalek civil wars had not problem with killing one another. This explains why the new Proginator Daleks didn’t kill the original Daleks who made them.
As there were no 21st century alien invasions Adeliade was not inspired by the Dalek to go into space. However mankind would still endure until the end of time after being inspired by a totally different event. The Moon hatching into a Space Dragon is what inspired them to explore space rather than Adeliade’s sacrifice. Presumably the Space Dragon did not exist in the original universe.
The Rift also did not exist in this reality.
The Great Intelligence in this reality was a more emotional creature who faced the Doctor many times rather than just twice in the Second Doctors era. This would explain why in “The Name of the Doctor” he claims the Doctor thwarted him at every turn and why he is willing to kill himself just to get revenge on the Doctor.
Rory Williams was not shot by Restac,
This to me seems the most likely explanation for all of the continuity errors between the Moffat era and Davies’s time. A good comparison to my theory would be DC Comics which had a similar reboot in their story “Crisis on Infinite Earth’s” “Crisis on Infinite Earth’s” saw all the universes that previous DC Comic had taken place in become destroyed and a new one take its place with a similar but ultimately different history to the old ones.
That to me is what the season 5 finale “The Pandorica Opens/ The Big Bang” is its the Doctor Who version of “Crisis on Infinite Earths” the big story whose job is to sort out the franchises messed up continuity.
Of course I am sure many of you out there will disagree with me, but still let me know what you think of my little theory in the comments below.
Doctor Who is the worlds most successful science fiction series and not surprisingly many notable writers, actors, comedians and singers are not only huge fans of the series, but have also cited it as a massive influence on their careers. In this article I have compiled 20 famous people who are huge Who fans. I have also however gathered a smaller list of 5 famous people who hate the show. Everything has its detractors and Doctor Who is no different.
In no particular order.
20/ Amy Winehouse
I was pleased to read that the late “Love is a losing game” singer was a huge Who fan. Apparently she first fell in love with the show as a child in the 1980’s and was also a huge fan of the 2005 revival which isn’t really surprising considering she was close friends with Billie Piper when the two were at school. Amy Winehouse also appeared on a Doctor Who themed episode of the Friday Night Project. Her god daughter singer Dionne Bromfield is also a huge fan as well.
19/ Bill Bailey
Bill Bailey has cited classic Who as being the series that got him interested in science fiction and television in general. His act in the past has been full of numerous Doctor Who related gags. He even once performed a version of the Doctor Who theme. Bill Bailey would later guest star in the 2011 Christmas special opposite Matt Smith.
18/ Bob Dylan
Apparently Bob Dylan was a huge fan of Classic Who so much so that he gave permission for his music to be used free of charge in the 25th anniversary story “Silver Nemesis”, but for reasons I am not entirely sure of. The producers of the show didn’t take him up on his offer.
17/ Brian May
Yet another musical example. Queen’s guitarist has been a huge fan of the show since it first began in 1963. May is a huge fan of science fiction overall.
16/ Trey Parker
South Park’s Co-creator is a big fan of the show and has put in a number of references to Doctor Who throughout South Park. In the episode “Red Hot Catholic Love” there is a gigantic Spider that is a reference to the last Jon Pertwee story “Planet of the Spiders”. In the episode “Funnybot” the title character is based very heavily on a Dalek and even croaks “Exterminate” at one point. The fact that the creature is also meant to have been made by the Germans as well is a tongue in cheek reference to the fact that Terry Nation the creator of the Daleks, based them on the Nazi’s. Finally in the episode “Go God Go part 2” Cartman is aided by a robot cat called K-10 an obvious reference to K-9 the Doctors robot dog.
15/ Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp is a big Who fan and at one point even expressed an interest in playing the role of the Doctor. Depp would have played the Doctor as more of an old fashioned somewhat foppish character who on the surface would have seemed more scared, similar to his character from Tim Burtons “Sleepy Hollow”. Depp has expressed a particular love or the gothic, Philip Hinchcliff era stories citing “The Talons of Weing Chiang” as his favourite story.
14/ The Beatles
The Fab Four were huge fans of the show back in the 60’s. In fact they were even going to appear in the Dalek story “The Chase”, but their manager Brian Epstein vetoed this. Its just as well when you hear what the plan was to have the Doctor and his friends watch the Beatles as old men. Considering the tragic fates that were to befall both John Lennon and George Harrison, with Lennon dying at the age of 40 and Harrison at the age of 57, this would have made the episode horribly dated. An old clip of them performing still appears in the episode, which ironically is the only footage of that performance that survives. John Lennon would also go on to pose with a Dalek.
13/ Joseph Michael Strascynzki
The creator of Babylon 5 is a huge Who fan and has regularly cited Terry Nation the creator of the Daleks as one of his all time biggest influences and heroes. Apparently Nation served as Stracyznki’s idol when writing most of Babylon 5 himself, as Nation has been the only person who had written an entire season of a science fiction series by himself. Blake’s 7 season 1.
12/ Robert Downey JR
The “Iron Man” star recently came out as a Whovian and expressed an interest in appearing in the show at some point. A Marvel Cinematic Universe/Doctor Who crossover does seem too good to be true, but it would still be nice to have him in the show at some point.
11/ Florence Welch
Florence is a big Who fan and fortunately Whovians seem to love her too. Matt Smith the 11th Doctor also said that he wished she could be in the series at some point. Sadly that never happened during his tenure, but it could still happen at some point as she would be more than keen.
10/ Matt Groening
The creator of The Simpsons is a big Who nerd and not surprisingly there have been a number of references to the show throughout the series with the 4th Doctor (Matt’s favourite Doctor apparently) Daleks, and the TARDIS all having appeared at various points throughout the series. One episode even saw the 4th Doctor appear as one of televisions esteemed representatives.
9/ Johnny Rotten
The Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon has said that Doctor Who during the William Hartnell era was his favourite show. He mentioned being terrified of the Daleks in particular.
So, when I was young, Doctor Who was wonderful. The Daleks were the thing. They were so evil, cold, dead, and emotionally devoid that it was a fairly good representation, really, of institutions.
8/ Patrick Stewart
Star Trek star Patrick Stewart has been a fan of Who for many years (and also apparently Beavis and Butthead.) However despite this Lalla Ward who played Romana claims that after leaving Doctor Who, Patrick Stewart gave her grief for appearing in a low brow science fiction series. Ironic really as not only would he go on to become a fan of this very series, but Stewart would also go on to find his greatest success appearing in another iconic science fiction franchise as well.
7/ Richard Dawkins
Dawkins has been a Whovian since the start of its run and has actually appeared in Doctor Who in the episode “The Stolen Earth” claiming that the planets in the sky haven’t been moved to us, but that we have instead been moved to them. On top of that he is also married to former Doctor Who companion Lalla Ward.
6/ Alex Salmond
The former leader of the SNP claimed in an interview that Doctor Who was his favourite show and he liked the fact that there were more references to Scotland in Doctor Who after David Tennant had left. In 2013 the papers attempted to claim that an independent Scotland would not have been able to watch Doctor Who as it would now be in a different country, but Salmond responded by saying that its already seen in over 90 countries.
5/ Peter Jackson
Peter Jackson has been a who fan for pretty much his entire life. He apparently directed “the Frighteners” whilst dressed as the Fourth Doctor. He also appeared in Peter Davisons spoof “The Fiv(ish) Doctors Reboot”. Jackson has expressed interest in directing an episode of Doctor Who with a Dalek as payment. Sadly nothing has come of this so far. Surely its worth sacrificing one Dalek prop to have Peter Jackson direct an episode? Jackson’s favourite Doctor is Sylvester McCoy who he cast as Radagast the Brown in “The Hobbit” trilogy.
4/ Craig Ferguson
Craig Ferguson has done a lot to promote Doctor Who in recent years and has played a key role in its growing popularity stateside. On top of that he was also once in a band with current Doctor Peter Capaldi.
3/ Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison has often spoken of his love for Doctor Who and actually began his career writing stories for Doctor Who magazine. He has also included a number of references to the show in his work.
2/ Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg has been a who fan since at least the 80’s. He has gone on record as saying that “the world would be a poorer place without Doctor Who”. However he has claimed that he feels there “is a lot missing to the new series that made the old one so great”.
1/ Harlan Elison
Elison has said that he considers Classic Doctor Who to be the greatest science fiction series ever made. Though he has sadly never written for it, he nevertheless did a lot to promote it in America in the 1970’s, including providing a foreword for early novelisations released in America. Few people (apart from Craig Ferguson of course) have done as much for Who stateside as this man.
5 People Who Hate Doctor Who
5/ Paul Merton
British comedian Paul Merton has been very vocal about his dislike of Doctor Who for many years. Not only has he made many jokes about it on “Have I Got News For You”, but he also put it into Room 101 when he was the host of that show. Even worse than that, he put it in at the request of Michael Grade who axed the show in 1986!
4/ Sir Christopher Lee
I was surprised that Lee hates Who so much as he does seem to generally love science fiction and fantasy, but sadly Doctor Who seems to be the only one he dislikes.
His hatred of the show extends right back to the 1960’s. Despite this however he was friends with two prominent Who actors Patrick Troughton who played the second Doctor and Peter Cushing who played the film version of the character “Doctor Who”. Both men worked alongside him many times. Apparently however he did tell Cushing that it was a mistake to appear in both of the Dalek films and advised him at the time against it.
3/ Joss Whedon
Now this one really surprised me as there were a number of references to Doctor Who in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” Whedon’s most famous work. However it can be assumed that these references were there as a result of other writers. I do know that David Greenwalt and Jane Espenson two prominent Buffy writers are big Who fans. At any rate Whedon recently revealed his dislike for the show in a new biography.
He claims that despite being both a geek and an anglophile he never watched any British science fiction series such as Red Dwarf, Blake’s 7 and Doctor Who.
He says that he did watch one episode of Doctor Who, but hated what he saw. “I watched one episode of Doctor Who and I thought did they film that in my basement? It looked so cheesy”. I think its a shame that Joss couldn’t see past Who’s shoddy production values particularly as Joss has regularly spoken of his love for old 50’s B movies, many of which he even cited as an influence on Buffy. A lot of these old classic B movies like “I Was A Teenage Werewolf” had far worse effects than the majority of Classic Who stories and were certainly a hell of a lot cheesier.
Also Buffy itself was guilty of some cheap looking monsters and unbelievable cheesiness too.
Now I love Buffy don’t get me wrong, but come on here when it was cheesy, it was the cheesiest thing on television! What do you think is cheesier, the most acclaimed episode of Buffy “Once More with Feeling” or the most acclaimed episode of Classic Who “Genesis of the Daleks”?.
The sad thing about Joss hating Doctor Who is that Buffy was a huge influence on the revival of Doctor Who in 2005.
2/ Alan Moore
Alan Moore has gone on record as a Doctor Who hater. Apparently he did watch it back in the 1960’s but basically thinks it has been rubbish since William Hartnell left. He also once said that writing for Doctor Who magazine was only slightly better than cleaning toilets.
1/ Nigel Kneale
Nigel Kneale the creator of Quatermass and The Stone Tape hated Doctor Who with a vengeance. Again much like Joss Whedon the sad thing about this is that his work was hugely influential on Doctor Who. Quatermass helped inspire the creation of the show itself and many Quatermass serials served as the direct inspiration for many of Doctor Who’s most acclaimed stories, including “The Web of Fear”, “Spearhead from Space”, “Inferno” and “The Daemons”.
The Third Doctors entire era was modelled practically on Quatermass. Quatermass also served as an inspiration on the new Who to an extent with the episode “Hide” in particular being heavily inspired by it. Even Torchwood its spin off owes a big debt to Quatermass.
So many people involved in Doctor Who from Sydney Newman, to Robert Holmes, to Barry Letts, to Terrence Dicks ,to Christopher Eccelston, to Russell T Davies, to Mark Gatiss have nothing but the best things to say about Kneale’s work.
Sadly Kneale hated Who in every possible way. To start with he hated the basic premise of the show believing it to be the worst idea for a television programme he had ever heard. He said he felt the problem with Doctor Who was that it had been a producers idea. as it had been invented by Sydney Newman unlike Quatermass which was a writers idea.
He also said it was a poisonous influence on children and was horrified at some of the things they let be put out at tea time in the show.
Finally Kneale also claimed that the show ripped off his ideas and even said that one time he felt sick watching an entire script of his popping up in Doctor Who.
If it makes Who fans feel any better Kneale despite being one of the genre’s best ever writers ironically didn’t like sci fi on tv that much. He also hated The X-Files, Star Trek (once claiming that he could come up with ideas better in his sleep than Star Trek) Doomwatch and Blake’s 7 which he considered to be the low point of sci fi on British television.
This article is the first in a new series where I will be looking at actors who are best known for starring in genre series and films.
In order to qualify for this series, an actors most famous roles have to largely have been in cult things. For instance Richard Attenborough though appearing in one of the most iconic genre and cult films, Jurassic Park, wouldn’t really qualify as a cult actor as his career consisted of mostly mainstream film and television series.
Tom Baker on the other hand would be not just because he played the Doctor, but also because many of his other most famous roles were in horror movies, or classic British comedies like Blackadder, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad etc.
This series will try and look at a wide range of actors from various different backgrounds. From big Hollywood stars, to voice actors, to stars of classic, cheap British Sci Fi series.
The first cult actor I will be looking at is Michael Wisher. Wisher is known primarily for his roles in one genre series “Doctor Who”. His roles in this series were mostly small, but he nevertheless managed to endear himself to genre fans forever with his performance as the deranged and evil creator of the Daleks, Davros.
He only played Davros once, but to this day his performance is still usually regarded as the definitive take on the character
Wisher to me seems like the perfect choice to start, as he never really became that big a name even to genre fans. Still he nevertheless managed to give some of the most iconic performances on the history of television.
Michael Wisher was born on the 19th May in 1935. He had many roles on television including in “Dixon of Dock Green”, “Z Cars” and the genre series “Moonbase 3”. He also had an extensive theatre career too and was a very in demand actor until his death in 1995. However it would for his work in “Doctor Who” that he would be most remembered.
Genre/Doctor Who Roles
1/ Reporter/The Ambassadors of Death
Wishers first on screen credited role. Prior to this adventure he had provided a small voice over for the second Doctor story “The Space Pirates”. There is not really much to say about this performance. Wisher doesn’t get a lot to do he is on screen for all of two minutes and is basically wasted in the role. Still this does mark his official Doctor Who debut none the less.
2/ Rex Farrell/ Terror of the Autons
Wisher’s first prominent Who role was as the villain Rex Farrell in “Terror of the Autons” Rex was the Master played by Roger Delgado’s sidekick. He didn’t have a lot to do in the story with arguably his biggest role being taking the Masters place when UNIT try and shoot down the Master. Still Wisher made the most of this character and he and Delgado play off of one another quite well. Farrell is not really a villain as the entire time he is mind controlled by the Master. His death therefore is actually one of the more tragic moments of the story. He joins the sadly long list of people the Doctor failed to save from the Master.
3/ Kalik/ Carnival of Monsters
The character of Kalik served as the main villain in the Robert Holmes classic “Carnival of Monsters”. He was a somewhat more comical villain however, as he is ultimately killed by the very plan he hopes to use the overthrow his brother. Still Wisher brings the character to life in a very memorable way, managing to capture the humorous elements of the character such as his snobbishness and prissiness, as well as his darker qualities such as the opening scene where he casually guns down a dissident worker in cold blood.
4/ Voice of the Daleks/ Frontier in Space/ Planet of the Daleks/ Death to the Daleks/ Genesis of the Daleks
Michael Wisher voiced the Doctors greatest enemies in four stories. “Frontier in Space”, “The Planet of the Daleks”, “Death to the Daleks” and “Genesis of the Daleks” though he also voiced them in episodes of “blue peter” and the 30th anniversary documentary “More than 30 years in the TARDIS”. Wisher was the 6th actor to play the monsters and though not quite as menacing as Peter Hawkins, Roy Skelton or later Nicholas Briggs, I still think Michael’s Dalek voices were quite effective in their own way.
His voices lacked the strange rhythmic qualities of Peter Hawkins or the fierce, harsh, rasping tones of Roy Skelton. Instead Wisher’s Dalek voices captured the hysteria of the monsters better than anyone else as evidenced by the famous scene in “Death to the Daleks” where one of the pepperpots kills itself simply because it has failed to guard Sarah Jane the Doctors companions properly “HUMAN FEMALE HAS ESCAPED, SELF DESTRUCT I HAVE FAILED, SELF DESTRUCT I HAVE FAILED, SELF DESTRUCT I HAVE FAILED, SELF DESTRUCT I HAVE FAIIIIIILLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH”
Nicholas Briggs the current voice of the Daleks, a close personal friend of Michael Wisher has said that the dying Dalek was always one of Wishers favourite moments and he would enjoy acting it out for fans. I think Wisher has had an influence on Brigg’s portrayal of the Daleks to an extent. Briggs I think is probably the best Dalek voice artist for me as he is able to combine the aspects of all the previous Dalek voice actors together. In a new Who Dalek story you will typically see one Dalek who is the leader who will have more of a Peter Hawkins vibe to his voice, then there will be the lowly grunt who will have more of a David Graham quality, then there will the soldier who is desperate to kill everything that moves and is fanatical even by Dalek standards and he will be the Roy Skelton Dalek. Finally there is the scared, hysterical Dalek who is in a constant state of panic and can’t stand anything going wrong at all, he is the Michael Wisher Dalek.
5/Davros/ Genesis of the Daleks
This was Wishers greatest performance and indeed one of the greatest performances of anyone in Doctor Who. Its up their with the best performance of any actor in the role of the Doctor.
The fact that Wisher had experience providing Dalek voices I think helped him find the right balance in Davros’s voice. At times when he was hysterical such as when is demanding the Doctor tell him the reason for every Dalek defeat, Davros can sound almost like one of his creations, but it was never too much however and indeed some of the most chilling moments of Michaels performance are when Davros speaks in a more calm, quiet voice such as when he talks of experimenting on Gharman’s brain. Davros in “Genesis of the Daleks” is a much more fleshed out character than he is in later stories thanks to both Terry Nations strong script and Wisher’s performance.
Wisher is able to bring so many different sides to the villains character. On the surface Davros is the ultimate Who monster. He is evil incarnate, a man who commits double genocide on the Thals and his own people the Kaleds, who casually murders hundreds of innocent scientists and who is revealed to have delusions of tearing down all of creation itself. The famous phial scene where the Doctor asks Davros if he would use a virus capable of destroying all life, to which Davros responds that that power would set him “up above the gods” and that through his creations the Daleks “I shall HAVE THAT POWER!” is arguably the defining moment of Davros’s character.
Prior to this Davros had attempted to present himself as someone who was just desperate to see his race survive. As his race are destined to mutate into frail creatures, he believes he needs to make any sacrifice to ensure that these creatures can go on and programs them to be aggressive because he believes that is the only way they can survive due to their vulnerability. He also at one point tries to justify the Daleks need to conquer by claiming that one race needs to rule the others, as the master race can help the other races by showing them how to better themselves. He even claims that under the Daleks rule wars and persecution will end, and that they will rule benevolently. “Evil? no I will not accept that when the Daleks have suppressed all other life forms, when they are the masters, then you will have peace, they are not a force for evil, but for good”.
The Doctor however see’s through this and exposes Davros’s true character by asking the phial question.
Davors’ excitement at the Doctors hypothetical idea of ending all live, reveals that all he wishes to do is destroy, because it gives a weak pathetic little man like him a perverse sense of satisfaction. The creation of the Daleks is really all just to do with Davros’s own personal glory no matter how hard he tries to dress it up in being for the future of the Kaleds, or even the sake of the universe itself.
This is further evidenced when he says to the disloyal Kaled Scientists “We, I WILL GO ON” The fact that Davros creates the Daleks almost in his own twisted image also reinforces this.
Some men just want to watch the world, nay the universe burn!
However despite this Wisher is incredibly enough able to inject some sympathy into Davros’s character too. The final scene where the Daleks turn on Davros is actually my favourite moment in the entire history of “Doctor Who”. Davros finds himself ironically begging the Daleks to show pity on his loyal Kaled Scientists. The Daleks however can’t as they don’t know what pity is literally, as Davros removed it from them. Here even Davros realizes what a monster he has created. Before he had looked on pity as a weakness that had to be removed, but now he see’s that a creature without pity is truly uncontrollable and that even he, as ruthless and cruel as he is, is still capable of some acts of compassion whilst the Daleks simply are not.
One can’t help but feel almost sorry for him as he attempts to place his withered hand on the Daleks self destruct button finally realizing how wrong he has been and how all the sacrifices have been for nothing, only to be gunned down by his own creations who don’t show any emotion as they kill him. They don’t even view it as a triumph of killing their creator. To them killing Davros is no different to killing a Thal grunt.
Also once again we see see how Davros unlike the Daleks is capable of some compassion as he hesitates to place his hand on the button and destroy his life’s work, whilst the Daleks have no hesitation is shooting him at all. Davros’s ear piercing scream is truly horrifying to listen to
Davros was truly the height of Wisher’s career, not just in Doctor Who, but overall. He never again sadly got to play a role as large as this, but fortunately Davros was enough for him to always be remembered. “Genesis of the Daleks” has gone down as one of the all time greatest Doctor Who stories and is in fact the most repeated Classic Who story of all time. Davros meanwhile has also gone down as one of the most iconic Who villains of all time as well.
He would return many times (in every Dalek story in Classic Who in fact from this point on.) Sadly however Wisher would never get a chance to reprise his role. The producers did approach Wisher for both “Destiny of the Daleks” and “Resurrection of the Daleks” but he was unavailable both times. He did get to reprise the role on stage however in the play “The Trial of Davros” where he got to act alongside Peter Miles who had played Nyder in Genesis.
Still despite only playing the role of Davros once, most Whovians still regard him as the best Davros and indeed Tom Baker himself has said that he considers Michael Wishers Davros to have been the best villain his Doctor encountered.
Wisher’s performance as Davros had to rely entirely on his voice much like many other who villains from that era such as Gabriel Woof’s Sutekh and Michael Spice’s Morbius. He even practised with a paper bag over his head. It says a lot about Wisher and these other actors such as Gabriel Woof that they were able to create such memorable villains through their voices alone.
6/ Magrik/ Revenge of the Cybermen
Wisher’s next Who role was in “Revenge of the Cybermen”. Sadly the role was not that great a one, with Wisher’s character being a mere sidekick to the main villain of the story aside from the Cybermen themselves, Vorus. There’s not much to say about this character though Wisher is as good as ever. Its worth noting that this was not Wisher’s only role in the story. He also played a Vogan who is shot dead at the start and also provided an uncredited voice over. This story was actually shot before “Genesis of the Daleks” though it aired afterwards so these roles actually technically predated his performance as Davros.
7/ Morelli/ Planet of Evil
Wisher’s final Doctor Who role sadly was another minor character. On the plus side its arguably his most elaborate, over the top death, but still its a very small thankless role. Its a shame that after his success as Davros he never got another major Who role. I would have thought considering the success of Genesis, that Hinchcliff and Holmes at least would have had plenty of more characters for him.
Spinoff Who material
Throughout the late 80’s and early to mid 90’s Wisher would play a number of roles in Doctor Who spin off material including in the Audio Visual series (precursors to Big Finish which featured much of the same cast and crew including Nicholas Briggs) as well as the video “Wartime” where played Seargent Benton’s father. His final role was as an evil theatre commisionar in “Dalekmania” a documentary about the tow Cushing Dalek movies. He passed away in 1995 and is survived by his son Andrew Wisher who is also an actor. Rather touchingly Wisher was eulogized in the documentary “I was a Doctor Who Monster” which stated “To Michael Wisher a man among monsters.”
Doctor Who and Star Trek are the two most iconic science fiction television series ever made. They have amassed a following on a global scale like no other and have stood the test of time for over 50 years.
In this article I will be looking at the relationship between both series, the similarities as well as the friendly rivalry between them, and ultimately which I find to be superior. Remember that this is just my opinion, and please by all means tell me which you prefer in the comments below.
I tend to look at it this way. Star Trek is the Beatles of science fiction. It’s certainly the most famous (probably due to the movies more than anything else.)
Even people who have never seen any version of Star Trek still know its catchphrases and icons, such as “Beam me up Scotty”, “KHAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNN”, . “He’ dead Jim”, “It’s life but not as we know it”, “phasers on stun” etc
Also like the Beatles the original Star Trek series was very upbeat and optimistic and preached love and acceptance.
Doctor Who meanwhile was the The Rolling Stones of science fiction. It was the second most mainstream certainly, but it was always a bit edgier than Trek. Trek pushed the boundaries in positive ways too, like having the first interracial kiss, but Who was like the Rolling Stones in that it enjoyed just provoking controversy.
Doctor Who had horrifying monsters that terrified generations of children, scenes of graphic violence like dolls strangling people, the Doctor being drowned etc, that traumatised younger viewers. Who not only provoked controversy, but absolutely thrived on it at times.
Also finally the Doctor is like Keith Richards in that he is someone who can never die either.
Always remember that Star Trek is the Beatles and Doctor Who is the Rolling Stones.
Overview of Both Series
Before we start I’ll just give Trekkies who might not be as familiar with Doctor Who, and Who fans who might not be as familiar with Star Trek an overview of the other series. Obviously skip this if you know both of them.
Doctor Who originally began in 1963. It revolved around a mysterious alien called the Doctor, who travels through time and space in his magnificent machine called the TARDIS, which stands for Time and Relative Dimensions in Space.
Originally the TARDIS had the power to change its outside shape and size in order to blend in with its surroundings, whilst its inside shape and size remain the same. The device that does this however (called the Chamelion circuit) is damaged in the first episode, resulting in the TARDIS assuming the form of a police box for the rest of the series.
The Doctors real name and identity has never been revealed, with the Doctor merely being an alias.
Originally the Doctor was played by William Hartnell, who played the character as a doddering, bad tempered and even somewhat callous, but still ultimately heroic character.
The show was a massive success right away thanks in no small part to the introduction of the Doctors archenemies, the Daleks.
The Daleks were a race of hideous, slimy mutants, housed within tank like robots. They sought to exterminate all other life forms in the universe, as they believed themselves to be the supreme beings. Devoid of any compassion or pity, the Daleks were an instant sensation due to their ruthless nature, unique design, and frightening voices.
Throughout the 60’s Britain would be gripped in what would become known as Dalekmania which at one point even topped Beatlemania.
Sadly however William Hartnell was not a well man when he played the Doctor and was eventually forced to quit after just 3 years. The writers got round his departure by revealing that the Doctor had the power to change his entire body when he was mortally wounded. This process would become known as regeneration and it would later be revealed that the Doctor could do this 12 times, allowing him to have 13 different bodies.
Whenever the Doctor regenerates, though his entire appearance and outer persona change, he is still the same man underneath. All of the Doctors possess the same consciousness, memories, and core personality.
The Second Doctor was played by Patrick Troughton, who would also play the part for 3 years before departing the show at the end of the 60’s. During Troughton’s time many other notable enemies of the Doctor would be established such as the Cybermen (who first appeared in Hartnell’s last story, but became prominent in Troughton’s time,) the Ice Warriors and the Great Intelligence.
I think a large part of Doctor Who’s continued popularity is the strength of its rogues gallery in general, not just the Daleks. It’s surely no coincidence that the three most popular superheroes, Batman, Spider-Man and Superman have unquestionably the best villains. I am not saying that this is the only reason these characters, and Doctor Who are popular, but it certainly contributes to their massive popularity with children at least.
In Patrick Troughton’s last ever story we were introduced to the Doctors race, the Time Lords. The Time Lords were the most advanced species in the universe, but they were forbidden to interfere in the affairs of other life forms, which is why the Doctor was a renegade from his own people. The Time Lords would exile the Doctor to earth in the 20th century as a punishment for breaking their laws. (They would also force him to regenerate once more.) The Third Doctor would subsequently remain trapped on earth for the first 3 years of his run, before the Time Lords finally forgave him in the first story of season 10. (Which saw all then three Doctors unite to face a threat to the entire universe, Omega the founder of Time Lord society.)
Jon Pertwee took over in 1970 as the Third Doctor and would play the part for 5 years. During Pertwee’s time the Doctors most persistent single enemy was introduced, another renegade Time Lord, known as the Master. Much like the Doctor, the Master, who was originally played by Roger Delgado, would be played by a number of different actors through the years.
The Master initially changed his appearance through regeneration, but later stories would show the villain after having used up all of his 13 lives, steal other people’s bodies like a Demon to prolong his life.
Tom Baker would take over as the Fourth Doctor in 1975. To date Tom is the longest running and the most popular actor in the role. He played the character for 7 years. During his time the show also developed a much bigger following abroad including in America in particular.
Peter Davison took over the part in 1981 and stayed for just 3 years. After he left, Colin Baker would take over as the Sixth Doctor. Sadly however Colin’s time was beset by problems with the BBC, who at that point despised the show and wanted to finish it. He was dismissed from the role after just 2 years. Sylvester McCoy would then take over as the Seventh Doctor for another three years before the BBC finally pulled the plug on the show in 1989, after a 26 year run.
Doctor Who would later return for a one off 1996 tv movie which saw Sylvester McCoy hand over to Paul McGann. It would be another almost 10 years however before Doctor Who finally returned as ongoing series in 2005. The Ninth Doctor was played by Christopher Eccelston for just one year before he handed over to David Tennant.
During Tennant’s time Doctor Who would be restored to being one of the most popular shows in the United Kingdom, with Tennant being arguably the most popular Doctor since Tom Baker himself. Tennant stepped down from the part in 2010, with Matt Smith taking over as the Eleventh Doctor. In the 2013 story Time of the Doctor, Matt Smith’s incarnation regenerated into the 12th Doctor played by Peter Capaldi whose first series has just begun as of the writing of this article.
Star Trek meanwhile was created in 1966 by Gene Roddenberry. Its original pilot, The Cage was very different to the later series.
Its main character was Christopher Pike, played by the late Jeffrey Hunter who was a more, conflicted, tormented character. His science officer was a cold and logical female character called Number 1. Spock played by Leonard Nimoy did still appear, but he was a rather emotional character whose back story was not fleshed out.
The Cage despite being a classic piece of sci fi, performed poorly with test audiences. In some ways I think it was just too ahead of its time with its strong, non sexualized female characters and its incredibly dark content, such as Captain Pike being tortured by the Aliens, who conjure up images of hell itself from his mind.
Star Trek was truly unlike anything else on tv at that time, or since.
The show would be retooled for a second pilot (being one of the few genre series to get two pilots along with ironically Doctor Who itself.) This second pilot featured James T Kirk played by William Shatner as the main character, whilst Number 1’s cold and logical personality was transferred to Mr Spock. (Ironically it had been women who had the most problem with Number 1, whilst Spock would later go on to become the most popular character with female audiences.)
Star Trek was set in the 23rd century. Humanity is living in a golden age where not only is there world peace, but mankind has branched out into space and made contact with other peaceful alien species such as the Vulcans.
Sadly however there are also many hostile species too, such as the warlike Klingons and the Romulans both of whom would go on to be the most iconic alien species in Star Trek.
The main characters are the crew of the Starship Enterprise whose job is to explore unknown areas of the universe, seek out new life forms and make contact with them.
Star Trek sadly was not initially a big success. In fact it was almost cancelled after its second season, but pressure from fans convinced the network to keep it alive for just one more year.
Fortunately whilst Star Trek was not that big a success at first, it nevertheless developed one of the most devoted followings of any series. It would also go on to be a massive success in syndication as well as abroad too. In the United Kingdom in particular it was incredibly popular during its initial run. After almost ten years Star Trek would return on the big screen this time in 1978.
Star Trek the Motion Picture was a reasonable success, but it would be the next movie, Star Trek 2 The Wrath of Khan released in 1982 that would completely revive the franchise.
Often hailed as one of the most moving scenes in cinema history. Star Trek 2 Wrath of Khan is undoubtedly one of the greatest films of all time and really secured Star Trek’s future as a major film and tv franchise.
Many more sequels followed featuring the original cast, but it wouldn’t be until 1987 that Star Trek returned to its original home on television.
This series Star Trek The Next Generation was set over 70 years after the original series and revolved around an entirely new cast of characters, led by Captain Jean Luc Picard, played by Patrick Stewart.
Star Trek the Next Generation ran for 7 years in total and much like its parent series, would be followed by a number of films.
The Next Generation introduced many new alien races to the Star Trek universe, including most notably the evil Borg, who went on to become among the most popular alien races in all of sci fi.
Whilst the Next Generation was on, a third Star Trek series, Deep Space Nine was produced. Deep Space Nine would also run for 7 years.
It was a radical departure from the previous two Star Trek series in that it was set on a space station rather than a Starship and focused on problems within the Federation rather than on exploring the universe. Its leading character was Benjamin Sisko played by Avery Brooks.
A fourth Star Trek series would be produced concurrently with Deep Space Nine called Star Trek Voyager, which followed the exploits of Captain Janeaway, the shows first female lead played by Kate Mulgrew. The premise of the series saw the Starship Voyager become stranded in the Delta Quadrant, an area of space controlled by the Borg, and followed its crews attempts to get home.
Voyager was another massive success and ran for 7 years too. It would in turn be followed by a prequel series called Enterprise, but sadly by this point the Star Trek craze of the 90’s had begun to fade, and Enterprise would be axed after just 5 series in 2005.
Still its hard to keep a good franchise down (as Who fans know) and Star Trek would return just 4 years later on the big screen with a new trilogy of films based on the original series, but set in a changed timeline, which is still going strong as of the writing of this article.
Relationship With Each Other
Doctor Who and Star Trek have a very friendly relationship with one another.
There is a bit of a rivalry sure, buts its a very affectionate one (again like the rivalry between the Stones and the Beatles.)
It doesn’t hurt that many people who have worked on both shows are fans of the other. Jon Pertwee who played the Third Doctor was a massive Star Trek fan and even asked if he could interview William Shatner for British tv, which he later did. Sylvester McCoy who played the Seventh Doctor was also a big fan of the original series too, whilst John Barrowman who played one of the Doctors best friends, Captain Jack Harkness is a massive fan of DS9.
In fact many prominent people who worked on Doctor Who have even said that they preferred Star Trek to Doctor Who!
Christopher Eccelston who played the Ninth Doctor was a big Trekkie as a child, and said that it was very important to him, whilst he claimed to have only ever fleetingly seen the original series of Doctor Who.
Freema Agyeman, who played the Doctors companion Martha Jones also has named Star Trek as her favourite series too and said she would like nothing more than to be in it.
She may have been in love with the Doctor, but Martha would much rather have been on the Enterprise than the TARDIS.
Patrick Troughton who played the Second Doctor was also a huge Trekkie and used to watch the original series with his family far more than they ever watched Doctor Who. Ironically one of the last things Troughton ever did before his untimely passing, according to Anthony Ainley (who played the Master), was to get the autograph’s of the stars of the original Star Trek series.
Finally Richard Hurndall who took over the role of the First Doctor for the 20th anniversary story, The Five Doctors after William Hartnell’s passing, said that Star Trek was the only science fiction series he had liked.
“I think I’m a little too old to comprehend science-fiction, really. I’ve seen very few ‘Doctor Who’ episodes, but my favourite in the part is undoubtedly Patrick Troughton, who gets so much humour into it. I rather liked ‘Star Trek’, but otherwise I have left science-fiction to mygrandchildren.”
–Richard Hurndall
As for the Star Trek crew meanwhile, Simon Pegg who plays Scotty in the new film series is a lifelong Who fan, whilst Patrick Stewart is also a big fan of Doctor Who as well. Leonard Nimoy also became a fan of Doctor Who in the 90’s and even expressed interest in directing a film based on the series. Sadly the plans fell through, but imagine how amazing it would have been if Mr Spock had been the person to bring Doctor Who back!
“Leonard Nimoy is a very pleasant, courteous, soft-spoken and generous man, who had already invested a great deal of time in researching Doctor Who. He had accumulated a fairly extensive collection of videotapes, covering all seven incarnations of the Doctor. We spent a fruitful couple of hours discussing the very basis of the show – what makes Doctor Who Doctor Who – as well as the psychology of its hero, companions, and various off-the-wall casting ideas.”
Many of the writers of the Next Generation were also big Doctor Who fans. Its not escaped people’s attention that The Borg are very similar to the Cybermen. Both are machine creatures who convert organic life forms across the universe into members of their own kind, and the writers of Star Trek acknowledged this by having the names of the first 6 actors to play the Doctor flash up on a screen.
Another episode of The Next Generation, Future Tense, even featured a time capsule that was bigger on the inside than the outside!
Tom Baker was actually almost cast as a time traveller in another Next Generation episode, A Matter of Time, though sadly the plans fell through.
Many cast and crew members from both shows are also good friends with one another too, such as most notably Jon Pertwee and James Doohan who played the original Scotty. The two first met at a convention and got to know each other very well.
William Shatner is also good friends with John Barrowman, with again the two having gotten to know each other at conventions.
Finally Captain Kirk himself wished Doctor Who a happy birthday on its 50th anniversary in 2013, whilst many Doctor Who actors also helped Star Trek celebrate its 50th birthday in 2016
The two franchises did have an actual crossover with each other in 2012, a limited comic book series which saw the 11th Doctor and Captain Picard team up to take on the combined might of the Borg and the Cybermen.
On top of this Colin Baker who played the 6th Doctor will also be appearing in the fan series, Star Trek continues.
As you can see there is a lot of good will between both franchises. I think this might stem from the fact that Doctor Who and Star Trek somewhat paradoxically are very similar, but also very different.
On the one hand the two shows are never really going to be rivals with each other because one is really the quintessential British sci fi series, whilst the other is obviously the greatest American sci fi series. They compete in different markets in different ways. In America Star Trek is the mainstream, homegrown one, whilst Doctor Who is appreciated for being the foreign one, that’s unlike anything they have. In the United Kingdom meanwhile the opposite is true, with Doctor Who being the mainstream, homegrown one, and Star Trek is the foreign one that’s unlike anything we have.
They aren’t ever going to be threats to each other, but at the same time they do actually explore a number of the same themes as we will see.
Similarities Between Both Franchises
Doctor Who and Star Trek are quite different in a number of ways. One revolves around a central heroic character, and his sidekicks, whilst another is really more of an ensemble piece. The Doctor in Classic Who was also a very cold alien, distant, mysterious character, whilst the leads in Star Trek are often more flawed and relatable (even when they are aliens.)
Also I find that the aliens in Doctor Who tend to be monsters (apart from a few exceptions like the Doctors people, the Time Lords.) In Star Trek meanwhile the aliens tend to be more human.
There are advantages and disadvantages to both types of alien of course.
On the one hand the aliens in Doctor Who are far more imaginative, scary, and their designs are all very unique and striking, so they tend to stick in you mind more. The Daleks design in particular could almost be considered a work of art.
With the aliens in Star Trek like the Klingons, the Cardassians, the Romulans and even the Borg, you can see that not nearly the same amount time and effort has been spent into making them seem alien and unique like the Daleks and the Sontarans. Basically the crew just stuck wobbly bits on the actors foreheads or ears.
At the same time however the fact that the aliens in Star Trek are more human allows the writers to flesh them out more, and have them interact with the main heroes in a somewhat more deep and meaningful way than most of the Doctor Who aliens. You could never do a scene like the classic “in another life time we could have been friends” between Kirk and the Romulan commander from “Balance of Terror”, with a Sontaran or an Ice Warrior or a Cyberman for instance.
Still despite these key differences, there are a number of strong similarities and parallels that can be drawn between Doctor Who and Star Trek too.
To start with both Star Trek and Doctor Who have been able to run for so long because they are able to change their leads relatively easily for a number of reasons. The Doctor can regenerate, whilst the captain of the Enterprise can be easily replaced. Also both shows have such rich, imaginative universes filled with diverse races and creatures that there are always more stories to tell.
Another key similarity between both Doctor Who and Star Trek is that their leads are also more cerebral characters too. Whilst the likes of Kirk and the Third Doctor may be men of action when need be, ultimately all of the Star Treks leads, and the Doctors use their minds first and prefer peaceful solutions. They all will only ever kill as a last resort (which is sadly quite often.)
I also think quite an interesting parallel can be drawn between Captain Kirk and the Doctor too, in the sense that both are people who in some ways are very strict in following the rules, but in others are quite rebellious. Both are also explorers who hate having to settle down and have a normal life. They are always desperate to search for the unknown, or go where no man or time lord has ever gone before.
Star Trek and Doctor Who would also often use aliens as political metaphors. In Doctor Who’s case the Daleks represented the Nazis and race hatred in general, whilst in Star Trek the Klingons represented the USSR, and the tensions between the Klingons and the Federation also represented the cold war paranoia that was rampant at the time too.
Both the Cybermen and Khan also represent technology being abused in an effort to try improve humanity.
Both series were also very progressive for their time as well, and have continued to be so in the decades since.
Star Trek and Doctor Who are really (apart from a few stories) mostly politically neutral. They are entertainment for everyone to enjoy. Still they did often combat prejudices of the time through positive representation.
Star Trek had a multi racial crew, which included a Russian during the height of the Cold War, a Japanese man soon after World War 2, and a black woman during the height of the civil rights movement.
It also had the first ever interracial kiss in an American drama series. None other than Martin Luther King himself praised Star Trek’s progressive values and urged Nichelle Nichols not to quit the series.
Doctor Who meanwhile in various stories set in earth’s future such as The Tenth Planet, and The Moonbase would similarly depict a multi racial vision of the future, with The Tenth Planet featuring a black astronaut as one of its main characters.
Both series would also give strong roles to women too from Uhura, to Number One, to Barbara, to Sara Kingdom, to Zoe, to Liz Shaw, to Leela, to Sarah Jane Smith.
That’s not to say that there still wasn’t some sexism and racism in Star Trek and Doctor Who. Its to be expected in television from the 60’s after all, but still by and large Doctor Who and Star Trek were decades ahead of their time.
Not surprisingly Doctor Who and Star Trek had a very special appeal to many marginalised groups of people throughout the 60’s and 70’s.
Due to the fact that it was one of the few series to give a strong role to a black woman, many black people were inspired by Star Trek, including actress Whoopi Goldberg who said watching Uhura on tv convinced her that she could be an actress. She later landed a role on Star Trek The Next Generation too. Mae Jemison meanwhile an astronaut and the first African American woman in space was also inspired by Star Trek, and later guest starred in Star Trek the Next Generation as well.
Doctor Who on the other hand has always had a special appeal to LGBT people. Throughout the entirety of the Classic era the Doctor was almost always portrayed as asexual. He was about the only leading male character who didn’t get the girl at any point.
Furthermore the Doctor was also portrayed as an outsider, who had fled his own people because he had never really fitted in, and was also always a somewhat camp character too.
For many gay men in the 60’s and 70’s the Doctor was the closest thing they had to a role model. (It also didn’t hurt that the show was produced by a gay man throughout the entire 1980’s.)
“For me, as a young boy and a teenager, growing up in the north of England, in a world where I could never imagine being a gay man, let alone settling down and finding someone, I think Doctor Who was really asexual. There were programmes like The Sweeney which were very much about men chasing women, men getting women, whereas with Doctor Who you had a show that never really dealt with that.”
-Doctor Who producer Phil Collinson on the impact Doctor Who made on his life growing up.
Finally both Star Trek and Doctor Who explore many similar science fiction ideas and concepts. Both involve exploring the furthest reaches of the universe, and both also feature many time travel stories.
Time travel is obviously not as big a feature of Star Trek as it is of Doctor Who (though interestingly enough Doctor Who prior to the 11th Doctors era never really had that many stories that focused on time travel, with time travel instead always being used as merely a plot device to get the Doctor somewhere.)
Still many of the most popular Star Trek stories do focus on time travel such as The City on the Edge of Forever and Star Trek 4 The Voyage Home.
Whilst they have very different styles, as you can see they are at their core very similar shows and in the final section of this article I am going to draw up a list of specific examples of the franchises exploring similar stories and characters, in order to see which I prefer. I will also look at what I feel to be the best episodes of both series and the main characters as well.
1/ Most famous leading man
Tom Baker
William Shatner
This was a very hard one to choose. Tom Baker and William Shatner are both legends. To this day there are no two actors who are more closely associated with these franchises, which is no mean feat considering both franchises have more or less being running for the past 5 decades continually in some form or another.
Both men had huge personalities and were shameless hams too. More importantly both men were also great actors when they needed to be and could inject real gravitas into their larger than life characters when needed such as in “Search for Spock” when Kirk discovers that the Klingons have murdered his son, or in “Genesis of the Daleks” where the fourth Doctor is wondering on whether or not he has the right to destroy the Daleks.
Both men as you can see from these clips took the stronger scripts seriously, but for the poorer stories would often overact which in turn would elevate them greatly.
So who’s better? Again hard to say but I am going to have to go with Tom here. I feel bad saying that anyone is better than William Shatner, but I’m going to go with Tom only because based on everything I have ever seen of Tom outside of Who, he actually is the Fourth Doctor. Willaim Shatner does have certain similarities with Kirk, but not to the same extent as Tom does with the Fourth Doctor. If anything the Fourth Doctor is just a stripped down version of Tom Baker.
Winner
2/ Main Heroes Best Friend
Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge Stewart
Spock
Though the Doctor has had many companions over the years, I think its fair to say that The Brigadier is his best friend. Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge Stewart was the head of UNIT, an organisation designed to track down alien threats. The Doctor worked with him during his exile on earth, but the Brig would go on to meet the Doctor throughout many of his incarnations.
Spock meanwhile was the half human, half Vulcan Science Officer of the Starship Enterprise. He and Captain Kirk had one of the most enduring friendships in all of fiction, with the entire slash fiction subgenre having grown out of it.
Which is better however? Well this time its Star Trek. I love the Brig, but Spock takes the lead here as he is just as iconic a character as Captain Kirk himself. Everyone knows who Spock is, everyone knows his ears, his cold logical nature and the live long and prosper sign.
Also I feel that Spock had quite a large impact on television in that not only was he one of the first examples of a supporting character ending up being arguably the most popular with audiences: He also kind of established the trend in sci fi and fantasy series of there being a non human member of the team, who is the odd man out, but in some ways the most useful.
Whilst the Brig will always be a hero to Doctor Who fans, Spock is one of the most important characters in the history of science fiction.
Winner
Doctor Who 1 Star Trek 1
3/ Unrequited love interest
Martha Jones
Nurse Christine Chapel
This one wasn’t as hard as for me, Martha Jones beats Nurse Chapel easily. Chapel and Martha had the rather bad luck to fall in love with cold, unfeeling aliens (well the Doctor was more just unfeeling towards her.)
Martha however I think had more to her character than just being the unrequited love interest. She saved the entire earth from the Master in the season finale, and she eventually got over her crush on the Doctor and came back in Doctor Who series 4 and Torchwood series 2, as a truly strong and independent character. Chapel however never really got over Spock, and though she did help to save the day a few times, it was never to the same extent as Martha Jones.
Winner
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4/ Less annoying boy genius
Adric
Wesley Crusher
Classic Who and The Next Generation both had this type of character, the smug boy genius who thinks he is better than the main hero, and not surprisingly is despised by the majority of fans as a result.
Of the two of them I’m going to say Adric was less annoying. I think people tend to be a bit too hard on Adric. I always felt he was quite interesting, as he was one of the most tragic characters in the history of Doctor Who. He never fits in anywhere, even among the Doctor and his companions (with the Doctor often treating him as a bumbling oaf at best.)
The only person who ever truly cares for him, is his brother who is killed horribly. Finally however when it looks as though the Doctor is beginning to respect him, and he might just have found acceptance, he is killed by the Cybermen.
Wesley Crusher meanwhile felt like Gene Roddenberry simply living out his fantasies through this character who was clearly based on a young version of himself. Eugene WesleyRoddenberry.
Also Wesley Crusher took over the show and actually did undermine Captain Picard, whilst Adric’s arrogance was often used against him. Indeed it causes his death, as he stays behind on the Freighter because he thinks he can save humanity (when ironically if he had succeeded then he would have wiped the human race from history.)
With Wesley however again it simply felt like the writers just wanted him to be right all the time, and didn’t care that he came across as an obnoxious, arrogant know it all.
Also finally Adrics death is far more powerful than any scene with Wesley, so Adric takes this easily.
2017 Edit Update
Not that it matters as Adric had already won this, but still Wesley slips even further down in my estimation since Will Wheaton was revealed as a self loathing fanboy, Anita Sarkeesian brown nosing, white knight.
Normally its best not to associate an actor with the character they played, but since I never liked Wesley anyway, then this is just more reason to be team Adric in this debate.
Winner
By miles and miles.
Doctor Who 3 Star Trek 1
5/ Best Archenemy
Khan and the Master are the two most iconic individual villains in the Doctor Who and Star Trek franchises and both are quite similar characters in a number of ways.
The Master is a megalomainiac who wants to gain power over the cosmos. He believes that when he is in charge things will be better. Khan similarly was determined to rule the world and later the Federation, as he believed that he would in his own words bring order.
Whilst both villains have such grand ambitions for humanity, ironically they end up more obsessed with a petty vendetta against one man, the Doctor and Captain Kirk.
Khan despises Kirk because he left him on Citi Alpha 5, whilst the Master though respecting him at first comes to loathe the Doctor for foiling him so many times.
The Master and Khan’s hatred for their mortal enemies causes them both to actively sabotage their plans for conquest in some instances. In Wrath of Khan, Khan pursues Kirk through the Mutara Nebula which will compromise his ship, when he could have just left with the Genesis Device and had everything he wanted. In The Deadly Assassin meanwhile the Master uses the Doctor as part of his plan to steal the eye of harmony’s power, when he could have used any random time lord, rather than the Doctor who would be smart enough to figure out what is going on.
Even when near death and in the most unimaginable agony, Khan and the Masters hatred of the Doctor and Captain Kirk drives them on more than anything else.
The Master and Khan also are both master manipulators. Almost ever Master story from Terror of the Autons to Last of the Time Lords will show the villain twist the mind of someone, until they become his loyal servant.
Khan meanwhile is shown to similarly manipulate Lt Maria McGivers into helping him take over the Enterprise in Space Seed (though unlike the Masters female cohorts such as Lucy Saxon, Khan at least did genuinely love McGivers. In fact its her death which he blames on Kirk that motivates him more than anything else in Wrath of Khan.)
Both villains are also shown to use mind control on their victims too. The Master has always been hypnotic in some form or another. Whether that’s Delgado’s hypnotic chant of “YOU WILL OBEY ME!” or Eric Roberts spit that takes people over, or John Simm using the Archangel network.
Khan meanwhile memorably sticks horrible worm like creatures in Checkov and Terrell’s ears which allows him to control them.
Khan and the Master were also more of a match for the Doctor and Kirk too. The Master was a Time Lord like the Doctor and has his own Tardis, whilst Khan was actually superior to Kirk in a number of ways. As a result both Kirk and the Doctor are often pushed to their limits, and might even be forced to fight dirty in order to take down The Master and Khan.
Though normally more cerebral heroes who prefer to find a peaceful solution, the Doctor and Captain Kirk are still prepared to kick their enemies into bottomless pits and smash their head’s in with pipe’s if need be.
Whilst both the Master and Khan are excellent villains I am going to give this one to Star Trek.
Khan is a superior villain in pretty much every way for me.
To start with his backstory is more fleshed out. A problem with the Master is that you can’t really explore his backstory, as his whole thing (much like the Doctor) is that he is mysterious. Unfortunately this means that sometimes the Master can become quite a flat character.
Khan’s backstory in the Eugenics Wars was fascinating. It helped to flesh out the mythology of Star Trek itself and has served as the basis for some great spin off material. Also Khan I feel was written in a more 3 dimensional way. As wicked as he was you could actually have some sympathy for him. His grievance against Kirk is genuine, as Kirk ultimately did just dump him on a planet and then not bother with him for 20 years. If Kirk had just checked once then all of the horrors of Wrath of Khan could have been avoided.
With the Master meanwhile as much as I like him he could feel like a Saturday Morning cartoon villain some times.
Compare their dialogue to see what I mean.
DOCTOR: The Master’s consumed with hatred. It’s his one great weakness.
MASTER: Ha. Weakness, Doctor? Hate is strength.
DOCTOR: Not in your case. You’d delay an execution to pull the wings off a fly.
MASTER: This time, Doctor, the execution will not be delayed.. I have suffered long enough from your stupid, stubborn interference in my designs. Now we are coming to the end of our conflict, Doctor.
(Spandrell moves forward and the Master shoots him.)
DOCTOR: Why have you brought me here?
MASTER: As a scapegoat for the killing of the President. Who else but you, Doctor? So despicably good, so insufferably compassionate. I wanted you to die in ignominious shame and disgrace.
(The Doctor steps forward and gets shot.)
MASTER: Now, do as I say, Coordinator, or you’ll get the same.
(Engin strips the late President of the Y shaped sash and gives it to the Master.
MASTER: They’re not dead. Stunned. They’ll live long enough to see the end of this accursed planet, and for the Doctor to taste the full bitterness of his defeat!
KIRK: Khan, you dirty bloodsucker!! You’re going to have to do your own dirty work now! Do you hear me?! Do you?! (Khan reacts to Kirk’s voice with shock. He clutches the communicator.)
KHAN: Kirk! Kirk, you’re still alive – my old friend…
KIRK: Still ‘old friend.’ You’ve managed kill just about everyone else. But like a poor marksman, you keep missing the target.
KHAN: (ironic) Perhaps I no longer need to try.
KIRK: (desperate) Khan, Khan, you’ve got Genesis, but you don’t have me! you were going to kill me, Khan! You’re going to have to come down here! You’re going to have to come down here!
KHAN: I’ve done far worse than kill you. I’ve hurt you. And I wish to go on hurting you. I shall leave you, as you left me, as you left her. Marooned for all eternity in the center of a dead planet. Buried alive!
You can see how of the two of them Khan has more proper motives. He despises Kirk because Kirk caused the death of the woman he loves, and abandoned him on a dying world for years, where as the Master it seems hates the Doctor because he’s a little goody two shoes?
Also its not like I’ve chosen a crap Master story and compared it with Wrath of Khan. That scene is from The Deadly Assassin, one of the all time greatest Master stories, written by the most popular Doctor Who writer Robert Holmes.
Also everything Khan did made sense. With the Master at times they’d have him just do evil things because he’s evil! Or they’d have him do gimmicky things like dress up in disguise for absolutely no reason whatsoever.
Also Khan was wisely only used sparingly. He appears just twice in the original Star Trek canon. The Master meanwhile was horribly overused throughout much of Classic Who. As a result of this the Master’s effectiveness as a villain was not only greatly diluted, but he has also been in some absolutely horrendous stories.
Take a look at this scene from one of his latest appearances, The Last of the Time Lords. Here the Master has taken over the earth and aged the Doctor (who for some reason has shrunk?) Whilst the Doctors faithful companion Martha Jones has travelled the entire world for a year and, well see for yourself.
Easily one of the worst scenes in the entire history of either Doctor Who or Star Trek. This scene alone practically puts Khan ahead of the Master. Even the Cumberbatch version of Khan was never in anything as shit as that!
Still even when you look at the Masters best stories like The Deadly Assassin and Survival, they still in my opinion can’t match Wrath of Khan, and at the very least they don’t exceed Space Seed either.
Star Trek definitely takes this.
Doctor Who 3 Star Trek 2
6/ Alien Invaders
The Daleks
The Klingons
This is one that I don’t think many people including even Trekkies would disagree with me on. The Daleks are far better than the Klingons. Both are great villains and both served as great allegories for different things, in the Klingons case the Soviet Union, in the Daleks the Nazi’s. Ultimately however I think the Daleks still have to stand as the better alien invaders.
To start with they are more genuinely alien. The Klingons in the original series look liked us and in later series they still looked by and large like us, except they now had bumpy foreheads. The Daleks however looked totally alien. Okay I can understand that to some people the Daleks design might look a bit silly, but even then no one can deny that their design does not look even remotely human.
It has no legs, no arms, no face, nothing we can recognise. Also in terms of behaviour, the Daleks were more alien than the Klingons too. The Klingons behaved in a very human way. They had their own culture, their own code of honour, their own literature, even their own booze. The Daleks however had nothing we could relate too. They don’t have any culture, there are no Dalek laws, no Dalek customs, no Dalek literature, no Dalek art, no Dalek poetry, no Dalek code of honour, no Dalek society etc.
There are no Daleks that behave differently, no good guy Daleks, no extra fanatical Daleks, no Daleks that seek to gain power for themselves. All the Daleks behave exactly the same from the lowliest drone to the emperor. However they are not merely robots, they are flesh and blood creatures and they are also emotional creatures too. They are not driven by logic, but by irrational fear and hatred of other life forms.
Thus they aren’t really like anything we can relate too. They obviously aren’t like us, but they also don’t resemble any kind of animal, and they aren’t simply robots either.
I don’t really think there are any other aliens you can say that about. The Predator for instance is still very human, not just in terms of how it looks, but its whole warrior culture, whilst the Xenomorph aside from still having some human features like arms, legs and a mouth, is basically just like a big overgrown animal.
The Daleks however to ironically use a Star Trek quote are genuinely “life but not as we know it”.
I also feel that the Daleks simply have more charisma and screen presence than the Klingons. Their rasping, screeching voice alone is instantly imitable, which probably accounts for a large part of their popularity.
Another way you can tell the Daleks have the greater presence is that they take centre stage whenever they appear.
In all of their appearances in Classic Who they are the main villains and the focus is entirely on them except for one story “Frontier in Space”, though even here they are still the main villains, we just don’t find out until the end. In the New Who they have been the main focus in all but two stories they appeared in .
The Klingons however in their appearances in the original series were not always the main villains or focus of the stories. In Errand of Mercy the main focus I feel is on the aliens the Klingons are persecuting, in Fridays child again I feel the main focus is on the aliens. In The Trouble with Tribbles the main focus is on the Tribbles. The Klingons could be replaced by any alien in that story. In Day of the Dove meanwhile the main villain is the alien that is pitting the Klingons and the humans against one another.
The Daleks when compared with the Klingons are just simply too big a presence to be pushed to the side.
Finally the Daleks I feel have made a much larger impact on popular culture than the Klingons have. The Klingons are iconic, but not to the same extent as the Daleks. The Daleks are recognised all around the world. They have popped up in many American television series including “The Simpsons”, “South Park”, “The Big Bang Theory” and also the movie “Looney Tunes Back in Action”.
In the United Kingdom however the Daleks are almost a way of life. Back in the 1960’s the Daleks were ever bit as popular as the Beatles. Britain was gripped in “Dalekmania”, there were Dalek toys, soaps, posters, stage plays and even films based on the monsters.
In the decades since they have still remained popular. Most of the time whenever they return they are on the front of the radio times. The word Dalek even made its way into the dictionary at one point.
The Klingons have never enjoyed that level of fame in Star Treks long history. It could be argued that the Daleks were responsible for Doctor Who’s initial success. The show really took off after they appeared. The Klingons meanwhile I feel were only popular because they were in Star Trek. They piggy backed on the shows popularity, where as with the Daleks if anything back in the 60’s it was the other way around and Doctor Who piggy backed on the Daleks huge popularity to become a monster hit.
Winner
Doctor Who 4 Star Trek 2
Here are some examples of why the Daleks are way more badass than the Klingons just to further ram the point home.
and the final proof when did you last see a Klingon with John Lennon?
7/ Cyborg Invaders
Cybermen
The Borg
This is a bit of tricky one. The Cybermen and the Borg are a very similar concept and indeed many fans of both series have commented on this over the years. Both are mechanical creatures who seek to convert all organic life forms across the universe into members of their own kind.
Its very hard to say which was the better take on the idea. On the one hand when the Cybermen were scary in stories like “Tomb of the Cybermen” and “The Invasion”, they were far more terrifying than the Borg ever were. However over the years the Cybermen I think have been a lot more mistreated than the Borg. They have had their asses kicked by just four Daleks, wiped out by a teenager with a sling shot and beaten up by James Cordens baby.
Cy-Derp Men
Ultimately however even with all of these humiliating defeats, I am still going to have to go with the Cybermen. They still scare me more for a number of reasons.
The thing about the Cybermen is I feel that a lone Cyberman is scary. If you are cornered by a Cyberman then there is really nothing you can do. You can’t reason with it and you certainly can’t fight it off either. You’ll break you fist if you just try and punch it!
Also Cyber conversion is far more terrifying. When they convert you, everything about you goes. You become a totally faceless, emotionless drone.
With the Borg not only can the process be reversed (as seen with Captain Picard who briefly became Locutos), but you can still see traces of the humans they once were in there.
Take a look at this Cyber leader in comparison.
For all you know in life he could have actually been a she. A big, statuesque Lucy Lawless type beauty, or a shy, retiring, cute, nerdy girl with thick glasses like Bernadette from The Big Bang Theory. Or maybe he was a big burly guy, or a frail 86 year old who walked with a stick? We don’t know cause everything this person was has been replaced with a cold lifeless machine.
Cyber conversion is also a far gorier, more drawn out, and painful process than becoming a Borg too.
To me the Cybermen were far more frightening, though again I can see how the Borg are superior in a number of ways, as they were never undermined in quite the same way. Ultimately however I am still going to go with the Cybermen here.
Winner
Doctor Who 5 Star Trek 2
8/ Member of a villainous race who became a good guy
Madame Vastra
Worf
Both Trek and Who have had these types of characters. Vastra a member of the Silurians major enemies from Classic Who, and Worf a member of the Klingons major enemies from the original Star Trek series, who both become proud warrior allies of the main heroes.
Of the two I have to say that Worf is a much better character. As a lead of two long running series he was naturally more well developed than Vastra, who has only been in a few episodes so far. Also whilst I do like Vastra, at times I do feel that she and her sidekick Strax can feel a bit like novelty characters. Worf on the other hand never did, he was always a fully fleshed out member of the crew.
Winner
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9/ Best Leader Of Alien Invaders
Davros
Borg Queen
Davros and the Borg Queen though different characters fulfil a similar role to each other.
They are both not only the commanders of vast interstellar empires, but they also were designed to give the leading characters (The Doctor, Captain Picard and later Captain Janeway) a more human adversary to play off of.
The Daleks and the Borg are great villains, but understandably a lot of the actors playing the Doctor and Patrick Stewart found them quite limiting to play off of, as neither have any individual personalities. They are all mindless drones who mostly just shout their catchphrases “YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED” or “YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!”.
Davros and The Borg Queen both of whom had individual personalities could finally give the leads an adversary they could have a proper confrontation with rather than just simply fight.
You can see how Davros and The Borg Queen gave the Doctor and Picard enemies that they could actually argue with, exchange ideas with.
Now whilst the Borg Queen was a very good villain I think that Davros really has to take this.
The Borg Queen was really just another variant of leader. She had more personality sure, but really she’s just kind a kind of glorified Supreme Dalek, or Cyber Leader.
Davros however created the Daleks and it was fascinating the way we could see how Davros had essentially created these monsters in his own image. Also the relationship Davros had with the Daleks was more complex too.
The Daleks on the one hand despised Davros almost as much as the Doctor as he is a non Dalek and therefore the enemy. However they also do still have some form of twisted affection for him.
Davros didn’t just simply give the Daleks life. He poured all of his own twisted beliefs into the Daleks and gave them their purpose to conquer all other life forms in the universe.
The monsters know that they would literally be nothing without him so they can never quite bring themselves to kill him. There are so many opportunities where they could have finished him for good yet they almost never take it. In Revelation of the Daleks for instance they decide to take him back to Skaro to stand trial for his crimes against them, rather than just simply zap him there and then.
Similarly in Genesis of the Daleks though they do shoot him, they don’t stick around to finish the job and Davros ultimately survives. Whilst some might argue that the Daleks simply didn’t know that his life support machine could keep him alive, in the next story Destiny of the Daleks it is revealed that the Daleks knew that he had survived as ultimately they are searching for him.
Again why would they leave a lesser life form alive for so many centuries just to gather cobwebs? Simple, because they couldn’t quite bring themselves to murder Davros. In a twisted way, he’s the closest thing the Daleks have to a father.
The Borg Queen’s relationship with her drones was ultimately not as interesting as at the end of the day they were just her servants. Davros was ultimately a more interesting take on the idea of giving a race drones a leader with an individual personality.
Winner
Doctor Who 6 Star Trek 3
10/ Best Story of Original Series Run
Genesis of the Daleks
Balance of Terror
Two television classics. Both of these stories instantly disprove the myth that Star Trek and Doctor Who are silly, childish series.
There’s really nothing I can fault about either story. The cast are all superb. William Shatner and Tom Baker are at their absolute best here, and the actors playing the main villains Mark Lenard as the Romulan commander (who later landed the role of Spock’s father) and Michael Wisher as Davros are among the best guest stars either show ever had. They both bring a tremendous amount of gravitas and menace to the villains.
Both stories whilst exciting on the surface, also have very deep meanings behind them. Genesis shows us how evil men like Davros can rise to power and even reshape an entire society in their own twisted image, not just through their own cunning, but through the idiocy and inaction of those around them. The Kaleds, Davros’ own people whom he later wipes out still foolishly think they can reason with him, whilst the Thals stupidly fall for Davros’ lies simply because its what they want to hear.
Balance of Terror meanwhile shows us how ironically the soldiers who fight in wars are not always actually enemies. They are often people who are being forced to fight someone else’s battle, and were it not for the great powers who are forcing millions of young men to slaughter each other, the combatants might have even been friends.
You can view Genesis of the Daleks as being World War 2, as we have a twisted, evil, xenophobic maniac who creates a new order of xenophobic maniacs to wage war against anyone who doesn’t fit his idea of the perfect being. Balance of Terror meanwhile is World War 1, in that it involves two great armies whose men don’t even want to fight and unlike the Nazis or the Daleks, have no real hatred towards one another, but have to fight anyway in what is ultimately a pointless conflict.
Now as for which of these two stories is better, well that’s very hard to choose. Still I’m going to go with Genesis here only because Genesis is slightly more interesting for me, in the way it takes us into the full history of Skaro. Skaro is a truly nightmarish world. Its surface has been destroyed by a thousand year conflict, the most hideous mutants roam the wastelands and the two intelligent life forms, the Thals and the Kaleds are both evil.
Its not hard to see how the most evil monsters in the entire universe could emerge from such a place.
Winner
Only marginally
Doctor Who 7 Star Trek 3
11/ Best Story of the Sequel Series
Day of the Doctor
The Chain of Command
I’m giving this to Star Trek. Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary story did its job of not only celebrating the history of Doctor Who, but also moving the series forward by having the Doctors save Gallifrey. I’m really looking forward to seeing where Steven Moffat takes the search for Galifrey story arc.
However I feel that Chain of Command is still the better story for a number of reasons. First of all its easier to watch. Day of the Doctor really only makes sense to a life long Doctor Who fan. To be fair that is kind of the point of an anniversary story, but still I can’t imagine even a casual fan having any time for it.
The Chain of Command meanwhile I think would hold up to even a non Star Trek fan as its a fantastic story all around. It’s a brilliant character piece as we see the sadistic Gul Madred slowly try and break Picard’s will. Gul is definitely one of the shows most effective villains. David Warner who plays him is amazing in the role, and gives the villain an eerie charm.
My favourite moment is definitely the final confrontation between the two when Maldred has been ordered to release Picard, but tries one last time to break his enemy.
Though its true the story obviously borrows from George Orwell’s classic novel 1984, it does still manage to do something new with it. Definitely one of Patrick Stewarts best performances; there is really nothing wrong with this story which sadly I cannot say about Day of the Doctor
Though I do like Day of the Doctor, it’s true that the Zygon story with Queen Elizabeth is silly and takes up far too much of the episode.
Winner
Doctor Who 7 Star Trek 4
12/ Best Ancient Astronaut story
Pyramids of Mars
Who Mourns For Adonais
Both Star Trek and Doctor Who have done stories that revealed the gods were aliens. “Who Mourns for Adonas” and “Pyramids of Mars”. Both stories I think demonstrate the differences between Who and Trek better than anything else. The Star Trek take on this story is a very romantic, philosophical story where the villain is still a very human character for better or for worse.
The Doctor Who take on this story meanwhile is a very dark, frightening story where the main villain is a total out and out monster. Both stories are all time classics and it isn’t really fair to compare them, as even though they touch on the same subject, they try something completely different and succeed just as much at what they set out to do.
Still since the point of this article is to compare them, I would have to again go with Doctor Who. Sutekh the destroyer terrified me growing up. I defy anyone to find a better villains voice than Gabriel Woof, the actor who plays him.
Winner
Doctor Who 8 Star Trek 4
13/ Best Alternate Universe Story
Inferno
Mirror Mirror
Alternate universes are another subject that Trek and Who have touched on many times in their history, but definitely the most famous example from each would be “Mirror Mirror” from Trek and “Inferno” from Doctor Who.
I must admit at first I thought I would have gone for the Who story as Inferno has always been a favourite of mine, but ultimately Trek is the winner here. “Mirror Mirror” is really the daddy of all alternate universe stories. It’s where all of the others including Inferno come from. Both stories are classics though and both offer us an interesting insight into the characters of the Brigadier and Spock.
Their evil selves represent what they could become if they were raised in a different environment. Their evil counterparts are the same people underneath. The Brigade leader is just as devoted to the military as the regular Brig is, whilst the bearded Spock relies on logic just like our version, but because both are now working for a corrupt regime they are the villains,. Still Star Trek wins, as Doctor Who was really following Star Trek’s lead.
Winner
Doctor Who 8 Star Trek 5
14/ Best movie
Daleks Invasion Earth 2150AD
Star Trek 2 The Wrath of Khan
This isn’t really a fair fight is it? The two Cushing movies are great, cheesy, 60’s fun, but Wrath of Khan is one of the greatest films ever made simple as that.
Winner
Doctor Who 8 Star Trek 6
15/ Worst story
Love and Monsters
The Omega Glory
Much like in deciding who was better Adric or Wesley Crusher, here we will determine who is the winner by looking at which is the less awful out of the two worst episodes. This time its Star Trek that’s the winner. The Omega Glory is terrible, dated, crap. I cringe at that moment when the American flag is brought out, however even that is still better than “Love and Monsters” with its abzorbing monsters, lame jokes about Doctor Who fandom, soap opera drivel and blow job or rim job jokes.
Winner
Doctor Who 8 Star Trek 7
16/ Best story where a main character dies
Adric/ Earthshock
Tasha Yar/ Skin of Evil
Doctor Who wins this as Adrics death at the hands of the Cybermen was far more moving, unexpected and quite bleak too, as Adric dies alone, scared and thinking that he failed to save billions of innocent people. Also the Cybermen are a better villain than Armus to kill off a main character.
Winner
Doctor Who 9 Star Trek 7
17/ Best story where a historical figure fights a monster
Vincent and the Doctor
The Savage Curtain
Doctor Who takes this easy. Vincent and the Doctor is a truly moving and poignant piece of television. It gives us one of the most mature and sensitive depictions of someone suffering from mental illness I have ever seen on tv.
Its not afraid to show how difficult it can be dealing with someone with severe mental health problems, and how sometimes a persons issues can be too great for any help. It also explores the ignorance some people can have of depression too, with Vincent Van Gogh being show to be treated as a freak by those around him.
Still at the same time it also shows how every little bit of support is important regardless of whatever happens. Even though the Doctor and Amy ultimately fail to help Van Gogh overcome his problems, the Doctor still feels that it was worth it as they still made him happy for a short period of time at least.
Winner
Doctor Who 10 Star Trek 7
18/ Best crossover episode
The Three Doctors
Trials and Tribble ations
Star Trek wins this time. I love the Three Doctors, but the Star Trek episode is better as it actually takes us back into the original series. It’s not just simply a case of the original character comes back. Here we actually do get to see the two very different worlds collide which is a lot more fun and unusual.
Winner
Doctor Who 10 Star Trek 8
19/ Best Cosmic Love Story
The Pandorica Opens/ The Big Bang
City On The Edge of Forever
As good a love story as Rory waiting outside a box for 10000 years for Amy is, I don’t think any of us can really forget Captain Kirk and Joan Collins tragic love story. Though “City on the Edge of Forever” may seem unoriginal now, that’s only because it has been copied billions of times since. Indeed it’s the precursor to many Doctor Who episodes, such as the Waters of Mars which sees the Time Lord become torn on whether to save one good person and change history in catastrophic ways, or sacrifice an innocent persons life for the greater good.
Winner
Doctor Who 10 Star Trek 9
20/ Best story with an evil version of the Hero
Amy’s Choice
The Enemy Within
“Amy’s Choice” is a great episode and the Dream Lord is a very memorable character. However Star Trek has to take the lead here as its story is I feel much more bold and daring in terms of how evil it is willing to make the darker version of the hero (which is ultimately what we want to see from a story like this.) It has its evil version of the hero Kirk actually try and rape somebody. To have your main character, even just an evil version of them try and do something like that is incredibly shocking even by today’s standards, and an example of how Trek was willing to push the boundaries too.
Winner
Doctor Who 10 Star Trek 10
21/ Best theme
Doctor Who wins this one for me. There have been several Star Trek themes over the years where as Doctor Who has kept the one theme. There are different arrangements of it, but its basically the same theme. The best Star Trek theme for me would be the one that was used in the film series and the Next Generation. Even it however is not quite as brilliantly off beat and surreal as Doctor Who’s.
Winner
Doctor Who 11 Star Trek 10
22/ Best Love Story Where Someone Is Trapped In Another Place Away From Their One True Love Forever
Doomsday
All Our Yesterdays
A very specific idea, but again an example of how Doctor Who and Star Trek often explored similar concepts to each other.
In the Doctor Who story Doomsday, the Doctors greatest enemies, the Daleks and the Cybermen invade the earth. The Doctor defeats them by pulling both armies into the void, the nothingness between universes (there are shades of another classic Star Trek episode The Alternative Factor here, where the two versions of Lazarus are trapped in the nothingness between universes, fighting each other forever.)
Unfortunately however Rose, the woman the Doctor loves, ends up trapped in another universe as a result, and there is seemingly no way the Doctor can find her again. At the end of the episode however the Time Lord is able to send a projection of himself through one tiny little crack left between the universes. Sadly before he can tell Rose he loves her he is cut off, leaving both the Doctor and Rose heartbroken.
In All Our Yesterdays, Kirk and McCoy end up trapped back in the past of an alien world that is about to be consumed by its own sun, after accidentally falling through a portal created by a time machine. The two land in a barren ice age, where there is no intelligent life except for one woman named Zarabeth.
Zarabeth reveals that she was sent back here as punishment after taking part in a failed rebellion. If she ever leaves this time, then she will die. She lies that after having travelled through time, Spock and McCoy can’t travel forward back the way or else they will die too.
Zarabeth and Spock soon fall in love, but McCoy soon discovers her deception. Furthermore, Kirk back in the present discovers that as they were not prepared, Spock and McCoy will die if they don’t get back to the future and Spock is forced to leave Zarabeth behind in the past, where she will remain alone for the rest of her life.
As you can see both stories explore the idea of two lovers being separated by entire worlds. Both stories even feature the lovers standing on either side of a wall with it only looking like its the wall separating them, when it is in fact two entire realities.
Now both stories are classics, but I am going to give this to Star Trek. I have never liked romance stories with the Doctor. I just don’t think it works with the character. The Doctor really is most effective as the Holmesian, professorial, crazy old uncle type of figure.
Also I think that All Our Yesterday’s is a far more moving and tragic story all around too. Whilst it’s sad that Rose ends up separated from the Doctor, she does still live a brilliant life in that other universe. Indeed arguably better than the one she would have had with the Doctor.
She lives in a mansion with her whole family (including an alternate version of her dad who died in her universe) and she has a job that she love where she hunts monsters and saves the world.
Zarabeth on the other hand lives in a miserable little dark cave, in a frozen wasteland, with only raw bits of meat for company. It’s a miserable existence and there is nothing the main characters can do to save her from it. The final shot where she walks away crying as Spock is forced to leave her is absolutely heartbreaking.
It also doesn’t help that Russell T Davies would later go on to undo the ending of Doomsday two years later by not only having Rose return to our universe and reunite with the Doctor, but also later gain her own Doctor clone too.
Winner
Doctor Who 11 Star Trek 11
23/ Best All Powerful Organisation That Forbids Its Members To Interfere
Time Lords
United Federation of Planets
The Federation and the Time Lords are similar in some respects.
The Time Lords are the Doctors people and the most advanced race in the universe. After abusing their power for centuries, the Time Lords vowed to never interfere in the affairs of other planets ever again.
The Doctor however obviously broke this law many times. Originally he simply wanted to explore the universe as he was bored back on Gallifrey, but he ended up interfering in the affairs of other planets due to his strong sense of morals.
The Federation meanwhile represents the unification of several planets including the Earth and Vulcan. Just like the Time Lords they are forbidden to interfere in the affairs of other life forms. This law is known as the Prime Directive.
As I have been over both Kirk and the Doctor frequently get into trouble with the higher ups in the Federation and the High Council of the Time Lords.
Whilst I liked the Time Lords, I do think that the Federation were better. The Time Lords were very inconsistent. They went from being all powerful, benevolent gods, to corrupt, petty bureaucrats with primitive technology, to evil, vengeful monsters wanting to destroy all of creation. The Doctors attitude towards them changed too, from wanting desperately to get back to them in the Hartnell era, to being scared of being caught by them in Troughton’s time, to being annoyed with them, but respecting them in Pertwee’s time, to looking down on them in Tom’s time, to wanting to destroy them in the Tennant era, to finally doing all he could to save them in the 50th.
Also the Time Lords were best used fleetingly. The more we saw of them in stories like Trial of a Time Lord, the less interesting they became.
Winner
Doctor Who 11 Star Trek 12
24/ Best All Powerful God Like Villain
Black Guardian
Q
These two creatures power and very nature borders on the supernatural. They are the closest thing the Star Trek and the Doctor Who universes have to Gods.
I am going to go with Doctor Who here. The Black Guardian was a brilliant villain. He was only used fleetingly and whenever he did appear he was genuinely menacing.
Q meanwhile to start with was horribly over used. Also much like Wesley Crusher at times he did feel like a bit of a creators pet. Whilst I don’t dislike the character quite as much as some other fans, ultimately I think the Black Guardian was the far more sinister take on the idea.
Winner
Doctor Who 12 Star Trek 12
25/ Best Ship
Tardis
USS Enterprise
Doctor Who takes this. I do like the Enterprise. It has a spectacular design and is rightfully recognised around the world just as much as the Tardis.
However the Tardis is better in a number of ways for me. First of all it’s alive, and therefore can never be replaced, unlike the Enterprise which has been replaced many times.
Also the Tardis can travel to anywhere in the universe, and its virtually indestructable. The Tardis I feel is more unique the way it’s bigger on the inside than the outside too. It blends a classic sci fi idea like time travel, with surrealist ideas.
You can compare the Enterprise to a dozen other spaceships (though granted that’s only because most of them have copied the Enterprise.) Still the Tardis truly is one of a kind.
Winner
Doctor Who 13 Star Trek 12
26/ Best Reptile People
Silurians
Voth
Two very similar races. The Silurians first appeared in the 1970 story Doctor Who and the Silurians. They were a highly advanced race of reptile men who lived during the time of the Dinosaurs. When they discovered that an asteroid was destined to collide with their planet, they sealed themselves below ground in hibernation chambers where they would remain for 65 million years in suspended animation, until the humans accidentally awoke them.
The Silurians would then attempt to wipe humanity out, though later stories would show some Silurians live in peace with humanity. The recurring character of Vastra for instance who not only becomes an ally of the Doctor and protects humanity from various other threats, but she later ends up marrying a human woman named Jenny.
The Voth meanwhile evolved on the earth during the time of the Dinosaurs, and like the Silurians built a highly advanced society. They left the planet when they discovered it was going to be hit by an asteroid and travelled to the farthest reaches of space, eventually settling in the Delta Quadrant. The Voth would come to believe that they originated in the Delta Quadrant but would later discover their true origins.
Much like with the Borg and the Cybermen, many fans of both series have commented on the similarities between the Voth and the Silurians.
As for which is better, well that’s very hard to say as there is so little differences between them? Really I think the only way to decide is by looking at the quality of the stories they were in. Personally I think that the Silurians first appearance, Doctor Who and the Silurians was better than any Voth episode. Though at the same time Warriors of the Deep another Silurian story is one of the worst stories in either Doctor Who or Star Trek.
Still as I do love the Silurians first story then I’ll go with Doctor Who this time. I suppose though a more accurate assessment would be the Voth never reached the heights of the Silurians, but they never plumbed the depths of their worst stories either.
Winner
Doctor Who 14 Star Trek 12
27/ Best Electronic Sidekick
K9
The Doctor
Star Trek wins this one. K9, the Doctors pet robot dog is to be fair far more iconic than the hologram, the Doctor from Star Trek Voyager.
Still that doesn’t mean that he isn’t still a a somewhat gimmicky character who was more of a toy advert than a character.
The Doctor meanwhile was a great character all around. In fact I’d say he was my favourite from Voyager and Robert Picardo was brilliant in the role.
Winner
Doctor Who 14 Star Trek 13
28/ Best Story Where Time Is Changed And Humanity Is Doomed
Day of the Daleks
Yesterday’s Enterprise
Now this is a very difficult one to choose as both stories are among the best of either Doctor Who or Star Trek.
Both involve a change in history creating a timeline where humanity is at war with, or even conquered by the main villains of the franchise, the Klingons and the Daleks.
Day of the Daleks sees a group of humans from a Dalek ruled future travel back to the 20th century to kill the man they believe is responsible for their terrible future, Sir Reginald Styles.
Earth is on the brink of a third world war in the 1970’s, and Styles has gathered together all of the world leaders to try and reach a peaceful solution. Unfortunately however it turns out that Styles is a maniac and after gathering all of the world leaders together, he kills them all and himself in an explosion.
World War 3 begins and devastates the earth allowing it to be easily conquered by the Daleks. The Doctor discovers however in a brilliant twist that it was actually one of the rebels who caused the war. In a last ditch attempt to kill Styles the rebel blew himself up, being unaware that the other delegates were in the house at the time.
In Yesterday’s Enterprise the timeline is changed thanks to the presence of USS Enterprise C which falls through a time rift. Originally Enterprise C was destroyed whilst defending a Klingon outpost from an attack by the Romulans. This action helped to establish an alliance between the Klingons and the Federation (among other things.)
Sadly however now that that never happened the Federation and the Klingons are at war with each other and the Enterprise D’s crew must do all they can to get the Enterprise C back through the anomaly, even though it will mean the death of the entire crew.
Both stories represent among the best time travel adventures in either show, but which is better? Well I honestly can’t choose. On the one hand Day of the Daleks I think uses the concept of time being changed in a more interesting way. It’s a brilliant twist that the people who tried to make their future better ended up creating the nightmare they live in instead.
Yesterday’s Enterprise’s time paradox is more of a straight forward problem, just someone falling through time. However on the other hand, Yesterday’s Enterprise explores the effects that the change has on the main characters better.
One of the characters Tasha Yar was killed in the original timeline, and has to face the dilemma of either staying in a horrible timeline, or dying a pointless death in the original better timeline. Yesterday’s Enterprise is also somewhat bolder in the way it shows main characters like Riker be butchered on screen by the Klingons.
Ultimately for the first time I am going to have to call it a draw.
Doctor Who 14 Star Trek 13
29/ Best Story Where Main Character Is Consumed With Hatred For Hostile Alien Race
Dalek
First Contact
In these two stories the Doctor and Captain Picard are so consumed with hatred for the Daleks and the Borg that they begin to lose their heads.
Again it’s hard to choose which is better. I’d say as stories they are just as well acted and written as one another. Dalek is a more low key story sure, but for what it sets out to do then it’s just as good.
However I think that Dalek tackles the main heroes hatred of his mortal enemies in a more effective way. I think in First Contact they try and point out the comparisons with Captain Ahab a bit too much. They had already done the Moby Dick in space thing with Wrath of Khan and it really felt like they were just retreading old ground here.
These scenes I think demonstrate why the Daleks and the Borg are so popular with viewers. They really get under the main heroes skin like no other villain.
Doctor Who 15 Star Trek 13
30/ Best Story Where Brains In Jars Take Over A Society
The Keys of Marinus
The Gamesters of Triskelion
Both of these adventures have the same basic core premise. They revolve around a race who has evolved beyond the need for bodies as their brains are so well developed they can control others with their minds.
They both enslave the other humanoid life forms on the planet around them and torment them for their own amusement.
I am going with Star Trek here. The Gamesters of Triskelion is really the quintessential 60’s cheesy Star Trek episode. It’s certainly not the best, but it’s still tremendous fun. So much of what we think of when we think of Star Trek comes from this episode such as Kirk teaching an alien woman how to love, or the famous fighting music
Its hard to believe that in 26 years they never gave the Doctor great fighting music.
Winner
Doctor Who 15 Star Trek 14
Final score Doctor Who 15 Star Trek 14
Conclusion
The Third Doctor fanboying over Captain Kirk.
Doctor Who is better in this bloggers opinion. It wins barely by a 15/14. I am surprised in a way as I always preferred the Beatles to the Rolling Stones, but to be fair I think I have always known in my heart that Who was my favourite. Overall two great shows, and franchises, but Doctor Who is just a little bit more special to me. Still that’s just my opinion. Tell me what do you think?
Mark Gatiss is a tv cult legend. Whether for his roles in “Doctor Who”, “Sherlock”, “Being Human” or “The League of Gentleman”, Gatiss has amassed a truly impressive body of work over his long career as a writer, director and actor.
However I’ve noticed recently that Gatiss frequently has something horrible happen to him in just about everything he is in. I suppose he could be called the John Hurt of comedy, as John Hurt similarly often played the victims such as Mr Olivander, Winston Smith, Kane, The Elephant Man and Quentin Crisp. (Ironically they even mention this about John Hurt in The League of Gentleman itself.) Gatiss similarly I feel often plays the victim and even when he doesn’t, something bad will still happen to him.
To date Mycroft Holmes is the only prominent role of Gatiss’s I can think of off the top of my head where he is not either, tortured, killed, humiliated or had all of his dreams crushed before him.
Here are what I feel are the worst fates that have befallen Gatiss’ characters throughout his long career.
10/ Mr Snow/ Blown up
A light one compared to some of the stuff that is to follow. Mr Snow is the leader of all the Vampires and seeks to overthrow the world. In an alternate timeline he actually succeeds and murders the Prime Minister on television. (Imagine watching Mark Gatiss rip David Cameron’s throat out on television. That doesn’t seem that bad a future after all.) Snow then establishes a Nazi like regime where Vampires rule over Werewolves and human beings. However his plans are foiled by the ghost Annie Sawyer, who detonates a bomb that destroys Mr Snow and all of the Vampires.
9/ David/ Turned into a Monster then burned to death
David is the son of Tubbs and Edward and at first is portrayed as a nice, charming well mannered individual. It’s hard to believe he could have come from Tubbs and Edward. Unfortunately however when David returns to try and take his mother away from his abusive father, Edward corners David alone and the next time we see him, David has become like his parents, a deranged “local” pig nosed freak.
One shudders to think what Edward did to him. By the time we next see him, David has degenerated further into a hairy, bestial monster that frequently eats people. Even Tubbs and Edward are scared of him. Ultimately however David is burned to death by the angry villagers of Royston Vasey on the night of his wedding to Barbara.
8/ Jason Griffen/ Strangled to Death
Gatiss appeared briefly in Pemberton and Shearsmith’s series Pscychoville as a bumbling actor who ends up stumbling into David and Maureen Sowerbutts flat. David and Maureen are essentially a mother and son version of Tubbs and Edward, with Shearsmith once again playing the more evil of the two. At first the two believe Jason to be a detective, but when they discover he is an actor, they don’t want to kill him. Sadly however when the actor discovers the body of another of their victims they are forced to strangle him to death. Though David is still reluctant, Maureen is absolutely loving it which just makes it even more disturbing.
7/ Scarecrow Man/ Strung up in a field
Andrew has an affair with Farmer Tinsel’s wife and in retaliation Tinsel strings him up in a field and tortures him for months on end. Later when two young girls stumble upon Andrew they decide to leave him there as they think if they released him he wouldn’t be their friend any more. It is not known what became of Andrew, but it can be assumed he either died or is still strung up in that field being tortured daily.
6/ Mr Chinnery/ Cursed for eternity
Poor Mr Chinnery means well, but after his ancestor, (also a vet) was cursed every animal he has treated has been killed in the most horrible of ways. Chinnery has put the wrong dog to sleep, pulled a cows guts out through its arsehole, and electrocuted fish, birds and even their owners on many occasions. Though it is implied that the curse is broken in the Christmas special, I can’t imagine that the writers of the show would have let him get off that easy.
5/ Gantok/ Eaten alive by flying skulls.
Gantok is a minor character who appears in the “The Wedding of River Song”. He is devoured by several flying skulls after he tries to kill the Doctor for beating him at chess. Despite this the Doctor does still try and save him, but he ends up getting torn apart anyway. This is probably Gatiss’s most OTT death, though not his most horrible.
4/ Hang Man Chan/ Eaten by crabs
An overlooked series in my opinion, Dr Terrible’s House of Horrible was a parody of all the old classic British Horror movies from Hammer and Amicus and also of other old classic British series such as Doctor Who and Jason King. By far and away my favorite entry in the series was the second episode, which featured Gatiss as the hilariously camp villain Hang Man Chan, known as the “Sinister bony fingered menace from the east”.
The character and the episode in general parodied some of the racism from these old British series, though not in a sneering way, as it is to be expected that television series from the 1960’s might not be quite as progressive as those of today.
Chang meets a very grisly end at the hands of Steve Coogan’s Nathan Blaze who is a send up of heroes like Jason King. First Blaze throws Chan several thousand feet onto jaggy rocks, but Chan survives thanks to his servants (the crabs) who give him a new crab arm. Blaze however then dips Chan’s clawed hand into boiling water and rips the skin off of it. Chan still survives and is then finally finished off when Blaze feeds him to his own crabs who pull him under water and rip him to pieces.
3/ Haig/ Eaten by David
Gatiss seems to get eaten quite a lot. Haig is some poor bastard who stumbles upon the local shop for a can of coke. After a disagreement over a “can of can’t” Haig awakens David, and Tubbs and Edward decide to make him David’s new “friend”. They capture Haig, take him upstairs and throw him in the same room as David who has now become a monster. Edward assures Tubbs that David will “like him to pieces” and Haig is last shown attempting to crawl out of Davids room before being pulled back in. As he is never seen again it can be assumed David devoured Haig, though as Tubbs and Edward meant “friend” as in wife, it is possible that David may have done other nasty things to him first.
2/ Les McQueen/ Ruined by his former bandmates
Les is arguably the most sympathetic character in the League of Gentlemen. He was once in a band called “Cremebule” who were on the verge of making it big, but were then blown away by the Sex Pistols and faded into obscurity. “Then punk rock came alongand that were the end of us“. He constantly tries to relive his glory days with disastrous results. In the last episode he appears, Les finally meets up with his old bandmates, who it is revealed don’t care about him and actually manage to con Les out of all his life savings a few days before his retirement. The look on his face before he is conned out of all of his cash is heartbreaking. In the live show which is of debatable canon he does manage to land a recording contract, but is electrocuted on stage at his first gig.
1/ Builder/ Tortured to death by Tubbs and Edward
Gatiss played many of Tubbs and Edwards victims including the young boy they burn alive and the police man who comes looking for him in the first episode as well as obviously Haig. However by far and away their most memorable victims are the two builders of new road, one of whom Gatiss plays. These two unfortunate souls are subject to excruciating and prolonged torture. Edward strips them, forces them to watch Tubbs breast feed a pig, smears seering hot tar over their naked bodies and performs insane rituals where Tubbs molests them, before Edward cuts the builders free and shoots them down like animals with a crossbow bolt.
The Doctor has one of the nastiest rogues galleries of any hero. He’s fought everything from Vampires, to living statues, to Nazi pepperpots, to Satan himself!
Still there have been a few of his enemies that have seen the error of their ways and even sought redemption. Compiled in this list are at least 10 of the Doctors major enemies who ultimately switched sides.
10/ Skaldak
One of the most evil members of the Ice Warrior race, enemies of the Doctor who date back to the 1960’s. Skaldak seemed beyond redemption as he ruthlessly slaughtered and dissected several innocent soldiers. He even tried to destroy the planet earth by kicking off a third world war, seemingly on a whim.
Ultimately however Skaldak proved he was really a big softie underneath as he not only spared Clara, but later humanity itself too. It can be argued however that he wouldn’t have been so generous, had his own people not shown up to rescue him. Whatever the case, at least he didn’t kick off world war 3, or force the 11th Doctor to slaughter everyone on the sub in order to stop him.
9/ The Master
Yes the Doctors archenemy actually makes the list. In his latest appearance as of the writing of this article, the Master not only helped the Doctor stop Rassilon’s plan to destroy every universe, but he also actually gave his life to save his former foe. Blasting Rassilon back in the “hell” of the Time War, the Master prevented Rassilon from destroying the Doctor completely and seemed to recant, or at least for the first time regretted all of the evil he had committed and even just who had become. The Master declared that without Rassilon’s lifetime of manipulation, he could have been something so much more “You did this to me! All of my life!“. Personally I would rank this moment as John Simm’s best ever performance in the role. It truly was the perfect ending to his version of the character.
As much as I love the Master, I would actually be happy if he never appeared again as this was such a fabulous ending for him. Due to his popularity we all know that the Master is destined to reappear again at some point, and chances are his reformation at the end of this story wont stick. Still for now I’m including him on this list as the last time we saw him he was performing an act of heroism and self sacrifice.
Another cool thing about the Masters sacrifice in “The End of Time” is that this was how Roger Delgado’s Master was to have originally died in Jon Pertwee’s final story by sacrificing himself to save the Doctor. Sadly however Delgado’s tragic and untimely death prevented this.
I have no idea if Russell T Davies, the writer of “The End of Time” wrote this in as a deliberate homage to the intended end to Delgado’s Master. Davies is a huge fan of the Pertwee era in particular, so its possible that this was an intentional nod. Either way it was great to see the Master ironically give his life for his Time Lord nemesis. It would have been the perfect end for Delgado’s Master, and it was the perfect end for Simms too.
8/ Noah
Noah is a rather unfortunate individual in the classic serial “The Ark in Space” who is transformed into a Wirren, a gigantic cockroach like alien. As a Wirren, Noah attempts to slaughter the last of humanity who are kept in suspended animation. The Fourth Doctor is able to get through to him however, and Noah instead sacrifices himself to save mankind in one of the classic era’s most moving moments.
7/ Dalek Caan
The true hero of “Journey’s End” Dalek Caan manipulates the Doctor and Donna’s time stream in order to ensure that both of them are able to stop the Daleks reality bomb and save every universe. Prior to this story, Caan had been one of the Tenth Doctors worst enemies. As a member of the Cult of Skaro, he not only killed many innocent people, but he was also technically at least partly responsible for the Doctor losing Rose too. However he managed to change his evil ways when he stared into the time vortex and saw all of the evils the Daleks had committed throughout history, which shocked even him. I always loved Caan’s final line to Davros where he explains why he has betrayed his kind “I saw the Daleks, what we had done throughout time and space I saw the truth of us, creator and I decreed no more“.
6/ Kroton
A Cyberman, one of the Doctor’s greatest enemies. To be fair Kroton himself was never specifically an enemy of the Doctor, but the Cybermen as a whole were so he still qualifies for me. Kroton was a Cybermen who developed human emotions and helped the planet Mondarin repel a Cyberman invasion. He would later battle Sontarans before joining the Eighth Doctor and Izzy as a companion. He would then go on many adventures with them before saving every single universe from being destroyed by the Master, after which he took over as the guardian of all of creation. The character only appears in spin off material, though the Eleventh Doctor would later go on to have a Cyberman companion too.
5/ Yvonne Hartman
Another Cyberman, Yvonne is different however in that she was actually a villain before she became a Cyberman. As the head of Torchwood, Yvonne captured the Doctor, messed around with the Void, which not only put two universe in danger, but allowed a whole invasion fleet of Daleks and Cybermen to emerge and slaughter millions of innocent people. However after being converted into a Cyberman, Yvonne somehow managed to retain her mind and held off a group of Cybermen by herself long enough for the Doctor and Rose to send the Dalek and Cyberman armies into the void. Ironically Yvonne is probably the first person to become a hero once they became a Cyberman.
4/ Dalek Sec
Dalek Sec was the leader of the Cult of Skaro and therefore the main villain in the two part season 2 finale Army of Ghosts/Doomsday. However in his next appearance Sec merged with a human being and subsequently developed human emotions. He became the first Dalek that the Doctor genuinely respected as a result, with the Doctor even referring to Sec as a “great man”. However Sec gets even more credit for being the first, and to date only Dalek to literally get in the way of Dalek fire and sacrifice himself for the Time Lord. The Doctor also believed that Sec was the only person who could have redeemed the Daleks as well. “The only creature who could have led you out of the darkness and you destroyed him”.
3/ Lytton
Originally Lytton was an enemy of the Fifth Doctor in the story “Resurrection of the Daleks”. He was portrayed as a thoroughly ruthless individual who was perfectly willing to slaughter his own men to save his own neck. Naturally Colin Baker’s more volatile Sixth Doctor was less forgiving towards Lytton, and refused to believe Lytton when he insisted that he wasn’t working for the Cybermen. However it soon turned out Lytton was telling the truth and was even helping to Cryons to stop the Cybermen and save both earth and time itself from them. Sadly by the time the Doctor had figured this out the Cybermen had already mostly converted Lytton, and though the Doctor still tried to save him, he was ultimately beaten to death by the Cybercontroller. Still Lytton’s last action at least bought the Doctor enough time to destroy the Cyber controller once and for all.
You think Yvonne got it bad.
2/ The Paternoster Gang
I never would have thought back in the Pertwee era that I would one day watch a Sontaran and a Silurian help the Doctor defeat the Great Intelligence!
The Paternoster Gang have become one of the most popular supporting characters in the history of the series. Having appeared in five episodes so far, they have helped the Doctor take on a whole host of other villains including The Great Intelligence, The Headless Monks and Mr Sweet. They fall into the same category as other teams the Doctor has worked with such as UNIT, The Children of Time and Jago and Litefoot, in that they are really more of a family for the Doctor who know him through multiple lives. In “Deep Breath” they were even used the same way UNIT were for Robot to help the transition from one Doctor to the next, though again its ironic that this time the Doctors family are made up of some of his worst enemies.
1/ Rusty
Yet another good guy Dalek from the latest Doctor Who episode “Into the Dalek”. Ironically the Daleks have more good guys here than any of the Doctors other enemies. In fact there are many more good guy Daleks than on this list. There is the one in a million Dalek, the Metaltron, Alpha, Beta and Omega and the Oswin Dalek. I could have filled the list with nothing but Daleks!
Rusty to me was the best attempt at doing a benevolent Dalek yet. He wasn’t simply a Dalek that had been infected with humanity, he was a Dalek that had simply learned to hate his own kind.
Techinically he isn’t really a good Dalek. He still has the same rage and hatred except that now it is towards the Daleks themselves, rather than humanity. Ironically he learned it from the Doctor. The original ending to “Into the Dalek” was to have had Rusty die, but the fact that the writers spared him suggests to me at least that they may bring him back for future episodes. I would love to see Rusty again help the Doctor out on future mission against the Daleks, or maybe even another enemy. However I hope that he is treated seriously in every one of his appearances and not turned into a comic relief like Strax. I realize a lot of people might not like the idea of the Doctor having a Dalek ally, but personally I think it could be quite an interesting to see one member of their kind wage war on them. We saw that briefly with Dalek Caan, but Rusty could take us deeper into the idea.
The Master is one of the Doctors most iconic enemies. Having faced almost every incarnation of the Time Lord on screen, the Master has also been responsible for the death’s of more incarnations of the Doctor than any other villain in the series.
Despite this however it has now been four years since the renegade Time Lord last graced our screens, and personally I think he’s due a comeback against Peter Capaldi’s Doctor. In this list I am going to run through 10 actors that I think would be excellent as the villain.
This is assuming that John Simm (who is still as of the writing of this article the incumbent in the role) does not want to come back. Contrary to popular belief, Simm does not shun Doctor Who or its fans. Simm has said that he is very proud to have been a part of the franchise.
Nevertheless Simm generally seems to talk about the Master as though it’s in his past. If Simm did want to reprise his role, I would be more than happy, but since he does appear to have left, these are the men who I think would be good as his replacement.
10/ Michael Wincott
Michael Wincott is an actor known for playing mostly villainous characters. By far and away my favourite performance of his is as Topdollar, the main villain in “The Crow”. Topdollar is a truly loathsome character. Among his many crimes include stabbing his lackeys in the throat with swords, throwing young girls off of roof tops for fun and organising the rape and brutal murder of the main heroes girlfriend. To top it off he regularly sleeps with his sister too!
If Wincott were to be cast as the Master, I think he would take us back to the Peter Pratt/Geoffrey Beavers type of Master. Their version of the character was more gritty, vicious and in some ways more terrifying than the other Masters.
9/ David Warner
I was not sure whether to include Warner here, as I think he would be a great Doctor too. Warner has played the Doctor in two audio stories set in an alternate universe, and with Capaldi’s casting, the door has been opened for an older actor to play the role once again.
However I have still decided to list David Warner anyway, as he would be a perfect Master too.
Throughout his career Warner has played a number of charming, affable villains, though at the same time as his performance in Hornblower attests he could also bring a really fanatical side to the Master too. To date Warner has only had one on screen role in Doctor Who, but it was a relatively small one, so he could still play the Master and I think he would ace it.
8/ Jason Watkins
Watkins has been in Doctor Who before in the episode “Nightmare in Silver” in a very minor role. Personally I think he should be given a bigger part, even if he doesn’t get to play the Master, as he is a damn fine actor who was criminally wasted in that episode. Watkins is most famous for playing the evil Vampire Herrick in “Being Human”. In that role Watkins showed that he was perfect at playing the charming, intelligent, icy, sly villain who is a master at manipulating people. His Master would be comparable to Donald Pleasance as Blofeld in the sense of being physically quite small and weaj, but still a very commanding presence.
7/ Benedict Cumberbatch
Not an original choice I know. Cumberbatch was rumoured to play the role back in 2011. Many felt he would have been the perfect Master opposite Smith’s Doctor. Sadly however this never happened, and most fans appear to have given up on Cumberbatch as the Master.
I still say though that he could be quite a good match for Capaldi’s Doctor too. It might be quite good to have the Master played by a much younger actor than the Doctor.
Cumberbatch could easily play a villain. I was not too happy with his Khan, but I think that was just because he was miscast. He would be a much better fit for the Master. The only problem with Cumberbatch’s casting however is that it would feel like it was pandering to the fans wishes for a Doctor Who/ Sherlock crossover.
6/ Reece Shearsmith
Whilst primarily known as a comedic actor, Shearsmith is a very talented serious actor too, as evidenced by his stellar performance as the serial killer Malcolm Webster. Shearsmith is a lifelong Doctor Who fan too, and so I’m sure he’d be more than happy to play the Master. However if Shearsmith were given the role, due to his close friendship with Gatiss I suspect most people would probably think it was because of nepotism.
5/ Christopher Heyerdahl
Christopher Heyerdahl is a character actor who has been in a number of tv series, with his most famous role arguably being that of the twisted Demon torturer Alistair in Supernatural. Personally I found him to be the most frightening villain in the entire series. He would play the Master as a genuinely unhinged character like John Simm, but again it would be in a less sympathetic and more grotesque way.
4/ Charles Dance
Charles Dance is currently rumoured to play the Master in series 8. By this point if he doesn’t play the role, I imagine there will be a national outrage! With this in mind I don’t have to explain why Dance would be perfect do I?
Very few people are as menacing and have as commanding a presence as Charles Dance. Dance would be a real return to the Delgado type of Master, the older more charming villain, which would make him a great match against Capaldi’s Doctor, who I feel has a touch of Pertwee.
3/ Paul Darrow
Paul Darrow is best known for playing televisions greatest anti hero, Kerr Avon on Blake’s 7. Darrow would be a very ruthless Master. In complete contrast to Simm’s overly emotional performance, I see Darrow as being a very cold, practical Master who cares for literally nothing but himself. Somewhat similar to Jacobi’s brief performance, I always felt it was a shame we didn’t get to see more of Jacobi, (not that Simm wasn’t great.) With the casting of Capaldi as an older more ruthless Doctor, then I think Paul Darrow would be a brilliant match for him.
2/ Simon Templeman
Simon Templeman is an English actor, whose voice is probably better known than his name. He played the Vampire Kain in “The Legacy of Kain” video game series. He is also known for voicing Doctor Doom in the 1990’s “Fantastic Four” and”Incredible Hulk” animated series.
He has also had many prominent live action roles too. He played the evil spectre Parvayne in the “Angel” episode “Hellbound” as well as the Angel of Death on “Charmed” and also had a starring role on the American Sci Fi comedy “The Neighbours”.
Templeman has an amazing voice and can make a villain seem, affable, witty and charming, yet menacing at the same time. Like Dance, Templeman would be a return to the Delgado type of Master.
Templeman I think would be able to capture the Master’s sneering arrogance, and fanatical lust for power, just like he did with Doctor Doom.
Seriously imagine this guy playing the Master. With that voice he would just be perfect. I can imagine him meeting Strax and telling him he had a “very left brain personality”.
1/ Robert Carlyle
Now once again I wasn’t sure on whether to include him here, as Carlyle I think would also be a perfect choice for the Doctor too. Carlyle’s name has been linked to the Doctor many times in the past. He even expressed an interest in the role back in 2008.
Sadly though I don’t think we will ever see him as the Doctor now. Even if he is available after Capaldi leaves (which hopefully wont be any time soon.) I can’t imagine them casting him right after Capaldi. He would be too similar, another older, intense Scottish guy.
However that does not mean we can’t have him in Doctor Who at all, and I think he would be equally brilliant as the Master.
Carlyle is excellent at playing villains. He has played some of the nastiest villains on television and film. The last thing you ever want to be is at the mercy of a Robert Carlyle villain.
Here are some of the most horrible and disgusting ways Carlyle has killed people.
Its safe to say that Carlyle would probably give us the darkest version of the Master seen yet, which would match perfectly with Peter Capaldi’s darker Doctor. Out of everybody in this list Carlyle would be the best match for Capaldi. Both older, more experienced Scottish actors who are known for playing, darker,, angry intense characters.
VS
That would be an epic showdown even outside of Doctor Who.
There is always the possibility that the Master may have already returned. It’s early days yet, but many people think think that the mysterious season 8 villain Missy is in fact the Master.
Personally I hope this isn’t true. I don’t think it would be a good idea to turn the Master into a woman for a number of reasons. Firstly I am not a fan of Time Lord gender bending. It’s not because I have a problem with transgender characters, but time lord gender bending is a different thing as it to me seems to contradict what we have seen before. I know there was that one line in “The Doctors Wife“, that said they can gender bend, but that was one line, and all of the Time Lords we have seen before haven’t.
The Doctor burnt out an entire regeneration cycle, Azmahel burnt out a whole regeneration cycle, The Master burnt out an entire regeneration cycle, Romana regenerated 3 times, Borusa regenerated twice, River regenerated twice, yet none of these characters changed sex? It also doesn’t seem logical as Time Lords do have a gender identity. Gender identity exists. I am not saying that men and women aren’t equal, but to say gender identity doesn’t is quite frankly, a denial of reality.
Also I don’t like gender blind casting either, again not because I have a problem with strong female characters, but because I think that it’s a lazy and boring way to offer better representation towards women. It’s much better I think to create new female characters like Xena, Buffy, Wonder Women etc rather than just briefly turn male characters into women. It’s almost as though writers today can’t be bothered to think up new female characters.
Also I don’t want Missy to be the Master as she refers to the Doctor as her boyfriend. Now again I have no problems with gay characters, I love Xena and Gabrielle, Willow and Tara and Jack and Ianto, but I am getting very bored with people always making out that the villain and the hero have to secretly be gay for one another. Batman and the Joker, Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty, Buffy and Faith, and Xena and Callisto. It’s become an awful cliche, and most of the time it leads to nothing but childish gay jokes anyway, like 10 making the joke about the Master’s “beard” in “Timecrash”.
People often argue that there was always sexual tension between the Master and the Doctor in Classic Who, but there wasn’t. Roger Delgado and Jon Pertwee had always believed from the beginning that the Master and the Doctor were secretly brothers, and Ainley also believed this too. In fact it is implied in “Planet of Fire” that this is the case. Whilst Russell T Davies rubbished this in “The Sound of Drums”, the fact that the previous actors and writers in the role viewed it that way shows that they obviously didn’t play them as secret lovers!.
If they need to give the Doctor a female villain, then either bring back the Rani, or better yet invent a new female villain!
Personally I hope Missy is something new, as we could be doing with some more prominent new Who villains rather than just the Weeping Angels. So far we have only had one season where the main villain didn’t originate from the Classic Who.
I personally hope that Missy is the Time Lord Clara, who told the Doctor what TARDIS to steal, that we saw from The Name of the Doctor.
I think it would be interesting if this version of Clara, after having regenerated into Michelle Gomez’s form, fled Gallifrey and in a further desire to help the Doctor, began downloading the minds of people that the Doctor had failed to save into a Matrix like virtual world.
They could also have Missy be the one who brought Clara and the Doctor together, as she would need them to meet in order to be born too.
However those are just my opinions, and I am sure you have yours. Let me know what you think in the comments section.
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