Favourite Doctor Who characters.

[The Romulan Republic]

Well, Doctor Who has a very long history and a very large cast. This thread is to discuss your favourite characters, and why they're good. Here are my top choices:

1. The TARDIS. I would hardly have thought of her as a character before The Doctor's Wife, but now she's one of my favourite television characters ever. Seriously, it's odd realizing that one of my favourite characters is a space ship/time machine, and that I like the Doctor's ship more than the Doctor himself.

2. Rory. I love that he's bad ass, willing and able to kick anyone's ass to protect his family, but at the same time he doesn't go looking for trouble and would rather just settle down in a little village as a doctor. He's one of the most decent and sensible characters. Add to that the fact that he recognizes a lot of the Doctor's dark side plus the whole Pandorica incident and he's a really interesting and impressive character.

3. The Doctor. I'm almost surprised he's this low on the list, but the thing is, the Doctor can be hard to like sometimes. He can be so ruthless and manipulative at times. Sometimes its justified, and God knows he's been through a lot, but there are those times he just crosses the line. He needs people like Rory to call him out.

But he's also the protagonist, and with good writing and acting he can be an interesting character.

4. The Dream Lord. Even if he's really just a part of the Doctor. For a one-episode villain he's very impressive. He's witty yet cruel, his deconstruction of the Doctor is interesting, and its a great look at the Doctor's dark side.

5. Wilfred Mott, because he's a bad ass old guy and his scenes with the Doctor were some of the best parts of The End of Time, by and large.

6. Jenny, the Doctor's daughter, just because I find the concept cool (I've never even seen the whole episode she's in, just bits of it).

[Parallax]

You made such a list without mentioned The Brigadier?

For shame!

[The Romulan Republic]

I should mention that sadly, I have watched very little of the old series. I know who he is, but I've seen all of about ten seconds, maybe, of screen time involving him. This is because the old show was back before I was born, it does not play on any channel I get that I am aware of, and DVDs can be expensive. Maybe I'd love him if I saw him in action. But as it is, I can't add him.

[Eternal_Freedom]

I would deduce from his list he has only really seen nuWho.

From the old series, in no particular order:

-Lytton: A total bastard in Resurrection of the Daleks, he gets some interesting development when he returns in Attack of the Cybermen.

-The Brigadier: Need I say anything about this?

-John Benton: The quintissential UNIT soldier

-Davros, as he appeared in Genesis.

[Thanas]

How come nobody mentioned Romana and Sarah Jane Smith?

From the new version, I have to say I liked Rose, Martha (before she became Rose 2.0/genocidal maniac), and Jack (before he became a gimmick).

[PREDATOR490]

Understandable really, the new series has never shown the Brigadier which is going to be an eternal regret and the NewWho does fuck all to really tie back into the OldWho series.

Brigadier - Awesome character when UNIT were NOT the bad guys
Ace - Beating a Dalek with a baseball bat and her love of homemade bombs was great

[lordofchange13]

-The master of new and old
-The guardians
-that robotic pirate who had a planet that eat's other planets, he was super awesome
-Donna Noble, in my opinion the best companion of the New Who.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Ah, yes, Ace vs a Dalek. How could I forget that moment?

And yes, Romana and Sarah Jane Smith were indeed awesome.

SJS doubly so for her return in "School Reunion."

[Batman]

As someone who only knows nuWho I nominate Rose Tyler (prior to her moderately abysmal reintroduction in s4 she was a rather enjoyable character), Eccleston's Doctor (yes, he lacked the silliness that from what I have gathered permeated oldWho and I think that was a good thing, he was easily my favourite nuWho Doctor), and...Donna Noble. Not only did she buck the trend of nuWho's Companions being young and pretty but she was the Doctor's partner, when Rose and Martha were sidekicks. Maybe it was just the lack of visual age difference between the actors but Donna seemed a lot more the Doctor's equal even before the 'Doctor Donna' incident of the s4 finale.

[The Romulan Republic]

Understandable really, the new series has never shown the Brigadier which is going to be an eternal regret and the NewWho does fuck all to really tie back into the OldWho series.

Brigadier - Awesome character when UNIT were NOT the bad guys
Ace - Beating a Dalek with a baseball bat and her love of homemade bombs was great

I wouldn't say the new series doesn't tie into the old one. It brought Sarah Jane back, and it has referred to the earlier Doctors (like the projection of the previous ten from The Eleventh Hour). Its brought back a lot of villains as well, most notably Cybermen, Daleks, Davros, and the Master.

[Batman]

The Daleks actually started getting on my nerves after s1. Hey, the Daleks survived, but I eradicated them again. Well, mostly, a few survived, but that was it, only not exactly, a few of them again escaped via time travel, and so on. Make up your mind-either the Daleks are eradicated or they're not. I don't mind if they're not thanks to time travel shenanigans, those are at the heart of the series, but don't insult my intelligence by having the Doctor (who is supposedly a hell of a lot smarter than me, and infinitely more versed in time travel mechanics) being surprised by the guys still being around.

[The Romulan Republic]

Well, they finally seem to be permanently back now. I would agree it got a bit silly for a while there though.

[PREDATOR490]

The new series steals icons from the old series which often get butchered to death. The Daleks and Cybermen are prime examples of that with them KEEP coming back from being 'wiped out for the last time'. The recent NEW NewWho has been better at their cute references wether it be old library cards with previous Doctor faces on or the montage.

For a series that has been around for decades the new series barely touches on just how much the Doctor has done or the scope of his life. As far as the new series is concerned you would think the Doctor has been picking up a harem that fights Daleks and Cybermen between bouts with the Master for that time. Big graituous montages and episodes of what the new series has done... sure, while the oldseries is relegated to off-cuff remarks.

Kinda sad that a spin off show says more about where the Doctor's old companions went in passing and even got the Brigadier in than the actual show where these characters came from.

[The Romulan Republic]

Okay, so first it ignores the old series, then it steals its icons? Might want to get your story straight their.

In any case, the new series is full of references. They even brought the Time Lords and Rassilon in for God's sake. Maybe you wish they'd reference more that wasn't the Master, Daleks, or Cybermen? Well they did, but how much do you expect? They're not going to throw in references to every single villain, companion, or episode ever.

[FaxModem1]

Ian and Barbara Chesterson. They were the first companions, and actually the first protagonists of the show.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Ian and Barbara Chesterson. They were the first companions, and actually the first protagonists of the show.

I'll second this. They were very much the Doctor's equal in the relationship, and were not afraid to voice objections to the old man.

I'll also throw out Jamie McCrimmon. gotta love a Highlander.

[mr friendly guy]

Old Series

The Doctor

The Brigadier - duh.

Sarah Jane Smith, Leela, Romana. I also have a soft spot for Zoe Herriot and Jamie McCrimon from the Troughton era.

Honourary mention goes to Nyssa as played by Sarah Sutton. Not because the character was particularly remarkable, but because I have heard of at least 3 girls who were named after this Doctor Who companion.

One was a DW fan who posted on BBC (before the days of wikipedia and the new series) asking who played Nyssa because he named his daughter after that character.
Two was a student in my sister's year.
Three was a colleague who introduced herself as Nyssa. Unable to restrain my inner geek I actually said "As in Doctor Who's companion" before I could help myself. Not only did it elicit a laugh it was followed by "not many people are aware of that."

New series

Jack - ok, I haven't seen much of Torchwood, but a guy who pulls a gun out of his arse nowhere and then blows up a bunch of robots is cool in my book.

[The Yosemite Bear]

The Brigadier, Sarah Jane, K-9, Susan (The Dr.'s other (Grand)Daughter), Ace,

[Dahak]

Harriet Jones, Prime Minister. She did not have that much screen time, but Penelope Wilton gave a very good performance.

[Jade Owl]

Amy Pond. I really like her personality.

And on a more shallow note, you can't beat a redhead with legs like that!

[Silvertongue]

Amy Pond. I really like her personality.

And on a more shallow note, you can't beat a redhead with legs like that!

MMmm. Pond. I like her curt replies, and ability to kill with a look.
I also liked the River Song arc. They made River a women, and not a waif model.

Of course, I like the Doctor. I li
ke how with regeneration, and centuries of untold backstory, they can make him hideously complicated without making him a one dimensional grumpy aloof asshole.

David Tennant was my favorite nuWho doctor because of his complexity, seconded my Eccleson. But the best Episode in nuWho, IMHO is "A good man goes to war" I like the title drop being a poem, and the Doctor going all badass, and....Spoiler

losing. Holy shit/ After all that buildup. Bringing in all the cast from the last few seasons, he fucking lost to eyepatch lady, despite the humilating retreat of her army, and blowing up the 12th cyber legion as a demonstration.

Madame Kovarian: The anger of a good man is not a problem. Good men have too many rules.
The Doctor: Good men don't need rules. Today is not the day to find out why I have so many.

Absolute favorite villains are the Daleks, because somehow they made salt shakers to be the some of the scariest thing in all scifi. Culture Minds and Xeelee would have nightmares about the Daleks capabilites.

[inviz345]

Ace, k9,The Brigadier,Master and new Tardis it only recently the Tardis have become more focused.

[The Yosemite Bear]

yeah I lovedthe Delgato and Krypt Keeper masters. sorry for the necro

[Shroom Man 777]

Mickey the idiot and Rose's so totally chav mom. These two characters helped make S1 so way more emotionally resonant than any of the drek from the later season trainwrecks.

Jackie was a bitter shallow woman who despite her faults and such still tried to be a good mom and who obviously loved her daughter, who's basically the only thing making her life worthwhile.

And Mickey, god is he hilarious. What a guy.

I love season 1. Doctor Destro made everyone better there. The fact that they actually had characters rather than gimmicks and all that jazz. It was fantastic.

[Uraniun235]

Maybe this is why I never really got into the show, but I haven't yet really found any of the non-Doctor characters particularly enchanting or engrossing. I don't mean that they're all terrible, just that the Doctor was always way more fun for me to watch. It's like Lucky Charms breakfast cereal, and the Doctor is the marshmallow bits.