Message #69419

[Roranicus]

I still think he is overrated, personally. I do like him, don't get me wrong. TB for the first few years put in excellent performances before he started phoning it in towards the end. But even when at his best he didn't stand out as amazing in comparison to any of the others. He put his own stamp on the show and made his mark, but I think the bulk of his popularity is made up by two major factors. Firstly, he was lucky enough to be in the role when Doctor Who had some absolutely amazing writers working on it, and I think some people may be blurring 'great story' with 'great Doctor'. The other factor is that he was in the show for so long that a huge chunk of fandom associate him as being 'their' Doctor, and so is remembered more fondly for that too. I mean, regardless of who your favourite is, your first Doctor is always special. Add to that the fact that he was in the role when the show made it to America, which expanded his reach but didn't really open up previous Doctors to new fans.

I don't want to take anything away from the guy because I do think he was really good, but I do think he has some fan-bias popularity, which makes him seem better than he actually was.