It is a question that gets asked a lot, ever since childhood you are asked this question …
Who is your favorite teacher? Your favorite friend? Your favorite ice cream, and so on. Then there is the flip of that when a kid asks their parents about their siblings “which one of us is your favorite?”

I have many thought son this, but for this post I’m going to briefly talk about the television series DOCTOR WHO.
The question: “What is your favorite Doctor” comes up all the time.
If you don’t know already, and it’s okay if you don’t, multiple actors have played the Doctor since it first premiered in 1963. Most of them are in the TV series itself, and each one is recognized as having been there by the next one. When the Doctor dies his body ‘regenerates’ right down to the cellular level until he is a brand-new man… or woman.
During classic Doctor Who (1963-1989) there were eight actors who played the Doctor:
William Hartnell (1963–1966) First Doctor
Patrick Troughton (1966–1969) Second Doctor
Jon Pertwee (1970–1974) Third Doctor
Tom Baker (1974–1981) Fourth Doctor
Peter Davison (1982–1984) Fifth Doctor
Colin Baker (1984–1986) Sixth Doctor
Sylvester McCoy (1987–1989) Seventh Doctor
Then in 1996 a Doctor Who movie was made in America with the hope of a new series based on it. The Doctor was played by
Paul McGann Eighth Doctor
A new series did role out from that movie.
Then in 2005 a new Doctor Who series did start.
Christopher Eccleston (2005) Ninth Doctor
David Tennant (2005- 2010) Tenth Doctor
Matt Smith (2010-2013) Eleventh Doctor
Peter Capaldi (2015 – 2017) Twelfth Doctor
Jodie Whittaker (2018-2022) Thirteenth Doctor
David Tennant (2023) Fourteenth Doctor (returning, but separate from tenth)
Ncuti Gatwa (2023-Present) Fifteenth Doctor
But those aren’t the only actor’s to have played the Doctor
John Hurt played “The War Doctor” (existing between Eighth and Ninth)
Jo Martin played “The Fugitive Doctor”, supposedly existing before the First Doctor, but I’d prefer to think she appeared between Second and Third. There are logical reasons for this, at least in my mind.
The great actor Peter Cushing also played the Doctor in two movies, but they are not cannon to the series. (Yet, the way the current show has been going, they might find a way to work the movies into it, but it’s probably rights ownership and legal reasons that prevent that from happening. They couldn’t even get a movie poster in the background on one shot, they tried.)
Though there are other faces that have appeared throughout the years of the series other people were/are the been known as the Doctor, as well as in other media like audio stories and animation, it is these Seventeen Doctors that matter the most to the fans of the TV Series.
So, the question always comes up in Fandom; “Who is your favorite Doctor?” Not just favorite actor who played him, but which Doctor.
Arguments can break out over this; some people have out and out abandoned certain Doctors. Some think a certain Doctor just isn’t the Doctor, for one reason or another.
Lots of times people don’t like a new Doctor over the first several episodes they appear in, but by the end of their run they are great loved. It varies, not by the actor, but by the viewer.
For me that question is really simple:
“Who is your favorite Doctor,” they ask.
Answer:
“The one I am currently watching.”
I began watching Doctor Who when it was on PBS, and the Tom Baker seasons ran and reran for years there, so I knew him the most, then eventually brough most of the other classes actor on. For me each Doctor is unique and special, so whatever episode I am watching, with whatever actor is performing at the moment, is my favorite. All the more so with the modern run of the series; I really like David Tennant’s run on the series but still whatever episode is on is the one I’m enjoying and is my favorite Doctor.
This all goes for me about nearly everything. Including books and genres, and so on. I’ll be writing about those later. But this is how I feel, I enjoy what I am currently enjoying, why fight over which is best.

I began to write the first notes for this blog last night just before going to bed. After we had turned out the lights, my wife asked me: “What’s your favorite part of being with me?
Now how am I supposed to answer that?