For The Love of Jon Pertwee: Why The Third Doctor, Was The Best Doctor

Over the last several years, Doctor Who, after largely fading from the public consciousness for over a decade, has become very popular again over here in the states. That is because people are really enamored with the reboot/continuation series, which started in 2005. Unfortunately, at least in this man's humble opinion, in my experience the vast majority of people who are huge fans of the new Doctor Who, that I've personally encountered, seem to only be fans of the new show. Meaning, they have either little or no knowledge or experience with the original show that lasted for the better part of three decades. And more bothersome to me, a lot of those same people show little to no actual interest in ever bothering to see the original show, at all. They have "their" Who, and that's all that matters to them.

To me, as a longtime Doctor Who fan, that is a bit of a problem. I'm going to go ahead and "out" myself right here and now, by revealing that I am not much of a fan of the 2000s Doctor Who show. I tried, watching multiple episodes of both of the Ninth and Tenth Doctors. And in all honesty, I just couldn't get into it. But why the fact that it seems so many "Nu Who" fans don't really know or care about the original series bothers me, is twofold. For one thing, while I do consider the new show to be something of a "reboot", it is more what is known as a "soft reboot". Meaning that it is, in my opinion, a slight reboot of the series, and it has many (to me rather dumb) retcons and stark differences from the original show. But it is also supposed to be a continuation of the same story, the same canon. So because of this fact, I personally think that it behooves the audience of the new show, to be familiar with and care about the original show it is a "continuation" of. I have always found that you gain a far deeper respect and appreciation for a thing, if you actually know it's history, where it came from, how it got here, etc.

It just so happens that in my personal opinion, mind you, the new show, quite frankly, often comes off like badly written fan fiction. I know my saying that would certainly serve to rile up quite a lot of "Nu Who" fans. But that's not why I'm here, at all. Why I'm here, in point of fact, is to not only illustrate why the original series is crucial to at least see some of if you're a fan of the new show. But also to illuminate people to what I personally consider the strongest period of the entire franchise, centered around what has become my very favorite incarnation of The Doctor of all time: Jon Pertwee, The Third Doctor.

It is my intention and aim, therefor, to try and explain to you why he is the "best" Doctor of them all, and why, subsequently, you should care, and give his seasons, and the old show in general, a chance. So without further adieu...

The Third and Fourth Doctors.

By and large, to most of these "Nu Who" fans I refer to, the ones who love the new show but know or care next to nothing for the original, the one (out of seven) original series Doctor that they DO seem at least passingly familiar with, is the Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker. Brimmed had, curly mop, acid wit, ridiculously long scarf. I will fully admit here and now, that he was my original choice for "favorite Doctor". Mainly because he was the one I had somehow seen the most of. I first became aware of Doctor Who, and saw my first episodes, at the age of 7 or 8 years old. I would sometimes go over to spend the night at my friend Harold's house, and his brother William was absolutely obsessed with Doctor Who, which they would show on the PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) channel. But they did it in a weird way, where they would show a mix of older episodes, meaning like the First Doctor, Fourth, Fifth, etc., before showing whatever happened to be the newest episode of the then current (and for a long time last) late 80s Doctor, the Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy.

So I got a pretty broad taste, though sadly, I did not get to really experience the Second and Third doctor back then. I got a taste of #'s 1, 4, 5, 6, and 7, however, and decided, for whatever reasons, that I thought the Fourth, Tom Baker, was the coolest. I did not get to see any Doctor Who again for several years, as for some stupid reason, even though she was a massive fan of most things science fiction, my grandmother arbitrarily decided that she didn't like Doctor Who, and didn't want me watching it. Later, in the late 90s, in my teens, Harold's brother William would be over visiting at their house, and would either bring down his own tapes, or rent ones he didn't have, so I then got to see other Doctor Who episodes I had not yet seen. Mainly Fourth Doctor ones as I recall, and that probably just helped drive my original love of Tom Baker more.

Now, beyond my own personal history with the series, I will say that overall, after having in my 20s  and 30s seen all of the Third and Fourth Doctor stories , that the 1970s were, in my opinion unquestionably, the best period of Doctor Who there has ever been. The stories were at their strongest, the companions were (mostly) great, and those two distinct personalities of The Doctor were by far the most popular. That is backed up by the fact that Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker are the second and first longest running Doctors in the history of the franchise. Jon Pertwee had five seasons, and his run only ended at five because he chose to walk away from it. Tom Baker then came along in 1974/75, and fans loved him so much he hung around until 1981, seven whole seasons.

A young Jon Pertwee acting alongside First Doctor actor William Hartnell.

My insistence that Tom Baker was the best Doctor continued well into the 2000s, until at some point in my late 20s, I started making it a point to see a lot more of the original series. Unfortunately, because the 1960s BBC were apparently short-sighted morons, they didn't bother backing up and maintaining an archive of ALL of the First and Second Doctor episodes, six seasons worth of the show. So there are many episodes or outright full story arcs of both, most especially the Second Doctor Patrick Troughton, that I will likely never see. And that sucks, really badly. As it stands, from what I've seen, I really like all four of the first four original Doctors, with Troughton possibly now being my second favorite.

In my opinion, the show made some serious leaps when it jumped into the 70s and into color, but the 60s show had a very classic feel, and some really great stories. And the first two Doctors had a singular wit and charm all their own. But upon starting to actually watch the Third Doctor's episodes (I had only really experienced him prior to that in the early 80s special "The Five Doctors"), I noticed something. Jon Pertwee, the Third Doctor, was really fucking awesome! And the more I watched his stories, the more I began to gradually come to grips with a startling new reality: I became aware of the fact that the Third Doctor was actually, at least in my opinion, even cooler than the Fourth. I eventually saw all of the Third Doctor's stories, yes all five seasons' worth. And it became apparent that I did indeed have a new, and permanent, favorite Doctor of the series.

Pertwee's first companion, Dr. Elizabeth Shaw.

Now the way that the Third Doctor came about, for one thing, was rather unique and original. Anyone who has even a decent knowledge of Who Lore, knows that Time Lords, the ancient race to whom The Doctor belongs, by either natural or unnatural super-science means, each possess a set of "regenerations". Meaning that when they die, instead of dying outright, they "regenerate" into a new incarnation of themselves. This is finite, or was supposed to be, of course, with it at some point being established canon that each Time Lord had precisely Twelve regenerations, or thirteen lives if you will. The idea being that once they ran out, that was finally it. In addition to regenerations, Time Lords, having a different physiology than humans (two hearts, etc.), tended to live quite a bit longer than humans, hundreds of years in fact.

The way that the concept of "regeneration" came about in the show, originally, was a matter of necessity. William Hartnell, the First Doctor, was very popular, and the show itself was very popular, but he was getting on in age, and by his third season, he was in declining health, was having trouble remembering his lines at times, etc. So instead of cancelling the show, they came upon a novel idea. There had been shows that had just outright changed actors before this, but instead of insulting their audience, they devised an actual explanation for this occurring: Time Lords could "regenerate". And so the beloved First Doctor died, but while that was sad, fans now had an all new, Second Doctor's adventures to follow, and the show could carry onward this way indefinitely. Which it did, as every Doctor at some point in the series, for whatever reason, suffers a mortal blow of some sort, and "regenerates" into his own next incarnation.

 For the Third Doctor however, it was much more unique. The Second Doctor was also very popular, but Patrick Troughton, after three seasons, wanted to move on to something else, and so as his last story arc, the writers gave him this massive, ten-episode epic called "War Games", which saw aliens testing humans for strategies and weaknesses by keeping many from different times trapped in a "playing field", convinced that wars from different eras were still ongoing. The Doctor, as he usually does, got involved and interfered, and at the end of the arc, once he had more or less managed to save the day, suddenly his fellow Time Lords appeared. They were not at all happy with their renegade fellow, and thus, for the only time (as far as I'm aware) in the history of the series, a Doctor regeneration occurred without death. As punishment for his constant interference in the affairs of other planets and races, which is supposed to be against stuffy Time Lord law, they sent the Second Doctor's companions back to their rightful times, and forced The Doctor himself to regenerate. As an additional part of his punishment, they also blocked his knowledge of how to run his Timeship, the T.A.R.D.I.S. (Time And Relative Dimensions In Space), and left him stranded on the planet he had shown such fondness for: The Earth.

Live and in Color?

This was all very new and a radical departure from what fans had thus far seen from the series. For one thing, when the show first began, it was intended to be more of an "educational" science fiction series, aimed at children and families. Which is why many of the First Doctor stories show him winding up back in different historic time periods of the Earth. But due to the raging popularity of the second ever Who story arc, "The Daleks" (a personal favorite of mine), monster and alien episodes quickly became extremely popular with fans, so the producers felt they should make more. The Second Doctor still retained some of the historical type of episodes, specifically the story arc "The Highlanders", where we first meet Scottish companion Jamie. But the Second Doctor really delved deeper into monster and alien type storylines, such as his biggest recurring threat, the Cybermen. But by the time the Third Doctor rolled around, the historic episodes were basically entirely gone, and in the 70s, the show gradually took on a darker, more serious tone overall.

When the Third Doctor began, it's important to note that not only was the transition from Second to Third Doctor very unique and bizarre, but the entire tone and pacing of the show was about to shift dramatically. And to top it all off, the Third Doctor also exploded for the first time into color! The BBC had previously filmed Who in black and white, because it was allotted fairly low budgets, and black and white film was cheaper to use. But with Who proving a six-year smash success for them, they finally decided to cough up a little more cash, and started using the more expensive color film. Beyond the aesthetic, however, the more drastic shift for the series, was the very important fact that The Doctor now found himself stranded on one planet: Earth.

Previously, and for the vast majority of the show's existence in fact, part of the gimmick of Doctor Who, was that he is a renegade Time Lord, who stole a T.A.R.D.I.S. because he is an insatiably curious explorer, who just wants to gallivant around studying the universe. Because his Timeship is rather old and a bit busted, he often cannot precisely control where (or when) his jaunts through time and space will lead him. But in Season 7, and for the majority of his first three seasons, the Third Doctor found himself unable to remember how to work his ship, so he was stuck on Earth, a fact he despised.

The Doctor's friends in U.N.I.T.

However, also being one to always try and make the best of his given situation, The Doctor found himself falling in with the somewhat clandestine outfit called "U.N.I.T." The United Nations Intelligence Task Force was secretly formed after the invasion of aliens in the Second Doctor story "The Web of Fear", and they later faced their first crisis, with the Doctor's help, when Cybermen try to invade Earth. The outfit is led by British Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, a stern but fair man. So when the Third Doctor turns up, he remembers "The Brigadier", but Lethbridge-Stewart doesn't recognize his new face. He later becomes convinced it's the same man, however, during the thwarting of yet another alien crisis. And so The Doctor, stuck on Earth and needing an explanation for his sudden existence there, begrudgingly comes under the employ of U.N.I.T. as it's unofficial "Scientific Advisor". The relationship between Lethbridge-Stewart and The Doctor is often somewhat comical, as the ever-serious military man usually plays the "straight man" to the flamboyant alien, as well as serving to frustrate The Doctor with his military rules and procedures. But at the end of the day, The Brigadier trusts The Doctor's wisdom, and is always there for The Doctor when he is needed. It's kind of odd, but The Brigadier is actually one of my favorite Doctor Who characters of all time.

To me, while I like all of Jon Pertwee's run on the show, these times with U.N.I.T. were some of the best. The Doctor is often at his most interesting or exciting when he is off exploring other worlds. But being forced into a new situation, where you not only had one of his more traditional "companion" characters, you also had these regulars that he worked with in U.N.I.T., who were companions in their own right too, and something of a regular cast. It also provided what I think were good and interesting challenges for the writers, who having to mostly stick to Earth (or for that matter England), had to in many ways become more focused and inventive. Consequently, I think some of the show's strongest writing and stories happened during this period.

Along with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, you also had U.N.I.T. regulars like Sergeant John Benton and Captain Mike Yates. In Jon Pertwee's first season, he is paired with Dr. Liz Shaw, who had been tapped as U.N.I.T.'s "Scientific Advisor" right before The Doctor reappeared. She is brilliant in her own right, and usually catches on to The Doctor's advanced Time Lord science fairly quickly. I personally really enjoyed her, and wish her character would have stuck around longer. At first she is more of a foil for The Doctor, the scientific skeptic of all of this U.N.I.T. nonsense, but she eventually comes to be a believer through experience, as well as developing a closer relationship with the stodgy and eccentric Doctor.

Pertwee's second companion, Jo Grant.

After Season 7, the show runners decided to get rid of Liz, not because she didn't work (she did), but because they felt like she was "too smart", and they wanted a companion that The Doctor had to explain science-fictiony things to, thereby also better explaining them to the audience. Kind of a contrived reason, if you ask me, and worse yet, they didn't even give her a fond fairwell type of sendoff. At the beginning of Season 8, they just mention that she has moved on, off-camera.

As her replacement, the Doctor is assigned a less brainy, but still fairly bright young woman named Josephine Grant, as his new assistant. What Jo lacks in Liz's raw intelligence, she makes up for by being both very resourceful when called upon, and fiercely loyal to The Doctor, whom she grows very fond of. I really like the character of Jo Grant, to be honest, as I admire her loyalty to The Doctor, and always persevering even though she is usually a "fish out of water" in all of these bizarre situations they encounter. But I think in some ways, Liz Shaw might be my favorite Third Doctor companion, because her character, in spite of her initial stodginess, is quite awesome. And her relationship as something more of an equal (not quite but close enough) with this brilliant and comparatively ancient alien Time Lord, presents a unique dynamic that you don't often see in the show.

The Doctor's single greatest nemesis, The Master.

With the previous two Doctors, you briefly saw him run into another Time Lord or two, but really, his race is seldom seen or even heard of. But another foundation of the the Third Doctor, was the introduction of a more regular, recurring villain. They introduced the character of "The Master", a fellow renegade Time Lord who is every bit as brilliant as The Doctor, a perfect equal in some ways, but also a perfect opposite. While the Doctor seems to cherish and value all life, The Master absolutely doesn't, and only seeks to control it, as he constantly tries to attain greater power for himself. Played by the incredible Roger Delgado, The Master was, in essence, the perfect arch-villain for The Doctor. He was, in some ways, the cheesy, mustache twirling, maniacal laughing supervillain, who always seems to find a way to escape and fight another day. For one thing, that was also part of what made him awesome.  But for another, there was a lot more going on under the surface with The Master than your typical, generic bad guy.

While yes, he was usually maniacal, coming up with some new scheme or aligning himself with some other villainous threat, he could also be quite complex. He admired and respected The Doctor, even though he hated his nobility, and often tried to sway The Doctor to join him, because together they could rule the universe. And you got the feeling that The Master wasn't always bullshitting, that some part of him, deep down, was perhaps lonely, and really did want a companion, an equal, to share in his villainous glory.

There was more than one Third Doctor story arc, where you were presented with an initial villain or threat, only to have that "Dr. Wily" type moment, revealing that that bastard The Master was at it again. In point of fact, The Master first appeared in the first story arc of Season 8, "Terror of the Autons", and he subsequently appeared in eight out of the ten story arcs covered in Seasons 8 and 9. He was featured in every single story arc of Season 8 in fact, which could rightly be considered "The Season of the Master". But it honestly didn't get old during those stories, as he was always popping up in some different way, with some new dastardly plan at work. They gradually started to phase him out, not using him as much in Season 10. But sadly, his only story appearance in Season 10 would also be Roger Delgado's last, as he tragically died in a car crash in Istanbul, Turkey, in June 1973. Jon Pertwee and Roger Delgado, in spite being enemies on screen, were actually close friends behind the scenes, and Delgado's death deeply affected Pertwee.

One of my all-time favorite stories, "The Curse of Peladon".

Now while The Doctor was completely Earth-locked in Season 7 and most of Season 8, in the Season 8 story "Colony in Space", they introduced the idea that the Time Lords might fancy using The Doctor by sending him on specific space/time journeys in his T.A.R.D.I.S. Proving that while they generally seemed to be against interference, there were also apparent extreme cases where they thought it wise to step in. They just weren't going to do so themselves, so they'd send that meddlesome Doctor instead.

They did this again twice in Season 9, including one of my personal favorite Doctor Who stories of all time, "The Curse of Peladon". The Doctor and Jo Grant find themselves shunted off into the future, but to the relatively primitive, medieval type planet of Peladon. The Doctor, being nosey as usual, winds up putting them in a position where they have to pretend to be official representatives from Earth, as the Galactic Federation, a joint force of many alien races, decide whether to admit Peladon into its ranks. It's a great story, with a nice mix of medieval superstition and futuristic science fiction, and a dash of political intrigue as well. Not to mention a nice return, and even surprising evolution of the classic Second Doctor villains, the Martian "Ice Warriors".

Three Doctors, one story.

Another of my favorite episodes, once again saw The Doctor shunted off to another time and place, but this time, he was joined by his two previous incarnations, in the first story arc of Season 10, "The Three Doctors". This kind of thing would be done again, but at the time, I'm sure it was a huge deal to see all three original Doctors in one place (well, relatively speaking). The First Doctor, unfortunately, by 1973 was too old and ill to really have an active role, so instead, he appeared via a "Time Transmission" of sorts, meaning that his part was basically recorded separately, and Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee had to react to it. It's still nice that William Hartnell himself got one last appearance and bow for Who fans, before his death in 1975. And seeing the Second and Third Doctors play off of each other, one the "Cosmic Clown" and the other a "Gentleman Dandy", is really a lot of fun. Not to mention The Brigadier's reaction when he has to deal with both of them.

But the one major development to come out of "The Three Doctors", besides the spectacle of the different actors together, was the fact that as a reward for helping them save the universe from the mad Time Lord Omega, the Time Lord council finally decide to free the block they had put on The Doctor, once again leaving him free to explore the galaxy as he saw fit. Or at least, as his wonky T.A.R.D.I.S. randomly allowed him to. Even though he was now free to get the hell off of "near future" Earth again, as he frequently bemoaned, The Doctor did still continue to work with U.N.I.T. from time to time, when he wasn't off on some other world. So in the later Jon Pertwee seasons, you got a nice mix of the more traditional "Doctor popping up all over time and space" stories, as well as the occasional "Meanwhile, back on Earth" U.N.I.T. based stories as well.

Good ol' Bessie.

One of the signature trademarks of Jon Pertwee's Doctor, was that perhaps more-so than any of the other Doctors before him or since, he was the consummate Inventor. Since he couldn't travel the stars, and hated being stuck on primitive 20th Century Earth, he was constantly tinkering with something or another, and his tinkering not only helped U.N.I.T. face various threats, but he also came up with some rather cool and useful inventions. He was also rather fond of telling people they needed to "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow", which became something of a trademark saying of his, with slight variations.

One of the most iconic of his inventions, was his beloved "Bessie", a classic "Edwardian Roadster" model car, that he had souped up to be able to travel at incredibly high speeds. The effect of him driving this old-timey car super fast could be comical, but it added to the overall charm and class of the Third Doctor. He was immensely fond of Bessie, and became very cross if she was ever damaged. Late in his run, Pertwee's Doctor even built a futuristic, winged silver flying car, which was dubbed by Pertwee himself "The Whomobile" (unofficially). As a cool bit of trivia, this vehicle, which was basically a one-man hovercraft, was not originally made for the show, but was actually commissioned by Pertwee himself, and it was so cool they wound up using it in the show.

THE Sonic Screwdriver.

Another such invention, though it had appeared before during the Second Doctor's run, was the so-called "Sonic Screwdriver". A piece of highly advanced Time Lord tech, which The Doctor claims to have originally invented himself, Pertwee's Doctor built a new, larger one that he made more frequent use of throughout his run. In fact, his Sonic Screwdriver became so iconic, that they continued using it during Tom Baker's run, and even into the Fifth Doctor, Peter Davison's run, where it was finally retired. The screwdriver could be used for a variety of effects, from disrupting equilibrium, to destructive frequencies, to hypnotism, and of course, even acting as an actual screwdriver, by sonically removing screws or bolts from doors and such. In the 80s, show runners of that era felt the tool had been used "too much" over the years, so it was retired for the rest of the decade. Though a new, more "lightsaber" looking version of it would reappear in the modern Doctor Who show.

The Doctor's third companion, Sarah Jane Smith.

At the end of Season 10, in the story arc "The Green Death", Jo Grant falls in love with an eccentric scientist, Professor Clifford Jones, who helps them face down the newest threat, and after it's all over, she chooses to leave U.N.I.T. and join him in a quieter, less dangerous life, studying in the Amazon, in Brazil. She gets a fairly emotional sendoff, something that poor Liz Shaw deserved but didn't receive. The Doctor even later receives a letter from her, informing him that she has married Jones, and is happy and well. When Jo leaves, The Doctor, who often tries to act as if he is indifferent to his human companions (even though that's always obviously untrue), acts visibly saddened and disappointed that she won't be joining him to go explore the stars.

So at the beginning of Season 11, The Doctor, still working for U.N.I.T. somewhat, finds himself lumped in with another new companion. In the story arc "The Time Warrior", which introduces the villainous alien species the Sontarans (shown above), a British reporter, Ms. Sarah Jane Smith, has infiltrated a top secret science research facility to investigate the disappearance of several top scientists. She winds up getting shunted back into medieval times, along with The Doctor, and after surviving their adventure together, winds up sticking around U.N.I.T. as his newest assistant, even though she is hardly a scientist (to be fair, Jo really wasn't either). Sarah Jane would be one of the longest tenured companions of the series, lasting over three seasons, and spanning two Doctors.

One of my favorite Dalek stories.

Of course, the most famous Doctor Who villain/monster of all time, easily, are the Daleks. Spawning back from their original appearance in the second story arc of the First Doctor, these odd, robotic-speaking, "pepper-pot" looking, cyclopean mecha-terrors, became immensely popular with fans. So much so, that the First Doctor faced them in four different stories, one of which being the now mostly-lost twelve (technically thirteen) episode epic, "The Daleks' Master Plan". They would appear twice against the Second Doctor, again in story arcs where most if not all episodes are lost thanks to the BBC's negligence.

The Third Doctor was no different, of course. In fact, every single one of the original seven Doctors had at least one Dalek story. While Jon Pertwee sadly, for whatever reason, never faced the Cybermen during his run, he did wind up having a total of three (technically four) Dalek story arcs of his own. And while they're all pretty good, one of them, to me, stands head and shoulders above the rest. In Pertwee's final season, in 1974, he along with companion Sarah Jane, faced off against the mechanical monsters in the ominously titled "Death to the Daleks". My three favorite Dalek stories, are the First Doctor stories "The Daleks" and "The Chase", and this Third Doctor story. In it, the Doctor and Sarah Jane try to head for his beloved Metebelis 3 for vacation, but are instead drawn to the seemingly dead world of Exxilon. They discover (future) humans and Daleks have crash-landed there as well, as it turns out the ancient abandoned city on the planet, has a tower that powers the city itself by drawing energy from everywhere around it, even out into space. The Doctor and the humans form an uneasy alliance with the Daleks, as the monsters are rendered relatively powerless without their death rays, while the Doctor tries to solve the mystery of the ancient city.

Such nasty little buggers.

By 1974, however, after five seasons, Jon Pertwee too, was becoming tired of the role, most especially after the death of his friend Roger Delgado. It is entirely possible that he may well have chosen to do at least one more season in 1975, or even beyond, but Roger's death, I think, really stole away a lot of the life and fun of the role for him. He and Delgado were so great on screen together, playing off of each other wonderfully, always ever in the throes of their mental chess match. Delgado's Master would likely have made at least a couple more appearances, perhaps for all we know, even some half-planned epic final encounter between the two Time Lords, before Pertwee's time was done.

But his sudden death obviously cut any of that short, and thus The Master just abruptly disappeared after his turn in Season 10's "Frontier in Space", and he never reappeared again during the Third Doctor's run. The Master would indeed resurface, first as a weird looking ghoul, trying desperately to hang on after running out of regenerations, and later taking the form of another character, during the Fourth Doctor. And he would reappear again in the 80s, and again in the new 2000s series. But it has never been the same. Roger Delgado WAS The Master, regenerations be damned, and that dude owned that role for sure.

So even with a new companion on board, and his Doctor free to explore space to his heart's content, Jon Pertwee's incredibly popular incarnation of The Doctor was wrapping up. In May and half of June 1974, his final six-episode story played out. Entitled "Planet of the Spiders", The Doctor found himself having to go up against the evil of ancient psychic spiders from another world, Metebelis 3 in fact, who are bent on conquering Earth and other worlds. He winds up sacrificing himself, becoming poisoned while fighter their leader, The Great One, and he arrives back at U.N.I.T. base, with just enough energy to say goodbye before dying and regenerating into the infamous Tom Baker, The Fourth Doctor.

A tearful farewell.

 After experiencing all of his adventures, what I came to learn, and to love, about Jon Pertwee's Doctor, is that he was a man of complexity and balance. He was, in many ways, the most active and "action based" Doctor of the original series. He was very "James Bond-esque" in his dapper gentleman's manner, and while he, like any GOOD depiction of The Doctor, loathed fighting and killing, he was armed with what he called "Venusian Aikido", and rarely hesitated to use it when he needed to. He was, in that way, the most "kick ass" Doctor. But he was also incredibly thoughtful, as well as previously mentioned, a great inventor. He was, visually, inspired very much by Sherlock Holmes, in fact I think his outfits may well have come from Pertwee's own private collection.

The Third Doctor is my favorite, because not only are his stories, in general, the most well rounded (some are better than others, but there are none I dislike), but Pertwee's depiction of The Doctor, as this "Wise Silverfox" who can act cantankerous, but really loves people, is to me, THE defining depiction of The Doctor. He embodies a perfect balance of everything the character is supposed to be all about. Impossibly and eternally curious, often to his own detriment, often laughably eccentric and even arrogant, but also very affable and noble. His quick wit, his "very British" charm, the gentle but deceptively dangerous "old gentleman". His grounding on Earth for the first good chunk of his run, and his connection to U.N.I.T. as well as his companions, in some ways also serves to make him the most "humanized" Doctor.

I still love Tom Baker, and really, I love all of the first four Doctors. I even like, in varying degrees, the three 80s Doctors, Peter Davison, Colin Baker (no relation) and Sylvester McCoy, even though I feel that the series started to go downhill in that final decade. The 70s were, to me, unquestionably the height of the show's brilliance and greatness. Tom Baker brought a fresh and different energy, but while he is THE classic Doctor that anyone ever bothers to think of anymore, and his run, until near the end, was rather iconic, people also forget that Jon Pertwee's Doctor was incredibly popular, and his seasons put the show over the top in the first place. He built the foundation, you could argue, that allowed Baker and all following Doctors to succeed and thrive from. The show grew from a fun curiosity with the first two Doctors, to a British phenomenon and a household name with a worldwide audience in the 1970s. And Pertwee helped build that, he kicked it off.

Forever the best, at least to me.

Jon Pertwee would go on to success outside of Doctor Who, specifically in the family show "Worzel Gummidge" in the 1980s. But he would return to the role twice, once in the 1983 special "The Five Doctors", and one final time as a special, non-cannon appearance in the 30th Anniversary charity special "Dimensions in Time" in 1993. He also played the role on stage, and reprised the character for several BBC audio-stories. Pertwee died in May 1996, at the age of 76. He passed away before the release of the ill-fated, American produced Eighth Doctor movie (the only real appearance the poor bastard got), which is probably just as well he never had to see it.

During The Third Doctor's five seasons, many new and even long-standing Who elements were added, such as the improved Sonic Screwdriver, the art of Venusian Aikido, the more fleshed out integration of the U.N.I.T. organization, and the introduction of beloved characters like The Master, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, and Sarah Jane Smith. And many monsters, such as the Sontarans, the Silurians, the Sea Devils, the Autons, etc. came into being. His run also saw the return of the Daleks after nearly five years, as the creator of the Daleks, Terry Nation, flirted with the idea of selling the monsters rights to some American company. Imagine how shitty it would have been to NOT have Daleks as part of Doctor Who anymore. Good looking out, Terry.

Pressure points are some serious shit.

I think my only regrets about The Third Doctor, are obviously first and foremost that Roger Delgado died, and secondly, that he should have had at least one Cybermen story, but never did. Outside of that though, I would be willing to say that, top to bottom, beginning to end, Jon Pertwee's run as the beloved Doctor, was the most even, and the most steady. Tom Baker's follow-up act was filled with many highs, such as his opening story "Robot", or the season long arc "The Key to Time". But it also had more uneven lows, such as quite frankly much of his final two seasons (1980 and 1981). To me at least, Pertwee's run didn't really have any major lows or dips. All of the stories were at least solid, and some of them, I would say, are some of the very best Doctor Who stories ever told.

In closing, if you've never seen old Doctor Who at all, or just never seen any Third Doctor episodes, I'd personally tell you that you were missing out, and should definitely check them out. All of Jon Pertwee, and most of Tom Baker's runs are really worth watching, and I would even go so far as to say that while the show budget and special effects weren't what they could have been or deserved to be, the stories and acting were usually top notch, and far better, in this man's opinion, than anything the modern show has produced.

While I would honestly recommend watching all five seasons of his entire run, some of my very favorite Third Doctor stories that I would highly recommend are (in chronological order):

Spearhead from Space

The Silurians

Inferno

Terror of the Autons

The Curse of Peladon

The Sea Devils

The Three Doctors

Carnival of Monsters

Frontier in Space

The Green Death

The Time Warrior

Death to the Daleks

Planet of the Spiders

So with that, I'll bid you all farewell. Make sure to check out some Third Doctor, and classic Doctor Who in general! Spread the word! 

Roger Delgado (1918-1973) and Jon Pertwee (1919-1996)