Why I like the (Third) Doctor
So, Doctor Who is a show about an alien traveling through time and space in a rickety old police box. Except for the Third Doctor era, when he used a sexy yellow roadster instead, and the travel through time and space was almost entirely the usual sort.
The Third Doctor era introduces something entirely new: color exile. The Doctor is confined to Earth, trapped in a single time and place, the TARDIS - his home - literally in pieces, his mind itself crippled, and completely surrounded by *shudder* humans. Oh most horrible! Even if it is humans he happens to like rather a lot. The beginning of the era sees the Doctor all pissy and unpleasant, being super childish and occasionally throwing tantrums. You can hardly blame him. And it opens the door for some stunningly beautiful character development and growth. He goes from resentful to invested. So much so that even once his exile is lifted, he stays on the UNIT staff and retains his labs as a base of operation. When he is dying, he says "The TARDIS...brought me home..." Home. He goes from thinking of the Earth a a prison that he tries to escape at every opportunity to thinking of it as his home. Which may be why he spends so much time there as the Tenth Doctor - other than Gallifrey, it's the only place he's ever really dwelt for any length of time. It's almost a growing up story, the rebellious youth into the mature adult. And it really is beautiful.
The Third Doctor is also the first one who is really a Leading Man. He no longer needs a younger perkier companion to do his punching for him. Quite the opposite - in stark contrast to his vaunted pacifism, he is an expert in Venusian Aikido and not ashamed to use it. (As an aside - the Third Doctor seems to be extremely fond of Venus over all - their karate, their lullabies, etc.) Yes. The Doctor will, on occasion, just beat people up. Or knock them out instantly with his version of the Vulcan Neck Pinch (Venusian Neck Pinch?) It's as fabulous as it is totally unexpected. For one thing, the Third Doctor is one of the older ones, so not someone you'd initially associate with this level of physical exertion (the trope here is Badass Grandpa). But mostly, it's the Doctor hitting people. That's... not a thing that happens. To be fair, he is doing exclusively subdual damage, so he's not being a hypocrite - just a badass. Seriously, I can't say enough how much I love that the Third Doctor's preferred method of conflict resolution is the karate chop. He's probably the single most hands-on Doctor overall - often literally :P And he always does it so politely too.
The Third Doctor has real sense of style, and of class. He is polite and refined (when not throwing tantrums, that is). This comes through in his dress (covered in frills! SO MANY FRILLS), his bearing, his language, and his general affect. He likes cheeses and fine wines - so much so that he refuses to be seriously inconvenienced by an armed attack. And there's something really wonderful about him karate chopping his assailant and then going back to his wine without skipping a beat. He likes old-fashioned cars and fabulous capes. He calls everybody "sir" and "madam," albeit usually when insulting them. But even his insults have this fabulous gentility to them which sort of makes you want to applaud. He outclasses everybody, and does so almost constantly. And he somehow manages to look just as dignified in the floral dress of a wash woman as he does in his velvet jacket and frills. But then, it makes sense given how much this era tends to draw on the spy genre.
And, of course, Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee bickering with each other is the best thing in all of Doctor Who.
The Third Doctor era introduces something entirely new: color exile. The Doctor is confined to Earth, trapped in a single time and place, the TARDIS - his home - literally in pieces, his mind itself crippled, and completely surrounded by *shudder* humans. Oh most horrible! Even if it is humans he happens to like rather a lot. The beginning of the era sees the Doctor all pissy and unpleasant, being super childish and occasionally throwing tantrums. You can hardly blame him. And it opens the door for some stunningly beautiful character development and growth. He goes from resentful to invested. So much so that even once his exile is lifted, he stays on the UNIT staff and retains his labs as a base of operation. When he is dying, he says "The TARDIS...brought me home..." Home. He goes from thinking of the Earth a a prison that he tries to escape at every opportunity to thinking of it as his home. Which may be why he spends so much time there as the Tenth Doctor - other than Gallifrey, it's the only place he's ever really dwelt for any length of time. It's almost a growing up story, the rebellious youth into the mature adult. And it really is beautiful.
The Third Doctor is also the first one who is really a Leading Man. He no longer needs a younger perkier companion to do his punching for him. Quite the opposite - in stark contrast to his vaunted pacifism, he is an expert in Venusian Aikido and not ashamed to use it. (As an aside - the Third Doctor seems to be extremely fond of Venus over all - their karate, their lullabies, etc.) Yes. The Doctor will, on occasion, just beat people up. Or knock them out instantly with his version of the Vulcan Neck Pinch (Venusian Neck Pinch?) It's as fabulous as it is totally unexpected. For one thing, the Third Doctor is one of the older ones, so not someone you'd initially associate with this level of physical exertion (the trope here is Badass Grandpa). But mostly, it's the Doctor hitting people. That's... not a thing that happens. To be fair, he is doing exclusively subdual damage, so he's not being a hypocrite - just a badass. Seriously, I can't say enough how much I love that the Third Doctor's preferred method of conflict resolution is the karate chop. He's probably the single most hands-on Doctor overall - often literally :P And he always does it so politely too.
The Third Doctor has real sense of style, and of class. He is polite and refined (when not throwing tantrums, that is). This comes through in his dress (covered in frills! SO MANY FRILLS), his bearing, his language, and his general affect. He likes cheeses and fine wines - so much so that he refuses to be seriously inconvenienced by an armed attack. And there's something really wonderful about him karate chopping his assailant and then going back to his wine without skipping a beat. He likes old-fashioned cars and fabulous capes. He calls everybody "sir" and "madam," albeit usually when insulting them. But even his insults have this fabulous gentility to them which sort of makes you want to applaud. He outclasses everybody, and does so almost constantly. And he somehow manages to look just as dignified in the floral dress of a wash woman as he does in his velvet jacket and frills. But then, it makes sense given how much this era tends to draw on the spy genre.
And, of course, Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee bickering with each other is the best thing in all of Doctor Who.