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Classic Series New Series

Doctor Who’s popularity over five years

If there were any doubts over what a slick machine Doctor Who has become under Steven Moffat and his revolving-door production team, have a gander at this graph of search terms over the last five years, tracking the relative popularity (in Google search frequency) of Chris Eccleston, David Tennant, Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi.

Granted, this isn’t strictly a measure of their popularity solely in terms of Doctor Who, but all of the peaks in these charts represent some big new from the programme. The first heralds Smith’s arrival, with subsequent high points for Tennant’s departure, the 50th anniversary and Smith’s final episode. However, one of the peaks bows the rest out of the water: the announcement of Peter Capaldi as the 12th Doctor.

It’s a phenomenal response to the news, albeit with an absolutely vast BBC campaign behind it generating unprecedented interest in Capaldi’s arrival. It’s debatable what we can take from this, but I think it tells us a lot about how important Doctor Who is to the BBC – and how much of a part the internet has to play in the continuing popularity of its greatest hits. Having said that, we can see that the programme has made significant year-on-year gains.

To be fair Doctor Who lends itself particularly well to this medium but the fact the announcement regarding Capaldi dwarfs the announcement of Smith by a factor of three suggests the Beeb has recognised – and very much courted the power of the web and social media.

What else? Well, it’s interesting to note that Tennant tracks ahead of Smith at virtually all times, even after Tennant vacates the TARDIS. Eccleston, perhaps unsurprisingly doesn’t have a huge volume of search engine hits, nor does Capaldi until he gets the Sonic Screwdriver.

As Smith’s career has arguably been driven mainly by Who – and as he was The Doctor during the BBC’s harnessing of the net in pushing its shows – let’s have a look at how the respective actors have done around the world.

Perhaps it’s no surprise that English-speaking countries have taken to the show, but the breadth of the international popularity is as surprising as Ian Levine maintaining a dignified silence on Twitter. South America, south-east Asia and Scandinavia all seem to have gone timey-wimey too.

Meanwhile, searching by news illustrates how social media and the web have overtaken traditional news sources – Smith’s arrival easily outstrips Capaldi’s. No Doctors have any meaningful coverage outside of English-speaking countries in news searches either.

Meanwhile Youtube searches indicate that the series remains popular across the board, with the unusual exception of Eccleston – perhaps he’s too long ago for the internet generation to get a handle on, or perhaps his relative lack of episodes meant here not as much penetration – from Tennant onwards there’s been a deliberate tactic to target online video with mini-episodes, trailers and exclusive content.

Meanwhile the surviving classic Doctors are fairly well represented. Colin’s spell in the jungle, Sylv’s Hobbit excursion, Paul’s Night of the Doctor and Tom’s return in the 50th special all generated notable peaks, thought it’s interesting to note that they all maintain a certain level of interest.

Also, nice to see the departed Doctors are still popular on Teh Internets. A pleasant reminder that, here or not, they live on across the web.

Lastly, a reminder of the power of memes – and why you will always hear these bloody catchphrases.

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Classic Series Doctor Who Top 50 New Series

The 50 Best Doctor Who Stories

The DWM top 200 (or so) vote is creeping up on us and The Telegraph had a rundown of the 50 best stories as chosen by Gavin Fuller – that bloke who won Mastermind with our programme as his specialist subject – as part of a very linkbait-y season of coverage of the 50th anniversary.

Fuller certainly knows his onions, but has he got taste? I thought it a mixed bag myself – he’s clearly a lad of the 70s (alebit with a slight return for season 25 and 26) and there are precious few stories from Davison or Colin (just two in fact – and one of them is rubbish; neither from Colin). Additionally I have no objection to a sprinkling of new series episodes – they’re represented proportionately in my list – but Daleks In Manhattan? Good God.

These lists are, by their very nature, controversial. It’s almost the point of them. But I don’t think mine will be. Not especially. All the Doctors – bar McGann and I’d include The Night of the Doctor if I didn’t think that was a cheat – are represented, not out of tokenism but because I think each era has something unique and brilliant to bring to the table.

The likes of Carnival of Monsters, Dalek, Tomb of the Cybermen, The Brain of Morbius I didn’t include because, personally, they just don’t really do it for me. The latter, particularly, might once have been on my top 20 but I find myself less impressed with it each time I see it. Maybe that’s just over-familiarity – the same could be said for a few Troughton, Pertwee and Tom stories – The Mind Robber, The Mind Of Evil and The Seeds of Doom spring to mind.

the ribos operation

Similarly I rewatched The Ribos Operation recently and, though I enjoyed it, my overwhelming impression was that it’s a letdown; the Williams era doesn’t float my boat, despite some wonderful moments. I can’t say why – I probably couldn’t rationalise many of these choices – it’s just how I feel about them.

There’s a good dose of nostalgia and how I was disposed to the series at the time here too. I loved Season 26 and always will – it reinvigorated my love of the series and, without it, I may have left it behind forever. So those stories are well-represented. Similarly Season Seven, undoubtedly my favourite in the whole run, does very well. Some stories rocketed back up the charts upon a rewatch, often to my immense surprise.

The Graham Williams era is not well represented and Hartnell and Troughton fans will probably find much to gnash their teeth at. Stuff like The Celestial Toymaker, The Invasion, The Reign of Terror and The Moonbase didn’t miss out by much. These Doctors undoubtedly suffer from the lack of availability and those that are present, if incomplete, are really down to my devotion to the Targets I grew up reading. That factor may cause some raised eyebrows in the stories I did include…

As for the new series, I surprised myself somewhat. I love the classic series unequivocally. Not so with the latter, but I still included a dozen or so stories from that era (though they often seem less impressive on repeat viewings). Simply proof that, regardless of my grumbles, there’s a hell of a lot of quality in later years. I even included an RTD script.

Anyway, these are they – I’ll add them as they occur to me, rather than in numerological order. More fun that way I think. No doubt you will disagree and, frankly, a lot of them are interchangeable within a sensible range. Bring it on – that’s very much the point and the case with such lists. Nine times out of ten…

50. Vengeance On Varos

doctor jondar areta

49. Logopolis

master doctor4

45. Deep Breath

half face man twelfth doctor

43. Spearhead From Space

spearhead from space

40. Revelation of the Daleks

revelation colin and nicola

39. Genesis of the Daleks

Fourth doctor and thals

38. City Of Death

tom and lalla

10. Enlightenment

do not ask i will not tell you

3. The Web Of Fear

staff arnold


Gavin Fuller’s Top 50

50 The Doctor’s Wife (2011)
49 Day of the Daleks (1972)
48 Rose (2005)
47 The Horror of Fang Rock (1977)
46 The End of Time (2009/10)
45 Fury from the Deep (1968)
44 Cold War (2013)
43 The War Games (1969)
42 A Good Man Goes To War (2012)
41 Carnival of Monsters (1973)
40 The Ark in Space (1975)
39 Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks (2007)
38 Planet of Evil (1975)
37 The Tenth Planet (1966)
36 The Power of the Daleks (1966)
35 The Unquiet Dead (2005)
34 The Curse of Peladon (1972)
33 The Invasion (1968)
32 Frontier in Space (1973)
31 Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways (2005)
30 The Curse of Fenric (1989)
29 The Daleks (1963/4)
28 Ghost Light (1989)
27 Remembrance of the Daleks (1988)
26 The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End (2008)
25 The Green Death (1973)
24 The Brain of Morbius 1976)
23 The Sea Devils (1972)
22 The Waters of Mars (2009)
21 The Web of Fear (1968)
20 Dalek (2005)
19 Earthshock (1982)
18 School Reunion (2006)
17 Spearhead from Space (1970)
16 The Pyramids of Mars (1975)
15 Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead (2008)
14 The Robots of Death (1977)
13 The Seeds of Doom (1976)
12 The Mind Robber (1968)
11 The Daemons (1971)
10 Human Nature/The Family of Blood (2007)
9 The Massacre (1966)
8 Inferno (1970)
7 City of Death (1979)
6 The Deadly Assassin (1976)
5 The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances (2005)
4 The Caves of Androzani (1984)
3 Genesis of the Daleks (1975)
2 Blink (2007)
1 The Talons of Weng-Chiang (1977)