13 Things Non-Fans Always Get Wrong About Doctor Who

5. Doctor Who Is That Guy With The Teeth And Curls And The Great Big Scarf

OK so here's the thing: between 1963 and 1989 there were actually seven TV Doctors. If you include the 1996 TV movie - which, as any dedicated Doctor Who fan will tell you, you should - then there were eight TV Doctors. All the 700-odd TV episodes made over that 33 year period are from what's described these days as "the classic series". I suppose someone thought that sounded a bit better than "the old series". But here's the other thing: as hard as it might be to believe, Tom Baker wasn't actually the only one. He might've had the greatest number of seasons at the helm of the TARDIS and it's probably also true to say that he had the biggest, loudest personality of all the classic series Doctors. But he certainly didn't have the most number of episodes, nor the highest ratings of the classic series (the insanely high ratings achieved by some his stories when ITV was off the air for ten weeks in 1979 had a grossly unfair advantage over the rest of the series and, arguably, wouldn't have been nearly that high had the ITV strike not happened). So yes, Tom Baker's Doctor with his big teeth, big curls and great big scarf was iconic, but the other seven are all equally deserving of their places on the timeline of classic Doctors.