Doctor Who: EVERY Doctor Ranked Worst To Best

Following the sacking of Colin Baker, Doctor Who could have descended into complete chaos in the late 1980s.

But against all the odds the show managed to turn things around, with quirky comedy performer Sylvester McCoy cast as a darker and more complex Doctor.

The Seventh Doctor was essentially an extension of the Second – outwardly clownish but cool and calculating at hearts, manipulating events like pieces on a chess board for the sake of the greater good.

He starts off silly but gradually shows more of his true colours, forcing his companion Ace to confront her troubled past – then admitting that he engineered their very first meeting in order to use her as a pawn against an ancient evil.

Elsewhere there were hints towards the Doctor’s own past too – part of a concerted effort on the part of script editor Andrew Cartmel to reintroduce an element of mystery to the character (hence his question mark pullover and umbrella).

The show’s cancellation in 1989 curtailed plans to take things further, by revealing that the Doctor was, in fact, a founding figure of Time Lord society.

Even so, Seven’s arc doesn’t feel incomplete. On the contrary, this was a revolutionary take on the character that remains wonderfully enigmatic. When he flips that switch and you see his darker side emerge, there really isn't another Doctor like him.