Doctor Who: Ranking All 12 Doctors From Worst To Best
3. The Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston)
STORIES: 7
ALIENNESS: 8
HEROISM: 10
LIKABILITY: 5
LEGACY: 9
OVERALL SCORE: 39
When the show came back in 2005 there was a concerted effort to add greater realism not only to the companion but to the Doctor as well. From the “all planets have a North” line to the leather jacket, the Ninth Doctor might have been the most human of the bunch. Not so.
A combination of Eccleston’s nuanced performance, Murray Gold’s haunting music, and a narrative focus on the character as the last of his kind surprisingly made the Ninth Doctor a believable alien.
No one could have predicted the success of the 2005 series, but a combination of the assured and powerful performances of Eccleston and Piper, in some of the best stories ever seen on the show (The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, Dalek, The Parting of the Ways) turned Doctor Who into one of the BBC's flagship programmes. Had the Ninth Doctor and Rose failed to capture the imaginations of viewers, new and old, then it would have been another false start, just like the TV movie.
He may have only had one series, but Eccleston’s Doctor scored consistently high with the likability factor being the lowest at 5. His dismissiveness of Mickey and Rose’s family lost him a couple of points, but his heroism gets him into the top three, as ultimately he gives his life to save Rose, and in contrast to the Tenth Doctor’s end, he reacts to his regeneration by telling her that she was fantastic and goes out smiling.