Doctor Who: Ranking All 13 Doctors From Worst To Best

9. The Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee)

Doctor Who Jon Pertwee Vintage
BBC

The Pertwee years began with one of the most notable changes in the show's history: no longer was the Doctor parading across time and space, but instead, he was stuck on Earth, working as a scientific adviser to UNIT.

While stranding the Doctor on Earth was done for budget reasons and not story reasons, it ultimately felt like an inspired decision, because it allowed Pertwee's strengths to shine. Well-spoken and with a suave dress sense, this Doctor felt a bit more human than his predecessors, which made him a great fit for a high amount of Earth-centric stories.

Restricting the Third Doctor to Earth also made him feel like the main line of defence between humanity and any alien attackers, and that whole "saviour of humanity" idea - thanks to it being a central theme of the modern Doctor Who years - is now something we fully associate with the character (Pertwee's era also introduced the Master, another Doctor Who staple).

The Third Doctor had a dominant presence, and it always felt like he was in control - but he still possessed that likeable spark underneath. He's like one of those cool teachers who are strict when they need to be, but also know when to be kind and friendly.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!