back to article Staying power: The small screen spans of the eleven Doctor Whos

Here we see the total running times of each Doctor’s regular episodes in which they were the lead – so not counting return appearances with a later Doctor; Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee in The Five Doctors, for instance. With seven years in the role under his belt, Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor is clearly the longest serving, …

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  1. FartingHippo
    Mushroom

    Worst infographic EVER

    They're meant to assist understanding the data, not obfuscate it. A key would be have been helpful too.

    Sometimes an old fashioned bar chart it just what the doctor ordered...

    1. Toxteth O'Gravy

      Re: Worst infographic EVER

      If I can figure out what's going on here without a key, I'm sure you can, FH

    2. Platelet

      Re: Worst infographic EVER

      If you want the key, buy the book

      1. Magnus Ramage

        Re: Worst infographic EVER

        @Platelet: Fair point, but then this is more of an advert for an infographic than an actual infographic. I quite like the format, but really I'd have liked a key too, or at least a note after the 1st, 2nd etc to say the actor's surname.

        1. drunk.smile

          Re: Worst infographic EVER

          A note with the chart? It's enclosed within a whole freakin' article!

          :)

    3. Simon Harris

      Re: Worst infographic EVER

      "Sometimes an old fashioned bar chart it just what the doctor ordered..."

      Looks like a bar chart to me... just wrapped around a clock-face, which given the nature of the subject seems wholly appropriate!

  2. EddieD

    Good ol' Tom

    Was the second incarnation of the Dr that I really remember - I remember the final episode with Troughton, cast into the time vortex in Monochrome, and then I saw Pertwee fall out of the Tardis in colour, for the first time, and I watched avidly till the almost end of the Tom Baker era - by which time my Saturday evenings were taken up with my first girlfriend...

    There's a grand interview with Tom on the BBC today:-

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24657064

    Amazing that the series has lasted so long - I think it's the constant evolution that has made it a success, even if I'm not too fond of the recent series, many, many millions of viewers can't be wrong :)

    I didn't see a problem with the graphic, once I'd looked at it for a few seconds.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Actual screen time may differ of course.

    For the first two Doctors, the long season meant that the actors would need a holiday during the run and so there are episodes when the major actors are missing. Not to mention the time when the producer decided to keep Hartnell out of a story because he wanted to and not just cause Hartnell needed a break.

    I heard an interesting theory on Radio Free Skaro's latest podcast this morning: that stunt double Terry Walsh managed about the same on-screen time as Pertwee during one season because Pertwee's back had given out.

    1. Simon Harris

      "Actual screen time may differ of course."

      And does the 10th incarnation get given double-time for the bit in Journey's End when he was duplicated?

  4. EddieD

    Oh yeah...

    What about the 3 or so hours Peter Cushing was the Doctor :)

    1. Dalek Dave

      Re: Oh yeah...

      He wasn't "The Doctor", he played a character called "Dr Who".

      Where one is a 950 year old alien from the planet Gallifrey, who has two hearts, a self-renewing cell structure and penchant for attractive young women, the other was a human Earthling who only had grand-daughters and strange men.

      The films are not canon.

      1. Duffy Moon

        Re: Oh yeah...

        McGann's Doctor was supposedly half human and that's canon. Also, the Doctor has often been called "Dr. Who" in the old series' credits.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: McGann's Doctor

          The Jar-Jar of the Whoniverse. I refuse to consider him canon no matter what anyone says. What a waste of an incarnation

      2. Xofer
        Holmes

        Re: Oh yeah...

        Of course, in the world of the films it's the Doctor who's not canon.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Time Dilation Factor

    Story telling is much faster paced as the years roll on.

    Hartnell and Troughton had several 6 episode length stories, with one or two epics up around 10 or 12 (yes 3 months spent telling a story). Hartnell covering 29 stories, Troughton 21.

    Tom Baker's tenure saw more 4-parters, so he notched up 40 stories.

    A modern story is about the length of two old episodes - but benefits from not needing a couple of minutes repeat of the cliffhanger, or even having to manipulate the story to fit in a cliffhanger at the right time.

    1. Ian 55

      Re: Time Dilation Factor

      The phrase you're looking for is 'got worse'.

      Yes, you don't need cliffhangers, but you need to wrap the whole lot up in how ever many minutes it is, rather than being able to take as many episodes as you need.

  6. Anonymous Custard
    Alien

    Assistants

    Would also be interesting to see a (clear) infographic about the turn-over of assistants that they each had.

    Interesting to compare the stories where there was basically just the 'Doc plus a single companion to those where he had an entourage of almost diva proportions (although of course the Tennant story -The Stolen Earth I think it was - with the Daleks and the Tardis-full would unbalance things somewhat).

    Or perhaps the average screen-time they had per Doctor?

    1. Dalek Dave

      Re: Assistants

      I think the longest time anyone has ever spent travelling with the doctor is nearly 32 years.

      In 1982 a Cyberman went down the corridor of the Tardis in the story Earthshock, and he is yet to return.

      1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

        Re: Assistants

        In 1982 a Cyberman went down the corridor of the Tardis in the story Earthshock, and he is yet to return.

        On the plus side, they got the Cyberman in exchange for Adric, and he's much less whiny.

    2. graeme leggett Silver badge

      Re: Assistants

      This might help http://www.geekologie.com/image.php?path=/2011/12/19/doctor-who-timeline-full.jpg

      From the looks of it a monogamous relationship with assistants doesn't really begin until 1970, and even then there's all those squaddies hanging around the place.

  7. Smallbrainfield
    Trollface

    You could argue that 8 was the longest serving.

    Since the time between him and 9 appearing on TV was far longer than any of the others were around.

  8. Tom Betz

    Pardon the pedantry...

    But wouldn't that be "Doctors Who"?

    As in "Attorneys General" or "Courts Martial".

    1. Platelet

      Re: Pardon the pedantry...

      Nope just

      Doctors

    2. frank ly

      Re: Pardon the pedantry...

      It's Doctor Who. It's always the same one. His appearance changes as a result of regeneration. Has this been forgotten?

  9. Simon Harris
    Boffin

    Yes, but...

    Have appropriate deductions been made for title sequences and end credits, and in the case of Doctors 3*-7 the 'what happened last week' bit at the beginning and for Doctors 9-11 the 'what's happening next week' bit at the end?

    *not old enough to remember Doctors 1 and 2 and not sure how those episodes started and finished.

  10. Chad H.

    Would like to see a version where the bigfinish audios are included

  11. M7S
    Happy

    Just how much of this sort of article will there be as 23.11.13 approaches?

    as I'm thoroughly enjoying it all.

  12. Stevie

    Bah!

    Nice to see that after Tom Baker William Hartnell has an appreciable lead. I had thought for years his time was less than Troughton's.

    One for the Grand Old Man of the show.

    1. lorisarvendu

      Re: Bah!

      Up until the end of Troughton's tenure, the series was on TV for about 43 weeks a year. That's Doctor Who every Saturday all year round, with only 10 weeks off! We never had it so good!

      From 1970 onwards, that figure dropped to 27 weeks, less than half the year, so no wonder Pertwee has so little air-time despite his 5 years on the job. Tom Baker has to stick it out for 7 seasons to make an appreciable dent in Hartnell's record.

      By the time the 6th Doctor comes along, the show's only on for a quarter of the year - 13 weeks - and it stays that way until it's cancelled in 1989. Then it comes back in 2005 for...13 weeks. Admittedly those 13 weeks are all 45 minute stories, so we're kind of back to 1970s screen-time.

      Then in 2009 the 10th Doctor's "Specials" year is only 6 weeks long, as is the first half of the 11th Doctor's 7th Series (including Christmas Special).

      2012's a little better, as so far we've had 8 weeks, and there's a 50th Anniversary and Christmas Special still to come. But those halcyon days of the Doctor taking up a sizeable chunk of the viewing year are long gone...

  13. An0n C0w4rd

    Scarf

    Clearly Tom Bakers time on screen was due to his equally long scarf.

    1. Simon Harris
      Coat

      Re: Scarf

      Apparently Tom Baker wound up his time on Dr Who to audition for Brian De Palma in a failed bid for the part of Tony Montana...

      ... because after playing The Doctor for so long he thought he'd become such a Scarf-ace!

    2. Steve Knox
      Joke

      Re: Scarf

      Little-Known Fact: the scarf was actually woven from the scripts of the episodes. When you see Tom contemplating a section he's not acting; he just forgot his lines...

  14. Vociferous

    Tom Baker FTW!

    My favorite Doctor.

    Though I admit the most recent Doctors, after the hiatus, have had much better scripts and effects. Very very very much better.

  15. Tommy Pock

    I remember when infographics were called diagrams. It was all fields around here then

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      No, no, no infographics and diagrams are different things. A diagram tells you something useful and is occasionally pretty. An infographic is pretty and only rarely tells you anything at all apart from arts graduates shouldn't be allowed near a computer.

  16. Who took my handle %@£#

    What, no Dr. Donna?

  17. KjetilS

    Typo in the article

    I wonder if Paul Smith is using a Norwegian keyboard layout...

    "Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith’s expected departure in this year’s Christmas Special will mean heÆll fall just short of Tenth Doctor David Tennant’s tenure, (...)"

    The Æ and ' is next to each other on the Norwegian standard keyboard layout.

    It is superior to all other layouts, so I can't blame him ;)

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