Doctor Who: What the Critics said

Jodie Whittaker's first proper Doctor Who adventure is only four months away from broadcast, and it will be interesting to see what the critics make of the first female Doctor. Way back in time when the show was first broadcast The Daily Mail commented: 'William Hartnell gazing from under locks of flowing white, and the appealing Carole Ann Ford represent the Unknown Them [while] William Russell and Jaqueline Hill [are] the ignorant, skeptical Us and their craft is cunningly disguised as a police call box.'

When the 2nd Doctor took to the screen viewer Estelle Hawken wrote to the Radio Times, stating: 'What have you done to BBC1's Doctor Who? Of all the stupid nonsense! Why turn a wonderful series into what looked like Coco the Clown?I think you will find thousands of children will not now be watching Doctor Who, which up to now has been the tops.'

Third Doctor, Jon Pertwee seemed to find immediate favour with the critics -  "This Doctor Who adventure wins my vote as the best in the lifetime of the series so far." said The Daily Mail.

Fourth Doctor Tom Baker was not an initial hit - 'Too stupid for words!' Said The Express. And the fifth Doctor Peter Davidson scored highly with his first adventure - 'Thankfully Doctor Who is a [series] that is always discovering and experimenting, but never more so than when the reign of a new Doctor begins. Tom Baker's debut story was quite a disappointment, but 'Castrovalva' was definitely not that. It was brim-full of original ideas and pleasant surprises.' Reported a Doctor Who fanzine.

The Tardis Fanzine seemd to like Doctor No 6 - 'The sixth Doctor looks like turning out very well indeed – he has traces of his predecessors, yet he's sufficiently different to be an interesting and enjoyable character in his own right.'

While No 7 - 'A far more interesting Doctor to watch than the previous two.' Said, The Sun Newspaper.

 And that, readers, was it for the original run of the show - Doctor Who would return for an un-loved TV Movie with Paul McGann ( brave and borderline bonkers) in the title role but this was not a hit. And it wasn't until 2005 that the series returned with the excellent Christopher Eccleston in the title role. Since then we've had David Tennant (quite brilliant), Matt Smith (some liked him but personally I didn't) and Peter Capaldi (Great performance but poor scripts.)