Doctor Who: Seventh Doctor Summary
I’m going to miss this incarnation.
After the Sixth Doctor’s run, I was a bit worried about the future of the franchise. Even though the classic era technically ends with the Seventh Doctor, I’m glad that we got Sylvester McCoy in the role.
I could tell that things were going to be different from the jump when I was grinning ear-to-ear during Time and the Rani. Even though the stories varied wildly in quality and entertainment value, I feel like this incarnation’s run really struck gold with the combination of McCoy and Sophie Aldred’s Ace. Those two together was perfect chemistry, and I would love to see more of their adventures before the TV movie.
I’m seriously considering diving into the Virgin New Adventures at some point.
With the TV movie, we got to see the Seventh Doctor in what I call his early retirement years. He was still traveling the universe, but his console room was his living room, complete with record player, library, and jelly babies. He’s tackled the Cybermen, the Daleks, and the Master, and between the last two, even struck peace with one to help bring the other to justice.
Following tradition, if the First Doctor was a wise grandfather, the Second a sly jester, the Third a secret agent scientist, the Fourth an inquisitive idealist, the Fifth Doctor an honorable humanitarian, and the Sixth Doctor a squandered cynic, then the Seventh Doctor is a curious schemer.
Series 24 – 3.0
Series 25 – 2.5
Series 26 – 3.0
The Movie – 4.0
Seventh Doctor’s Weighted Average Rating: 3.54
Note that if I don’t count the TV movie in the mix, the average comes to 3.50, so it’s not that significant of a difference.
Ranking (by score)
1 – Third (4.00)
2 – Second (3.67)
2 – Fourth (3.67)
4 – Seventh (3.54)
5 – First (3.41)
6 – Fifth (3.20)
7 – Sixth (2.73)
Ranking (by character)
1 – Second Doctor
2 – Third Doctor
3 – Fourth Doctor
4 – Seventh Doctor
5 – First Doctor
6 – Fifth Doctor
7 – Sixth Doctor
UP NEXT – Doctor Who: The Night of the Doctor
The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.
Creative Criticality 
Glad that you enjoyed the Sylvester McCoy era, and I do thoroughly recommend the novels. At the time they were considered the legitimate continuation of the series. There are ups and downs. I cried during one. It gets dark, but there’s a point to it all, and it ends wonderfully. It also allows some of the seeds planted by Platt, Cartmel, Aaronovitch, and others to come to fruition, and the payoff is great.
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