As usual, I disagree with everything burrunjor has to say about NuWho, especially RTD's era.
I also disagree with some things he has to say about Classic, starting with the fact that the Doctor was never asexual and any statement to the contrary is a retcon. He was originally a grandfather, whether some fans in denial like it or not. Trying to pretend that Susan Foreman isn't even a biological Time Lady and not the Doctor's real flesh and blood are amongst the insane leaps of logic needed to make that idea work.
Jo Grant was the first companion to admit she basically had feelings for the Doctor, but ultimately had to find a substitute. And unlike Sarah Jane Smith admitting the same in School Reunion (but before that, there was a short story called Girls' Night In where a whole bunch of female companions admitted it, including her, Jo and even Tegan Jovanka), Jo did it all the way back in The Green Death. Nyssa also kissed the Doctor goodbye. Katy Manning completely contradicts the idea that Jo's feelings were in any way platonic and she didn't play it that way. There are two different times that the Doctor walks in on Jo kissing someone else (King Peladon and Cliff Jones). Then there was Romana, complete with Tom Baker and Lalla Ward outright saying they played it as the Doctor being in love and the fictional characters bled into their personal lives. One of the Eighth Doctor books (the '90s books went for more adult content) outright had Bernice Summerfield sleeping with the Doctor (oh, yes).
RTD got the Doctor amazingly well back then and gave us one of the greatest Doctors ever. Best of all, RTD's inspirations from Buffy/Angel made the reboot an absolute juggernaut in all the right ways. And I've seen/heard over 800 episodes. Make no mistake. David Tennant wins every poll still to this day and he's been gone from the role for 12 years. Tom Baker is usually second amongst the older set if recentism hasn't pipped him. Matt Smith is the only one who comes near Tennant's popularity in the NuWho era and does deserve some credit for breaking the American market (though Tennant began that). Pretty much the only hyped thing about the 60th anniversary is getting Tennant and Smith back.
For the record, Patrick Troughton is my second-favorite Doctor after David Tennant. Jamie McCrimmon is my second-favorite companion after Rose Tyler. You can be a fan of both.
And this was Tennant's actual most-internationally-famous performance pre-Doctor:
Not exactly a "pretty" or "hero" role.
Bravo for demonstrating why New Who is a problem to the old.
In order to make the original and the revival fit with each other. You and other fans have to completely rewrite the past. This is like when people went on about Roger Delgado and Jon Pertwee having sexual chemistry with each other to make Missy fit, or saying the Morbius Doctors prove the Timeless Children, or the infamous DW has no canon, DW is all about change, gender bending time lords were always canon etc, all of which is what destroyed the entire series.
No the Doctor was not romantic in the original. You know who said that? William Hartnell! He was adamant that there be no sex in the show and that the Doctor be a grandfatherly figure. Also Waris Hussein who directed the original story, helped create the show and cast Hartnell said that Capaldi's Doctor was the best as he wasn't romantic!
Colin Baker and Peter Davison and Sylvester McCoy all criticised the revival for that.
Tom Baker states in an interview taken for Whose Doctor Who, a 70s docu taken whilst he was playing the role that the Doctor is one of the most limited roles he has ever played as there are so many things he can't do, one of which is romance!
Jon Pertwee was 100 percent adamant about it. Go watch an interview where he says as much. His exact words "The Doctor is completely asexual." He found the idea of the Doctor and Jo utterly repulsive. (Considering she was like 19 and he was like 56 I'm not surprised.)
Tom Baker and Romana? Similarly nothing on the show. Just because the actors were involved in real life. Means nothing! PS there were plenty of times during filming that they despised each other too. William Hartnell and Anneke Wills hated each others guts. Does that reflect in their performances?
There are stories that highlight him being asexual ffs including City of Death.
RTD did NOT bring the Doctor back. He completely changed everything about the character.
His motivation. Old Doctor travels because he wants to see the universe, and is a scientist with a strong sense of morals. He loves his life because of the freedom it gives him. New Doctor, travels because his people are gone and wants a normal life, and hates being a Time Lord.
His style. Old series he always tended to dress in Edwardian/Victorian era over the top fancy clothing to reflect the fact that he was a Jules Verne, Sherlock Holmes style archetype. The insufferable eccentric Victorian gentleman. His hair also tended to be big, flowing and messy to reflect his bohemian nature.New Who, Eccelston/Tennant dress in modern, trendy clothes and have normal hair cuts.
His moral code? In Old Who he is very practical and fair. He will kill an enemy if he has no other choice, and will use any weapon he needs. He prefers peaceful methods, but is not naive. New Who? He hates guns no matter what the situation and is irrational, going from killing people "no second chances" to hugging the Master.
Regeneration? In the old one, regeneration is a way of cheating death. It's just an advanced form of healing. His outer persona changes, but his core personality is the same and we see him develop across all of his lives. New Who? He makes out that when he regenerates he DOES die, Consciousness, core personality etc. It's all gone. All that goes on is memories.
And yes sexuality? In the old one, the Doctor whilst having a grand daughter, clearly by the time we see him isn't interested in having that type of relationship anymore. He is more focused on his work, he is constantly travelling, and he is also a lot older and of a different species to any of the young women he travelled with. New Who, he falls in love with Rose, a 19 year old. Someone 3 years older than his grand daughter, boasts about shagging Queen Elizabeth and has kinky bondagey sex with River Song among others.
Also yes Tennant and Eccelston were more conventional than Tom Baker. So what Tennant played a few villains? Doesn't mean he isn't conventional. Mark Hamill went on to play villains. Chris Sarandon who was very much a hunky leading man, still played a number of monstrous and quirky off beat villain roles. Point is that Tennant could and did go on to leading roles in crime dramas and rom coms. Tennant is what you would call conventional unconventional. IE he is maybe a bit more nerdy or quirky than say Sean Connery, but he could still play the romantic lead. Tom Baker meanwhile who is too eccentric is more like Tim Curry, IE someone who is type cast as villains or larger than life hams, and generally tends to appear in genre pictures or cult films. (And no this is not about looks btw, as Tim Curry has an unbelievable amount of fangirls and boys, but he obviously could never play Bond or the normal romantic lead because of his persona.)
Still don't believe me? Okay then lets take a look at the roles that convinced the producer to cast each actor as the Doctor shall we?
David Tennant won the role after Davies worked with him and saw his performance as Casanova.
That's what made Davies think "he's our guy."
William Hartnell meanwhile? Got the role based on his sympathetic performance as a closeted gay man in a drama This Sporting Life, at a time when homosexuality was illegal, and as a horrible nasty army sergent in The Army Game.
The role that made Verity Lambert think "that's our guy" There's a chance she was going for something different to Davies.
Tom Baker won it based on his performance as Rasputin and an evil Wizard in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad.
Slightly different type of part to Casanova.
Jon Pertwee meanwhile was on their shortlist for his numerous rubber faced comedy roles.
I don't think he and Pertwee are having the same kind of good time as Tennant and those women.
Might add he was their second choice. Their first was Ron Moody based on his performance as Fagan, but he turned them down. (He later said that he regretted it though and he would have been absolutely amazing, but I'm glad Pertwee took it as he was the best.)
He was very nearly almost the Doctor. Again you can see with him and Jon Pertwee being their top two choices how they weren't going for conventional leading men at all.
On top of this we also have more of a focus on soap opera than sci fi, shorter stories, all the story arcs from the original being abandoned, apart from Sarah, which is rewritten to being romantic, and other characters like the Cybermen and the Master being completely out of character, all of which makes New Who more of a remake, but it insists on linking itself to the original to be more popular and as a result fans like you who are desperate for it to fit, will try and rewrite the past.
I meanwhile see it like it is. True Who and New Who do not fit. Enjoy them as two seperate entities that have the same basic premise by all means, but stop trying to rewrite the original and worse stop trying to make out that they are the same show as in the long run, you are just stopping anything like the original from happening ever again. You want your romantic, sexy Doctor? Fine go ahead, but I would at least like an acknowledgment that yes the Master is not the Doctors lover in the original, the Doctor was not a romantic sexy lead in the original , so that perhaps one day someone can say "hmm let's try going back to that." Rather than buying into this lie that the original was always like that.
