Doctor Who by the Numbers

[Vince]

An interesting graphic detailing Dr Who statistics throughout the show's history.

Doctor Who by the Numbers (http://gallery.fanserviceftw.com/_images/9c1cf86ab8666a1cc4d8cb8fbcfece76/10324%20-%20dr._who%20statistics%20tagme.jpg)

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I do not have permission to see the contents of that link :(

[Dasquian Belargic]

I guess they don't allow direct linking to images! But I believe I found it on another site:

<a href="http://www.cabletv.com/doctor-who-by-the-numbers"><img src="http://www.cabletv.com/images/cabletv/doctor-who-small.jpg" alt="Doctor Who Infographic" /></a><br />Via: <a href="http://www.cabletv.com">CableTV.com</a>

[Atreyu]

Some personal musings:

* Impressed that after all these years, Tom Baker (Doctor #4) still enjoys the highest viewed episode (top 2 in fact).

* On a related note, I'm surprised to see William Hartnell (Doctor #1) also in the same league with the 6th most watched episode - I didn't expect to see the show have viewing numbers that high way back in the 1960s.

* Also surprised to see Jon Pertwee (Doctor #3) ranked as the 2nd most popular of the 'classic' era. I would have expected Peter Davison (Doctor #5) to have nabbed that position, with Hartnell coming in 3rd. Not that I'm complaining - physical-appearance wise Pertwee is my favourite (I always liked my Doctors looking a bit old and grizzled - something that has continually disappointed me about the new series by casting younger and younger).

* Tom Baker's 7 years as The Doctor looks ginormous when compared against all the others - 3 seasons seems to be the typical life of most (Hartnell and Patrick Troughton when rounded, as well as Davison, Sylvester McCoy, and David Tennant).





Thanks for the graphic. :)

[Vince]

Yeeeaah, about the link: sorry about not updating it, and thanks to Dasq for covering me on that.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I'm kind of baffled that Paul McGann has the most average viewers. How did that happen?? He had literally only one episode/adventure on TV :huh

[Captain Untouchable]

I'm kind of baffled that Paul McGann has the most average viewers. How did that happen?? He had literally only one episode/adventure on TV :huh

Actually, it makes a lot of sense, if you think about what the statistic is actually saying.

You have to bear in mind that this isn't a count of the total number of viewers: it's a count of the number of people who watched it live. The movie built off the back of thirty years of the Doctor Who franchise: thirty years of repeats and reruns, cult references, and all that stuff.

It also starred Paul McGann, who people had actually heard of before he was cast in the role. And, it was shown over the Christmas period - and was Christmas/New Year themed - which attracts a lot of casual viewers who might not necessarily have watched it at another time of year.

On top of that, you need to bear in mind that it's purely a count of the people that tuned in. They may have hated it. If it had been a pilot episode for a series, they might not have watched the second installment. But, because they tuned in, it counts towards the ratings. A series meanwhile loses viewers not just because they don't like it, but because people missed an episode and are going to "catch up later", or because people have migrated from watching live to watching on iPlayer, TiVo, etc.

Basically, it's not a like-with-like comparison. It'd be like saying that Ewan McGregor is more popular as Obi Wan Kenobi than Alec Guinness, because The Phantom Menace had more ticket sales during it's initial theatrical release than the original Star Wars did the first time around. It's a flawed assumption, because you're not considering all of the evidence, or all the factors.

[/math boy]

[Dasquian Belargic]

Still seems odd to me! There aren't even that many years between Seven and Eight, so it's not like people had been waiting for years and years for more of the Doctor.

[Mu Satach]

Still seems odd to me! There aren't even that many years between Seven and Eight, so it's not like people had been waiting for years and years for more of the Doctor.

Actually 7 years after a constant doctor for almost 30 years is quite a gap. Considering the only way anyone would have seen any Doctor would have been in syndication as TV shows on VHS were awfully hard to come by, and internet was still a babe in the woods. And if the syndication was anything like my region they were only rerunning certain seasons. I only knew of Tom Baker as the Doctor over here for much of my life as my local station only reran a few seasons, over and over and over and over... and over.

So, something new after 7 years of Doctor drought, a viewership of that magnitude makes perfect sense combined with what was said above with it being Christmas season and all.

[Vince]

As humble apologies for the failure of my first post, another interesting Doctor Who graphic:

http://gallery.fanserviceftw.com/_images/ab8e951f60fe3db96f3685ce3b836f14/10351%20-%20dr._who%20tagme.jpg

[Captain Untouchable]

Is it a slightly psychic graphic?

Just looks blank to me...






:ohno

[Dasquian Belargic]

I think I fixed it. Maybe.

Here's the url anyway! http://gallery.fanserviceftw.com/post/view/10351

[Vince]

Is it a slightly psychic graphic?

Just looks blank to me...






:ohno

|I

[Atreyu]

I think I fixed it. Maybe.

Here's the url anyway! http://gallery.fanserviceftw.com/post/view/10351
Thanks. :)

I'd personally recommend people starting with the Third Doctor. It's in colour, there are some quite good storylines, we are introduced to some of the series' most memorable characters (Sarah Jane, The Master, plus the Brigadier returns in a big way following his introduction with the Second Doctor) but most importantly it serves as a nice halfway point between the older style Doctor Who of the earlier Doctors and the more modern series we're seeing at the moment.

Starting with NuWho from the get-go does get people up-to-date very quickly but I always feel it runs the risk of setting expectations which the older Doctors can't match (particularly special effects). As for starting with the First Doctor, there are some neat ideas but it can be a real chore to watch at times (no surprise - it was made in the early 60s).

(I do a similar thing with James Bond - I usually start with Roger Moore first, then check out a bit of Sean Connery before showing new fans any of the more modern movies)

[Captain Untouchable]

John Pertwee was the first incarnation of Doctor Who that I ever encountered. He was kind of the John Steed of Doctor Who... smartly dressed, well spoken, with kung fu action judo chop powers. It's worth watching because it explains the Doctor's obsession / soft spot for Earth and humans.

Tom Baker was the classic travelling around with an entorage Doctor. I'm not a massive fan of Tom Baker himself, but the stories and characters as a whole were all pretty good. And of course, he's the Doctor with the scarf. Everyone knows Doctor Who wears a ridiculously long scarf, even if they don't know why.

I like Peter Davidson, but I don't really remember much about him. And the Sylvester McCoy episodes were a little camp and cheesy, but there are aspects of his character that seem a little reminiscent of the modern incarnations, somehow.

Plus, Sylvester McCoy had the awesome scene where he ran up stairs to escape from a Dalek, and it flew after him for the first time. (Exactly like the scene with Rose in Dalek in fact)

And, he had a fez (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z_GS4osQcE)!

[Dasquian Belargic]

This is interesting to watch: a video of the Doctor's regenerations in order. It's funny to see how the transformation was handled in Classic Who (which I am not at all familiar with)

<object style="height: 390px; width: 640px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/uXCpY_3Sac8?version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/uXCpY_3Sac8?version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="360"></object>

[Vince]

I actually felt bad for Tennant's Doctor on his exit scene; the other ones were... nice, in a way, except for: "I changed...it seems just in time." That entire scene was cheesy to the max in every possible way.