The latest issue of the official Doctor Who Magazine sees the results of a massive poll of Doctor Who fans from all over the world, revealing their favorite stories and actors from five decades of the British science fiction TV institution. Tom Baker, who played the fourth Doctor for a record-breaking seven years from 1974 to 1981, emerged triumphant.
In the magazine’s 25-year history, Baker has only ever lost the top spot twice: in 1990 to Sylvester McCoy, who placed seventh in the 2014 poll, and in 2009 to David Tennant, who slips to third place. As the new poll proves, Baker always seems to bounce back from the rare occasions that he loses the top spot.
The top story voted by the magazine’s readers was The Day of the Doctor, which was the recent special that saw Tennant return to the series alongside the just-departed Matt Smith, who came second in the poll, and guest star John Hurt. The episode, no doubt buoyed by a wave of hype and 50th anniversary euphoria, just beat the Tennant episode Blink and the Tom Baker classic Genesis of the Daleks to the top spot.
Rounding out the top ten favorite stories were the Peter Davison finale The Caves of Androzani; another Tennant story, Human Nature; three more Tom Baker stories – The Talons of Weng-Chiang, Pyramids of Mars and the comic City of Death, written by Douglas Adams – and the Sylvester McCoy favorite Remembrance of the Daleks, which appeared in the series’ 25th anniversary season back in 1988.
