Digital Spy has nominated David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor for the greatest fictional television character of the 21st century.
In an article yesterday by Tom Eames, Digital Spy launched its reader poll for the greatest character of the 21st century. Among the nominees is David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor, who is, as of this article, winning by a landslide with 21,000 votes to his name. While this is fantastic news, there are a couple of curious points to consider on the matter.
Firstly, while not unprecedented, it does seem odd to be compiling such a list for an entire century when we are only in the second decade. It will be interesting to do another poll at the end of the century as a comparison. By that point, the results will likely be much different, but you never know.
Secondly, why just the Tenth Doctor? While he is a fan favorite, this does not seem fair to the other actors who have portrayed the character since the revival of the program. And that brings up another point: each incarnation of the Doctor may be a different personality, but those personalities are parts of the same character.
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It could be that Digital Spy are doing their best to make the distinction between the classic and new Doctors. But while the general character of the Doctor was first seen in 1963, it would be possible to differentiate that era from the 2005 revival while still covering the entire range of modern actors. Nominating the “Revival Doctor” would have been an elegant and equitable solution. The only issue here is that this would also cover incarnations who come along after the poll is closed. We cannot fairly judge an actor before seeing them in a role, not to mention what is written for them. Considering the character’s track record of greatness, however, it is pretty safe to bet on a continuation of greatness going forward.
To vote and check out the other sixty nine nominees, head over to Digital Spy.
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