Find out what playing the Doctor did for the actors’ careers.
Former Doctor Who stars David Tennant and Christopher Eccleston are both enjoying major TV success thanks to their parts in Broadchurch and Safe House, respectively.
But how does their rise in stock stack up in the history of all the Doctors?
We look at the careers of every actor to play the nation’s favourite time-travelling alien to find out what the role has done for each of them.
Pssst we’re leaving out Peter Capaldi for obvious reasons (he’s still The Doctor!)
Matt Smith (20102013)
Doctor Who? was the cry when Matt Smith became the Doctor.
Matt Smith was a relative unknown when he took over from David Tennant, so the role could only have boosted his profile. And it has certainly done that.
Before landing the role as the Time Lord, he was mainly known for his performances on stage, although he was a prominent cast member in the political drama Party Animals.
Since making his exit from Doctor Who, has headed back to the stage to perform in American Psycho as the lead character Patrick Bateman and is also set to appear in Terminator Genisys.
Who knows what that will do for his career!
He is also in line to star in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Patient Zero which are both due out next year.
A clear sign that the Doctor Who role has helped him push into film.
David Tennant (20052010)
David Tennant was already a fairly well-known actor when he first donned his trademark waistcoat and trainers as the 10th Doctor.
Like Matt Smith, he already had a successful career on the stage, having performed in a series of Shakespeare productions.
Although he had been on and off screen since he was a teenager, it wasn’t until 2004 that his TV career began to take off.
He appeared in a dramatisation of He Knew He Was Right, Blackpool, Casanova, and The Quatermass Experiment.
However, it was as The Doctor that he became a household name.
He was a hugely successful Doctor many seeing him as the best to have ever taken on the role and his on-stage chemistry with Billie Piper was a joy to watch.
And since leaving the show his stock has risen to A-List status.
He continues to perform on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company in a variety of leading roles, and has even taken to voice acting in How To Train Your Dragon and Postman Pat.
However, it has been his role as DI Alec Hardy in Broadchurch that has been his biggest hit.
The series has gripped the nation, and he is now swamped by as many fans of the crime drama as he was with lovers of the Time Lord.
Christopher Eccleston (2005)
The Ninth Doctor was already well known, with successes more than a decade earlier as a regular in Cracker, and in Danny Boyle’s low budget hit Shallow Grave.
His film career really took off in the early 2000s with a string of roles in well-known movies.
He starred in Gone in 60 Seconds, The Others, 24 Hour Party People, and 28 Days Later, making him an on-screen regular long before leading the reboot of Doctor Who.
So judging his success after leaving the show is tricky.
He has taken on many off-screen roles as a supporter of charities, and has also been a film awards judge.
On screen he has enjoyed success on two phenomenal recent projects: Fortitude and Safe House.
He is the victim of a grizzly murder early on in Fortitude, but flashbacks throughout the series mean he’s on screen as far more than just famous a corpse.
In Safe House he plays the a former police protection office haunted by his past and trying to make a new start (sound familiar? If so, see Broadchurch!)
Both Fortitude and Safe House have been screened this year and are likely to win a glut of awards.
Paul McGann (1996)
Paul McGann had already featured in Alien 3 as Golic before his days as The Doctor.
And although Golic wasn’t exactly a leading character (for fans, he played the one who described the Xenomorph as ‘a dragon’), getting to star in such a prominent sci-fi film has to be a real career high.
He was The Doctor in the TV film, which followed the series’ hiatus, and went on to feature in a pretty diverse range of roles.
He played David Tolbot in The Queen of the Damned the 2002 sequel to An Interview With A Vampire.
And also on his CV are a number of short films and the cult hit Lesbian Vampire Killers, where he played the vicar.
His Doctor Who stint seems to have done his career no harm, but the science fiction film role has been more of a natural progression rather than a big break.
Sylvester McCoy (19871989)
The final Doctor before the show’s break had already enjoyed success in film and TV before becoming the seventh actor to take to the Tardis.
The Scottish actor’s background was primarily comedy-focused, although he did have a minor role in the 1979 film Dracula and also sang with the Welsh National Opera.
Following his spell with Doctor Who, he appeared in Jackanory, the Channel 5 movie Beyond Fear, and in a string of episodes for various TV programmes, including Hollyoaks, Still Game and Casualty.
His film career has been more glittering.
Although Leapin’ Leprechauns! (1995) may not have been quite the hit that the title clearly deserves, McCoy’s subsequent work with Peter Jackson will undoubtedly be his highlight.
He’s enjoyed massive success as the wizard Radagast the Brown in Peter Jackson’s film adaptations of The Hobbit.
On the face of it, his time as Doctor Who hasn’t been a launch pad for the highly successful career he now has.
If only we could get our hands on Leapin’ Leprechauns!
Colin Baker (19841986)
Ironically, one of Colin Baker’s biggest roles before taking over as The Doctor was to shoot the incumbent Peter Davison when he was playing another character on the show.
Given that fact, it’s unquestionable that Doctor Who was Baker’s biggest gig at that point.
After leaving the show two years later, he spent much of his time on the stage in various productions before becoming somewhat synonymous with panto.
He also made guest appearances on Casualty, The Knock, Dangerfield, the first ever episode of Jonathan Creek, Top Gear, and Countdown.
Most recently, younger viewers (and non-Doctor Who fans) will more likely recognise Baker for his time on I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here.
He finished 8th in the competition. The eventual winner was Eric Bristow.
Peter Davison (19821984)
Peter Davison was already a famous television actor before taking the reins in the Tardis.
His portrayal of Tristan Farnon in All Creatures Great and Small made him a household name, and his joint composition of the Button Moon theme tune with his wife added to his glowing CV.
He was in hot demand after leaving Doctor Who in 1984, featuring in drama series Anna of the Five Towns, the television movies Miss Marple Mysteries: A Pocketful of Rye, and the All Creatures Great and Small Christmas special.
Davison remained with the All Creatures Great and Small team until 1990 before going on to the TV movie Harnessing Peacocks and sitcoms Fiddlers Three (1991) and Ain’t Misbehavin’.
In 2000 he starred in the highly-successful At Home with the Braithwaites, and Law and Order: UK from 2011-14.
He has also made a number of impressive guest appearances in Sherlock, New Tricks, and Lewis.
Doctor Who did his career no harm, but the role sits alongside his other successful projects rather than outshining them.
Tom Baker (19741981)
Doctor Who was undoubtedly Tom Baker’s big break, having appeared in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and The Vault of Horror before taking on the role in 1974.
He made the role his own with his trademark scarf and hat combination and played the role for seven years.
His voice has become as famous as his on-screen performances, featuring on computer games, music albums, children’s TV and Little Britain.
After leaving Doctor Who in 1981 he starred as Sherlock Holmes in the TV mini-series of The Hound of the Baskervilles.
He’s never been far away from the small screen since with appearances on Blackadder, The Kenny Everett Show, Selling Hitler, Cluedo, and a string of Doctor Who-related programmes.
He’s always been a loved actor and is synonymous with Doctor Who without ever being restricted or type-casted by the show.
Jon Pertwee (19701974)
The third Doctor’s early career was far removed from the limelight he was an officer in the Royal Navy during the Second World War.
After leaving the highly-secretive Naval Intelligence Division after the war, he made a name for himself as a comedy actor on radio and in many theatre productions.
He made the move into film thanks to the British Carry On flicks, starring in Carry On Cleo, Carry On Cowboy, Carry On Screaming! and much later in Carry On Columbus.
He had been lined up for the Captain George Mainwaring part in Dad’s Army, but turned it down.
He may have missed out on that big break, but he was to be handed another with Doctor Who, which really got his career going.
He had appeared in minor roles before becoming the famous Time Lord, but it was his four years of fighting Daleks and Cybermen that really got him noticed on the small screen.
After leaving the sci-fi show, he starred in the murder-mystery game show Whodunnit? before taking on the lead role in Worzel Gummidge.
In his later years he was the voice of Spotty in the children’s cartoon series SuperTed and The Further Adventures of SuperTed.
He even made the leap into computer games as a voice actor in the PC and Playstation version of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld.
Patrick Troughton (19661969)
Patrick Troughton was one of the most famous TV actors to take on the Doctor Who role.
Before his debut in Doctor Who, he had already starred in numerous TV shows, including The Count of Monte Cristo, Ivanhoe, The Third Man, Crane, Sherlock Holmes, No Hiding Place, The Saint, The Wednesday Play, Z-Cars, and Softly, Softly.
The success of the entire Doctor Who franchise came down to the audience’s acceptance of a different actor to star in the role, and unlike some of the subsequent leading men, he was chosen because of his prominence on screen.
In some ways, Doctor Who needed Troughton more than Troughton needed Doctor Who.
And the partnership worked perfectly ensuring the survival of the loved series and boosting Troughton’s already high profile.
After leaving the show in 1969, he took on film roles as a bodysnatcher in Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell, played Father Brennan in The Omen and Melanthius in Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger.
He continued his prominence on our screens in The Six Wives of Henry VIII, The Feathered Serpent, The Persuaders!, A Family at War, Coronation Street, Softly, Softly: Taskforce, Colditz, Special Branch, Sutherland’s Law, and The Sweeney
Other roles in his CV include TV series Survivors, Crown Court, Angels, Warship, Van der Valk, Space: 1999, The Onedin Line, All Creatures Great and Small, and even appeared in a “Two Ronnies” Christmas Special.
William Hartnell (19631966)
The first ever Doctor’s acting career was divided by the Second World War and hampered by illness.
Before the war, he was a highly-sought-after stage performer, taking on a number of major roles, including Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (1926), Julius Caesar (1926), As You Like It (1926), Hamlet (1926), The Tempest (1926) and Macbeth.
He joined the Tank Corp and served for 18 months before returning to acting where he starred in a number of comic roles.
He then took on the more serious part as Sergeant Ned Fletcher in The Way Ahead (1944). What followed was a series of straight-faced roles as ‘the heavy’.
He finally broke away from this type-cast problem when he starred in Carry On Sergeant and Heavens Above.
However, familiar roles returned when he started to make his name in TV as he appeared as a Sergeant Major Percy Bullimore in The Army Game from 1957 to 61.
He was able to show his wider range of talent in the film This Sporting Life as an aging rugby scout, which led to the interest around him appearing in Doctor Who.
Although he was initially sceptical about taking on the role, it shot him to fame in a way no other performance had and he has always remained synonymous with Doctor Who.
However, he was never able to capitalise on his newly-found prominence as his health deteriorated and led to him leaving the show and not taking on any major future productions.
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