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"The 50th anniversary of Doctor Who is right around the corner and, with mere months to go before the celebrations kick off in earnest, Digital Spy wants to know the answer to a very important question - who is your favourite Doctor? Join us every day from August 28 to September 6 as we take a look back at a half-century of Who and - in a new daily blog - weigh up the merits of each Doctor - from William Hartnell to Matt Smith, before finally revealing DS readers&amp;#039; favourite Doctor of all time on Monday, September 9. Today&amp;#039;s blog is a tribute to the dynamic dandy with a strange old/young face... Jon Pertwee!  By the time 1969 rolled around, Patrick Troughton had already proven that it was possible for Doctor Who to replace its leading man and emerge not just unscathed but revitalised. Surely then the third man to play the Doctor - Jon Pertwee - faced an easier task than his predecessor? No such luck. Heading into its seventh season, Doctor Who faced a major change to its format, with the Doctor - exiled to Earth by the Time Lords - unable to traverse time and space. With its basic premise so radically altered, Who again could have withered and died if it had cast the wrong lead man to replace its departing lead.      In a period of such uncertainty, the commanding presence of Pertwee&amp;#039;s third Doctor - an &amp;#039;authority figure&amp;#039; who allied himself with the military organisation UNIT - was precisely what the series needed. Defying expectations, Pertwee - an actor then best known for his comic role on BBC radio sitcom The Navy Lark - delivered a bold, straight-laced performance.      But the third Doctor&amp;#039;s persona was not entirely po-faced - Pertwee&amp;#039;s incarnation was a man of action, with his love of gadgets, motor vehicles and martial arts reaching its zenith in his final adventure, 1974&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Planet of the Spiders&amp;#039;. Throughout his time on the show, Pertwee was a hit with both critics and Who fans - with a tenure that spanned from January 1970 to June 1974, he was at the time the longest-serving Doctor. But was he the greatest of them all?  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/doctor-who/news/a510574/doctor-who-at-50-is-jon-pertwee-the-greatest-doctor-of-all/>