Seventh Doctor

Brought in to replace Colin Baker due to his untimely firing by the BBC, Sylvester McCoy's Seventh Doctor took a while to become firmly established as a character due to his first season using stories that were clearly written for the Sixth Doctor. Despite initially appearing to be a buffoonish, clown-like character, the Seventh Doctor transformed over the course of his tenure into a scheming, manipulative and very dark character, who was quite willing to destroy his enemies with complicated Machiavellian plots.

The Seventh Doctor's era saw a sharp upturn in quality towards the end, but unfortunately his era was cut short by the permanent 'hiatus' that the show was put on in 1989. Unlike the previous short hiatus that bridged the Sixth and Seventh Doctor's eras, this hiatus turned out to be more like a cancellation, as the Seventh Doctor does appear again until the TV Movie, at which point he regenerates into the Eighth Doctor. Like the Sixth Doctor, the Seventh Doctor's era has been saved by Big Finish, who continued his story with a series of successful full cast audio dramas.