The actors who have played the lead role of the Doctor in the series and the dates of their first and last regular television appearances in the role, are:
| Actor | Incarnation | No. of series | No. of episodes | Original start | Original end | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Age | Date | Age | ||||
| William Hartnell | First Doctor | 4 | 134 (29 stories) | 23 November 1963 | 55 | 29 October 1966 | 58 |
| Patrick Troughton | Second Doctor | 3 | 119 (21 stories) | 29 October 1966 | 46 | 21 June 1969 | 49 |
| Jon Pertwee | Third Doctor | 5 | 128 (24 stories) | 3 January 1970 | 50 | 8 June 1974 | 54 |
| Tom Baker | Fourth Doctor | 7 | 172 (41 stories) | 8 June 1974 | 40 | 21 March 1981 | 47 |
| Peter Davison | Fifth Doctor | 3 | 69 (20 stories) | 21 March 1981 | 29 | 16 March 1984 | 32 |
| Colin Baker | Sixth Doctor | 3 | 31 (8 stories) | 16 March 1984 | 40 | 6 December 1986 | 43 |
| Sylvester McCoy | Seventh Doctor | 3 | 42 (12 stories) | 7 September 1987 | 44 | 6 December 1989 | 46 |
| Paul McGann | Eighth Doctor | — | 1 (2 stories) | 27 May 1996 | 36 | 27 May 1996[33] | 36 |
| Christopher Eccleston | Ninth Doctor | 1 | 13 (10 stories) | 26 March 2005 | 41 | 18 June 2005 | 41 |
| David Tennant | Tenth Doctor | 3 | 47 (36 stories) | 18 June 2005 | 34 | 1 January 2010 | 38 |
| Matt Smith | Eleventh Doctor | 3 | 44 (39 stories) | 1 January 2010 | 27 | 25 December 2013 | 31 |
| Peter Capaldi | Twelfth Doctor | 2 | 26 (22 stories) | 25 December 2013 | 55 | Current | — |
