First of, I'm a new Whovian and only saw every episodes since it came back in 2005.
On my side, I put Eccleston first, a proper dark doctor, with what is for me the daskest doctor moment at the end of the second episode ("The End of the World") when he just let Cassandra die while looking at her not allowing hher any help, even Tennant's episode "Family of Blood" didn't end that darkly.
That being said, I can't judge the pre 2005 doctors but I would put Tennant and Smith around the same at second even if Smith never went as dark as Tennant or Eccleston
Then Capaldi, even if I wasn't sure how to rate him until his speech in "The Zygon Inversion", one of the most meaningful/poingnant speech a doctor delivered I think.
For Whittaker, she's good at the moment, reminds me a big of Smith in some ways, but not enough for me to judge, I need to see her dark side and see how she'll develop.
I'm sure John Hurt would have made a great Doctor and before we knew who was going to replace Capaldi, I would have loved for Michael Sheen to be the next one.
Anywho, That being said, I can see Whittaker go high in the Doctors ranking but Chibnall needs to fully open her potential and with a finaly like this one, I have big hopes.
To my mind Whittakers Doctor ALMOST equals Tennants in terms of taking on the role.
I have watched Who since Davisons era and of those Doctors I think I go this way.
1. Tennant
2. Whittaker
3. Davison
4. Smith
5. Eccleston
6. McCoy
7. Capaldi
8. Baker (Colin)
Not including the war or movie doctors based on their limited appearances.
