Andy Weir's Favorite Doctor Who Actor Might Surprise Hardcore Fans
by Witney Seibold · /FilmAdd SlashFilm on Google:
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"Doctor Who" fans will immediately recognize David Tennant in his turn as the tenth Doctor on BBC's long-running sci-fi series "Doctor Who." The actor played the Doctor from 2005 to 2010, just after Christopher Eccleston but before Matt Smith. His chipper, excitable performance (paired with the show's excellent writing) has left him a fan favorite. Tennant was so beloved that he was even brought back briefly in 2023 to play the fourteenth Doctor as well, after Jodie Whitaker, but before Ncuti Gatwa.
However, in a surprising choice, he isn't the favorite of sci-fi author Andy Weir. The writer has become a celebrity in recent years for his novels "The Martian," "Artemis," and "Project Hail Mary." It certainly helps that "The Martian" was adapted into a hit film by Ridley Scott back in 2015, and "Project Hail Mary" was adapted into one of the best sci-fi films (possibly ever) by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller in 2026. Andy Weir, as one might safely assume, is a huge sci-fi fan and has gone on record with his (controversial) opinions about "Star Trek," and he often makes sci-fi book recommendations to his fans.
Andy Weir also knows his way around "Doctor Who" and even wrote some fan fiction about the series as a young author. Back in 2018, in an interview with SFF World, Weir revealed his favorite actor to have played the Doctor, and he admitted that he was still fond of his very first Doctor, whom he first saw as a youth back in the 1980s. Andy Weir, as it happens, is a huge fan of Peter Davison, the fifth Doctor who played the role from 1982 to 1984.
Andy Weir is a Fifth Doctor fan
To remind readers, the central character on "Doctor Who" is a long-lived Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey who has the ability to regenerate when he dies. They still have all their memories, but they suddenly look like a new actor, and they have a new personality. It's technically been the same character since the beginning of "Doctor Who" back in 1963. Ncuti Gatwa plays the most recent Fifteenth Doctor.
Whovians usually hold the belief that one's favorite Doctor is the first one they encountered, and that's certainly true of Weir, who first encountered "Doctor Who" when he first caught episodes of the series from the early '80s. When asked, point blank, who his favorite Who was, Weir said plainly:
"Peter Davison is my favorite; he's the Doctor I started with. David Tennet is my second fave."
David Tennant really is a superstar in the "Doctor Who" world, but Peter Davison might be seen as a strange choice. Davison's fifth Doctor was known for being young, blonde, and attractive. He was also whimsical and quirky, and kept a stalk of celery pinned to his lapel as a boutonnière. He did this because celery turns purple in the presence of certain fantastical space gasses, gasses that he is allergic to.
The fifth Doctor's episodes, however, were less comedic than some of the "Doctor Who" that had come before. Davison was replacing fan favorite Tom Baker in the role, so his appearance, some Whovians might say, represented a proper reboot of the series. Davison was the main Doctor from 1982 to 1984, as mentioned, but returned for some time-warp episodes in 2007 and in 2022. Davison, only 75, is still working to this day.
The wild career of Peter Davison
Pete Davison was already something of a known presence on British television back in 1982, having appeared in the hit series "All Creatures Great and Small," playing the role of Tristan. Some deep-cut nerds might also know him as the talking, intelligent livestock that entreated Arthur Deant (Simon Jones) to eat him in the BBC version of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (now on Prime Video) In that miniseries, he was most certainly a great creature.
Davison, however, didn't rest on his laurels after "Doctor Who" and continued to work incessantly. He was in productions of "Barefoot in the Park" and "The Owl and the Pussycat," and had one-shot appearances in shows like "Agatha Christie's Miss Marple" and the American series "Magnum, P.I." He was in 15 episodes of "A Very Peculiar Practice," 16 episodes of "Campion," and 14 episodes of "Fiddler's Three." In the late 1990s, he reprised his role as the fifth Doctor for 165 episodes of a BBC radio adventure series. He also had main roles on TV shows like "At Home with the Braithwaites," "The Last Detective," and even "Law & Order UK" from 2011 to 2014.
Most recently, Davison was on a 2025 episode of "The Midsomer Murders," a 2025 production of "Inside No. 9 Stage/Fright," and he will appear in the 2026 comedy film "Frank and Percy" alongside Iam McKellan and Roger Allam.
The Doctor may be one of Davison's highest-profile roles, but he is a regular fixture on British TV and has never had a single fallow period in his career. He just also happens to have a lot of nerd cred thanks to his involvement in "Doctor Who."
In a fun coincidence, Peter Davison's daughter, Georgia, married David Tennant in 2011.