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I loved Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor, next to Tom Baker he's my favourite classic series Doctor. The 7th Doctor/Ace companionship was one of the best of the series.
When McCoy started in "Time and the Rani", Doctor Who was already in serious trouble. The previous Doctor, Colin Baker, had basically been fired from the series. Understandably, he wouldn't come back even to do the regeneration sequence at the beginning of the ep (which is why you don't actually see the 6th Doctor's face, it was just McCoy in a curly wig). For his first season, they started with Mel, who I always found a bit screechy and annoying, and they had 7 acting like a bit of a clown. Over time, the 7th Doctor got a bit darker (both as a character and in his wardrobe), and when Ace joined the show really started finding its feet again. From Remembrance of the Daleks on are some excellent eps. It's a shame that the series was still cancelled despite the improvement in the quality of show compared to previous years.
Once Ace appears, you also get the "masterplan" version of the 7th Doctor. In other incarnations, the Doctor tends to wander around randomly, accidentally showing up in the middle of trouble. But the 7th Doctor was a bit more organized than any of his other incarnations, and his "accidental" appearances tend to be part of a plan that he doesn't reveal to his companion until afterwards.
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