I have a theory, the current doctor when you started watching is your favorite doctor. Would this apply to you?
I started watching Dr who when the reboot was 3 seasons in, I think David Tennant was the greatest doctor. A few years later I finally got wife to give it a shot as I started a fresh rewatch in preparation for Matt Smith's second season, she was ok with Eccelston and Tennant but Matt Smith is far and away her favorite doctor. Does this pattern hold true for any other Dr fans?
I'm ancient and started watching during the gap between the end of McCoy/Classic Who and the beginning of Eccleston/NuWho. I wound up watching a completely random selection of the 4th through 7th Doctors because that was what got played on PBS (KQED and KTEH ftw). The 4th Doctor was definitely my favorite and still is, simply because he really feels alien moreso than any of the other Doctors, to me anyway. Not that I don't greatly appreciate the others - especially Matt Smith, who's the most "fun" of all the Doctors IMO - but when I think The Doctor I still think of Tom Baker.
Also the 3rd Doctor was surprisingly badass and I think is my #3 favorite, surprisingly.
if you’re ancient i must be even ancienter.
tom baker is my doctor, and i was highly traumatised at least 3 times i can clearly remember, in order from least to worst:
the white maggots maggoting out of the mineshaft
that shithead adric locking romana out of the tardis when the giant spiders were closing in outside
when the doctor dropped off sarah jane & just after the fucker dematerialised, she realised she had no idea where (or when) he’d left her. IT WAS LIKE THREE DECADES before we found out she was ok. awful.