Khai-J-Bach posted at 10:43PM Sat, 19 August 2017 - #4312526

You don't write for the actor / actress.

You write for the Doctor.

From the Wikipedia entry on Jon Pertwee, the third Doctor: In 1969, Pertwee was selected by outgoing producer Peter Bryant and the series' next producer Derrick Sherwin to take over as the Doctor from Patrick Troughton in the television series Doctor Who. Pertwee had asked his agent to apply for the role for him and was surprised to find he was already on the shortlist. He was the second choice for the role; Ron Moody was the first but was unavailable.[16] ** In a departure from the Doctor's first two incarnations, Pertwee played the character as an active crusader with a penchant for action and fancy clothes, even while the character was exiled on Earth and serving with UNIT**. He played the Doctor for five seasons from early 1970 to mid-1974, a longer stint than either of his predecessors in the role, William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton, although the Pertwee era of Doctor Who had 128 episodes compared to the Hartnell era's 134, as the BBC relaxed its shooting schedule from 39–45 episodes per season to 25–26 episodes per season at the start of Pertwee's tenure as Doctor Who.

Pertwee credited his performance as the Third Doctor for helping him work out exactly who he really was when he was not resorting to comedic disguises or voices: a dapper, technologically oriented man of action. This was because BBC Head of Drama Shaun Sutton had advised him to act out the Third Doctor as himself: in effect, to "play Jon Pertwee.