The Fifth Doctor

[Mikey]

What do yous think of the Peter Davison Doctor ?

I have mixed feelings ......
One thing I have against him (not his fault) back in the day I never read Who tabloids and such, so when Logopolis premiered here in the US, I was quite shocked AND MAD Tom Baker's Doctor had died.

The Davison era was when I first started to taper off watching the show religiously ..... I didn't mind him ... and after a time I actually started to like him, but I have to admit... The Davison era is when (imo) Doctor Who first started going down-hill.... Actually, I think Tom's last season was almost equally as declining.... But the death of Tom, I think was the start of the snowball.

I can't really blame Adric, Nyssa or Tegan ......
To me, they seemed like a pretty good combo....

As well as I can't blame Davison because he was a decent Doctor ..
A lot of people say his character was an opposite to Tom, but I almost felt he reminded me of Tom more then any other Doctor.... Still don't know exactly why...
Even many of the stories, like Castrovalva and Earthshock were decent.....

It also seems the Davison era was about the time it became hard for me to follow some stories.
At the end of some, I found myself saying "did I miss something" ?
Or sometimes the stories were just plain over-complicated.

There's just something about that time that didn't feel right.

What do yous think of the Fifth Doctor and his era ?

[Seeker]

For me the start of the Davidson era was when our local Public televison station stopped carrying Dr Who. So I missed out on most of the other doctors till the movie came out.

[Mikey]

Here is NW Joisey, PBS-WNJT played all Doctor stories (almost up to date) until the end of Colin.... Every Sat night at 9:00 PM

After the hiatus when McCoy was named the new Doctor, the series was already booted from our local PBS.

[Bo8a_Fett]

The Davison era was marred by quite a few things which soured my view of it at the time. The fact that it was a "crowded Tardis" never worked for me...the stories were never up to the peak of Tom Bakers earlier seasons....the effects were more noticable in their cheapness ... it always looked rushed and at sometimes unrehearsed....JNT's influence loomed large in his era.....Davisons Doctor never really got his teeth into much either....he always seemed wishy washy after Tom's reign...
Having rewatched the Davison's era after a few years there are some good stories...but still a lot of bad stories....there was never anything really memerable about his time story wise....some...but not many

[bobws]

Wonderful Chap .. everyone of them ! However i agree with the Crowded Tardis problem and the fact they tried to be so unlike Tom's timw that they weakened to the show some. and some stories were over the top. But i enjoy watching all of the Versions of the Doctor and Tennant is deserving his place with them all.

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

When he first came around I didn't like him so much. WAY too straightlaced for me. Plus, Tom Baker is a tough act to follow. Watching them now, I could see a lot in common with the current show. It looked like they were trying to reimagine the show, int erms of making it more serious, without monkeying around with the established continuity so much.

>the effects were more noticable in their cheapness

Well.... a lot of them LOOKED that way, but I suspect they were MORE expensive than previous episodes. There are times when you can see that effects technology advanced but it took a while for them to integrate it smoothly. (Especially at a tv budget.) By the end of the Tom Baker run they were using computers to dub uin things like spaceships; but because this was new it didn't look as good a previous eposides where it was all model work.

But a lot of things were improved without changing them during the fifth Doctor's time. I noticed the Silurian costumes were MUCH improved over the thrid Doctor's era. (While still maintaining the same look.)

Don C.

[UnderdogDJLSW]

I actually enjoy both the Baker and the Davidson versions. But I agree that the fifth doctor never really got a chance to shine. Sort of like how Picard was treated in the first season of TNG. I remember watching the final story for Davidson, and when it started, thinking "this is a good story for him" and then poof - he's no longer the Doctor. Oh, well.

[Mikey]

I never cared for "Caves"

It's big for being a regeneration story, but I thought the plot itself was very boring.

Like trying to watch paint dry

I think it's highly over-rated

[david_b]

This subject on the Fifth Doctor has been a source of rightful ire for decades. Like most here in the States, Mr. Baker was the first and in many respects, defined the show to most viewers stateside, re-evolved the show for the loyal UK watchers.

That being said, I didn't think much of the Jonathan Nathan-Turner changes at all:

The stary logo? Too cheesy looking, never liked it. Definitely preferred the diamond logo/ time tunnel-type intro the most.

Baker's last year? Definitely a come-down from the more gothic, horror elements of the earlier, more successful producers (don't recall the names..). He was ill for a lot of those stories, and except for a few glimmers of typical Baker humor, he looked 'old' and phoned in most of his limelight performances.

Peter Davison? JNT's desire for a more vulnerable Doctor? Davison's definitely the most talented actor to hold the role, but yes, the story writers and JNT held Davison back from stories where he should have shined. It's primarily a case of the sum of parts not equaling the whole. 'Earthshock' was excellent, as was half the other stories.. I was always irritated with the terrible, terrible kitshy costuming ~ TERRIBLY DATED, like silly beret hats on uniformed extras, head bands, etc.

JNT tried to make the show trendy and light, when Who worked MUCH BETTER in the gothic, darker vein. It was a huge surprise to viewers then Davison announced his departure, but the unusually gritty 'Caves' was an excellent send off ~ Totally not your typical Who story, and a bit depressing, 'course it made Peri a HUGE fan favorite.

(Well, it made part of me huge anyway..)

Despite this, for years, a multitude loyal Davison fans have been at the receiving end of most Doctor criticism, and as of late, they've been arguing back in force, supporting Davison's tenure, evident by the very expensive and hard-to-find DW Monthly Peter Davison Special (ep guide, behind-the-scenes). You can buy all the other Doctor editions easily on eBay -- Try hunting down and acquiring the Davison edition..!

More recently, David Tennants poinant lines in 'Timecrash' were so endearing ("You were MY Doctor.."), because Tennant spoke on behalf of a large, loyal legion of Davison fans..

david_b

[Mikey]

I mentioned this before, but I always HATED the "you were my Doctor" comment in Timecrash ......
Tennant stated on MANY occassions his fav Doctor was/is Tom Baker.
No secret/

Everytime I hear him say "you were my Doctor" I always cringe.

I also hated how he kissed Davison's behind in Timecrash .....
Doctors should NEVER get along with eachother .....
It's their nature to try and upshow eachother.

[johnmiic]

The biggest criticism I have heard of Davison's era is it's too bright/well lit & he's too young. I like the Davison era and his early stories were weak, I admit, but they got better. They had to make a break from Tom Baker and even in his last season, #18, they brightened up things a lot on Tom as well. It’s not just the brightness but really what happened was they filled in the backgrounds with more texture. In The Deadly Assassin where there is no wall surfaces there is only blackness. The same can be said of The Ribos Operation and The Pirate Planet; story’s spread across many seasons. Compare those to the sets for Gallifrey in The Arc of Infinity, or the environments in Time-Flight or Castrovalva. JNT seems not to want any gaps in the sets so we have everything filled in.

As for gothic horror, it worked very well with Tom early on but DW is not just Gothic/SF. Plus that era ended after all the complaints from Mary Whitehouse, circa Season 15. I would think when Mary Tamm joined and they had the Key to Time theme season you can see the show went more towards humor and wild SF concepts. They sort of returned to that when Christopher H. Bidmeade was story editor, ( Logopolis and Castrovalva perhaps the pinnacle of wild SF concepts).

Often JNT said he was trying to bring the show back to it’s roots. So we have a crew of 4 on the Tardis like in the old days and Davison admitted he based his portrayal on William Hartnell, only younger, ( I think he even said he thought he was too young but I don't think so). The youth factor seemed to be something they were aiming for in this Doctor. Maybe 4 is too big. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe perhaps being a very good combo, ( I think just the Doctor and Donna or Rose or Martha is too sparese myself). If you look at some of the Davison Era stories they are very Hartnell-like only updated for the 80's. It's just my opinion.

[Bo8a_Fett]

If JNT wanted to bring the show back to its roots then he severly misunderstood Hartnell's era......First and foremost was the stories ...effects and experimantation were forgiven somewhat due to the strong scripting and imaginative storylines....something a lot of the Davison's era never had.
I agree that Caves is over-rated and at times hard to watch....it is only "great" due to it being a regeneration story and one in which the Doctor sacrifices one of his lives for a companion.
The one thing I did like about the era was the way companions started to realise that people always died around the Doctor and his "adventures"...eventually having Tegan leave because she was sick of it all...