[The Fifth Doctor: Summary + Best Episodes]

Davison’s run of episodes is the shortest so far. Even though he had three seasons plus a special (roughly what Hartnell and Troughton both had), each season has been shorter since the show went to colour, which means, in terms of episodes, Davison’s time on the show feels remarkably short-lived!

Not much has really changed since the latter half of Tom Baker’s stories. The show still flirts with science, mythology, humour and darkness. There are still scary monsters, disturbing imagery and a fair dose of silliness. There are still over-the-top villains, good and bad theatrical performances and action scenes that range from competent to absolutely dreadful. Peter Davison takes on a more action-heavy role, but it hasn’t really changed very much overall.

The show has begun to indulge in its own history a bit more, but this was in part due to the anniversary year. Season 20 and the anniversary special contain a lot of fun throwbacks and some good stories too. Season 21 is rather poor until it picks up at the end. Overall, the range of stories in these three seasons is quite mixed, with some more lighthearted adventures than usual sprinkled throughout.

The Doctor’s companions don’t change much over his shorter run. He almost always has a group, as that seems to be how he works best. Tegan is with him for almost the entire time (having joined shortly before his regeneration, and left shortly before the next one!). Nyssa and Adric are bland and awful respectively. The arrival of Turlough is intriguing and he becomes very entertaining and over-the-top. Kamelion might as well have not been there at all, appearing all but twice. And Peri has only really just settled in, but she makes quite an entrance. Then there’s the younger model, the new Doctor himself…

Thoughts on the Fifth Doctor

If Tom Baker was your mad uncle, Peter Davison is your favourite school teacher. On the whole, he’s a friendly type, but if you step out of line, he will not hesitate to scold you for it. The fifth Doctor is very much an adventurer, with all the same curiosities inherited from his previous incarnations, but with the energy of youth within him too, who wants nothing more than to share the wonders of the universe with his “students”.

He’s wise beyond his years, naturally, but at times he is pushed to physical violence and aggression. I think it’s fair to say that Davison has had a mixed time as the Doctor, but when he’s written well, he can really pull off a good range. As he’s often written into situations where he is virtually powerless, he does handle desperation and panic well. He’s not an eccentric like Baker or Troughton’s versions, but he has some funny lines or quirks. More than once he’s done that thing where he tosses a coin to choose a direction, but tosses it again anyway to get the outcome he wanted.

Mostly, Davison’s Doctor is just a “nice guy”. It’s difficult to dislike him, but at the same time, it’s tough to say that he has a strong personality either. Coming after Baker, the worst you could say is that he’s a little bit bland. However, he is never a detestable bore or anything less than likeable, so that leaves my order of preference looking something like the below (feel free to disagree, naturally):

Tom Baker > Patrick Troughton > Peter Davison > Jon Pertwee > William Hartnell

Episode Highlights

I haven’t had too much trouble picking out my favourite Davison serials. There aren’t as many to choose from and the good ones are fairly easy to pick out. That said, there are some stories that had potential that was squandered by poor plotting or bad production (such as Earthshock). Likewise, there are those that are glossy and well-made but make very little sense (like Resurrection of the Daleks). My list favours originality, style and good fun. Naturally, I’m open to discussion and I always reserve the right to completely change my mind. Here are my picks:

The Visitation (4 parts)
A standard historical alien invasion, accompanied by a loveable rogue highwayman. Good fun!

Mawdryn Undead (4 parts)
A clever use of time travel, some excellently grotesque creatures and the return of the Brigadier.

Enlightenment (4 parts)
Nicely wraps up the Black Guardian Trilogy and provides a big sci-fi idea in a unique setting.

The Five Doctors (1 special)
Is it cheating to include this? A smorgasbord of nostalgia, the best bits of Doctor Who join forces for a fun romp.

Planet of Fire (4 parts)
Character drama comes through as Turlough leaves and Peri joins. A good story and nicely filmed.

The Caves of Androzani (4 parts)
This dark and sophisticated story pushes Peter Davison to his best performance.

The Caves of Androzani

It’s been a while since Robert Holmes wrote a Doctor Who script; it’s almost like he’d been saving this one up. It’s an uncharacteristically sophisticated story, mature and quite dark, dealing with themes of corporate corruption, terrorism, betrayal, greed, violence and sacrifice.

The unnecessary monster. Seriously, what was the point of this thing?

That being the case, the silly-looking man-in-a-rubber-suit monster is rather perfunctory. The story doesn’t need the added threat of a creature when the various sides are already ruthlessly butchering each other. Caves of Androzani doesn’t pull any punches; it’s violent when it needs to be, and its large cast of characters are largely dead by the end. If anything, the story is a little too complicated – with everyone backstabbing each other, it took me a while to work out what was going on!

Morgus “witnesses” the president’s death in an unfortunate lift “accident”.

At the heart of the story is Sharaz Jek, who is using his supply of spectrox drug to seek revenge on the man who left him horribly scarred. It would have been more effective if we never got to see his face, just the reaction to it – no amount of makeup can match one’s imagination, after all. Jek is quite a dramatic character, very intense and threatening but, like all good villains, he has a tender side, and seems to develop affection towards Peri, although I’m not quite sure why; did I miss something?

In these tenderer moments, he’s like a clown in bondage gear. Now there’s a chilling thought.

Caves of Androzani is also well made, with some interesting camera angles. I suspect some of it must have been shot handheld to get the dramatic close-ups and awkward angles that you don’t usually see in a video production. The androids’ thermal vision is also a good-looking visual effect, and the Doctor’s two visible hearts a nice touch of detail. Another nice detail is that we finally learn what the Doctor’s piece of celery is for! Poison detection, Gallifrey style. It didn’t save him from the spectrox spores, though.

The stand-out moment for me is during the ship’s descent towards Androzani Minor. Davison’s Doctor is desperate, panic-stricken and clearly over his head, but pulls off a miraculous turnaround.

This was a very good ending for the fifth Doctor, and a thorough test bed for his best qualities to shine through. It’s a shame that this version comes to an end, but I will have some more to say on the fifth Doctor’s character and adventures shortly.

Moments before “death”, the Doctor remembers his former companions. You just can’t get rid of that kid Adric, can you?

Planet of Fire

As Peter Davison’s era comes to an end, changes are afoot. Gone is Tegan, and in her place arrives Peri, an American student. Kamelion finally reveals he’s been hiding in the Tardis cupboard for the past four serials but his story comes to an end as he is destroyed by necessity. Finally, Turlough leaves us to return to his own people, after meeting his long-lost brother and finally revealing why he was exiled.

The Master redirects the Doctor’s Tardis using his link with Kamelion.

This may be a story about a doomed volcanic planet and the Master’s attempt to mislead a god-fearing tribe of primitives in his ongoing attempt to gain immortality, but nevertheless, character drama features more strongly here than it usually does. There are some nice moments with Turlough and the Doctor, particularly when the Doctor tells him their friendship will be over if he is withholding important information. The large amount of on-location filming also lends a more natural (less staged) style to the events. It’d be nice to see the whole show shot on film, but I know that wasn’t the style at the time.

Turlough reveals the marking on his arm and what it means.

Peri’s story naturally begins on Earth, as she expresses boredom to her stepfather and wants to get away and travel. I think it’s good to have a more international cast of characters (even if her accent isn’t entirely convincing). Of course, it also helps that she looks good in a bikini. Conversely, Turlough should never wear shorts. Ever.

Rescued from drowning, Turlough brings Peri back to the Tardis to recover.

There wasn’t much I didn’t like about Planet of Fire. In an otherwise disappointing season so far, this stands out as pretty good. A relatively straightforward story with some good twists, nicely handled themes of faith and science, actual character development with the main cast and a shake-up to keep things fresh for a while.

The Doctor has a difficult time in siding with the ‘unbelievers’, almost getting them burned alive.

I also liked the reveal of the Master’s true predicament at the end of part 3, and he was a pleasure to watch throughout. His fiery demise was… unexpected. How can he possibly return from that?!

Ow, ow, ow, oww!!!

Resurrection of the Daleks

It’s time to wheel out the pepper pots again, as the Daleks return from the brink of annihilation to retrieve their creator Davros, after losing horribly in their war with the Movellans. How the Daleks ever managed to survive before Davros was retconned into their genesis, I will never know!

The Supreme Dalek observes events through its crystal ball.

Resurrection of the Daleks has a rather complicated plot, particularly by the standards of most Dalek episodes. Although the Daleks free Davros from his space prison, they are not under his command and want to merely use him to find a cure for their deadly virus. Likewise, Davros is unhappy with the Daleks and wants to create a new breed. But the Daleks are also after the Doctor, having snagged him into a time tunnel and pulled him to 1980s Earth, which is also where they’re keeping the virus samples and from where they’re taking humans and then cloning them and brainwashing the clones to use as slaves, and hope to create a clone of the Doctor to invade Gallifrey and kill the Time Lord high council [breathe], all the while Davros tries to reprogram his Daleks to obey him instead. Ambitious bunch, aren’t they?

There are lots of meaningless deaths in this story, the most memorable of which is when one of the fake-policemen shoots some poor sod on the beach.

With all the twists and double-crossings, even between Daleks, it’s hard to know what’s going on at any one time or what anybody’s motivation is. Many of the ideas aren’t expanded upon. The Daleks creating genetic duplicates of humans and brainwashing them could be a huge deal, but they’re basically just slaves or “Dalek agents” to do their dirty work for them. The briefest of concern over a possible invasion at the end is just shrugged off with “oh, don’t worry, the clones are unstable”. Riiiight.

A brainwashed clone of Stien attaches the Doctor to the mind scanner. His performance is poor, even after we learn of his true nature.

Davros is Davros, of course, and as over-the-top as ever, but is becoming a generic babbling villain now, with repetitive prose. The Doctor, however, seems to have developed a more ruthless side to him, since he has no qualms with killing the Dalek mutants, nor Davros himself. Who says the Doctor doesn’t use guns? Ultimately, Davros is left to die on the spaceship as it explodes due to the conveniently named “self destruct room”, but is this really the end of him? I can’t believe it. Besides, the Daleks have time travel; they’ll find a way back. I do hope next time it’s a more straightforward adventure. Sometimes less is more.

The Doctor finally confronts Davros in a dramatic conclusion.

This story sees Tegan finally decide to give up the stressful life of adventuring and stay behind on Earth, not unlike several others before her. It’s not the first time she’s considered leaving the Tardis behind, but this time it is for good. A reluctant companion from the offset, Tegan was caught up in the adventure by accident, but stuck around for a surprisingly long time considering how much she complained about everything. Her departure is a reminder to me that Davison’s tenure is almost up. It’s strange, it feels like it’s barely started.

Frontios

I didn’t really think the Tardis was destroyed at the end of part 1 – let’s be honest, that’s never going to happen – but if such a thing were to occur, it would have to be in a far more interesting story than this, and in a manner far less mundane than being caught in a meteor shower.

The Doctor looks good in glasses; he should wear them more often.

Gravity is the theme here, and a race of Tractators are using it against a crashed Earth colony to smash its people with meteorites, drag them underground, and eventually turn the planet itself into a mobile home. For some reason that is never explained, the colony leaders want to control the flow of information and keep this whole underground business hush-hush amongst the colonists. Predictably, the Doctor and company are accused of being the aggressors, there’s a power struggle amongst the colonists, and frankly by this point I was bored.

I like how the Doctor saves Tegan by pretending she’s a robot slave. Speaking of robots, what has happened to Kamelion since he joined the crew?

There are a few things that kept my interest. Turlough recalling his ancestral memories (what?) about the Tractators, leading to a superb piece of overacting. I like Turlough; it’s as if he knows he isn’t going to be in the show very long so he overdoes everything. He’s never dull, I’ll give him that. There’s also some funny business with a hatstand, which apparently the colonists have never seen before and they think it’s a gun or something.

Get back or I’ll shoot you… with hats.

There is definitely potential in this idea, but it’s so blandly presented. The direction is poor, particularly where any action is involved, and the Tractators are just your typical silly-looking rubber suit monsters. The odd bit of gruesome imagery, such as the corpse of Captain Revere controlling the mining machine, goes some way to make this memorable, but nothing else resonates. A mediocre effort overall.

The Awakening

The Awakening is another two-part story and, as such, presents a comparatively lean adventure. Nevertheless, as a story of an advanced alien probe spawning a devil-like creature, feeding off of “psychic energy” (Doctor Who sure does love its psychic energies), opening a rift into the 17th century and brainwashing a village of war reenactors, it is by no means small, but it does have to rely on a lot of clumsy exposition to push things along.

The face of the Malus is quite excellent.

It’s all a bit wishy-washy, really, with giant faces, psychic projections and ghostly apparitions thrown into a melting pot of bizarre happenings. The imagery and implications are quite dark, admittedly, and the brainwashed Hutchinson is an entertainingly mad villain, but I found it unbelievable how the whole village just went along with his progressively weirder requests. There is an uneasy atmosphere to the proceedings, where you’re not quite sure how serious everybody is being, whether the threats are real or all part of the game.

It isn’t shown, but this guy totally gets his head cut off… right?

I think they could have played up the “are we in the past?” angle a bit more, or played into the “mysterious happenings in a quiet village” theme, where everyone is acting strangely. Maybe a longer story would have done that, but then again, there is something to be said of a story that doesn’t drag for the sake of it. There’s sadly not much time to develop Tegan’s character or her relationship with her grandfather, which turns him into just a plot device and a reason for Tegan to go wandering off. Oh well.

Warriors of the Deep

Whenever I hear the word “Silurians”, I can’t help but hear it in Jon Pertwee’s posh lispy voice. It’s been a long time since they or their Sea Devil cousins appeared in Doctor Who, in two fairly poor serials, and now they’ve teamed up for round three.

The Sea Devils look like samurai. With ray guns. They are awful shots, though.

Although the rubber suits are better, the story sadly isn’t. A group of surviving Silurians has awoken an army of hibernating Sea Devils and plans to attack an underwater base and use it to push the Earth into a nuclear war, wiping out the “primitive” ape life and reclaiming the surface for their own kind. As ever, this comes down to a clash of opposing sides, Silurians versus humans, and, despite the Doctor’s reservations, always results in one side snuffing it. I just don’t think the Silurians and the Sea Devils are interesting foes. There could be a good story to tell, but this is just your typical monsters/aliens attack story.

The inevitable end, but the Doctor doesn’t like being forced to kill.

It’s not even particularly well done. Yes, the costumes are a lot better (particularly the Sea Devils – their military armour is a massive improvement over their awful chain mail), but there’s still that very cheesy “man in a rubber suit” effect that dates it so badly. The Myrka is even worse. Ambitious though it may be to have a giant quadrupedal lizard roaming the halls of a sea base, it just looks so bad; it’s like an oversized pantomime horse. The shootouts are cramped and badly staged, the laser effects weak and ineffective, and when Dr. Solow fights the Myrka, I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry – she does some sort of judo kick slash interpretive dance in front of it, before it zaps her. It’s so hilariously bad, in fact, that I’m going to link to a clip of it.

“Roaarr!”

On the plus side, the actual sets are well made, with a clean white aesthetic and one room even features a pool! Some of the miniature model work is nice, but you don’t see much of it. The computer stuff is in a dated 8-bit retro style, but the concept of a human/computer interface is at least nicely sci-fi-y, although it amounts to nothing in the end.

The sea base control room.

As for the Doctor, I think he’s developed an edgier personality, or the writers just wanted an excuse for him to have more fights. He gut-elbows and face-kicks a couple of the security guards before threatening to blow up their reactor “to keep them busy”. Granted, it’s arguably self defence, but it’s a bit more vicious than his usual routine, and let’s ignore the fact that he’s just infiltrated a secure military facility and shouldn’t be there anyway. I blame the new haircut.

The Five Doctors

Following on from the 20th season is this remarkable anniversary special, originally broadcast to celebrate the show’s 20th year on the air. To replicate the original experience, I would have preferred to have seen the originally broadcast version, but circumstances led me unwittingly to the special edition released much later, with some of the visual and audio effects updated, so I can only comment on this version.

The Doctors meet!

Much like The Three Doctors, the story is little more than an excuse to get the previous incarnations of the Doctor together, plucked out of time and placed inside an elaborate ancient war game. It’s a shame that Tom Baker decided to opt out and that William Hartnell was no longer alive, as this special really ought to be called “The three and a Half Doctors (plus friends)”, but that’s not as catchy. Nevertheless, it’s a delight to see Patrick Troughton (does that man not age?!), and Jon Pertwee back again, while Richard Hurndall takes over as the first Doctor, and some previously unseen footage from Shada is used to explain the fourth Doctor’s absence. Clever!

Trapped within a maze of mirrors, the first Doctor and his granddaughter Susan are reunited. How’s that non-existent pocket of 22nd century post Dalek-invaded Earth been keeping you, Sue?

Despite the absentees, The Five Doctors is a glorious celebration of the show’s history, using every available cast member, reference and villain it can reasonably squeeze into its 100 minute runtime. I genuinely had no idea that a 20-year older Carole Ann Ford would return to play Susan, nor the cameos by Jamie, Zoe, Liz and Yates. And that’s on top of a bright yellow Bessie, Lethbridge-Stewart, The Master, Yetis, Cybermen and a Dalek all running around the battlefield (there’s even time to reverse the polarity of the neutron flow!). It’s a smorgasbord of nostalgia, a who’s who of Who, and it’s quite amazing that it all works so well.

Turlough doesn’t have much to do in this story, but Tegan accompanies the first Doctor into the tower, while Susan remains in the Tardis.

Essentially, the story splits and jumps back and forth to follow each Doctor and a companion as they each take a different route up to the tower of Rassilon. This allows them some breathing space (as well as time to reminisce with old friends), but it does make the story a little scattershot, never settling in one place for very long, until a satisfying culmination towards the end. The lack of arbitrarily dramatic cliffhangers is a blessing; this is just one epic feature without cuts.

Sarah Jane is still Sarah Jane, panicked and often hyperventilating. The third Doctor is still the third Doctor, determined and confident. I swear he cops a feel of her boob at one point.

The fifth Doctor is the anchoring point, but he spends much of the story on Gallifrey, outside of the Death Zone, where he uncovers the President’s secret plans for immortality. Yes, sadly, there is corruption on Gallifrey yet again. This is becoming an embarrassing cliché and I can’t blame the Doctor for not wanting to stick around as President. He does get a brief moment to meet his past selves, which is nicely done. You can get a good sense of how the different versions of the Doctor vary. Davison is definitely the least eccentric of the bunch, a normal and level-headed type by comparison. Pertwee and Troughton play their roles much as they ever did, despite the years in between, and Richard Hurndall does a reasonable job of approximating some of Hartnell’s performance, although it would have been more authentic if he’d fluffed his lines a few times and ended all his sentences with “hmm?”.

Lord President Borusa gets more than he bargained for when Rassilon grants him immortality.

The Five Doctors is hardly a masterpiece of imagination, then, but it’s nevertheless well made and a lovely tribute to the history of the show. The sort of silly-but-fun “why the hell not” exercise I can easily get behind. As it’s a one-off special, the budget would appear to have allowed for better production and visuals. One scene in particular is genuinely great, as a robot ninja busts up a legion of cybermen, teleporting around and lobbing arrows at them, causing them to explode and fall to pieces, arms and heads everywhere. Earlier, a rogue Dalek shoots itself in a hall of mirrors and within its exploded remains is its rarely-sighted grotesque embryo. Marvelous!

Total carnage. I bet Hideo Kojima was a fan.

Sometimes logic has to fly out of the window, though. For instance, the second Doctor tricks the illusion of Jamie and Zoe by recalling that they shouldn’t know who he is, since their memories were wiped when they were returned to their time zones. But by the same reasoning, how would the Doctor have remembered that, as it happened almost immediately prior to his regeneration and exile on Earth. He would have had to have been pulled from the past moments before this, but there’s no indication this is the case when he turns up to visit the Brigadier. Similarly, why exactly is K-9 with Sarah Jane? Mk.I was left on Gallifrey with Leela and Mk.II was left with Romana (in a black-and-white photograph). I suppose it doesn’t matter, really; some questions are best left unanswered for the sake of a bit of fun, and this was a lot of fun. Job done.

The King’s Demons

Every time the Master turns up now, I’m caught completely off-guard, though it’s good to know 1980s TV makeup, a wig and a bad French accent are all it takes to pull off a disguise. This time, he’s in 13th Century England with a chameleonic robot disguised as King John, attempting to stop the signing of the Magna Carta, which would obviously be very bad for the future of civilisation. By astonishing luck, the Doctor’s Tardis arrives in time to stop him. Phew!

The Doctor and the Master have a sword fight… not for the first time.

There’s not much more to say about this one. It’s kind of fun to see period characters reacting to futuristic incursions as though they’re magical, and the writing is more olde worlde style than they usually bother with, which is something. With only two parts, it’s a shorter story than most, and quite a breezy way to wrap up the season. With its emphasis on history, it’s almost a throwback to the old Hartnell historical serials. Quite fitting that the Doctor should be travelling with an alien dressed as a schoolboy, as this incarnation is basically like a teacher on a field trip.

Tegan is distrustful of the Tardis’s new recruit. Again.

Shockingly enough, the robot, Kamelion, is not a man in a shiny suit. It’s an actual animatronic, and probably the most remarkable part of this otherwise forgettable story. Freed from the Master’s psychic influence, he’s now tagging along with the Tardis crew. I guess the producers wanted to get their money’s worth out of it.

Enlightenment

Enlightenment brings the Black Guardian ‘trilogy’ to an imaginative and surprisingly satisfying close. What first appears to be a simple Edwardian sailing ship is actually a space vessel that’s been modelled after one, as part of a space race around the solar system against others ships crewed by people pulled from Earth’s history by a group of bored ‘eternals’.

The space race, redefined! The ships are equipped with solar sails and vacuum shields, so although it’s fanciful, it’s not completely magical. How cool is that?

The Eternals might as well be gods, since they usually exist outside of time and space, can read the minds of mortals and create anything from nothing. What the Doctor quite rightly reveals is that being all-powerful isn’t actually all that, and mocks the Eternals for their reliance on mortals to keep them amused, to give their lives meaning and purpose, even while they consider themselves superior beings. But we are made to feel sympathetic towards them, as the First Officer develops feelings towards Tegan, becoming enthralled by her mind but failing to understand why.

In spite of everything else, I couldn’t help wonder how Tegan grew her hair. Did she put a wig on? Did an Eternal magic some new hair for her? This is clearly of vital importance.

With the Black and White Guardians pulling the strings, we have a rather high concept situation here, not unlike something Douglas Adams might come up with. The gods controlling the mortals, while the gods of gods control them. The Doctor is just a small part of a bigger picture, and yet his involvement is humble and believable. The resolution, although a bit schlocky, is quite sweet, with Turlough earning his ‘enlightenment’ through making the right choice, and seeing the Black Guardian off into a burst of flame.

Winner takes all.

Speaking of Turlough, he does spend a lot of the story either sucking up to win favour or crying to the Black Guardian for help, but there’s something rather entertaining about how over-the-top he is. He’s far more engaging than Nyssa was, although it remains to be seen if he mellows out now that he’s free of his contract. The Black Guardian continues to be a bad pantomime villain, but somehow this fits in with the godly chess game theme. The Eternals range from emotionless to crazy, with the pirate captain Wrack overacting in all of her scenes. It’s never less than fun, though.

Turlough is picked up by the pirate ship after a spectacular space jump.