It's funny watching All Creatures Great and Small after having seen Peter Davison as The Doctor.

I remember Davison more than the rest (other than Eccleston, of course.) I liked him, although I recall finding his appearance of absent-mindedness annoying occassionally.

Was it just my imagination, or did he get ill/beat up/otherwise damaged more often than any of the other Doctors? Maybe I'm just remembering wrong, but he just seemed oddly delicate to me.

I think he was pretty delicate overall. He wasn't necessarily strong enough emotionally to handle the stresses of his travels, and yet going back to Gallifrey would have been like death to him. He started with a horrible regenerative crisis and traveled headlong into the sensless death of Adric (no matter what the fans think). Consider all the tragedy that he underwent during the last few stories in the final season, and you have a pretty fragile regeneration.

And that's why he's my favorite.

By far the blandest Doctor of the bunch. I only bought Eartshock and Caves on DVD due to great reviews (Caves is really overrated) on the net and I don't plan to buy any further stories featuring his doctor.

It doesn't help that he has some of the most annoying companions in the history of the show (Tegan, Peri, Adric and..........what was her name again.......the quiet girl at the back........ah, Nyssa!).

That said, Earthshock is a great story.

My absolute favorite era of the program, though that has a lot to do with the age I was at when I first saw it. For those curious about such things, here is a list of his stories, for future reference:

Season XIX (1982):
117. Castrovalva - 4 eps - Adric, Nyssa & Tegan
118. Four to Doomsday - 4 eps - Adric, Nyssa & Tegan
119. Kinda - 4 eps - Adric, Nyssa & Tegan
120. The Visitation - 4 eps - Adric, Nyssa & Tegan
121. Black Orchid - 2 eps - Adric, Nyssa & Tegan
122. Earthshock - 4 eps - Adric, Nyssa & Tegan
123. Time-Flight - 4 eps - Nyssa & Tegan

Season XX (1983):
124. Arc of Infinity - 4 eps - Nyssa & Tegan
125. Snakedance - 4 eps - Nyssa & Tegan
126. Mawdryn Undead - 4 eps - Nyssa, Tegan & Turlough
127. Terminus - 4 eps - Nyssa, Tegan & Turlough
128. Enlightenment - 4 eps - Tegan & Turlough
129. The King's Demons - 2 eps - Tegan, Turlough & Kamelion
130. The Five Doctors - 1 ep - Tegan & Turlough

Season XXI (1984):
131. Warriors of the Deep - 4 eps - Tegan & Turlough
132. The Awakening - 2 eps - Tegan & Turlough
133. Frontios - 4 eps - Tegan & Turlough
134. Resurrection of the Daleks - 4 eps - Tegan & Turlough
135. Planet of Fire - 4 eps - Turlough, Kamelion & Peri
136. Caves of Androzani - 4 eps - Peri

Davison played a vulnerable Doctor, which was quite a contrast to his previous incarnation. He also came across as more of a sibling, than as a father figure or wacky uncle. Still, Davison's youth also lent a sort of energy and charm to the role, and the idea of an ancient time traveller in the body of someone who appeared so young on the outside kinda worked. He certainly deserves credit for taking on the intimidating position of following the icon that was Tom Baker, and for the most part, succeeds. His stories, on the other hand, could be a bit dry, and more humor would have been appreciated.

Davison's first season dealt extensively with the fact that the Doctor wasn't some sort of super-hero, but that he had weaknesses and vulnerabilities. The season also had some strong continuity, as each story flowed into the next. The fact that he had three companions at the time did lead to some wasted opportunities, and perhaps a bit too much forced drama and arguements, but at least they were trying.

The second year, the show was celebrating its 20th year on the air, and yet, these stories were perhaps the driest of them all. Rather lackluster and uninspiring, with only a couple glimmers of hope.

The third year of Davison was much more promising, with stronger stories, if a bit darker and gloomier. His era ended with a story considered to be one of the best Doctor Who stories of all time, though it is a bit atypical of Davison's era, as it features new companion, Peri.

So, of the four stories, which do I recommend? Hard to say really. "The Visitation" is perhaps the most typical of Davison's era, though some find it a bit dull. "Earthshock" is a bit too much glitter and not enough gold, but it is very action-packed and features the Cybermen, who were totally revitalized for this tale. Unfortunately, this is an example of how releasing stories haphazzardly on DVD hurts, as there is quite a stunner of an ending to this tale, which would be even more stunning if watched after the preceding stories.

As for "Resurrection of the Daleks", I've never particularly cared for it, though it looks impressive. "Caves of Androzani" is certainly an atypical Davison, but it is a marvellous adventure. Again, though, the amount of punch it carries may depend on how well you have gotten to know Davison.

One final note. There is a DVD release of "The Five Doctors", but it is a so-called special edition, which means it has actually been re-edited for a modern audience, that is, it was given some CGI trickery back in the 1990's to make it look up-to-date. As a result, now it looks like a weird mix of 1983 and 1998, and I find it unsatisfying, having first known it as it was originally released. The tale itself is slight, but fun in that you get to see various Doctors and companions in one epic tale. Not really one to see until you have experienced other tales, and I would rather wait to see the release of the original version, but maybe that's just me.

I quite like Awakening Part 1. It had a nicely creepy feeling to it.

Wow, these threads are really bringing back my pre-teen geekatude. That's a good thing, right? :)

I rationalize that Tom Baker is to Roger Moore as Peter Davidson was to Timothy Dalton (or Pierce Brosnan, depending on your opinion of Davidson).

I started watching DW on PBS right before the end of Tom Baker's run and caught all of Peter Davidson's run, so he's who I picture as the Doctor, with his vegtables as fashion accessory.

I would love to see these episodes again to see if they still hold up.

I love Peter Davison. He looks just like a beloved uncle of mine.

The first time I ever saw Dr. Who was the final episode of "Earthshock"

I was absolutely stunned. They killed a 'main' character.

Not having seen Adric before, I didn't realize how annoying he was for years and years.

It hooked me on the series, and while Tom Baker eventually won my admiration (if I could manage to ignore K-9) Peter Davison will always be The Doctor to me.

I've had more arguments about this episode than any other (it's one of my favorites). Mainly because of the gratuitous violence and gore. It scared the piss out of me the first time I saw it.

Another 5th doctor story I loved was "Enlightenment."

Story-wise, I preferred the 5th Doctor's darker tones.

The 5th is definitely my favorite as well. My older sister made me watch it with her when I was little because she had a crush on Peter Davidson and I was soon hooked.

While I didn't like the Turlough character (of course you weren't supposed to) I do think it was great twist to add a morally ambigious companion who was actually out to get the Doctor.

Maybe I'm not able to watch it with 1983 eyes, but I haven't seen what people are complaining about. To me, the actions weren't any worse than kids playing cops and robbers on the playground. Granted, I haven't seen past the first part of episode two so I may be missing a lot.

Now if people wanted to talk about the violence in "Attack of the Cybermen", I'll understand. Some of those moments were downright nasty for a "kids" show.

Most of the violence in Resurrection isn't that bad, it's just standard 'people falling over when shot by ray guns that go zap'. I think what upsets most people is the use of real guns, especially since they're being used by people dressed like police officers, and as Barry Letts has told us in the past, the BBC was uncomfortable with a show that was at least partially for kids showing the police in a bad light. But from what I remember at the time, what really caused problems was stuff happening on the space station when the virus was released. I sem to recall you do get quite a lot of close ups on faces melting, which was strong stuff for an early evening slot twenty years ago.

Even at the time, I remember thinking "Blimey, this is a bit nihilistic." Basically, everyone died apart from the Doctor and Peri! (Ditto with 'Revelation Of The Daleks'.)

But even though AotC was a Sixth Doctor show, it followed on from the general feel established in the later Fifth Doctor stories. A lot of people died - usually painfully or pointlessly. 'The Caves Of Androzani' took that to its logical extreme when even the Doctor died! (Did anyone bar Peri get off Androzani alive?)

Davison's later stories definitely had a depressing bleakness to them, about as far from the whimsy of the Tom Baker years as they could get. Even when his Doctor inevitably saved the day, there were so many corpses strewn around him that it was a hollow victory at best. I do like the Fifth Doctor's character - depending on my mood, he's usually either my #2 or #3 favourite - but God, some of his adventures were grim. No wonder Tegan left!

I remember loving "Arc of Infinity," though since that was fairly early in my Dr Who fandom I perhaps attributed more archtypical nemesis-osity to Omega than I should have.

I like the "look and feel" of the Davison era, but wow, an awful lot of the stories seem to end with Davison standing on top of the corpses of the entire guest cast saying "there should have been another way"

Have you ever seen The Three Doctors? It is (I believe) when we're first introduced to Omega, and good in it's own right. I saw it several years after first seeing Arc of Infinity, and you definitely get more of an appreciation of Omega's character and the Doctor's history with him that makes AoI more enjoyable.

(Also, there's a road near my home called Omega Drive and I amuse my parents all the time by accidentally referring to it as "Ohm-a-guh" Drive.)

I just loved the Peter Davison era. Especially liked the Adric, Nyssa and Tegan adventures. When Adric died and the ending with the broken badge and black background, I even shed a tear.

I've decided that that was the childhood trauma that's the reason I still sleep with a security blanket.

Peter Davison is a fine actor and in some respects was a fine doctor. There were some great stories during his era, and the production values and effects were probably the best they had even been up to that point by a wide margin. The companions were unprecedentedly lousy, but at least they kept the cast of characters moving. And he didn't put up with Tegan's crap, which in retrospect I particularly respect. At times I felt that Davison would equal Baker (who I revered) as the greatest doctor.

But looking back I find his doctor far short of Baker's mark, and also probably of Pertwee and Troughton. He relied a bit too much on being icily stunned and peevish. He never really connected with the actors in the supporting cast. And most fatally, his doctor just wasn't ultimately that interesting, for all his initial fresh-faced appeal. Either he was just a less interesting actor, or his interpretation was far, far less interestingly conceived. Or maybe John Nathan-Turner was somehow to blame. But somehow I now see Davison's run as more connected to the disastrous Colin Baker era that followed than the marvellous era that preceded it.

I think the biggest hurdle Davison had to overcome was the simple fact that he was taking over from Tom Baker. Seven years as one of the most beloved characters on British TV with the highest ratings the show had ever had... how do you follow that?

All told, Davison did a pretty good job, considering that he had to be as different as possible from Baker's Doctor to get out from under his shadow.

The only 5th Doctor story I've watched was "The 5 Doctors" and the part that sticks with me is when he teleports away from the Cybermen (I think) and says "Must dash!" I immediately understood it as "Mustache!" and thought it was such an absurd thing to say as he was teleporting that it was great.

This was the first Doctor I got to see, as I had only seen two of Tom Baker's six-episode shows before this series began running in the US. Loved the first two seasons, the third not so much, though I couldn't tell you why. (Maybe the lack of Sarah Sutton? Hmmm...)

Big question here: At the beginning of Time Flight, after the events of Earthshock, the Doctor makes it fiercely clear that he will not travel back in time to save Adric, but doesn't really say why. While I of course understood why in the real world (they couldn't very well get the actor back), it never seemed all that clear why he, in the "Whoniverse" world, couldn't do it. Was this ever clarified or explained, either in canon or out? (I'm blacking this out despite it being spelled out in other posts; I'm new here and I'm not quite sure how long something is considered a spoiler.)

Hourlong, you don't need to spoiler tag anything from the old episodes. Only episodes with the Ninth Doctor onward (that are not yet aired in the US) need tags.

As far as The Doctor not going back to save Adric, throughout the show, I can't think of a time when the Doctor deliberately changed time for purely personal reasons. Any time he actually changed history it was either accidental or in the heat of the moment.

It also wasn't about availability of the actor. It's been awhile, but I seem to recall that it was not Matthew Waterhouse's choice to leave and he probably would have jumped at a chance to come back.

I guess it fits in with the whole ‘everything has its time to die’ theme from ‘End Of The World’. It was just Adric's time to go. It also fits in with ‘Father's Day’ and the trouble that occurs because Rose tries to go back and stop her father from dying.

My roommate was never a big Who fan, and for some reason, I'm not either, (although I became unnaturally excited when SciFi Channel began running the new series) but I do recall watching it for a time as a kid. Junior high, I would think, seeing as how I mostly watched Doctor #5. So Peter Davison is my favorite Doctor, while Tom Baker is my roommates. I told him recently that I figure it's whichever Doctor you started watching with that you attach to most strongly. Of course, for me, it didn't hurt that Davison was kind of cute.

I had The Five Doctors on tape, and rewatched it to get my Classic Who fix while I waited for Netflix to start sending me discs of the classic series. Dismayed to learn of the jiggering to the special effects, though I'm also a little surprised that someone, somewhere felt The Five Doctors was worthy of a "Special Edition" treatment.

So far I've rented "Resurrection Of The Daleks" and "Earthshock." I know I must have seen these as a kid, but they're so not familiar to me. It's great fun, because now I get to watch them all over again like they're new! "RotD" was terrific, and seeing the Daleks barking "Exterminate" as they moved en masse at our heroes like an unstoppable wall of destruction was actually quite terrifying, even as an adult sitting on my couch. Lots of death, though. That is true. Not surprised Teegan decided to bolt. Though I found myself wondering exactly what year it was, and how long she'd been gone in Earth-time. Looking forward to seeing the Daleks show up in the new series!

I watched the last two episodes of 'Resurrection of the Daleks' last night, and found it somewhere between annoying and amusing (amoying? annusing?) that the two factions of Daleks got into a huge verbal pushing-and-shoving match about who should be obeyed, like football fans arguing over whose team is better, before finally deciding just to exterminate each other.

Faction 1: EX-TER-MIN-ATE THE TRAITORS!
Faction 2: WE ARE NOT TRAITORS! WE OBEY DAVROS! WE MUST HONOUR OUR CREATOR!
Faction 1: YOU MUST OBEY THE SUPREME DALEK!
Faction 2: THE SUPREME DALEK IS CRAP! DAVROS RULES!
Faction 1: DAVROS IS A WANKER! WHAT DO YOU THINK HIS OTHER HAND IS DOING?
Faction 2: COME HERE AND SAY THAT!
Faction 1: YEAH?
Faction 2: YEAH!
Both factions: EX-TER-MIN-ATE! [blaster fire and explosions follow]

A neat little directorial touch I noticed was that they got around the fact that the Daleks were considerably shorter than most of the cast (thus violating Roger Corman's first rule of monsters - ie, they should always be taller than the leading lady) by usually shooting them from low angles and positioning them in front of the actors, which made them look more imposing and menacing. In some of the other Dalek stories, the camera tends to stay at the Doctor's eyeline, making the Daleks seem a bit stubby.

It's an exciting story, but to my mind suffers from overambition (there are about 17 plotlines going on at once, and as a result some of the more interesting ones - like the Dalek plan to duplicate the Doctor and use him as a sleeper agent to destroy the Time Lords - get short shrift), and Eric Saward's usual nihilism in which practically the entire supporting cast dies horribly (see also 'Earthshock', 'Attack of the Cybermen', 'Revelation of the Daleks'... he was also script editor for the similarly lethal 'The Caves of Androzani' and 'Warriors of the Deep'). Stein's facial expressions after he's been shot look more like he's suffering from piles than a gunshot wound as well!

It was also quite funny to get a big closeup of the fillings in the Fifth Doctor's teeth. He must be cursing his previous incarnation for all those jelly babies.

See, that's funny, because what I liked about RotD was that the Daleks wanted one thing, their human slaves wanted another, and Davros had yet another agenda. So naturally, it all collapsed in on itself from the infighting, which was awesome.

with Tom Baker promoting all those jellybabies its a wonder many British people have teeth today!

Usually, I feel marginalized when I admit to my great, deep love of the Peter Davison years, so I am glad to see that there are some other lovers of the PD era out there.

I think it does have a bit to do with which Doctor you watched first. I had seen an episode of Tom Baker's State of Decay on PBS, and it scared the crap out of me as an elementary school kid (vampire phobia that goes back to a Fantasy Island ep). I stumbled across the Dr. again for Logopolis and the regeneration, so I was hooked from that point on.

Back then, I didn't find Adric annoying (much as I didn't find Boxey and Muffet annoying on BSG when I was 4), but now I do after having rewatched Earthshock and Black Orchid on VHS. Nyssa never bothered me, and neither did Tegan. I found it interesting how Tegan always seemed to have second thoughts about leaving. She gets left behind in Time Flight (can't remember if it was on purpose). She comes back in Arc of Infinity. She runs back to where the TARDIS was after deciding to leave in RoD. It always got me when the Doctor would say "Brave Heart, Tegan."

I hated Turlough for the longest time. Geek that I am, I read a DW spinoff book that took up with different companions after they left the Doctor. I had a whole new appreciation for Turlough after reading the one about him.

I hated Peri with the fire of 1000 burning suns.

When Colin Baker took over, it ruined my Saturday DW ritual.

All this nostalgia has made me decide that my parents must box up my DW book collection, and ship them to me. I think I have most of the PD stories, the programme guides, and the big hardback history of Who books. Again, my geekdom shines through clearly to the world.

runningonice, if you're a big geek, you may already know this, but I just watched the DVD of "Earthshock," and somewhere on there... I believe it was in the documentary (though the commentary is hilariously awesome, if only to hear Janet Fielding grouse about her big 80s hair and everyone's tacky clothing), but Peter Davison actually ad-libbed the very first "Brave heart, Teegan" line. The writer admitted he never would have written that for The Doctor to say, but after Peter said it, he thought it sounded perfect.

Just a teeny bit of useless trivia for you.

Some of the Davison stories were the first thing I thought of at the end of ‘The Doctor Dances’ when The Ninth Doctor is saying that this time ‘everybody lives!’, although of course some of the other Doctors had many stories where everyone else bar The Doctor and companions died (‘The Horror Of Fang Rock’ and ‘Robots Of Death’ for the Fourth Doctor, for instance), it's just that the Fifth Doctor seemed to have more of them, in my mind at least.

The Fifth Doctor is definitely one of my favourites - I think some of his stories were the most interesting. Peter Davison had a tough job following Tom Baker, but I thought he did a good job, and I liked the darkness of many of his stories. I even liked Tegan! (and, like Wootini said, Janet Fielding is hilarious in the DVD commentaries with the rest of the original Davison crew].

What's the episode where Fifth is in some sort of monastery that is trapped in a spiral of space ... or something ... I can't remember, but it was based on that painting of the monks that's a puzzle because it's a loop? Sorry, I'm not making sense, but it was an intriguing episode even though I can't now, so many years on, remember what it was about.

Sounds like ‘Castrovalva’, the story where the Fifth has only just regenerated, and has been affected rather badly by it. He and the Companions go to Castrovalva so he can recuperate, only to get caught up in the loop (cue lots of walking round in circles and up and down upside-down staircases).

Yeah, there were definitely circles and staircases ... what was the point of the story, or can you point me to a synopsis? Thanks.

Here, try this Promethea:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/epi...de/castrovalva/

I guess with Five I always felt the enormous pile of corpses was more noticeable and more of a failure because the Doctor treated it that way. With Tom Baker, the attitidue mostly seemed to be "Yay mayhem and I've defeated the bad guy!" even if he had to step over the corpses of the guest cast to do it. And with Six and Seven there was more of a sense of "well, they we'ren't important to the big picture anyway, and you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs"

Castrovalva....I loved that story. Whenever I see an Esher drawing, I think of it...

I was travelling in Italy, riding a bus from Sulmona to Scanno, when we passed a sign for the village of "Castrovalva."

I laughed so hard everybody on the bus stared at me.

I love him!! I haven't watched all of his eps yet, but I love his Doctor even more than Tom Baker's. He's so endearing and such an underrated actor. I love his vulnerability, and I love the cricket outfit.

I just watched "Castrovalva" and he was brilliant in it. And I loved him in "The Five Doctors".

Now I want to see his other stuff as Tristan Farnon and as Albert Campion (even though he's the wrong physical type for both characters).

He looks great in the recent Doctor Who Confidentials, too. He's really aged well and it's so great to see him smile and laugh. He also sounds great on the Big Finish audios, though he's audibly older, naturally.

He was at DragonCon in Atlanta a couple of years back and was very nice to fans. I, too was amazed at how well he had aged. He seemed a bit beefier in person and had lost a little hair, but I still thought, "Hey, it's The Doctor and Tristin!" We chatted and he signed my "Caves of Androzani" (spelling?) DVD. I was kind of surprised to see noone there dressed as his Doctor since it is a huge gathering of geeks.

I liked his recent series The Last Detective (is that the title?). I wonder if it's coming back.

I quite enjoyed watching PD's Campion series (though I haven't read the books yet, so I can't comment on whether he fit the part or not). I liked his Campion, and I'm really looking forward to going back and watching his Doctor.

I actually liked him even more as Tristan Farnon than I did as the Doctor, being a Tom Baker fan as a kid. He seemed so completely at home in All Creatures, and the humour in that show was just beautiful (Robert Hardy was also completely wrong for the real Siegfried, but I thought he was wonderful).

(Mum actually got to meet Alf Wight - the real James Herriot - when she was working as a vet locum up in Yorkshire :-))

Cool, LeFae! That makes me even more eager to see the series. I'm sure PD played the part wonderfully.

(O/T I just remembered that Jon Pertwee's son Sean played Hugh Beringar in the Cadfael series being just as physically wrong for the part in the same way, but also being wonderful in it)

From way back in the thread about Caves of Androzani;



I think that only two people survived the story (excluding the general being of the Doctor, who carked it as well): Peri (who came pretty darn close), and the President's secretary on Androzani Major. Everyone else in the story died.

I watched the series because PD was my favorite Doctor-and then I read the books-they are shockingly similar, right down to dialogue lifted from the text, and he seemed to be exactly what Allingham had in mind for the character. I feel like it is right up there with the Fry and Laurie versions of Jeeves and Wooster as far as how perfectly the characters are written are to the characters as played.
Read the books, they are really fun and funny.

Ooh, well, I'll definitely have to check out the Campion books, then! Thanks for the info. Since the TV show of Jeeves and Wooster fits so well with the books, that's high praise indeed. :)

Peter Davison is a brillaint actor, period. He was a brilliant Doctor. I think David Tennant has a lot in common with him, the two being the youngest Doctors to star in a full Doctor Who series.

Well, I've finished all of the Five stories available through Netflix and on the whole, I like PD as the Doctor. He's not my favorite (that's Eccleston, now and forever), but he was good. I liked the darker feel of his stories and the high body counts. Does this make me a sociopath?

Also, his commentaries are hilarious! I just finished listening to the one for "The Caves of Androzani" and I almost choked to death on a piece of popcorn during the regeneration scene because I was laughing so hard. He said something like "This really is a fate worse than death. First, you're haunted by all of your ex-companions, then the Master shows up and laughs at you. And as if all that wasn't enough, you turn into Colin Baker." Hahahahaha!