| The Peter Davison Years 1982 - 1984 |
| It was always going to be tough for the actor who had to follow the Mighty Tom Baker era, and the BBC took another huge gamble by casting the youngest Doctor ever, that nice young vet off All Creatures Great and Small. Peter Davison was a far cry from any of his predecessors but to his credit, he made the part completely his own during his three great years. Following some criticism that the later Tom Baker years had become a bit silly, Doctor Who once again put it's serious hat on, and produced three intelligent pure science-fiction seasons, with Davison's Doctor portrayed as a less wacky, more human, heroic and often vulnerable figure. This Doctor even made mistakes, resulting in a rare death of one of his companions. Luckily though, it was just Adric, who was a bit of a turd anyway. |
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| Davison's Dolly Birds |
| Overseas sales of the show were now really taking off, and so Doctor Who went for a bit more of an international feel with the Fifth Doctor's companions, resulting in Tegan (above left), the Australian Air Hostess. The actress wasn't really Australian, she just put on the accent, but at least they were trying. We also had the lovely Nyssa (above right), who spent most of her time dressed in a rather strange purple velvet uniform. In an inspired move though, for her last story, the producers had her dress fall off, although it was essential to the story. Can't remember why, but it was. Good old Nyssa. And finally, there was poor old Adric, the annoying young kid who was eventually blown up by the Cybermen. For the only time in it's history, the end credits of an episode were rolled in complete silence to mark this tragic event. Some of us like to sing "Happy Days Are Here Again" over the silence though as a mark of respect. |
| Monsters And Villains |
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| Davison's main adversary was a regenerated Master, now played by Anthony Ainley. He did actually look uncannily like the late Roger Delgado but unfortunately was nowhere near as good. Whereas Delgado was subtle, charming and pleasantly sinister, Anthony Ainley was more of an evil cackling Pantomime villain. After a long absence, we were also treated to the new 80's style Cybermen. They did actually look pretty good at the time but again weren't a patch on the earlier versions. Their voices were disappointing too, more of a throaty growl instead of their lovely plinky-plonky electronic voices in the 60's. |
| Davison Trivia |
The casting of Peter Davison made it onto the main Six O Clock News on the BBC. Many of Davison's friends saw the picture of him on the news and immediately assumed he'd died! The show celebrated it's 20th anniversary during the Peter Davison era with The Five Doctors, a spectacular celebratory adventure featuring all five Doctors at once! Well, nearly. William Hartnell was dead by this time, so they got in a lookalike for him who was a bit rubbish. And Tom Baker declined to take part (allegedly because he couldn't bear to share the title role with other actors) and so they substituted a couple of clips from the unfinished Shada in his place. It was still dead good though. For the photocall, they dragged in a waxwork dummy of Tom Baker from Madam Tussauds and hoped that nobody would notice. Nobody did. |
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| Davison - The Good Things |
The Peter Davison era is a much under-rated era of Doctor Who, the show could easily have fallen apart and died if a lesser actor had followed Tom Baker. It was three great years of Doctor Who and Davison was marvellous. The Five Doctors is just 90 minutes of nostalgia heaven, despite there only really being three Doctors. Peri made her debut, although only right at the end, and so we won't talk about her yet |
| Davison - The Rubbish Things |
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The show began to rely a little bit too much on it's own history and continuity, sometimes making it difficult for a casual viewer to understand what was going on. This problem would worsen post-Davison and really begin to cripple the show's ratings. Adric. The only other main criticism is that Davison didn't quite stay long enough. His third and final year was by far his best, and it would have been great to see the Fifth Doctor carry on for a bit longer. Especially, considering what was coming next.... |
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| It's The End, But.... |
| Here's a spooky coincidence. Peter Davison had just accepted the role of Doctor Who and was walking out into the BBC Carpark, when who should he bump into but the Second Doctor Patrick Troughton! Troughton congratulated Davison upon hearing his news but solemnly warned him not to play the part for more than three years. Davison took this advice seriously, and bowed out of the role after his third year. He later regretted this a little bit, as he was filming his final story and realised that he desperately wanted to come back the following year. But it was too late, Colin Baker had already been cast as the Sixth Doctor, and the shit was about to hit the fan. |
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