Everything about The Fifth Doctor totally explained
The
Fifth Doctor is the name given to the fifth
incarnation of the
fictional character known as
the Doctor seen on screen in the long-running
BBC television science-fiction series
Doctor Who. He was portrayed by actor
Peter Davison.
Overview
After the famous and popular
Fourth Doctor (as played by
Tom Baker), the decision was taken for the next Doctor to be played by someone who presented something of a physical contrast to Baker and by an actor who was already firmly established in the
British public's mind. Peter Davison was chosen, due in no small part to his popular and critically acclaimed role as Tristan Farnon in
All Creatures Great and Small, a BBC series based on the books of
James Herriot.
The Fifth Doctor's era was notable for a "back to basics" attitude, in which "silly" humour (and, to an extent, horror) was kept to a minimum, and more scientific accuracy was encouraged by the producer,
John Nathan-Turner. It was also notable for the reintroduction of many of the
Time Lord's enemies; such as the
Master,
Cybermen,
Omega (a founding-father of
Gallifrey), the
Black and
White Guardians, the
Sea Devils, and the
Silurians.
Biography
The
Fourth Doctor's regeneration into the Fifth was a problematic one, and nearly failed, with the Doctor briefly taking on personality aspects from his four previous incarnations. After recovering in the fictional city
Castrovalva, he continued his travels with
Tegan Jovanka,
Nyssa of Traken and
Adric. After trips to the future and the past encountering villains such as
Monarch and the Mara, the Fifth Doctor was confronted with tragedy when Adric died trying to stop a space freighter from crashing into prehistoric Earth (
Earthshock).
When the Doctor met a new
companion, an alien boy stranded on Earth by the name of
Vislor Turlough, he didn't know that Turlough had been commissioned by the
Black Guardian to kill him. Soon after, Nyssa left to help cure Lazar's Disease on the space station
Terminus. After meeting the entities known as Eternals racing in yacht-like spacecraft for the prize of "
Enlightenment", Turlough broke free from the Black Guardian's influence, and continued to travel with the Doctor and Tegan. The Doctor met three of his previous incarnations when they were summoned to the Death Zone on Gallifrey by President
Borusa, who was attempting to gain
Rassilon's secret of immortality.
After further adventures in which the Doctor re-encountered old foes including the
Silurians and the
Sea Devils both Tegan and Turlough left the TARDIS. Tegan would find the death and violence they encountered on their travels too much to bear (
Resurrection of the Daleks), and Turlough returned to his home planet of Trion.
Ultimately, the Fifth Doctor and his last companion
Peri Brown were exposed to the drug spectrox in its deadly toxic raw form on
Androzani Minor. With only one dose of the antidote available, he nobly sacrificed his own existence to save Peri, regenerating into the
Sixth Doctor having expressed doubt (for the first time) that regeneration might not be possible.
A sketch of the Fifth Doctor is seen in
John Smith's book in the new series episode "
Human Nature".
Somewhere in his life (perhaps set after the events of
Snakedance) he crashed his
TARDIS into the TARDIS of the
Tenth Doctor and consequently nearly opened a "Belgium sized" black hole because of the paradox caused. However the Tenth Doctor, remembering the event, knew how to stop it because he recalled watching himself correct the mistake when he was the Fifth Doctor. (
Time Crash)
Personality
The Fifth Doctor was far more vulnerable, sensitive and reserved than his previous incarnations, and would often react to situations rather than initiate them. Unlike his more authoritative predecessors, he'd treat his young companions as parts of a team, and would often willingly participate in situations under the leadership of someone else who had the strong command presence that he apparently lacked. However, the Fifth Doctor's boyish appearance, nervous energy and charm all hid the fact that he was a
Time Lord of great age, compassion and experience.
This Doctor greatly abhorred violence and would often hesitate about taking matters into his own hands. For the first time indecision weighed seriously on the character, and it had its consequences. But this Doctor was also one of the most courageous of his incarnations. It was perhaps the awful realisation that his very existence begat violence, and the weight of companion
Adric's death on his conscience, that led him to sacrifice his own existence to save his last companion, Peri.
The Fifth Doctor was the last to use the original
sonic screwdriver, which was destroyed during
The Visitation, although the Seventh and subsequent Doctors were later seen using new versions of the tool. In
Time Crash, he declined to borrow the Tenth Doctor's sonic screwdriver, prompting the Tenth Doctor's sarcastic remark, "Oh no, of course, you mostly went hands free didn't you? It's like, 'Hey I'm the Doctor, I can save the universe using a kettle and some string.'"
Appearance
The Fifth Doctor's chosen mode of dress was a variation of an Edwardian
cricketer's uniform, and he was even seen to carry a
cricket ball in one of his pockets (which saved his life in one adventure). He wore a cream-coloured frock coat, striped trousers,
plimsoll shoes and occasionally a pair of
spectacles. The
Tenth Doctor, who inherited various traits from this incarnation such as spectacle use, revealed in
Time Crash that the spectacles weren't actually needed to aid the Doctor's eyesight but were just for show to make him look clever (perhaps to counter his youthful appearance). The Fifth Doctor's costume also retained red question marks embroidered onto the collar which producer John Nather-Turner added to the
Fourth Doctor's costume in 1980. The Fifth Doctor also displayed an unusually acute sense of taste in
Planet of Fire, also inherited by the Tenth Doctor.
On his lapel, this Doctor wore a celery stalk. He claimed in
The Caves of Androzani that the celery would turn purple in the presence of certain gases in the "Praxis" range to which he was allergic, although this allergy wasn't mentioned by any incarnations before or since. He said that if that happened, he'd then eat the celery (explaining, "If nothing else, I'm sure it's good for my teeth"). In the same story, while attempting to revive a feverish Peri from Spectrox Toxemia, he'd noted that celery was an "excellent restorative from where I come from", but that the human olfactory system was "comparatively feeble." The Tenth Doctor repeatedly poked fun at the celery in
Time Crash, describing it as a "decorative vegetable".
Peter Davison stated in an interview on the DVD of
Castrovalva that he thought the clothes he wore were far too "designed" and that he'd have still kept them, but wanted to add some individual flair to them, as other actors portraying the Doctor have done in the past.
Appearances
The Fifth Doctor was first seen on television in the last episode of
Logopolis, broadcast on
21 March 1981. Davison played the role through the 19th and 20th seasons of
Doctor Who, including the 20th anniversary special
The Five Doctors.
Patrick Troughton, who played the
Second Doctor, advised Davison to stay in the role for three years, and acting on this advice Davison informed producer
John Nathan-Turner that he'd leave the role after the 21st season. In a break from recent tradition, Nathan-Turner decided to regenerate the Doctor in the season's penultimate story, in order to introduce the
Sixth Doctor to audiences before the seasonal hiatus. Davison's last regular appearance as the Fifth Doctor was in the last episode of
The Caves of Androzani, broadcast on
16 March 1984.
Davison returned to the role briefly in the 1993 charity special
Dimensions in Time. Beginning in 1999, he recorded a series of
Doctor Who audio plays for
Big Finish Productions. In 2007, Davison, at age 56, appeared alongside
Tenth Doctor David Tennant in a
Doctor Who special for
Children in Need, written by
Steven Moffat titled "
Time Crash". This was the first official time that a Doctor from the New Series met a Doctor from the original 26-year run. This is the first "multi-Doctor" story in the New Series and the first televised one since
The Two Doctors.
The Fifth Doctor has also appeared in officially licensed novels, short stories and comics.
Non-television appearances
Short stories
The Eight Doctors by Terrance Dicks
Seen in the TARDIS mirror in Camera Obscura
Blood and Hope by Iain McLaughlin
Comics
The Tides of Time
Stars Fell on Stockbridge
The Stockbridge Horror
Lunar Lagoon
4-Dimensional Vistas
The Moderator
The Lunar Strangers
The Curse of the Scarab
Doctor Who Yearbook
Blood Invocation
Audio
Further Information
Get more info on 'Fifth Doctor'.
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