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Excitable and Exasperated

Review of the Fifth Doctor’s era

1982 – 1984
Castrovalva
Four to Doomsday
Kinda
The Visitation
Black Orchid
Earthshock
Time-Flight
Arc of Infinity
Snakedance
Mawdryn Undead
Terminus
Enlightenment
The King’s Demons
The Five Doctors (Special)
Warriors of the Deep
The Awakening
Frontios
Resurrection of the Daleks
Planet of Fire
The Caves of Androzani

 

There’s a lot about Five that feels eminently Doctor-y to me. It could be that Ten is “my” Doctor, and Five was Tennant’s, so a lot of mannerisms and such carried over. But the way Five gets so excited about possible solutions to the problems he faces – almost frenetic at times – is very much part of what I consider “the Doctor.” He’s quick-witted yet fallible, and has great love for his Companions even as he gets irritated with them on a regular basis.

Nowhere is that more obvious than in his relationship with Tegan, one of the longest-running Companions. They constantly snark at each other, yet in threatening circumstances each strives to protect the other. When his off-kilter regeneration threatens his well-being, Tegan takes charge, keeping control of the situation with an “excuse me – I’m responsible for the Doctor!” Conversely, he often tries to bolster her courage with a “brave heart, Tegan!”

As for that regeneration, it’s the first one that seems to go a bit wrong (later Six, Eight and Ten all have problems settling into their new bodies). It makes not only for a good story hook for Castrovalva, but also for some fun impressions, as Five re-inhabits his former personae in turn (I particularly like that he gets to say “reverse the polarity of the neutron flow” and “when I say ‘run,’ run!”). Add a stalk of celery, though, and he’s right as rain…

I don’t know what it is about Five that I find so relatable yet simultaneously impossible to describe. Clearly, he’s the Doctor, so he’s fabulous in his own way. For example, when he’s told he shouldn’t get into a duel with someone because “he is said to be the best swordsman in France!” he merely responds with a cool, “well, fortunately, we are in England” (four years before The Princess Bride).

On the other hand, he comes across as a regular bloke in many ways. He discovers he’s quite good at cricket (in accordance with his costume, and future-reminiscent of Eleven’s football (soccer) skillz in The Lodger), winning the game for his adopted team. He has a tendency to flip a coin and then go counter to its dictates. And he seems to have no qualms about emptying a clip into a Dalek. Most importantly, his ridiculously long death (a slow one that spans four episodes) is arguably the most noble, and the best regeneration to date.

Five started his tenure with three Companions, and two others transitioned in and out in the middle. As the last Companions said farewell, he also picked up one who was primarily Six’s. Here they are in order, with the stories in which they first and last appeared and how they left the Doctor:

  • Adric
    Four’s era to Earthshock
    Died
  • Nyssa of Traken
    Four’s era to Terminus
    Stayed behind to help rebuild Terminus
  • Tegan Jovanka
    Four’s era to Resurrection of the Daleks
    Stayed behind in 1984 London
  • Vislor Turlough
    Mawdryn Undead to Planet of Fire
    Returned with colonists to his home planet
  • Kamelion (an android)
    The King’s Demons to Planet of Fire
    Asked to be destroyed
  • Perpugilliam “Peri” Brown
    Planet of Fire into Six’s era

It’s notable that Adric (much-maligned by fans though he might have been) is the first full-on Companion (and here I’m talking about one who actually traveled in the TARDIS for more than a single story arc, unlike Katarina) to part company from the Doctor by dying. Whatever you think of Adric himself, you have to admit that it took balls for the production team actually to kill him off. Of course, then they pulled an RTD by getting rid of Tegan without really getting rid of her (she gets left behind in Time-Flight only to rejoin the Doctor and Nyssa in the very next story, Arc of Infinity).

This is also when the writers really started to take shortcuts with explanatory dialog, eliminating a great deal of technobabble. Perhaps it was an attempt not to have such shoddy science, or perhaps it was a cop-out so they didn’t have to devise something that sounded like it might make sense. Regardless, here’s where the Doctor’s tendency to tell people that he’ll “explain later” really comes into its own. Even his Companions get into the act, telling random characters that “the Doctor will explain later.”

We also get more on some of the Doctor’s unusual physiology, learning in Four to Doomsday that he can withstand the absolute cold of space unprotected for 6 minutes and that he can self-induce a trance (which we already knew) to reduce his need for oxygen (which is new). It’s also reiterated in Mawdryn Undead that Time Lords can only regenerate 12 times. Further, it’s implied that sacrificing regenerations would not necessarily kill a Time Lord, but it would make him no longer a “Time Lord” – resurrecting the perennial question of whether “Time Lord” is a species or a “race” of Gallifreyans.

During this period, the show celebrated its 20th anniversary. The resulting special (The Five Doctors) is among my favorites (cuz really – who doesn’t love a good multi-Doctor story?) One of the best parts is that – rather surprisingly, for a Doctor who encountered him more than anyone but Three – the bad guy wasn’t the Master (who, it has to be said, is a not-so-Master of disguise; his voice always gives him away, if you know what to listen for). Mostly, it’s great to see all the Regenerations back in action. We can only hope 2013 will give us something so fun.

Summary
Five’s era was essentially an extension of the Golden Age, but it wasn’t without its ups and downs. In fact, reportedly it was the less than stellar quality of the scripts that prompted Davison to tender his resignation (something he apparently regretted later, but too late, as Colin Baker’s contract had already been signed). Personally, I find very few true stinkers here, but maybe that’s just because the show seems to have reached the comfortable rut of late-middle age. The next era would be anything but tranquil.

4 Comments

  1. PaulGreaves

    Now you’re talking!
    Hooray, you’ve made it to “my” Doctor. Although I was born during Pertwee and watched Baker between the ages of 4 and 7, it was with Davison that I properly gelled with the show (reaching an age where I could follow it properly).

    I agree with much of what you say here, although Tegan is one of the most frustrating companions for me as she really didn’t seem to want to be there. For me, that’s a big no-no for a companion, as you stop empathising with them.

    I agree that there are very few real stinkers in the Fifth Doctor’s era but a lot of the fan bile comes from the fascinating way that fans are able to switch their allegiances despite the appalling hypocrisy that comes with it.

    While JN-T was alive, he was vilified for “destroying” Doctor Who and Eric Saward was considered to be the “Script Editor Who Couldn’t Take It Any More” and was praised for having the balls to quit in defence of the beloved Robert Holmes. As always, the reality lies somewhere in the middle…

    It’s true that JN-T stayed too long and made many bad decisions – but he also made very good decisions too and genuinely cared for the show – something fans now hail as a USP for recent Producers. As producers go, he wasn’t the best but neither was he the worst. It’s relatively easy to keep a show running when it’s beloved by the company that makes it – it’s something else to keep going when your boss hates you.

    Eric Saward wasn’t the best script-editor the show ever had but, again, he certainly wasn’t the worst. When the show is a hot property, sci-fi is popular and writers are throwing themselves at you, it’s easy to be selective and get the best. When sci-fi is considered kids stuff and no-one wants to know, you have to do the best you can.

    Both men did the best they could under difficult circumstances and I think the Fifth Doctors era is, really, the last properly successful Who of the Classic run. After this, they were living on borrowed time. It doesn’t matter how good some of the 6th and 7th Doctor stories were, the show had a big target on its back from which it couldn’t escape.

    I love the Fifth Doctor and all his companions (yes, even Tegan and Adric, despite my misgivings). His era isn’t perfect but then, none of them are. However there is some really strong stuff here and Davison did something that has kept the show alive today: he proved that a young man could play the part just as convincingly as an older man – and play it well.

    As for The Caves of Androzani… well: http://goldfishandparacetamol.wordpress.com/2011/07/14/day-16-my-top-3-classic-series-stories/

  2. mrfranklin

    He’s pretty high on my list

    Yes, we've had the conversation about Caves before. 🙂 I do like it, but it still doesn't grab me as a top 3. ~shrug~

    As for Tegan, I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. True, early on she was always trying to get back to Heathrow, but to be fair, she had only entered the TARDIS because she was looking for actual police help, and ended up losing her aunt to boot. It's going to take some time to adjust to that. Also, it's really not that far into her time with the Doctor that she stops asking to go home. When they discover they've landed on Earth again at the beginning of Black Orchid, she tells him, "I did say I wanted to stay with the crew for a while. You can stop trying to get me back to Heathrow." So it's actually only the first 4 of her 18 stories in which she tried to get back to that enticing new job of hers.

    You make good points about the production team. JN-T is oft-reviled (who talks like that?), but I believe he had his heart in the right place, even if I don't always agree with the decisions he made. And the next two Doctors' worth of the show just couldn't catch a break.

    • PaulGreaves

      The Joke Is…
      …that since JN-T died, the people who loathed and criticised him have now moved on to Saward. The Eighties era of Doctor Who causes so much antagonism amongst fans and it’s ludicrous. Personally, I have a lot of time for Eric Saward and although Gary Gillat in DWM is constantly moaning about him in the DVD reviews, I find his thoughts and opinions fascinating. And I thought he was a pretty good script editor. Miles better than Tosh, Read and Adams, in my opinion.

  3. mrfranklin

    I’ve Heard a Lot of Smack

    I know some Long Term Fans talk smack about JN-T and/or other producers and script editors. Not having been involved at the time, I can only look at it all in retrospect. I didn't really like Six at first, but I've come to appreciate him (see Confession #7), and I've always liked Seven, so I don't really see what the big deal is/was about the Eighties era. Aside from the BBC getting tired of Who and wanting to axe it…

    But yeah, ironic that the vitriol against JN-T faded; people have that "don't speak ill of the dead" thing pretty deeply ingrained, I guess…

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