A Look Back at Classic Who: The Fifth Doctor's Era · 5:44am Sep 30th, 2013
Let's continue this look back at "Classic Who" with the era of the Fifth Doctor!
The Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison)
The Fifth Doctor was the first incarnation to bring a truly young face to what had been, up to that point, a line of older-looking Doctors. Unlike his alien predecessor, the Fifth Doctor was a more human incarnation. While this made him a bit kinder, it also made him become more fettered to the violent aspects of his travels. Of all of the Doctor's incarnations, the Fifth Doctor was the most open and vulnerable due to his human nature. He was neither pretentious nor selfish, solved problems more through talk and diplomacy rather than physical action despite his younger body, and he treated his companions as close friends rather than subordinates. He wore a piece of celery on his clothing and also had a love for cricket. He had the most inherited companions out of all the Doctors, a total of three, and grew close to all of the companions he traveled with. He also felt an incredible amount of sadness whenever he parted ways with his companions. The Doctor fought against many foes like the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Master, the Sea Devils, and so on. The Fifth Doctor met his end when he and his last companion Peri Brown were exposed to a fatal poison. There was only enough antidote to cure one and the Fifth Doctor opted to save his companion's life instead of his own. He then proceeded to regenerate into another very different man.
Adric (Matthew Waterhouse)
Adric was just as loyal and close to the Fifth Doctor as he was to the Fourth. He still saw the Doctor as a mentor and learned much from him, while also remaining smug about his own intelligence. He had a close, family-like relationship with the Doctor and his fellow companions and often proved useful in solving many problems. However, as time went on, he felt himself growing more and more distant from the Doctor and longed to return to his home in E-Space, though the Doctor refused out of fear of being trapped there again. After several adventures with the Fifth Doctor, Adric parted ways with him through tragic circumstances. Adric sacrificed his life to prevent a massive space freighter from crashing into the Earth in modern day. The freighter ended up crashing into the Earth in the distant past, wiping out all of the dinosaurs in the process. The Doctor couldn't use the TARDIS to save Adric as his death was now a fixed point in Earth's history. Adric was the first companion to die since Katarina and Sara Kingdom and his death deeply effected the Doctor for many incarnations to come.
Nyssa (Sarah Sutton)
Nyssa was closer to the Fifth Doctor than the Fourth, mostly due to the fact that she spent most of her time in the TARDIS with the Fifth vs. the Fourth. The TARDIS became her new home following the destruction of her planet and the Doctor, Adric, and Tegan became her new family. Out of all of the Fifth Doctor's companions, Nyssa was the one that he was closest to as he took on a very parental role for her. Nyssa was incredibly trusting, a bit gullible, and very forgiving. She was a strong pacifist but, in rare occasions, used violence when there were no other options. Like the Doctor, Nyssa was deeply effected by Adric's death. After many adventures with the Fifth Doctor, she parted ways with him when she contracted Lazar's disease on the Terminus space station. She decided to stay on the space station and use her knowledge to help find a cure to Lazar's disease for herself and the others who were affected.
Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding)
Unlike the Doctor's other companions, Tegan was the one who desperately wished to return to her own time. She was stubborn, loud and direct, and also proved useful with her intrinsic honesty and morality. While she often bickered with her fellow travelers, she cared for them very much. She was saddened greatly by Adric's death and Nyssa's departure but she was very suspicious of new companion Vislor Turlough (and for good reason). She eventually made it home but reunited with the Doctor a little while later and opted to continue traveling with him. She faced many obstacles during her travels from the Daleks and the Master to being possessed by the Mara. She eventually left the TARDIS team permanently due to the carnage she witnessed in the Dalek civil war being too much for her. She was deposited in 1984 London, bid farewell to the Doctor and Turlough, and ran off before to the Doctor could respond. She, however, ran back a few seconds later to say her final goodbyes while simultaneously watching the TARDIS dematerialise one, last time.
Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney)
The Brig encountered the Fifth Doctor in 1983 but had no recollection of the Doctor at all and was retired from UNIT. He ended up meeting his past self from 1977, when he retired from UNIT, and this caused the 1977 Brig to suffer a partial mental breakdown and lose all memories of the Doctor while simultaneously restored the 1983 Brig's memories of the Doctor. The Brig would reunite with the Second, Third, and Fifth incarnations of the Doctor a little while later. It would then be a few more years before he reunited with the Doctor, but he would be the Seventh Doctor by then.
Vislor Turlough (Mark Strickson)
A member of an alien race known as the Trion who was exiled to Earth. He joined forces with the Black Guardian, an old enemy of the Fourth Doctor, who promised to kill the Doctor in exchange for his freedom. He posed as a human schoolboy at the school where the Brig taught at in 1983 and Turlough joined the Doctor, Nyssa, and Tegan in the TARDIS following the incident with the Brig. Turlough had a complicated relationship with the Doctor, as he was ordered to kill him but also recognized the good in him. Meanwhile, he and Tegan had a very sibling-bickering relationship as Tegan didn't trust him that much. Turlough was selfish, a convincing liar, and tended to avoid danger and situations he felt he couldn't change. After breaking away from his partnership with the Black Guardian, Turlough became less selfish and more about helping others. Turlough remained with the Doctor after the departures of Nyssa and Tegan and eventually parted ways with him to return home and find his brother.
Kamelion (Gerald Flood)
A shape-shifting robot that was originally created by the Master to impersonate King John. The Doctor freed Kamelion from the Master's control and took him on board the TARDIS. Most of the time, Kamelion opted to remain in the TARDIS to keep safe from powerful forces the could potentially control him. However, he did step out a few times to help the Doctor, such as when he saved the Doctor's and Turlough's lives during a trip to the Moon. He saw the Doctor as a protector and lived in the TARDIS for a long duration of the Fifth Doctor's era. Eventually, the Master managed to take over Kamelion again but Kamelion's loyalty to the Doctor caused him to experience agony from the possession. In the end, Kamelion persuaded the Doctor to kill him.
Peri Brown (Nicola Bryant)
Peri was the first American to become a companion of the Doctor. She was a college student from Baltimore who encountered the Doctor and Turlough while on a vacation to Lanzarote. With Turlough's departure, Peri decided to join the Doctor in the TARDIS and she and the Doctor became fast friends. She was kind and longed to see the universe. She studied botany and had an interest in archaeology. She had a few adventures with the Fifth Doctor but their time together came to an end when they were both infected with a fatal poison. The Fifth Doctor opted to save her life over his own and Peri watched as the Doctor regenerated into a different man before her very eyes.
And those were the major players of the Fifth Doctor's era! Next, I'll take a look back at the era of the Sixth Doctor!
Wait! The Doctor had an American companion!
You know from what I understand some aspects of the Fifth Doctor inspired some aspects in the Tenth.
1385280
Yeah. Peri was an American character but the actress that played her, Nicola Bryant, was British (she still played the character with an American accent although there are times where it's easy to spot her British accent). And, you know what's funny? Technically, the Fifth Doctor didn't have any regular British companions. Adric was from another universe, Nyssa and Turlough were from other planets, Tegan was Australian, Kamelion was a robot, and Peri was American. The Brig is excluded from being a regular companion but I included him in the list as he has been a major recurring character since the Second Doctor's era.
1385297 That is very interesting.
High points: Castrovalva, Kinda, Earthshock, Snakedance, Enlightenment, The Five Doctors, Resurrection of the Daleks, Planet of Fire and The Caves of Androzani (my fourth favourite classic story).
I also like the Big Finish plays The Eye of the Scorpion and Spare Parts.
Low points: Four to Doomsday (Adric at his most insufferable, plus a monumentally stupid moment where Tegan is shown understanding and speaking a several thousand year old language with no explanation beyond them both being Australian) Time-Flight (product placement, plot twists that don't make sense), The King's Demons (a short and unsatisfying story, also let down by the way it introduces a companion that didn't work out the way JNT intended) The Awakening (short and unsatisfying).
Incidentally, Nyssa was Sarah Sutton, Adric was Matthew Waterhouse. You're thinking of the young Nyssa from Mawdryn Undead and the older Adric from The Boy That Time Forgot (Big Finish)