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Rank & Rate: The Peter Davison Era

Emperor-Tiberius

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Alas, we venture into the '80's, and the long J.N.T. era. First off comes the Fifth Doctor, played by Peter Davison, the youngest-at-the-time actor to play the titular character.

Which of his 20 stories did you like best? Which one did you not like so much? Any you disliked intensely?

Discuss!

gal-doctor-7-jpg.jpg
 
Listage, best to worst:

Earthshock
The Caves of Androzani
Enlightenment
Mawdryn Undead
Castrovalva
Resurrection of the Daleks
The Five Doctors
Arc of Infinity
Planet of Fire
Kinda (SE is pretty cool)
Frontios
--------- cut off for me overall enjoying the episode
Warriors of the Deep
The King’s Demons
Snakedance
The Awakening
Terminus
The Visitation
Time-Flight
Black Orchid
Four to Doomsday
One of the worst eras quality wise - almost 50% of the episodes were bad, and generally boring with it.
Earthshock was one of the few bright spots. Brought back Cybermen in a big way, and took the kind of risks with adric which I wish the new series would do more often. Kinda gains in the dvd editon from the cg snake(And I am decidely not usually a fan of adding cg to old eps), as it helps maintain the serious tone - I remember I laughed when I saw the original back when I was a kid, with that hilarious snake prop.

Good/bad ep ratio-wise, the Davison era is almost as bad as the C Baker era.
 
I haven't seen them all but was very impressed with Enlightenment. It was very well produced and well written.
 
Black Orchid always stands out in my mind as one of the very best. It just looked like everyone involved was having fun with the sci-fi light/SFX light story.

Davison is MY Doctor, so I have to admit I'm biased and would rank even the worst episodes higher than most. Arc of Infinity, Earthshock... So many good ones to chose from.
 
I haven't seen them all but was very impressed with Enlightenment. It was very well produced and well written.

It's an excellent episode and I would say along with Caves is the best of the Davison's era (although I haven't seen all of them myself).
 
Davidson's Doctor is just ok. He's not bad, he's not great....he's just "ok". Nothing jumps out. There's nothing to sink your teeth into. There's no quirks. There's no catch-phrase. There's nothing to even strongly dislike. His Doctor is the epitome of the compliment that's also an insult - "he's so nice". meh.

(no insult to Peterson himself. In fact, in interviews, I really like the guy. And he has a wonderful laugh.)

Earthshock
Caves of Androzani
Enlightenment
The Visitation
Arc of Infinity
Mawdryn Undead
Resurrection of the Daleks
Four To Doomsday
The Five Doctors
Frontios
Snakedance
Castrovalva
Kinda
Terminus
Warriors of the Deep
The King's Demons
Black Orchid

(Haven't gotten to "Time-Flight", "The Awakening" or "Planet of Fire" yet)
 
Black Orchid always stands out in my mind as one of the very best. It just looked like everyone involved was having fun with the sci-fi light/SFX light story.

Davison is MY Doctor, so I have to admit I'm biased and would rank even the worst episodes higher than most. Arc of Infinity, Earthshock... So many good ones to chose from.

They were acting well then because on the commentary the cast (except Sarah Sutton) makes it clear they hated Black Orchid.
 
This was my era of Who and although these days I prefer the Sixties and Tom Baker era's I still have a soft spot for this period - particularly when Tegan is involved. It also has, on average, the best set of commentaries of the whole DVD range.

Kinda
Enlightenment
Snakedance
Earthshock
The Visitation
Castrovalva
The Five Doctors
Frontios
The Awakening
Mawdryn Undead
The Caves of Androzani
Resurrection of the Daleks
Planet of Fire
Four to Doomsday
Terminus
Arc of Infinity
Black Orchid
The King’s Demons
Time-Flight
 
I started watching the show during the Davison era, still a big fan of his doctor.

My favorites are:
Earthshock
Caves
Enlightenment
Castrolvalva
 
btw, was there one of these for Hartnell and Troughton? I only see Pertwee, Tom Baker and Davidson so far.
 
Peter Davison's Doctor was a more human Doctor than Baker's and he did have a catch phase whle Tegan was around. The only ones of his era that I have any problems with are Mawdryn Undead, Terminus and Four To Doomsday. His era though is surpisingly even for the most part. Caves Of Androzani, Earthshock and Enlightenment are his best stories IMO.
 
Peter Davison's Doctor was a more human Doctor than Baker's and he did have a catch phase whle Tegan was around. The only ones of his era that I have any problems with are Mawdryn Undead, Terminus and Four To Doomsday. His era though is surpisingly even for the most part. Caves Of Androzani, Earthshock and Enlightenment are his best stories IMO.


True and the Eleventh Doctor did a call back to it with Clara.
 
Here's my list, and there might be some surprises. :) Overall, I'd say his era was plagued by low budget and a producer who got the program, but didn't look at it with reverence, but rather like a soap opera. Which might've been fine if it was an approach that worked - because it didn't. It was clear that the downward spiral that began with Graham Williams was taking its toll on this era, with the BBC being increasingly irritated but unable to act against the program due its popularity. And yet, you can clearly see they didn't take the program half as seriously as they had a decade previously, with the monsters looking downright ridiculous - especially in Kinda, The Visitation and Arc of Infinity. They treated it like a kids show, which was a sharp contrast to how script editor Eric Saward saw it - a hard R teenager program.

Still, I think this era was mostly OK. It wasn't a drivel like Colin Baker's or Sylvester McCoy's first seasons were, and it did produce something good stories. Caves is still this era shining diamond, but I also think it was, by that point, an exception to the rule, which was "mediocrity will do". I'm saddened, because Davison really was the best actor for the part in the decade, and he was really underused as a result. Imagine him in Midnight or Human Nature and you'll see what I mean. But then again, you don't have to, I guess, since Big Finish did provide him with some really good stories to flesh out this side of him.

1. The Caves of Androzani
2. Earthshock
3. Enlightenment (director's recut)
4. Resurrection of the Daleks
5. Mawdryn Undead

6. Kinda (CGI enabled - otherwise, it doesn't work as well)
7. Frontios
8. The Visitation
9. Arc of Infinity (underrated)
10.Snakedance

11.The Five Doctors (Special Edition)
12.Planet of Fire (preferably the director's recut)
13.Terminus
14.Black Orchid
15.Castrovalva

16.The Awakening
17.Four to Doomsday
18.Time-Flight
19.The Warriors of the Deep (if not for Davison's last line, it'd be dead last)
20.The King’s Demons (most boring, tedious, absolutely worthless DW I've ever seen)

btw, was there one of these for Hartnell and Troughton? I only see Pertwee, Tom Baker and Davidson so far.
Yeah, I didn't post one for them, cause they've so many stories missing and what not, and with the recent wild rumors about their discovery, I thought I might hold of on them. Besides, I think most fans have at least seen some of the old serials, from those readily available.
 
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I've seen three 5th Doctor serials (The Caves of Androzani, The Five Doctors and The King's demons), and I liked all of them, although I wouldn't say they were top tier Classic Who stories. The Caves of Androzani isn't as good as its reputation suggests (its far from the best Classic who story), but its good. The Five Doctors is fun, although I wish Tom Baker had shown up. The King's Demons has problems, but I personally find all the Khamelion stuff interesting, and Anthony Ainley is always amazing as The Master.

The Fifth Doctor himself...isn't bad, but he's kind of bland. Probably the blandest Doctor ever. He doesn't have much to him, from what I've seen. I like him ok, but he doesn't leave much of an impression. I've barely seen anything of his companions, so its hard to comment on them, except to say I like Peri the best, but since I love the 6th Doctor I'm more familiar with Peri any way.
 
Caves is certainly one of the Doctor Who stories, the coming together of Graeme Harper's direction, Paddy Kingsland's music and Robert Holmes' writing made for a great seamless storyline. The story also showed the Doctor going though hell for Peri somebody he had just met. Adn it showed how dangerous the Doctor can be even while dying, he was caught and the ship buut in orbit, he freed himself and pilot the ship back to Androzani minor, where he on foot outran the other mercs, found Peri milked the queen bat and then carried Peri back to the TARDIS. No other Doctor went to such lengths for their companion.
 
Harper's the best director on Doctor Who, IMO. He's at least tied with David Maloney at that, but Harper's career was bookended by the amazing Caves and Waters on Mars. Pretty good, huh?

Anyway, a random observation: Earthshock seems to be the favorite Davison serial around these parts. That is indeed unexpected. :)
 
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