The Fifth Doctor - Peter Davison
The Fifth Doctor was the first to be cast young, and for a long time was the youngest ever to play the role. He brought a youthful energy to the role, but Tom Baker had energy, so the main thing that Davison's Doctor had going for him was a kind of hopefulness; a belief in a universal goodness which could be appealed to in almost anyone - Daleks and Cybermen notwithstanding. It is perhaps not surprising that the Fifth Doctor's most-used expression was one of pained disappointment. Overall, he had younger companions as well, with mixed results.
I missed Peter Davison for the most part, as I lived in America watching Tom Baker reruns. His time in the show is sometimes looked down on, and yet produced two of the most talked about episodes in Who history with Earthshock and The Caves of Androzani. In the former, Adric becomes the first long-term companion to be killed off (previous deaths were of short-term companions such as Katarina and Sara Kingdom), while the latter...
The Caves of Androzani
When people talk of a 'serious' Doctor Who episode, they talk of The Caves of Androzani, a melodramatic revenge tragedy in which just about everyone dies in the pursuit of money, power, vengeance or the love of a good women with a bad accent. It's the episode that proves for many people that Doctor who can do 'dark' without being Gothic and silly, although I might argue that while it isn't Gothic, it's still a little silly in places. Still, it is good with it.
The Fifth Doctor has done very well in terms of audio plays, partly as a result of being one of the original three Doctors both licensed and available to Big Finish, but also for the character development given to some of his less successful, or at least less well-served, TV companions, such as Turlough in Gothic-future romance Loups-Garoux, and Peri across many entirely listenable plays. The series also build a mighty partnership between Nissa and the Doctor and another classic double act with Peri and Egyptian companion Erimem, whose turn in The Kingmaker helps to make it not just my favourite Fifth Doctor audio play, but also one of my favourite things ever.
For my money, the Fifth Doctor has also had some of the most successful four-story collections, including the excellent Demons of Red Lodge and 1001 Nights, and even the hit and miss Circular Time includes the bittersweet 'Autumn', in which the Doctor faces the insularity of his beloved English and Nissa gets one of the better companion romances.
The Sixth Doctor - Colin Baker
The Sixth Doctor was a deliberate reversal from the Fifth; a little older, but also grandiose where his predecessor was modest, bombastic where he was soft-spoken, and aggressive where he was conciliatory. The Fifth Doctor might have apologised to a Sontaran for denting his gravity sphere, but the Sixth Doctor would have demanded its insurance details on the spot. He was also, let's be honest, screwed over.
The Sixth Doctor lost an entire series of plays (of varying quality to judge by their audio revival) and what was left to him was a mixed bag, including the much-debated Trial of a Timelord arc and Peri's... death? departure? Given the choice between a stupid death and a crowbarred romance, which is better? In the end, nothing became the Sixth Doctor's TV incarnation like the leaving of it; not with a bang, but with a bop on the noggin of a stand-in with a wig.
And then came the audio incarnation...
City of Spires/The Wreck of the Titan/Legend of the Cybermen
Such is the difference between the quality of the TV and audio Sixth doctor stories that I have trouble picking a favourite. Project Twilight is an effective modern vampire tale; The Wormery is a strange tale of love, obsession and ambition set in a pre-war cabaret; and Doctor Who and the Pirates navigates from frivolous yarn, by way of musical extravaganza, to end up as a tragic tale with a note of hope.
Hell, some of the audios even have Mel as a decent companion, although not Catch-1782, which is... weak.
In the end, however, I have picked Big Finish's love story to the Second Doctor, and more particularly to his companions Jamie and Zoe. City of Spires begins as a pseudo-historical mystery and leads into the surreal adventures of The Wreck of the Titan, before the story wraps up in Legend of the Cybermen, which contains truly moving moments, but more to the point is just plain fun; which is more than I can say for most of the TV serials.
The Fifth Doctor was the first to be cast young, and for a long time was the youngest ever to play the role. He brought a youthful energy to the role, but Tom Baker had energy, so the main thing that Davison's Doctor had going for him was a kind of hopefulness; a belief in a universal goodness which could be appealed to in almost anyone - Daleks and Cybermen notwithstanding. It is perhaps not surprising that the Fifth Doctor's most-used expression was one of pained disappointment. Overall, he had younger companions as well, with mixed results.
I missed Peter Davison for the most part, as I lived in America watching Tom Baker reruns. His time in the show is sometimes looked down on, and yet produced two of the most talked about episodes in Who history with Earthshock and The Caves of Androzani. In the former, Adric becomes the first long-term companion to be killed off (previous deaths were of short-term companions such as Katarina and Sara Kingdom), while the latter...
The Caves of Androzani
When people talk of a 'serious' Doctor Who episode, they talk of The Caves of Androzani, a melodramatic revenge tragedy in which just about everyone dies in the pursuit of money, power, vengeance or the love of a good women with a bad accent. It's the episode that proves for many people that Doctor who can do 'dark' without being Gothic and silly, although I might argue that while it isn't Gothic, it's still a little silly in places. Still, it is good with it.
The Fifth Doctor has done very well in terms of audio plays, partly as a result of being one of the original three Doctors both licensed and available to Big Finish, but also for the character development given to some of his less successful, or at least less well-served, TV companions, such as Turlough in Gothic-future romance Loups-Garoux, and Peri across many entirely listenable plays. The series also build a mighty partnership between Nissa and the Doctor and another classic double act with Peri and Egyptian companion Erimem, whose turn in The Kingmaker helps to make it not just my favourite Fifth Doctor audio play, but also one of my favourite things ever.
For my money, the Fifth Doctor has also had some of the most successful four-story collections, including the excellent Demons of Red Lodge and 1001 Nights, and even the hit and miss Circular Time includes the bittersweet 'Autumn', in which the Doctor faces the insularity of his beloved English and Nissa gets one of the better companion romances.
The Sixth Doctor - Colin Baker
The Sixth Doctor was a deliberate reversal from the Fifth; a little older, but also grandiose where his predecessor was modest, bombastic where he was soft-spoken, and aggressive where he was conciliatory. The Fifth Doctor might have apologised to a Sontaran for denting his gravity sphere, but the Sixth Doctor would have demanded its insurance details on the spot. He was also, let's be honest, screwed over.
The Sixth Doctor lost an entire series of plays (of varying quality to judge by their audio revival) and what was left to him was a mixed bag, including the much-debated Trial of a Timelord arc and Peri's... death? departure? Given the choice between a stupid death and a crowbarred romance, which is better? In the end, nothing became the Sixth Doctor's TV incarnation like the leaving of it; not with a bang, but with a bop on the noggin of a stand-in with a wig.
And then came the audio incarnation...
City of Spires/The Wreck of the Titan/Legend of the Cybermen
Such is the difference between the quality of the TV and audio Sixth doctor stories that I have trouble picking a favourite. Project Twilight is an effective modern vampire tale; The Wormery is a strange tale of love, obsession and ambition set in a pre-war cabaret; and Doctor Who and the Pirates navigates from frivolous yarn, by way of musical extravaganza, to end up as a tragic tale with a note of hope.
Hell, some of the audios even have Mel as a decent companion, although not Catch-1782, which is... weak.
In the end, however, I have picked Big Finish's love story to the Second Doctor, and more particularly to his companions Jamie and Zoe. City of Spires begins as a pseudo-historical mystery and leads into the surreal adventures of The Wreck of the Titan, before the story wraps up in Legend of the Cybermen, which contains truly moving moments, but more to the point is just plain fun; which is more than I can say for most of the TV serials.
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