Doctor Who: 10 Defining Traits Of The Fifth Doctor

3. A Stick Of Celery

At the end of his first series, the Fifth Doctor attaches a stick of celery to the lapel of his cricket jacket. For a long time, however, it was never fully explained why he wore the celery, especially as it was stated in an audio adventure that he positively hated it. Though it was initially thought to be merely decorative, it did end up serving a few purposes after all. The first was to determine whether or not there was any flow of air in some caverns he was in during the TV episode Frontios. Had there been airflow through the caverns, the leaves of the celery would have blown in whatever direction the air was coming from, which makes sense. However, the other use for the celery seemed far more important. The Doctor said he was allergic to some gas in the Praxis region and the celery stick he wore would turn purple whenever those gases were around. If that occurred, he could eat the celery to cure himself from the exposure. Handy to say the least. Regardless of its uses, though, it would seem odd to see the Fifth Doctor without the signature vegetable attached to his jacket.