Doctor Who: Ranking All 12 Doctors From Worst To Best
10. The Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison)
STORIES: 2
ALIENNESS: 2
HEROISM: 7
LIKABILITY: 11
LEGACY: 3
OVERALL SCORE: 25
Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor is a classic case of an alien character whose likability undermines any attempt to come across as alien. The two facets do not have to be in opposition, as Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor ably shows, but the Fifth Doctor is much more comfortable doing what humans do.
Davison was already a household name on account of his portrayal of Tristian Farnham in All Creatures Great and Small, the loveable and rebellious younger Farnham brother. Davison makes no secret of the fact that he played the Doctor like Tristian, but with courage, and for the audience it was hard to see a deeper, alien quality to the character.
It seemed perfectly natural that the Fifth Doctor should have a talent for cricket (helped of course by his costume), whereas watching the Eleventh Doctor playing football in an standard kit felt weird.
Davison’s final outing as the Doctor, The Caves of Androzani, often tops episode polls but arguably does so because it stands out from a run of mediocre and dull stories before it. Despite a couple of notable exceptions (Kinda and Enlightenment), Doctor Who had lost its creative and dramatic edge. At least with the Sixth Doctor and the Seventh Doctor, spurred by the threat of cancellation, more radical moves were taken to bring fresh impetus to the show.
The Caves of Androzani does however give the Doctor one of his most heroic of endings, saving the life of a relative stranger, new companion Peri Brown.