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The Fifth Doctor was the fifth incarnation of the Time Lord known as the Doctor. Appearing younger than his predecessors, the fifth incarnation expressed a new and more human side of the Doctor's alien nature.
He began his incarnation travelling with three companions, namely Adric, Nyssa, and Tegan Jovanka, all of whom had joined the TARDIS crew towards the end of his fourth incarnation. His relationship with Adric became rocky due to their lack of common interests. However, the Doctor was quite affected by Adric's death following the Cybermen's failed attack on Earth, feeling guilt for not being able to help his friend.
The Doctor took Nyssa in after the the Master unintentionally destroyed Traken, giving her a home in the TARDIS. However, Nyssa departed his company when she decided to find a way to stabilise a cure for Lazar's disease.
Feeling responsible for displacing Tegan in time, the Doctor tried to return her to Heathrow Airport. After finally succeeding, Tegan changed her mind about leaving the Doctor. She was able to rejoin him thanks to a chance re-encounter between them. She ultimately parted company with the Doctor after becoming overwhelmed by the death and destruction which surrounded life in the TARDIS.
The Doctor was once again found by the Black Guardian, who sent Turlough to kill him. However, the Doctor won Turlough over and defeated the Guardian. Turlough accompanied the Doctor until his exile from Trion was lifted.
During an encounter with the Master, the Doctor gained a companion in the android Kamelion, who did not wish to harm others. However, by the time Turlough left and Peri joined, the Doctor killed Kamelion at his request as he was too weak to resist the Master's will power.
During his final adventure with Turlough and Kamelion, the Doctor unexpectedly gained Peri Brown as a companion, whom he planned to return home. However, after Turlough left and Kamelion died, the Doctor allowed Peri to travel with him for her vacation time.
Soon after, the Doctor and Peri had been exposed to unrefined Spectrox toxaemia. As there was only one dose of antidote, the Doctor decided to regenerate and give Peri the cure instead.
Biography
Post-regeneration
The Doctor's fourth regeneration into his fifth body was a trouble-filled one and nearly failed. (DW: Logopolis) Mentally, he alternated between assuming the personalities of his previous selves and reverting into states of fear and vagueness. He recovered in the TARDIS' Zero Room and after Nyssa and Tegan piloted the TARDIS to Castrovalva, he found himself captured by the Portreeve's men while amnesiac, confused and vague. He regained his memory and sense of purpose and again succeeded against the Master, who was disguised as the Portreeve. During this time, the Doctor almost got a "first hand" look at the Big Bang, barely escaping it at the cost of some of the TARDIS interior. (DW: Castrovalva)
Attempts to Return to Heathrow
Tegan demanded that he return her to 1981 Earth, which he attempted many times without success. (DW: Four to Doomsday, The Visitation)
The Doctor halfway succeeded in getting Tegan home, but got the wrong place in time, ending up on a spaceship controled by Monarch. After stopping Monarch from executing his insane plan for time travel, the Doctor saw Nyssa had become greatly weakened due to nearly being converted into a cyborg like the human captives Monarch had onboard. (DW: Four to Doomsday)
The Doctor constructed a device to help her sleep and recover. In the meantime, he and Adric visited a human colony and were arrested by the second in command, who was suffering from a nervous breakdown. After escaping and pacifying the secondon command, the Doctor found Tegan had been possessed by the Mara. However, the Doctor managed to free Tegan of it with the help of the local kinda and remove the human research team from the Kinda's planet. (DW: Kinda)
The Doctor later lands at Heathrow 300 years off course and was accused by the ignorant villagers of carrying the plague. However, the Doctor finds aliens known as Terileptils were enhancing the plague in carrier rats to rid the planet of humans so they could take over. However, the Doctor managed to stop them by accidently starting the Great Fire of London at the cost of his sonic screwdriver. (DW: The Visitation)
On a trip into Earth's past, the Doctor was mistaken for a cricket player expected by Lord Cranleigh to help win a game. The Doctor was invited to partake in Cranleigh's ball as thanks along with his companions. However, he was accused of murder when his costume was stolen and used for it. The Doctor cleared his name by showing his TARDIS and found Cranleigh's supposedly deceased relative was the culprit. (DW: Black Orchid)
Somewhere around this time, the Doctor met his tenth incarnation, when their respective TARDIS' crashed into one another. They saved the universe from being sucked into a black hole by blowing up the TARDIS at the same time as the imploding black hole. Much to the Fifth Doctor's annoyance, he learned the Master would still be giving him trouble in the future. (DW: Time Crash)
When Adric seemed to be growing distant from him and wanting to return to E-space, the Doctor decided to take a walk underground in the 26th century on Earth. However, he soon discovered a plan by Cybermen to use Captain Briggs' space freighter as a giant bomb. Adric attempted to stop the freighter by cracking logic codes on a control devise on the ship, causing the freighter to shift through time to the distant past. He was unable to stop it entirely, due to a surviving Cyberman destroying the control devise. The freighter hit the earth, killing the dinosaurs and Earth's history proceeded as history recorded. However, Adric, still trapped on the freighter, died trying to save the earth. (DW: Earthshock)
Shortly after Adric's death and a further encounter with the Master, the Doctor successfully delivered Tegan back to Heathrow in the year that she required. During this time the Doctor was enlisted to help find a lost plane and discovered the Master was trying to repair his damaged TARDIS after their last meeting. However, the Doctor managed to send the Master to a planet that loathed him. (DW: Time-Flight)
Adventures with Nyssa
The Doctor and Nyssa become embroiled in Time Lord politics on an alien world ruled by intelligent but flightless birds, beings with an especially severe way of meting out justice. (BFA: Spring)
Shortly afterwards, the duo travelled while trying to avoid the wrath of Sir Isaac Newton. They are arrested for possessing counterfeit coins; they are, in fact, genuine coins from Earth’s future. (BFA: Summer)
Setting down in an English village to play cricket while Nyssa tried her hand at writing a novel. Instead, she catches the attention of a local boy who pestered her about her unwritten book. Uneasily, Nyssa falls in love and contemplates life on Earth, left behind by the Doctor, where she will age and face her own death. (BFA: Autumn)
Following this encounter the Doctor and Nyssa continued to travel together, returning to Earth a few times; in Earth's past following an accident with a teleportation experiment and in an alternate version following the Dalek Emperor's attempt to manipulate a Mutant Phase infection. (BFA: Winter for the Adept, The Mutant Phase)
He was forced to return to Traken, prior to its destruction by the Master to find the cause of her psychic sensitivity, finding it in the individual Kwundaar, who caused her illness deliberately. (BFA: Primeval)
He faced some horror, when finding himself on the planet Mondas during its passage through space, that he and his body might have been some of the inspiration for the Cybermen. (BFA: Spare Parts)
After losing his TARDIS he spent some time in Victorian London, before travelling back to Earth and the lands of the Scorpion King discovering that someone he thought was dead had very much survived. (BFA: The Haunting of Thomas Brewster, The Boy That Time Forgot)
Continuing their travels, the Doctor and Nyssa found themselves just waking up with no memory of where they were or how they arrived. The amnesia had been caused deliberately and they discovered they were being watched. After escaping to a hidden cabin in the woods and learning the date – 1624, they encountered a race of aliens who were busy assimilating/cloning the residents of the lodge. The two of them narrowly escaped the adventure by using the Doctor’s Binary Vascular System to their advantage. (BFA: The Demons of Red Lodge)
The Doctor decided to take Nyssa to listen to some of the last remaining Traken music in the universe. There, they uncovered a plot involving a musical piece called "White Waves, Soft Haze". (BFA: The Entropy Composition)
After arriving on a planet and mistakenly using his alias of Doctor John Smith, the Doctor was arrested and sent to prison. It turned out that the alias was the name of a ruthless criminal. While Nyssa tried to free him, the Doctor tried to warn the prison of an explosion that was destined to destroy them. (BFA: Doing Time)
The Doctor shortly after joined a DVD commentary of an old horror film from the 1970s. The film had an alien parasite in it that possessed people who watched and listened to a specific part in the movie. He managed to destroy all the footage and audio, apart from the part they were watching. After forcing out Lauren, who had been possessed for decades, the Doctor left. (BFA: Special Features)
The Doctor and Nyssa found themselves being carried by the time storm to the futuristic village Stockbridge. They came under attack by a strange rain that mutated the villagers and turned them into slaves of the Daleks. The Daleks plotted to turn the Doctor into a Dalek and using his TARDIS to help them conquer the universe. (BFA: Plague of the Daleks)
Old Foes Return Again
After contact with an anti-matter universe the Doctor was summoned to Gallifrey following his encounter with an anti-matter being near the Arc of Infinity. Following a ruling by the High Council, a Warrant of Termination was issued for the Doctor to be killed. He had an encounter with Omega, and strangely, Tegan Jovanka, within the Matrix, He escaped from Gallifrey and went to Earth, where he found Tegan and Omega, who copied the Doctor's form. Realising that Omega had not completed the process and was about to revert to ani-matter, the Doctor was forced to use the gun of one of Omega's creation's to destory him before Omega could will his self-destruction. He also took Tegan back on as his companion as she had nothing to do at the time and wished to resume travelling with him. (DW: Arc of Infinity)
When Tegan began having pregonitive dreams concerning the Mara, the Doctor decided the best place to deal with the problem was on the Mara's planet of origin, Manussa. However, despite his attempts to keep the remnants of the Mara still in Tegan at bay, the Doctor was forced to seek help from a former sceintist and snakedancer Dojjen. The Doctor learned he had to find the "still point" in himself which had no negative emotion for the Mara to feed on. He was succesful in starving the Mara to the point of death, confident he had removed it completely from Tegan for good. (DW: Snakedance)
During an encounter with Mawdryn and his people, who had abused Time Lord technology, the Doctor was nearly forced to give up his remaining regenerations to save Tegan and Nyssa from de-ageing into nothingness. However, this was prevented by pure luck of two versions of his old friend Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart meeting and providing the energy at the precise moment. He took the Black Guardian's undercover agent Vislor Turlough with him at his request, not knowing of his connection to the vile being. (DW: Mawdryn Undead)
After Turlough sabotaged the TARDIS on the Black Guardian's orders, its thermal dimensions locked it onto a spaceship transporting victims of Lazar's disease to Terminus. The Doctor found Terminus had accidently created the Big Bang and was in the process of recreating it, which would destroy the universe. However, the Doctor managed to win over the Garm and had him stop the engines from blowing up. By the time he returned to the TARDIS, the Doctor was saddened to learn Nyssa wished to remain on Terminus to help perfect the cure for Lazar's disease. Respecting her wishes despite some initial protests, the Doctor left her behind. (DW: Terminus)
Following the White Guardian's instructions, the Doctor piloted his TARDIS to what appeared at first to be a sea-going yacht. It was a space-ship, piloted by Eternals in the ultimate race for Enlightenment. At the end of the race, the Doctor and Turlough had been the ones victorious and both Guardians offered Enlightenment to him as a prize. However, the Doctor decided it should go to Turlough, to test his sense of right and wrong. The Doctor ended up being right about Turlough and watched as he decided not to take the prize and the Black Guardian vanished back into nothingness. The White Guardian explained that Enlightenment was the choice and Turlough has chosen it wisely. The Doctor decided to go on a trip to where his companions wanted to help him recover from the trauma the Black Guardian had sent him through. (DW: Enlightenment)
Returning to 13th century Earth, the Doctor again encountered the Master. However, the Master's disguise prevented him from being recognised. It was only after the two duelled that the Master revealed his identity. King John of England gave the Doctor the choice to save either Geoffrey de Lacy or the Master. He chose Geoffrey but the Master managed to escape in his TARDIS. John then knighted the Doctor. However, it transpired that John was in fact Kamelion and so this was unofficial. The Doctor took Kamelion with him when he left. (DW: The King's Demons)
The Game of Rassilon
The Doctor took Tegan and Turlough to the Eye of Orion to get some rest and relaxation after their series of stressful adventures. However, this was impeded when all four of the Doctor's previous lives had been taken out of their places in his timestream, leaving the Doctor to fade away. Luckily, his companions managed to pilot the TARDIS to the Death Zone on Gallifrey that the first three incarnations were, allowing the Doctor to stablise for the moment. It turns out that President Borusa, was attempting to gain Rassilon's secret of immortality and wished to use the Doctors as pawns to clear the way past traps, but ultimately, the First Doctor tricked Burosa into Rassilon's final trap. The Doctor was both happy and disturbed that he was seeing his previous lives be in the same time again. (DW: The Five Doctors)
Departures
During a trip to the near future, the Doctor found that the surviving Silurians from his previous encounter have teamed up with a brood of Sea Devils to instigate an nuclear war against humanity. Much to the Doctor's displeasure, he had to murder the Silurians and Sea Devils with reptile-killing gas. He found that all his attempts in the past to help make a peaceful future between them had all been for nothing. (DW: Warriors of the Deep)
The Doctor dropped off Gravis on a rocky and baren plent after tricking him into reassembling the TARDIS (DW: Frontios), being soon drawn to the planet Artaris, meeting Iris Wildthyme once more. (BFA: Excelis Dawns)
After several increasingly distressing encounters Tegan departed the Doctor and Turlough after their encounter with the Daleks on Earth, following the increased amount of death she witnessed. However, the Doctor did not know that she wished to return anyway and left before she could reenter the TARDIS and resume travelling with him. (DW: Resurrection of the Daleks)
Soon, the Doctor found Kamelion receiving a signal and traced it to a volcano planet where Trion people are banished. The Master was the source of the signal; he had accidently shrunk himself with the TCE and wished to use a healing volcanic gas to grow. The Doctor was unable to prevent him from succeeding and to his continued displeasure, Kamelion begged to die as it couldn't resist the Master's mind. The Doctor complied using the TCE. To his surprise, Turlough decided to return to Trion as his exile was lifted. However, the Doctor did not resume his travels alone, Peri Brown, who had been brought with them by accident, decided to travel with him for the remainder of her vacation. (DW: Planet of Fire)
Adventures with Peri
On a trip to Egypt with Peri, the Doctor became involved in a struggle against an alien parasite that infected people through touch and controlled them as a hive mind, after they saved the young pharaoh Erimem from a group of rebels. After saving Erimem's throne from a conspiracy, Erimem decided to travel with the Doctor, leaving her throne to a distant relative. (BFA: The Eye of the Scorpion
Tracking down several members of the Celestial Intervention Agency, the Doctor and Peri set up shop in a restaurant where they served the members their food. Unbeknownst to the CIA, they had in fact spiked their food with a vaccine to a virus the CIA members picked up while investigating the Doctor's recent actions of the plant Pointy. (BFA: Exotron)
The Doctor, Peri and Erimem arrive in Paris during the 17th century where Peri was accidently kidnapped after being mistaken for Queen Ann, the queen of France. (BFA: The Church and the Crown)
Shortly afterwards, the Doctor and company visit the market place in the Garazone system where Erimem learns of a mystery in the Necromanteia system. The trio travel there and discover a war between a group of humanoid soldiers and witches. The Doctor was killed by the witches and brought into a dreamlike plain and learns that the war was over a powerful device that can make someone immortal. The god of the witches resurrects him and he, along with Peri and Erimem, escape before the planet explodes. (BFA: Nekromanteia)
After a giant robot from the 64th century appears in the TARDIS and pressures the Doctor into continuing his writing contract that he was employed for, he travels to 1485 and encounters one of the most notorious characters from the past as he journeys through time to solve the great Historical Mysteries - Richard III. Peri and Erimem become lost in time and the Doctor discovers the truth about who killed the princes in the tower and comes face to face with an unlikely enemy - William Shakespeare. (BFA: The Kingmaker)
The Doctor dropped Erimem and Peri off for a party in Monte Carlo in 1966 and informed them that they are to prevent the theft of The Veiled Leopard. After discovering that the thief was none other than the woman they had spent most of the evening together, Peri and Erimem managed to catch the thief. (BFA: The Veiled Leopard)
The Doctor, after dropping off Peri and Erimem in Monte Carlo, arrived at the Gogglebox instead of the ice caves of Shabadabadoda and learned of a mystery involving 1984 and 2006. He discovered that another version of himself was already investigating in 1984 and decided to travel to 2006, Brisbon. There he encountered both an older Tegan Jovanka and a mysterious doctor Katherine Chambers that seemed to know about him. He learned that Tegan had contracted an alien brain tumour that was slowly killing her. He demanded that she travel with him again so that he could help, but Tegan was kidnapped by Katherine and her accomplice. It turns out that Katherine was the best friend of Peri Brown when they were kids and that somewhere in the Doctor’s personal future, in a later incarnation, he will become involved in a plot involving the Cybermen that will ultimately result in the paralysis of Katherine’s brother Nate and the death of her father. It was also revealed that she will in-avertedly kill Peri’s mother. Katherine kidnapped Tegan to use as the first patient of her new medical computer. The Doctor managed to stop Katherine and offered Tegan a chance to travel with him again, but she refused, saying that she’d grown accustomed to her life on Earth. (BFA: The Gathering)
Before collecting Peri and Erimem from 1966, the Doctor became involved in a plot regarding Time Leakage and the Vault of Interstellar Curios. There he came under attack by a legion of Daleks who were helped by a man named Ulrick. The Daleks were trying to steal the contents of the vault. He met another Timelord (his Eighth self) and used his and his partner’s TARDIS to form a temporal loop. Just then, an older Ulrick appeared before him and sacrificed himself to help the Doctor defeat the Daleks. The Doctor joined his Sixth, Seventh and Eighth incarnations briefly before being returned to his own timeline. (BFA: The Four Doctors)
Hunt for the Key to Time
Assigned a mission to seek out the pieces of the Key to Time once more, this time, because the pieces were degrading, the Doctor was provided a sentient tracer, whom he named Amy. (BFA: The Judgement of Isskar, The Destroyer of Delights, The Chaos Pool)
Death
Ultimately, the Doctor and Peri , were exposed to Spectrox toxaemia on Androzani Minor which was, at the time, caught in the midst of a power struggle between gun runners, a fiendish masked madman called Sharaz Jek, government troops and crooked politicians, all over the precious mineral Spectrox. With only one dose of the antidote available to cure Spectrox toxamia, the fifth incarnation sacrificed his own life to save Peri, regenerating into his sixth incarnation. (DW: The Caves of Androzani)
During his regeneration, the Master tried to interfere via Kamelion's lingering connection to the TARDIS, but the Doctor was saved by an older Nyssa who connected with him in his mindscape. (BFA: Winter)
Unrecorded Adventures
- The Fifth Doctor attended the funeral of Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. (ST: The Gift)
Personality
The fifth incarnation was probably the most human and vulnerable of all the Doctors. He was less pretentious and selfish, often reacting to situations rather than initiating them and openly expressing his hopes and fears to his companions. He could decipher the ingredients of a drink by smell alone and rosemary made him sneeze. His young appearance was reflected in the youthfulness of his companions as well, whom he treated more like parts of a team than their usual subordinate role under previous incarnations. The death of Adric affected him and the rest of his companions deeply. (DW: Earthshock)
He did not suffer ill effects after opening the Box of Jhana. Panna thought him an idiot for not turning insane and he agreed. (However, the Doctor may have been joking as his mind was more advanced than that of a human and he was normally rather kind and peaceful). (DW: Kinda)
Despite his youthful body and love of cricket, he was one of the least physical Doctors, preferring to use communication and diplomacy to solve a problem. In contrast to some of his more aggressive predecessors, he preferred to gain people's trust by honestly proving himself, instead of using his vast experience as an excuse to take charge. Indeed, he often willingly participated in situations under the leadership of someone else who had the strong command presence that he lacked.
However this does not mean to say that he did not take charge in moments of frustration, as demonstrated during his encounter with a "skinny idiot". In an occasional reminder of his actual age, this Doctor would sport a pair of glasses when examining something, though these would later be revealed by his future self to be vanity "brainy specs", which he wore just to make him look "a bit clever". (DW: Time Crash)
At the same time, this humanity made him prone to panic under pressure and become occasionally indecisive. He was unable to execute Davros in cold blood, (DW: Resurrection of the Daleks) and reluctantly killed Kamelion only at the android's request. Following this, he did not move to help the Master as he failed to replenish his life. However, he seemed deeply upset by this following the Master's apparent death. (DW: Planet of Fire)
Of all the incarnations of the Doctor, the fifth was the one who showed the greatest abhorrence for violence and needless bloodshed as well as the pain and suffering of others. Despite this, violence and bloodshed continued to dog his footsteps, as in the massacre in Sea Base 4 (DW: Warriors of the Deep) and the number of deaths of anonymous soldiers which led to Tegan's departure. The Doctor acknowledged that he perhaps had to mend his ways. (DW: Resurrection of the Daleks) Although this incarnation greatly disliked violence, he took part in gunning down a few foes when the situation deemed it necessary. (DW: Earthshock)
Towards the end of this incarnation, the Doctor began to display a more relaxed and controlled side; even as he awaited execution on Androzani Minor he was still fiercely curious about the nature of the spectrox which was mined there. He also seemed to have developed a sarcastic side, mocking Chellak's insistence on being addressed as "sir". It was perhaps a combination of realising that his lifestyle begat violence and the weighing of Adric's death on his mind that led him ultimately to sacrifice his own existence to save Peri. It was telling that this incarnation's last word before his regeneration into his sixth incarnation was "Adric". (DW: The Caves of Androzani)
Upon meeting his seventh incarnation, he was repulsed by his future self's manipulative nature. (MA: Cold Fusion)
Typical outfits
This Doctor had two different, though similar, outfits. He wore his first one in the first stages of his life and his second one in the later stages. Both of them were based on traditional cricket whites. So close were they to whites that he could take off his coat and immediately begin playing the sport, without other players questioning his appearance. (DW: Black Orchid; DWM: The Tides of Time)
His very first outfit (DW: Castrovalva) was a long beige coat with red lining along the collars, sleeves and pockets. On his left lapel he wore a stick of celery, for he was allergic to certain gases in the praxis range of the spectrum and if he was near any, it would turn purple and he would eat it; and he wore a white long sleeve cricket jumper with a red and black V-Neck pattern. Under that would be a white dress shirt with a red interior and embroidered question marks on the collars. His trousers were a unique pattern consisting of brown and beige stripes. Often he would top the look off with a Panama hat with a red band studded with sparkling stones.
He wore his second outfit after his first one was ruined. (DW: Warriors of the Deep) For this outfit, he made a few changes. The colour of the coat was slightly faded and the collar was made shorter. The jumper had a pattern of thick red and black lines on the bottom of the jumper, the V-neck and sleeves; the dress shirt had a green interior instead of a red one, and the pattern of the trousers changed to thick orange lines. He had been seen wearing suspenders adorned with question marks with this outfit. (DW: Planet of Fire)
Influence on later incarnations
It was implied that his immediate successor hated being this incarnation. (DW: The Twin Dilemma) The Sixth Doctor's companion Evelyn Smythe stated that he "seemed lovely" after observing him from afar. The Sixth Doctor was somewhat irritated by this statement, reinforcing his somewhat low opinion of his immediate predecessor. In spite of this, he grudgingly admitted that he enjoyed his fifth incarnation, stating that "being him was like a holiday. A very wonderful holiday." (BFA: The 100 Days of the Doctor)
His seventh incarnation described him as being "bland" and "not even one of the good ones." The Fifth Doctor had a similarly low opinion of his future self, being repulsed by his manipulative nature. (MA: Cold Fusion)
The ninth, tenth and eleventh incarnations also seemed to have inherited his poor piloting skills. While inside the Doctor's dreamscape, Ace discovered that this incarnation in the Doctor's subconscious had come to personify the conscience of his future selves, reflecting his strong sense of compassion. (NA: Timewyrm: Revelation)
His tenth incarnation expressed a fond enjoyment of his time living as this incarnation. (DW: Time Crash) He looked upon his fifth incarnation as a turning point in his life. According to the Doctor's tenth incarnation, it was in his fifth incarnation where he truly began to enjoy himself, an ironic statement considering the darkness surrounding the death of Adric (DW: Earthshock) and the departures of Nyssa (DW: Terminus) and Tegan (DW: Resurrection of the Daleks). He admitted to his earlier self that certain aspects of his wardrobe and personality were influenced by his fifth incarnation. (DW: Time Crash)
His eleventh incarnation also acknowledged this incarnation at least two times; asking for some celery after a decontamination (DW: Cold Blood) and encouraging Canton Delaware with the words 'Brave heart' like he did with Tegan (DW: The Impossible Astronaut).
Behind the scenes
- Richard Griffiths was considered for the role of the fifth incarnation before Peter Davison was cast.
- After the famous and popular fourth incarnation, it was decided that the next incarnation should be played by an actor who was already firmly established in the British public's mind. Peter Davison was chosen, due in no small part to his popular and critically acclaimed role as Tristan Farnon in All Creatures Great and Small, a BBC series based on the books of James Herriot.
- Until the announcement in 2009 of 26-year-old Matt Smith as the eleventh incarnation, Davison, age 29 when he began the role, held the record as the youngest actor to ever officially play the Doctor, beating his predecessor Tom Baker by eleven years. Davison was reluctant to accept the role because of his age.
- The fifth incarnation's era was notable for a "back to basics" attitude, in which humour, and, to an extent, horror, was kept to a minimum, but more scientific accuracy was encouraged by the producer, John Nathan-Turner. It was also notable for the reintroduction of many of the Time Lord's enemies, such as the Cybermen, Omega, the Black and White Guardians, the Silurians, and the Sea Devils, while the Master, who had been reintroduced at the end of the Baker era, became a regular adversary, appearing at least once, and often more than once, per season.
- In 2007, the fifth incarnation became the first and only past incarnation to appear in the 2005 series revival when he appeared in the mini-episode Time Crash.
- As a result of this, the Fifth Doctor was tied for second place (after the Second Doctor and tied with the Third Doctor) for canonically meeting the most other incarnations: Richard Hurndall, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and David Tennant (DW: The Five Doctors, Time Crash).
- In several DVD commentaries, Peter Davison claims the reason that he abandoned the use of his half-moon glasses was because Janet Fielding mercilessly teased him when he used them. Fielding seemed to agree with this assessment on at least the commentary for Earthshock.