Doctor Five Abuse

[lesbiassparrow]

Whenever I watch Peter Davison's Doctor it does seem as if he got the most physical abuse of any of the Doctors: they whack him good.  And they whack him often. I assume this was a way to toughen up his mild image and general aura of niceness, but sometimes it just really freaks me out.

The most disturbing thing was watching The Caves of Androzani where Five is actually stumbling around the place bleeding. I can't tell you very terrifying that was as a child because I don't recall ever seeing blood on Who before - and certainly not on the Doctor, whom I think I probably thought of as pretty much made of wood and steel. Obviously given that this is Who, I'd seen people (plenty of them) hurt and dead, yes, but actual blood, no.  I wonder how they got that past the censors? (I know that ITV used to have a rule for Robin of Sherwood where they could kill as many people as they liked but they couldn't show blood or wounds and I think that was a general rule for deaths on children's TV at the time).

 

Comments

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Warriors of the Deep would have traumatised me if I'd seen it as a kid, just for that last scene where Five's beaten up and almost crying and for once he hasn't won. Everybody's dead. He's the hero! He's supposed to win these things!

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I know! There's also the Dalek one where everyone except the Doctor and his companions is also dead by the end of the show. Every. single. one.

And Five got crushed more than all the other Doctors combined. No wonder he was so bonkers as Six.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

Except Lytton :-)

But he dies in a later story.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I HAVE TO SEE THIS.

Oh god I am a bad person.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

It is excellent. The death toll and angst of Five was quite extraordinary.

[cassiphone.livejournal.com]

I think the late 5th Doctor and all of the 6th Doctor was the period when, in England, the timeslot changed from teatime Saturday (6pm) to Tuesday evenings? So it was pushed into a more adult timeslot and they consequently added more violence & adult-ish themes. Complaints of it being too violent when still perceived as a kids show was part of the reason why the show got pulled off air for an 18 month hiatus before Trial of a Time Lord.

All of which made no difference to us in Australia, where they happily showed any and all Doctor Who stories at 6pm on weekdays, often paired with The Goodies (I only discoverd later that this was not considered a kids show in the UK, and that at least 3-4 dirty jokes and the occasional boob shot were cut out of every episode before we saw it. Makes revisiting them on DVD a bizarre experience. :)

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I don't recall when it got pulled - I do recall following it, but it wasn't that late - maybe an hour or so later?

[Ah the internet knows all: it went out around 7.] That's still a huge jump in deaths and Doctor abuse for an hour! And no one told me that was going to happen... unfeeling bastards!

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

Historical detail:

All of the Davison stories were broadcast on Monday and Tuesday early evenings, which was not considered a more adult timeslot either then or now. The BBC has always operated the so-called "nine o'clock watershed" in terms of when the rules on sex and violence are loosened. At the beginning of Colin Baker's first full series the time was changed back to the traditional Saturday early evening (initially with an unhappy attempt at doubling the length of episodes) and ironically it was this series that caused the complaints and in retrospect is still considered to be the height of graphic violence and moral ambiguity in Who.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I remember the change vaguely. But even if they had moved it even later, it's still a bit odd ramping up the death toll and violence and still selling it in the same old package. I'm actually not one who thinks that the kiddies need to be shielded from all things that might offend their (or more likely their parents') eyes, but when I look back at the Tom Baker years it does seem like a huge jump in style without a lot of forewarning.

As for the Colin Baker violence, I don't recall them, at least, making him bleed. He does kill someone by tossing then in a vat of something horrible (though it's an accident) but I don't recall them inflicting as many wounds on him personally. Maybe I have faulty memory or something though.

[cryptile.livejournal.com]

Every time that RTD starts to piss me off, I remember Eric Saward and feel better. That man would have blown up nuns and poodles if the censors weren't watching.

Five doesn't get a break in any of his episodes, though beyond Saward's splatterpunk sensiblities I suspect it might have had a cynical motivation, i.e. getting Mum and Sis (and the cousin who's not like the other boys) to fantasize about tenderly ministering to the noble good-looking young hero who suffers in silence.

Not that I'd know anything about that. I loved Six.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

That man would have blown up nuns and poodles if the censors weren't watching.

Hee! I am sure the other reason was because nuns and poodles cost a lot of money (though they still had a budget in those days). Poor Five: I don't think Tegan went in for the mopping of the brow.

I loved Five and Six. I think I may have some sort of personality disorder.

[cryptile.livejournal.com]

Five and Six needed better stories. Then everyone would have recognized the AWESOMENESS. Though I agree with the point you made earlier; the Fifth's suffering in silence and general passive-agressiveness erupted in the next incarnation.

I'm gonna go look for some Five-Six fangroups now . .

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I do not get the Five and Six dislike. They were awesome! And the writing was at least more comprensible than Seven's. (The stuff they made McCoy go through! And say! Anyone who suffered through acting in Ghostlight with a straight face has my undying admiration.). I joined the Davidson group recently because I needed to share the love.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

There's a Davison group? Where?

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

It's here: http://community.livejournal.com/davison_era/profile

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Ta!

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Only happy to spread Five Doctor love.

Oh, right, that might have come out slightly wrong...

[neadods.livejournal.com]

No it didn't!

[ghost2.livejournal.com]

I think Five is pretty popular with fans, actually. I mostly see support for him. Six, OTOH, gets bashed frequently and openly. I like him fine, though. I had bad memories of him and then fairly recently saw some of his episodes again and enjoyed them.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear about Five liking - I somehow ended up seeing a lot of comments about how bland he was and uninteresting, which I don't feel at all. He's not Tom Baker, right, but then only Tom Baker is Tom Baker.

(Again this is only personal experience, but I've not been in Who fandom for very long) Six seems to get a lot of flack for helping kill off the series and mad overacting - something which Seven oddly seems to escape. But Five and Six were my doctors so I have a deep fondness (nay, love) for them. Though I will admit Six wasn't above scenery chewing from time to time.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's just Saward's taste for graphic violence that causes the problems as his conviction that the universe is mostly a brutal and nasty place where peace-loving types like the Fifth Doctor are doomed to pain, failure and humiliation.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

And that the universe wants heroes mainly so it can wallop them a lot. And watch them writhe in blond pain.

How much of this was Saward's tastes and how much of it was driven by a desire to have Five's era be very different from Four's I don't know.

[pontisbright.livejournal.com]

(Here from who_daily...)

Yup. He is the most unconscious Doctor of them all, without doubt. Especially in his last season, where everything erupts into crazed death, violence and doom-mongering - whereas the earlier stories are a bit more fluffy and daft and filled with space frogs. Caves still reduces me to a little pile of rubble every time: it's that bit where he says 'Why don't you just leave me here to die?' and actually means it that you realise quite how stuffed he is. Usually he's all stoic and 'just a flesh wound', no matter how thumped about he is.

It's not just physical abuse, either: he gets the whole psychological fun of Dead Companion Angst too (although since it's Adric, possibly he was dancing in a quiet corner of the TARDIS without us knowing). AND he has to put up with Tegan. Truly he was the most tormented of them all...

(Psst: it's Davison, not Davidson. /anal spelling thing.)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

"Why don't you just leave me here to die?"

SOB. I watched that one at seven am on UK Gold and had to sniffle very quietly as not to wake anyone up!

(Is it wrong I am now dying to see more Five just for the angst factor?)

[pontisbright.livejournal.com]

I hope that isn't wrong: I'm a terrible whore for the whole angsty hurt/comfort thing. Which, since I grew up on this stuff, is probably entirely down to watching Davison being all angsty at an impressionable age...

Plus he looks so pretty when he whimpers.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

If it's wrong, I don't want to be right.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Tegan was great! Seriously, he needed someone to keep him on his toes. And unlke Peri (who I also like) he never had to die for her.

Adric was always complaining because it was clear that Five liked everyone else better.