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

[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.