Peter Davison is the Doctor

[SiHart]

Peter Davison. At the time the youngest Doctor, following on from an actor who'd made the part his own over seven successful years.

What do you think of Peter Davison and his fifth Doctor? Favourite or not?

[Andrew Curnow]

Funnily enough, I was watching the last part of Castrovalva just an hour ago and found myself thinking how at the time I found he just instantly WAS the Doctor. It was a big job to follow on from Tom, but I think JN-T was spot on with his choice.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

I do think this particular piece of casting was JNT's master stroke. After watching a little of the footage of his first day in studio in April 1981 last night I could see how instantly well suited he was to it.
Recommend the "Come in Number Five" documentary on the special edition of Resurrection of the Daleks for more detailed analysis on this subject.

[Paul Clement]

His is still one of my favourite portrayals of the Doctor. It helps that I consider his years to be 'my era', but even trying to be non-biased, I like the way he played the character.

[Stuart Wallis]

I like him now, but it took a couple of decades to "get" him. I rather missed the subtlety of his portrayal.

[SiHart]

It's funny, he just was the Doctor to me. Maybe I was just young enough to accept a new Doctor without any fuss or bother, but I don't remember not liking him at all from the off. Perhaps tellingly though, it was always Tom I used to draw and write about when I was young, so maybe Tom was just my default Doctor?

Anyway, Davison. Like with Stuart I've found he's sort of grown in stature as I've grown up really. I don't think I appreciated how good he was when I was little. I find his Doctor very comforting somehow because he's not overbearing and loud- he's the quiet man always trying to make his voice heard and trying to be taken seriously. Davison always played that very well indeed, adding the innocence and vulnerabilty that was necessary after 7 years of Tom in the role.