The fifth Doctor Who was played by Peter Davidson, chosen as a contrast to Tom Baker, but yet an actor firmly established in the public's mind (in part due to his role in All Creatures Great and Small).
The regeneration into the fifth Doctor was a problematic one, which nearly failed. The Doctor briefly took on aspects of all four previous Doctors before recovering in Castrovalva.
The series took a back to basics approach, with a more series feel, and many of the Doctors enemies were re-introduced including The Master, Cybermen, Omega, Sea Devils and the Silurians.
The Fifth Doctor is considered to be the most human of all the incarnations, less pretentious and selfish and far more reserved. He preferred to react to situations rather than initiate them and gained peoples trust by honestly proving himself.
This humanity made the doctor more prone to indecision and to occasionally panic under pressure. He also showed the greatest abhorrence to violence and needless pain or bloodshed, unable to execute Davros in cold blood.
The fifth Doctor died after being exposed to the drug Spectrox in it's raw toxic form while on the planet Androzani Minor. With only one antidote dose available, he sacrificed his own life so that his companion (Peri Brown) would be saved, and as he regenerated into the sixth Doctor, expressed doubt for the first time ever that regeneration may not be possible.
reviews in the series
The Ultimate Treasure
by Christopher Bulis
The Ultimate Treasure is a Doctor Who novel featuring the fifth Doctor and has been written by Christopher Bulis.
A shopping trip for the Doctor and Peri turns sour when the become embroiled in a mysterious transaction involving the sale of co-ordinates leading to Rovan's hoard - t...
Superior Beings
by Nick Walters
Superior Beings is a Doctor Who novel featuring the Fifth Doctor and has been written by Nick Walters.
Peri is getting used to time travel with the Doctor, and the TARDIS seems to like her, even leaving little presents for her.
The TARDIS takes them to a pleasure pla...
The Sands of Time
by Justin Richards
The Sands of Time is a Doctor Who novel featuring the Fifth Doctor and has been written by Justin Richards.
Upon arrival in Victorian London, the Doctor and his companions Nyssa and Tegan head straight to trouble and Nyssa is kidnapped by egyptian extreme religious fantatics while ...
Lords of the Storm
by David A. McIntee
Lords of the Storm is a Doctor Who novel featuring the fifth Doctor and has been written by David A. McIntee and features the infamous Sontarans.
The Sontarans and the Rutans have been fighting a war for millenia, billions have died on each side and whole solar systems have been de...
The King of Terror
by Keith Topping
The King of Terror is a Doctor Who novel featuring the Fifth Doctor and has been written by Keith Topping.
As the millenium nears it's end, the future of the human race rests on the activities of one multimedia company, InterCom.
Suspecting that old mistakes are bein...
Imperial Moon
by Christopher Bulis
Imperial Moon is a Doctor Who novel featuring the Fifth Doctor and has been written by Christopher Bulis. In the year 1878 three ships from the British Imperial Spacefleet set a course for the moon.
The discovery of a mysterious diary, recalling a seemingly impossible journey, take...
Goth Opera
by Paul Cornell
Humanity's time on the Earth is nearing its end, the Long night has begun and an age of the undead has arrived.
1993 in the city of Manchester and the vampires of Great Britain have received a message, the long awaited arrival of their messiah is nigh, now is the time for recruitment...
Fear of the Dark
by Trevor Baxendale
The year is 2382 and archaeologists have landed on Akoshemon’s only moon, seeking evidence of the planets infamous past.
The Doctor and his companions are drawn into assisting these scholars only to uncover much more than just ancient history.
Something is waiting inside the...
Empire of Death
by David Bishop
In the year 1856 a young boy discovers he can speak with the voices of the dead. He eventually becomes on of England's most famous and celebrated spiritualists.
1863 and Queen Victoria is inconsolable with grief following the death of Prince Albert, leaving the British Empire effecti...
Divided Loyalties
by Gary Russell
As a student at the Academy on Gallifrey, the Doctor lost a friend to the malevolent and mysterious force known as the Celestial Toymaker. Many years and five incarnations later, the Doctor receives a telepathic call from his long lost friend, begging him for help.
As he sets out t...
Deep Blue
by Mark Morris
A Lighthouse keeper reports a ball of light plunging into the sea off Tayborough Sands and Mike Yates from UNIT is sent to investigate. The very last thing he expects to find there is an old friend, with a new face.
The Doctor arrives on a pleasure beach in the 1970s, with his compan...
The Crystal Bucephalus
by Craig Hinton
The Crystal Bucephalus is a restaurant that is patronized by the very highest echelons of society the 10th millennium. The restaurant is unique in that it sends its guests back in time to sample the best foods and drinks of times past.
When the most notorious crime boss in the gala...
Cold Fusion
by Lance Parkin
The entire universe is at stake and I'm locked in here with another incarnation of myself, and not even one of the good ones!
More than one TARDIS lands on a barren ice world. The fifth Doctor, Adric, Nyssa and Tegan find a once ordered society on the verge of collapse, as rebels wag...
