Never Understood People Who Say Five Is 'too Soft' Because... Have We Been Watching The Same Show? Were

Never understood people who say Five is 'too soft' because... have we been watching the same show? Were they asleep during the first season, which he spends being dismissive and cold with Adric, an issue that was never resolved when Adric was brutally killed? Do they, like many of the show's adversaries, mistake his outward appearance of 'harmless, affable English fellow' for weakness, even though he could switch from that to being your worst enemy on a dime? His continued dry humour, now bitter and sarcastic, in the face of danger or evil is one of the character's most compelling aspects. He hardly changes his outward demeanour, and his continued affected politeness makes him seem all the more dangerous as you see the fury and outrage boiling underneath, and you see a plan form behind his steely eyes.

And if he is sentimental sometimes, why do they see it as being 'too soft', instead of what it truly is: a need to atone, after the universe punished him for his harshness towards Adric in the worst possible way? Adric's death haunts Five for the rest of his life, and you can actually see it in Davison's portrayal, even if no mention of Adric occurs in the script. You can see Adric's ghost in the wild desperation in Five's eyes during his final serial, while he rushes to give his life to save his companion. Because he cannot let this happen again because of him. And the last word out of his mouth as he dies is 'Adric', as we come to the heart-wrenching realisation that his mind is not filled with his own imminent doom but with thoughts of that poor boy, of how he killed him, of how he never got to show how much he cared for him. Of how much it hurt that he could almost be forgiven by trading his life for Peri's, but still he could never go back and save Adric.

And that's why my blood boils when people say he's 'too soft'. He's one of the few classic doctors with a character arc, for god's sake, and it's all about him being too harsh.

here ye, here ye, I have art to dump! Yucky crunchy scans from my phone! My dad (cool) bought me some Doctor Who stickers from like 2007. They rip easily and they are barely sticky but david tennant freema agyeman so its okay. also the two at the bottom of the first below Adric are OCs I've had rotating in my brain for a while and I've been chipping away at a fic for a while now.

In addition to my sketchbook, I've used the stickers on...other things as well. you know how the rear windows on cars have stick figure families somewhere? It's like that, but K9. oh yeah and amogus he's there too

Was watching a Doctor Who Cookbook Revisited highlights video and veritably freaked it when I saw this.

WHO IS THAT? THAT'S NOT FUCKING ADRIC I'M SORRY

god doctor who has a lot of art that doesn't get the likeness of the actors right most of the time but,,,,,,who is THAT GREMLIN? WHY IAS HIS FACE LIKE THAT?? AND WHY IS HE WEARINGCONVERSE? ghwgjashkfjaHJHDLSJKjlkds

Eightroberts if it was good/j

Forgive me for this tumblr

I’ve had this exact thought a LOT, especially since I’ve been playing with my own OC Doctor, but I won’t get into that. But I AM going to ramble at you!

I hate how big and empty the current TARDIS. There’s a lot of room to run around, but it’s just white and metal and…kinda useless for the story??? Like the characters don’t have anything to interact with.

8, 11, and 12’s TARDISes felt very lived in and interact-able, and it made the TARDIS feel more present in the stories. I love when the Doctor gets a little lonely and his TARDIS gets all decorated. At the start of the TV Movie we see how much the 7th Doctor has gotten comfy with his gramophone and bookcases all in the big front room. They could set whole stories running around in 11’s TARDISes because of there were things to look at and play with. He sits and repairs the underneath in his little swing, and they run up and down the different little levels. In the S7 TARDIS that 12 inherits, there are bookshelves and cushy armchairs for him to brood him, and the chalkboard!! The chalkboard!! I don’t need nor want to stroke Moffat’s ego, but his run had some damn good TARDISes.

If the show is trying to stay “14 got all comfy living with the Temple-Nobles, but threw that all away after having to eventually leave them” THEY SHOULD SHOW IT! There’s so much between 14 and 15 that got trashed bc of the “clean slate” they’re trying to do, and GOD I wish the TARDIS was all cluttered and lived-in, with pictures and relics from all the people he’s loved on full display. And if they don’t want to do that, keeping the console room squeaky clean and boring, just give us scenes in the TARDIS of storage rooms or offices decked out like how 12 had his in S10.

Sorry to word vomit at you, but I’ve got a lot of feelings about this and I was happy to see someone share them.

I do really love the current Tardis, the ramps and cool lights and the jukebox and it’s just so futuristic and fun.

But something I was really hoping to see was how it would evolve as it was lived in. All the little trinkets and clutter and coats strewn over the railings. Where is the dirt? Where are the reading nooks? Hell even a few plants!

It’s so futuristic that it feels almost sterile. All that harsh light and solid white and unoccupied space.

Sure I guess it could be a metaphor for something internally for 15, but right now it just feels like a missed opportunity, especially in the context of trying to cram characterization and Ruby and 15’s bond in 8 episodes.

I have no art skills so join me in the theater of the mind:

14’s Tardis full of little souvenirs because Donna loves bits and bobs to remember where they went and Rose is an equally menacing collector. A chaotic shoe corner by the door. Sting lights wrapped around the railings. A corner dedicated to Rose’s crafts, a scraps of felt scattered and a few lovingly placed googly eyes that make the Doctor smile when he finds them. A picture wall, a too-plush couch, and some glow in the dark stars dangerously placed on the ceiling.

15’s Tardis still looking brand new despite months of traveling. Maybe a few post-it notes on the console. A jukebox that is rarely touched. All that extra space making Ruby’s absence even more apparent and constantly salient. The lights are bright white and the walls are bare and the metal is shiny. There’d be an echo if the Doctor had someone else to talk to.

More Vision Magazine Stuff

So, I've looked a bit into the origin of all of Five's companions (except Kamelion, who hardly exists as a character) and tracked down early character descriptions for all of them.

Well, not quite for Adric. The Adric description was very short.

We get that he's supposed to be 15, so that's good to know. The thing with Adric is that it seemed like no two writers thought of him as the same character.

These takes don't entirely need to contradict one another, but it sounds like the writers were all given a kind of vague description and were never on the same page for what to do with it.

Andrew Smith: He's smart but also immature

Eric Saward: He's a brat

Christopher Bidmead: He's curious and the Doctor likes that about him.

Terrance Dicks: He's an arrogant know-it-all.

This also gives off the vibe that Bidmead liked Adric and Saward didn't, which might explain why Adric worked slightly better in season 18 than season 19. The script editor actually wanted the character to work.

I'd personally go for a mix of the Smith and Bidmead approaches. He's a genius, but his knowledge is still limited, something he's reluctant to admit. He can be a bit of a brat, because he's 15. He's literally immature. But, the Doctor sees his potential and admires his curiosity, so he acts as a sort of mentor figure.

Anyway, the character descriptions of other characters that were provided are a little more detailed, so the writers probably had some idea of what they were doing. Going in order of introduction, here's Nyssa:

Look at how detailed that is! Here's another one whose age we know (18), as well as her backstory, beliefs, skills, and what both Adric and the Doctor think of her. Most of this stuff isn't really explored in the show, but Big Finish clearly took it and ran with it.

Next, Tegan:

So, we get another detailed background, but while it seemed like everything with Nyssa was worked out, we're not confident about Tegan, not sure whether she's going to stick around or not. She starts with a one-off story arc that sounds kind of annoying, honestly. The girl is accidentally put in a Situation and she responds by taking charge of the Situation. But, she basically has to learn to leave things to the men. I doubt Janet Fielding was happy about this: Playing the "uppity" woman who learns to shut up and follow the patriarch. I don't think the people writing this really thought the implications of this arc through.

So, yeah, I was a bit harsh on that one. It's not too bad as an arc out of context, but considering problems with how Tegan was treated by the writers (and the fandom tbh) later, it doesn't bode well.

Anyway, here's (me obsessing over) Turlough:

So, Turlough is 20, around the same age as Tegan, which is what I assumed but this does confuse people. I still think it's funny that he's described as blond, they cast a blond actor, and then had him dye his hair red.

You'll notice from the May, 1981 date, that this was early in development and a lot changed between this and what he see onscreen. Turlough's initial arc was written without reference to the stories it occurs in and his introduction doesn't make any sense with the backstory he was eventually given. They meet him on a planet he's lived on for as long as he can remember.

They basically wrote Turlough's arc before the stories of Season 20. He was apparently going to be introduced in a story called The Song of the Space Whale, where he would just be a person on a planet. But, the story fell through and they decided to introduce him in another story, Mawdryn Undead, instead.

The fact that Turlough was in exile was made up to explain him being at Brendon. Apparently just so the story would make sense to the person writing it. You can tell just how much they were making up as the went along.

Lastly, we've got Peri:

Long blonde hair is basically the opposite of Peri's hair, so this was clearly written well before the role was cast. Also they didn't even know where they were filming "next season's foreign story". It really was just "The Vacation Episode" at this point.

Also, Peri's family life is given a lot of backstory that never comes up onscreen. The description of her dynamic with the Doctor is amusing:

"The Doctor reminds Peri of her dead dad. They remain platonic friends really." As if "surrogate father" would immediately be equated to "potential love interest" because Peri's hot. Peri has daddy issues. Saward and JNT had daddy issues issues.

Also, they clearly had no plans for the Sixth Doctor here. Once again, they made shit up as they went along and hoped it would all work out in the end.