Launching the eighties
Who era proper with youthful action and timeless curiosity, Peter Davison's fifth incarnation was soon seen as a welcome booster for the series, which was now firmly a British television institution. Critics may at first have been split over his star name casting, with some also stating that he was too young for the role previously occupied by mature actors, but general audiences were highly welcoming of the amiable Davison after his prior popularity as the lovable rogue Tristan in
All Creatures Great and Small. For producer John Nathan-Turner, his bold casting move of Davison would pay off handsomely in the ratings for the show's new-look. new-twice weekly timeslot, the eagerly-awaited first season debuting with the innovative
Castrovalva on January 4th, 1982.
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| As used on a 1996 cover to Doctor Who Magazine. |
Sadly, Davison would never get a proper singular star status cover as
Who (in his original three year run) on the then prestigious
Radio Times magazine, but they did do a a varied photographic shoot of the actor on location in Buckhurst Park, Royal Tunbridge Wells during the near back-to-back location filming of
Castrovalva /
Black Orchid around late Summer 1981. Here is a selection of these great images, later used for all kinds of other promotional materials, opening our fortieth anniversary celebrations of this nostalgic and special time in the Classic Series' history...
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| Making the most of the new-look Doctor's fondness for the Earth sport of Cricket. |
Additionally, the shoot also saw the first proper look of our new hero with the companions whom Davison's Doctor had inherited from the end of the Tom Baker era - Matthew Waterhouse as the Alzarian mathematics genius, Adric, Sarah Sutton as the orphan Nyssa of the planet Traken, and Janet Fielding as the mouthy but practical Australian air stewardess, Tegan Jovanka.
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| Note the pale looking Matthew Waterhouse, ill from the previous night's over-drinking at the location hotel's bar! |
