For me, Davison's run isn't when Doctor Who got cheap (think The Sun Makers or Underworld) but when it got boring. The makers knew they had an amazing machine but had no idea what to do with it. Stories often had great core ideas -- probably more often than in any previous era, certainly since colour started -- but were very unengaging in their execution. I'm not sure why.
My main problem with the Davison years was nothing to do with Davison, who was criminally underrated at the time, but with the Tardis being full of companions. And there were truly pointless ones... Sarah Sutton tried hard with Nyssa but she was ultimately too similar to the Doctor - quiet, geeky, compassionate and just a tad drippy - to really be able to do anything different. Tegan would've been a better long-term companion to 4 or 6; she just didn't fit with 5. And Turlough? Obviously introduced in case 5 was someone too old to do action... ;)
If I had to sum it up, I would say that this was when Doctor Who started to look cheap rather than magical.
It sounds from this as though I am right to be doing what I am doing in my current state of mourning for Tom Baker: going back to Sarah Jane's stories with the Third Doctor, rather than trying to plough onwards. I'll return to Five soon enough, as I know there is some good stuff there. But for that very reason (and this also seems to be confirmed by your post) I think he deserves better than me just sitting there going "You're not Tom Baker!"
Incidentally, if you've been watching A Very Peculiar Practice, then you have probably seen my Dad's two seconds of televisual fame! I don't know what the episode he's in is called, but it features the regular cast going on a tour around Birmingham University, and I know there is a running joke in it about someone being unable to open a packet of peanuts without them flying all over the floor. My Dad (a typical beardy academic scientist - you can see exactly why they chose him) can be
( ... )
Aha - yes, that's the last episode of the first series - also features Geoffrey Beevors (the Master in keeper of Traken) as one of the faceless Whitehall bureaucrats whose colleague has the peanut problem. Will have another look to see if I can spot him!
Well, as the Doctor would say, don't blink - he's literally on screen for no more than two seconds. If you want a visual reference, this picture is from almost exactly the right vintage.
the only one after Sarah who finishes in much the same place as she started, if a little older and a lot wearier
Largely because she was the first contemporary human companion after Sarah: there has always been an unwritten rule in Who that the contemporary Earth companions end up back on contemporary Earth while the companions with other backgrounds end up deciding to stay somewhere different: the only exceptions being towards the end of old school with Peri and Mel. One suspects it's possibly down to a fear of scaring the contemporary Earth child with the idea that travelling with the Doctor is unsafe in a deep way. (Ace does not in any of her different canonical endings by medium, but they were all written for a fan audience who could be assumed to take a more open-minded SFnal attitude to happy endings not written as returns, or of course unhappy endings.) It's also stayed the rule on New Who in general: compare Jack to the others, apart from Rose.
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We won't mention Kamelion. ;P
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It sounds from this as though I am right to be doing what I am doing in my current state of mourning for Tom Baker: going back to Sarah Jane's stories with the Third Doctor, rather than trying to plough onwards. I'll return to Five soon enough, as I know there is some good stuff there. But for that very reason (and this also seems to be confirmed by your post) I think he deserves better than me just sitting there going "You're not Tom Baker!"
Incidentally, if you've been watching A Very Peculiar Practice, then you have probably seen my Dad's two seconds of televisual fame! I don't know what the episode he's in is called, but it features the regular cast going on a tour around Birmingham University, and I know there is a running joke in it about someone being unable to open a packet of peanuts without them flying all over the floor. My Dad (a typical beardy academic scientist - you can see exactly why they chose him) can be ( ... )
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Largely because she was the first contemporary human companion after Sarah: there has always been an unwritten rule in Who that the contemporary Earth companions end up back on contemporary Earth while the companions with other backgrounds end up deciding to stay somewhere different: the only exceptions being towards the end of old school with Peri and Mel. One suspects it's possibly down to a fear of scaring the contemporary Earth child with the idea that travelling with the Doctor is unsafe in a deep way. (Ace does not in any of her different canonical endings by medium, but they were all written for a fan audience who could be assumed to take a more open-minded SFnal attitude to happy endings not written as returns, or of course unhappy endings.) It's also stayed the rule on New Who in general: compare Jack to the others, apart from Rose.
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