Nice mix of brave and clever victories for the Fifth Doctor here. He can bring it handily, even as he often presents an unassuming hero. These are some of my favorite moments from him (spoilers.)
Trapping the Mara (Series 19, Episode 12 – “Kinda: Episode 4”)
The Doctor isn’t precisely drawing from Perseus here, even if it’s a similar move. He realizes that the Mara can’t abide the sight of itself, so he lures Aris into a circle surrounded by the Kinda, who then flip mirrored panels and close in around him. Surrounded by its own reflection, the Mara is drawn out of Aris and trapped, struggling in vain to take another host until it’s defeated. I love a good clever solution!
Stopping the Bomb (Series 19, Episode 20 – “Earthshock: Episode 2”)
First off, when our heroes reach the hatch the androids were guarding, the Doctor elects to open it himself, urging everyone else back in case of booby traps. Then, when the opening on the hatch sets off the arming of a bomb, the Doctor realizes it was triggered remotely and uses the TARDIS to jam the signal. Finally, the Doctor returns to the bomb and sets about disarming it, knowing full well that their enemies could increase power and rearm the bomb at any moment. This is, 100%, the type of hero the Doctor is, reckless and a little haphazard but also quietly selfless, doing what needs to be done no matter the circumstances.
Capturing the Master (Series 19, Episode 26 – “Time-Flight: Episode 4”)
The relationship between the Doctor and the Master is perpetually marked by one tricking the other, and this time around, the Doctor does the honors. He’s “acquiesced” to provide a new time limiter for the Master’s TARDIS, to help the Master escape the time corridor, but the Doctor has a trick up his sleeve. He’s programmed it to make sure the Master’s TARDIS arrives after his, and then he uses his own dematerialization circuit to knock the Master back through time and space, trapping him on Xeriphas.
Tricking the Gravis (Series 21, Episode 10 – “Frontios: Episode 4”)
Who doesn’t love a good “making the baddie think they’ve won” gambit? The Doctor, recognizing the Gravis’s hunger for time technology, grovels and surrenders Frontios to him, all the while dangling the half-exploded TARDIS in front of him. Naturally, the Gravis would rather have the TARDIS, and the Doctor gets the Gravis to put it back together for him with a bit of the ole “I bet even your powers aren’t strong enough to reassemble this time/space machine!” With the TARDIS intact again, the Gravis, inside it, is cut off from the other Tractators, severing his mental command over them. He goes dormant, and the Doctor drops him off on a planet where he can’t do harm to anyone else. Side note: part of what I love about this moment is that the Doctor doesn’t know if he can pull it off or not. He just blusters ahead and does his best, come what may. I have a lot of affection for any Doctor flying by the seat of their pants to save the day.
Saving Peri (Series 21, Episode 22 – “The Caves of Androzani: Part 4”)
Easily, Five has the most badass ending of any classic Doctor. Suffering under the effects of the spectrox toxaemia that’s poisoned both him and Peri, the Doctor braves the dangers below the surface of the planet in a last-ditch effort to secure milk from the queen bat, the only known cure, for both of them. He finds it in the nick of time and scoops Peri up in his arms, carrying her back to the TARDIS has everything burns around them. When an ill-timed accident causes him to lose some of the bat milk, he doesn’t even break his stride but calmly and confidently gives Peri the cure, not knowing whether or not he’s too gone to regenerate. Brave and selfless, radiating inner strength even as his knees are buckling. You love to see it.
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