Fifth Doctor actor, Peter Davison, has explained why he left Doctor Who after playing the lead role for three seasons in the 1980s.
He further revealed that he was asked to do a fourth year as the Doctor, but turned it down, seemingly due to typecasting concerns.
He said:
“I was asked to do a fourth year – and originally I had in my head I’d do three years, and I thought it was time just to burn the bridges and move on. I thought I could get away with it. Three years, you can get away with it, and people will still think of you for other things when you leave. I think if you do more than that, it becomes difficult. People just go, ‘Oh, he’s Doctor Who’ so I just thought, [do] three years and be brave and move on.
“I got something quite soon afterwards, which kind of broke the spell of Doctor Who, so a consequence of that was I never needed to move away from Doctor Who. I was always very happy to do anything that was connected with it that came along afterwards.”
This reinforces what he’s said previously about being advised to only do three years, lest casting agents think he’s forever associated with the one brand only.
Fortunately, Davison has continued to appear in loads of show, perhaps most notably as Tristan Farnon in All Creatures Great and Small and the lead role in The Last Detective.
And he’s returned to the worlds of Doctor Who for Big Finish audio, in 2007’s Time Crash, and creating the 50th anniversary celebration, The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot — not to mention appearing in Jodie Whittaker’s last episode as the Thirteenth Doctor, The Power of the Doctor!
