‘MYTH MAKERS: THE PETER DAVISON TEAM, VOL. 1’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
This is a ‘Myth Makers’ DVD compilation that I was looking forward to very much in 2020. 😀
‘The Doctors: The Peter Davison Years’ DVD was something that had to be owned by me in order to fulfil the Fifth Doctor era fan in me. Beforehand, I had enjoyed the ‘Myth Makers’ DVD compilations of the William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker and the Sylvester McCoy eras. 🙂
The Fifth Doctor era of ‘Doctor Who’ is easily my favourite of the eras. You can tell from my ‘Fifth Doctor’ series of ‘Doctor Who’ stories featuring the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Billy as well as my ‘Nyssa Challenge’ reviews on ‘Bradley’s Basement’. I’ve also met a lot of the stars from the Fifth Doctor era!
I’ve met people like Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding, Matthew Waterhouse and Mark Strickson at conventions over the years. At the time of seeing this DVD compilation in 2020, I was sad I didn’t get to see any ‘Doctor Who’ stars like Sarah and Peter at conventions, due to Covid-19. 🙁
Thankfully, I’ve reunited with Sarah and Peter since then at conventions like ‘Bedford Who Charity Con 6’ (Janet was also there) in 2021 and the ‘Newcastle Comic Con’ in 2022. During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, ‘The Doctors: The Peter Davison Years’ was a welcome treat for me to make up for disappointments.
‘The Doctors: The Peter Davison Years’ DVD contains seven features as well as an introduction at the beginning. The seven features cover the Peter Davison era in general. There are two convention panel videos featuring the Peter Davison team as well as interview features with five stars of the era.
There are ‘Myth Makers’ features with Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, Matthew Waterhouse and Mark Strickson and there’s a panel talk video with Anthony Ainley. It was great to check out ‘The Doctors: The Peter Davison Years’ DVD, especially during Christmas from December 2020 to January 2021. 😀
The introduction to ‘The Doctors: The Peter Davison Years’ is given by producer/director Keith Barnfather and presenter Robert Dick. I’ve seen and met Robert Dick at conventions over the years, including ‘Dimensions 2015’ and ‘The Capitol II’. I found it surreal to see him with Keith Barnfather.
In ‘The Doctors: The Peter Davison Years’ DVD compilation, Robert Dick interviews Janet Fielding and Matthew Waterhouse for their ‘Myth Makers’. For Sarah Sutton and Mark Strickson’s ‘Myth Makers’, they’re interviewed by Nicholas Briggs, who usually voices the Daleks on TV and on audio. 🙂
To start off ‘The Peter Davison Years’ 2-disc DVD set, we have ‘The Peter Davison Team, Vol 1’. Sadly, Reeltime Pictures haven’t been able to produce a ‘Myth Makers’ interview with Peter Davison yet. 🙁
Hopefully, there will be one in the future. To make up for the lack of a ‘Myth Makers’ interview with Peter Davison, we have two convention panel videos that were taken from two ‘PanoptiCon’ events.
For ‘Volume 1’, the first convention panel video is from the ‘PanoptiCon VII’ event in 1986 at around the time ‘The Trial of a Time Lord’ season – Season 23 – began in September of that particular year. 🙂
The panel itself features Peter Davison with Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding, Matthew Waterhouse, Mark Strickson and…Gerald Flood, the voice of Kamelion in ‘The King’s Demons’ and ‘Planet of Fire’.
It was lovely to see the full Peter Davison team for a convention panel here. I wish that I could travel back in time and attend the ‘PanoptiCon VII’ event to see the actual convention panel live for myself.
I actually saw this convention panel on YouTube beforehand, which was a long time ago back in April 2013 at the time of the show’s 50th anniversary. The video’s picture and sound quality wasn’t great.
But I still enjoyed the panel talk in YouTube form. It was lovely to see what Peter, Sarah, Janet, Matthew, Mark and Gerald were like when they were interviewed by the fans at a 1980s ‘Doctor Who’ convention. 🙂
It was equally lovely to see the panel talk again in this ‘Myth Makers’ edition. I enjoyed the anecdotes shared by Peter, Sarah, Janet, Matthew, Mark and Gerald when they answered questions.
For the ‘Myth Makers’ editions, Matthew Waterhouse provides the introductions and the linking material for ‘The Peter Davison Team’ convention panel videos, which I think is a pretty good idea. 🙂
As it turns out, according to ‘The Doctors: The Peter Davison Years’ DVD introduction, these introductions were filmed at Matthew’s home in 2020. Social distancing measures were in place then.
It was amazing to see Gerald Flood with Peter Davison and his companions. Mind you, he does look different compared to being in ‘The King’s Demons’ when he played King John. Wouldn’t you agree?
I don’t think Gerald Flood got to answer a lot of questions during the panel, although it was very fascinating to hear him share what other acting roles he’s had apart from appearing in ‘Doctor Who’.
There is a lot of laughter among Peter Davison and his companions during the panel talk. There was also quite a lot of smoking from a couple of the stars like Janet Fielding and Matthew Waterhouse. 😐
I found it funny when Sarah disapproved of the smoke going into her face during the panel talk. I’m pleased she doesn’t smoke and it makes sense, since she’s married to a medical doctor. I don’t smoke either.
Incidentally, it was funny when Sarah shared her memory of telling fans at a Chicago convention that she was going to marry a doctor. One of the fans believed that she was going to marry Tom Baker. 😀
Thankfully, Sarah put a stop to that. I wonder what made fans think that Sarah was going to marry Tom Baker. Why didn’t they think Peter Davison instead? How come Tom was put at the forefront?
I know Lalla Ward married Tom Baker for a short while, but that doesn’t automatically mean that he marries the next female companion. Sarah Sutton as Nyssa is technically the next one following Lalla.
It was funny when the cast shared hilarious stories of embarrassing moments during the making of ‘Doctor Who’, including when Janet Fielding held her arms up and caused her boob-tube to fall off. 🙂
There’s also the story Matthew Waterhouse shared about his overnight drinking during the making of ‘Castrovalva’. Mark Strickson is active on stage re-enacting the Myrka from ‘Warriors of the Deep’.
By the way, Sarah Sutton had her own fan club in Norwich with a magazine called ‘Baby Roo’. I wonder if any of the club’s magazines are available somewhere. I’d like to check them out if possible.
‘The Peter Davison Team, Vol. 1’ has been great to check out on DVD. I’m glad this ‘Myth Makers’ edition of the panel talk is available on DVD, especially after I first saw it on YouTube back in 2013. 🙂
‘Myth Makers: The Peter Davison Team, Vol. 1’ rating – 9/10
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