The time-travelling family chat exclusively to RadioTimes.com.
Peter Davison and his wife Elizabeth Morton have boundless connections to Doctor Who.
Davison debuted as the Fifth Doctor in 1982, piloting the TARDIS until 1984. His daughter, Georgia Tennant, was cast as the Doctor’s daughter in 2008, and later married Tenth Doctor David Tennant – who returns to the show as the Fourteenth Doctor this autumn. Morton writes saga novels set in the early 1900s, bringing readers back in time – just like the TARDIS.
The time-travelling family spans decades of Doctor Who and historical adventures, leaving a legacy that is only continuing.
“I’m tempted to say that I don’t know anything else now!” laughs Davison as we approach the topic of how much the show has penetrated their lives. “It’s just been a part of my life for so long. From when I first started watching it to, remarkably, being offered the part – and then having a daughter who then had a part in it and then ended up marrying… well, basically, me!”
As we discuss the impact of the show on their lives, the conversation turns to their two sons – “One of whom announced earlier this year that he was going to sit down and watch every single Doctor Who story!” describes Davison, laughing at the challenge that many fans of the show attempt to complete at least once in their lives.
Morton, having married Davison in 2003, became aware of Doctor Who through his ongoing involvement at conventions.
Featuring cast and crew from TV and film, conventions and comic-cons have become a regular staple for most Who actors, getting to meet fans, sign autographs and carry on their participation in the show’s long history. “Meeting the fans was just such a phenomenon that was so new to me, so strange and positive!” she explains.
Welcome to 60 Days of Doctor Who, RadioTimes.com’s ultimate celebration of all things Who as the show gears up for its 60th anniversary. We’ll be bringing you 60 days of exclusive Doctor Who content, from interviews and newsletter takeovers with the show’s stars to the hottest takes from our team of Doctor Who superfans. Stay tuned!
“I realised through our sons (who used to watch Davison and call him “Doctor Daddy”) the power of how important and positive it [Doctor Who] is. I feel that our family has been touched by that. I’ve come to know that the life of it beyond ‘what episode is on next week?’ is so important.”
“I would sit down with Louis and Joel (their sons) and watch it when the show came back. I spent the first eight years of that time explaining to them what was happening. I felt like I had some kind of expertise in that area,” Davison explains.
“But I realised towards the end of that time that I was sitting there with them and I’d say ‘What’s going on?’ and they’d have to explain it to me! I was losing touch with Doctor Who. It’s funny the journey we have with these things…”
Davison dials down the laughter to address the subject more seriously, revealing his real appreciation towards the show.
“I don’t mean to be flippant about our connection with Doctor Who, I didn’t anticipate that at all. If you’d have told me in 1984 that I’d still be going to conventions 40 years later and Doctor Who would still be as current as it was then, I would have laughed at you!”
Doctor Who is, indeed, as huge as it has ever been. The show celebrates its 60th anniversary this November, and will mark the occasion with three special episodes, a Christmas special and a new series to follow in early 2024.
With the arrival of several Doctors and companions for Jodie Whittaker’s fitting final story last October, the return of Tennant and Catherine Tate this year and the casting of Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor, the world of the titular Time Lord remains a big deal.
Davison recently donned his celery once again to be a part of last year’s special episode, The Power of the Doctor. With almost 40 years between his first story and his latest appearance in the show, a lot has changed aboard the TARDIS.
“There’s a part of me that wishes I realised what a big deal it was when I first did it,” he says of his original time as the Doctor in the 1980s.
“To me, it was amazing to be offered it, but it was very much another job. I was cast because I was younger and different from Tom Baker. We didn’t have the budgets that the show has now. Or the technology, more specifically.
“So, we were always on the edge of sets that were maybe slightly silly, because there wasn’t the money or ability to make it any differently.
“It was very nice to do The Power of the Doctor because it felt like a completion, with the scenes with Tegan [Janet Fielding]. It was a great wrapping up of that Doctor and companion relationship.”
Thinking back to his first time round in the TARDIS, he recalls: “They wrote very flatly for companions in those days when we were doing it. So, generally speaking, Tegan didn’t want to be there, and that was all they really gave her. She was a great character. Likewise with Adric and Nyssa. Nyssa was the only one I felt was on the Doctor’s side!
“Later came a more exploratory thing with companions. It started really with Rose [Tyler, played by Billie Piper], who I still think is probably the best-written companion there’s been – because you were seeing the Doctor through her eyes.
“Rather than having them as appendages, you’re seeing the Doctor for the first time through them and how amazing this person is. It felt like there was more to it.
“I sort of wish I could get a TARDIS and have another go at some of those stories, to make it more rounded, to make it slightly more touching and deeper. We glanced along the surface of it but never really had the time or scriptwriters to do that.”
The fan reaction to Davison and Fielding reuniting in The Power of the Doctor was huge, bringing together fans new and old. The scenes felt like a closure for the characters. Was it emotional for Davison to be working once again on screen with his longest-serving companion?
“In character, it was, of course. But Janet and I are still friends – I saw her just this last weekend. So it was nice to get the closure in character, but the relationship with Janet is very much ongoing.”
Shop Peter Davison action figures at Amazon
Snap up this collector’s edition Peter Davison figure while you still have the chance.
Standing proud in his iconic cricket whites (celery included), this hand-painted model is a great way of showing off your love for the Fifth Doctor.
The figure is on sale at Amazon for £18.89 and there’s only a few left!
Buy hand painted Fifth Doctor collector figure for £18.89 at Amazon
Davison and Fielding are famously, seemingly, in a permanent feud. “We have this ongoing feud publicly. It’s not really real but it’s fun to indulge in! So publicly, at conventions and things, we’re always on stage arguing with each other. But when I saw her last weekend, we had dinner, and it was nothing like that at all. It’s very much a construct!” he laughs.
For many fans, there seems to be a keen interest in following the lives and careers of the people who have brought Doctor Who to our screens. But have Davison and Morton taken any of the show’s themes into their own lives?
Davison answers: “Do I live my life according to being the good soul that Doctor Who is? I wish I could do that. I think most of us aspire to that and probably believe we are that. I’m sure I have major failings in that area,” he chuckles. “I’ve never once saved the universe. But you aspire to that!”
Morton continues: “The most creative people want to somehow put things right with the world or shine a light on a corner of the world. I think most endeavour to sort things out for the characters and their world. But that doesn’t apply to you, Peter, because you love playing baddies!”
“I like playing grumpy people!” Davison replies. “I have this alter ego that I’ve established in various videos that I have made, where the alter ego is of a grumpy person. So, whether it’s me in the Five(ish) Doctors reboot or it’s me holding a sign up behind David Tennant saying ‘he’s not special’, it’s a sort of alter ego that isn’t real at all. I’m hoping I get any of my pretend grumpiness out that way.”
After we chat about The Five(ish) Doctors reboot, where Davison revealed that plans had been scrapped for a new 2023 version, we make our way onto current projects for the pair.
Davison has been approached to write an original Fifth Doctor story, but hushed tones fill the air as to what this will entail – other than that he would love to do it.
Moving back to their collaboration, they explain that they’re working on a detective novel set in the 1930s, around Shepperton and Walton Studios, “because it was quite Hollywood back then!”.
Shepperton Studios has been home to many huge films and shows, and notably for Doctor Who fans, is the location at which the 1960s Dr Who and the Daleks movies were filmed.
How do the pair find working together? “Almost impossible!” Davison chimes in before I can finish the question. “It’s a matter of back and forth, really. At the moment, we’re still happily married – but we do have some good old disagreements with, ‘You can’t say that!’ and, ‘Yes you can!’ But then that tension, I think in the end, is good for…”
“Creativity,” they say in unison.
Morton has written five saga novels, often referring to them as her own form of time travel. With a life so connected to the TARDIS, it must have had some sort of influence on her books that are set in the past.
“It’s more my connection to my roots that is always the starting point. But it is fascinating to me how history is such an important, sort of backbone of Doctor Who.”
“It would be so helpful if there was a TARDIS because, with all the research that you can do about certain periods of time, there’s always a certain amount of guesswork,” Davison suggests. “If you had a TARDIS, you could just nip back to 1945 or whatever and it would be so useful.”
Morton adds that she enjoys viewing history through people’s stories, from their own mouths. “Just sitting down and chatting to someone. You can get so much more [from that] than from any history book, I think. So, I suppose if I’m looking for a link with Doctor Who, it’s that. It’s telling stories,” she explains.
“Remember that amazing episode? With the camps in Central Park [referring to 2007’s Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks]? Telling the stories of the things you don’t know about necessarily.
“So, writing sagas, that’s the theme; always of a family struggle, and they are always historical novels. That’s the similarity with Doctor Who.”
I’m keen to find out the answer to a question that I imagine every fan of Doctor Who is dying to know. If Davison or Morton could swap lives with anyone else in their time-travelling family, who would they swap with?
“I become David Tennant and he becomes me?” Davison chortles. “I raised my daughter and then David came and very kindly took her off my hands – and now you’re suggesting that we swap places so I can have her back?!” he quips.
They go on to discuss the difficulties of having Doctor Who as your father, and their children trying to make their own paths – “Georgia has done really well!” – but I do not get a definitive answer from him. “I don’t think I would want to swap with anyone in my family, really.”
“Who would I swap with?” Morton ponders. “I’d swap with our dog, so I could wander around and no one would pester me!”
Naturally, the subject of the 60th anniversary approaches – do the pair have any involvement?
“No. I have no involvement in the 60th anniversary episodes, but of course, the more you deny it the more people say you are in it!” Davison chuckles.
“Mind you, there’s still time,” Morton adds with a nod and a wink. “But you might be… do you think you might? Potentially… surely there will be…”
Davison cuts her off: “There’s no specific BBC-organised celebration or event. If there is, I haven’t been invited! As for on-screen involvement, I am not in it.”
“That was The Power of the Doctor, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, done that. Ticked that box!”
Elizabeth Morton’s new book The Orphans from Liverpool Lane is available to buy now.
Doctor Who is coming soon to BBC One and iPlayer. Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on.
Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10, PLUS a £10 John Lewis and Partners voucher delivered to your home – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.