Peter Davison explains why he decided to quit Doctor Who and "burn the bridges" after 3 years

The fifth actor to portray the Doctor, Peter Davison opted to depart Doctor Who in 1984 following a successful three-season run – and now he's elaborated on why he left, and why he's never been afraid to come back.

Speaking at a BFI Southbank event to promote the Doctor Who: The Collection: Season 21 Blu-ray set (out 16 March), Davison admitted he feared being typecast – adding that he was "very lucky" to land projects in the years that followed that allowed him to showcase his range as an actor.

"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," he explained.

"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."

He continued: "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."

Indeed, Davison has reprised the Fifth Doctor several times on screen, in Children in Need special Dimensions in Time (1993), subsequent special Time Crash (2007), Jodie Whittaker's Doctor Who swan-song The Power of the Doctor (2022) and the BBC iPlayer series Tales of the TARDIS (2023).

Most recently, he donned the cricket whites again for the mini-episode Destination: Daleks, produced to promote the Doctor Who: The Collection: Season 21 Blu-ray set.

The upcoming set includes several stories with updated special effects, including The Awakening, Frontios, Resurrection of the Daleks and The Caves of Androzani. Warriors of the Deep receives a full Special Edition overhaul with a new four-part edit, freshly created visual effects and a 5.1 surround sound mix, while The Awakening and The Caves of Androzani also benefit from new surround sound updates.

Additional features include behind-the-scenes documentaries on Resurrection of the Daleks and The Twin Dilemma, a new audio commentary for The Awakening, and an In Conversation special with Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson and Matthew Waterhouse, hosted by Matthew Sweet.

Fan favourites return too, including Behind the Sofa and a new instalment of The Doctor Who Escape Room. Other highlights include Look Who’s Boating with Peter Davison and Janet Fielding, 48 Hours with Fielding, Tales of the TARDIS (a 2023 re-edit of Earthshock), The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot with new commentary, plus HD galleries, info text, PDF archives and selected archive DVD extras.

Doctor Who: The Collection: Season 21 set is currently scheduled for release on 16 March, 2026 and is available for pre-order now.

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