In "Four to Doomsday," Peter Davison's recently regenerated Fifth Doctor is burdened by the most irritating trio of companions in the history of the show (Adric, Nyssa, and Tegan) when the Tardis materializes inside a vast starship with a multiracial crew from Earth's distant past. Downloaded into computer chips are the memories of the 3 billion survivors of the Urbankan race, and the Earth is to be their new home. Meanwhile, Monarch, a giant green frog-thing, wants to travel back to the Big Bang to meet God, who he is convinced is himself.

though not one star, not up to par with Dr. Who of any kind

This is a bad example of Peter Davison, and unfortunately, is the second(or rather first story as DW was sick and did not have dialogue through Castravalva). It is also my first impression of this youth. Although Peter Davison was potentially better than this, I was ruined to him when I saw this story for the first time in '82 or something. This story which is nothing more than a lot of dancing around and silly festival costumes(episodes 3 and 4 are nothing but a dance show and have no content of a story) has no action and little dialogue of any kind and what is there is bland and humorless. It also has little story except for a silly robot dressed like a human or something. As usual the "Three Stooges" as I like to call them, bundle things up for the Doc and are not even funny doing it. When Romana left the show, it just got silly. Nyssa and Adric pretend to be intellectuals but come off as idiots saying scientific gobledygook. Adric is always saying(in every story) "I could make this work, Nyssa." And and Nyssa comes up with some strange word which she can't even say right, and I am saying "who cares!". Tegan is marginally better, and different from the Nyssa/Adric cardboard cutout, but just marginally. She herself is annoying, just not so annoying as the other clowns. This show is called "Four to Doomsday" because the "Fantastic Four" from the TARDIS are the heros of the day, however I would have thought of a better title, leaving importance to the Cast of this Story rather than the Doctor and his Compainions. Perhaps "Androids of Earth". ;/

Peter Davison is the best Doctor Who ever!

This is a slightly biased view, but I think this story is great, a little slow and more reliant upon dialog than action than usual, but still intelligent and interesting stuff. Davison is my favourite Doctor and he is NOT WEAK, he is deliberately placed into the underdog position by the writers to create suspense, he has to struggle against the odds, and it takes strength of will and courage and determination to win through when people no longer respect your authority because you look younger than you are. Robbed of the power to order people around, this Doctor has to do things for himself, like shooting the Cyberleader, bombing the Daleks and in this case fighting androids in space and rescuing the drifting TARDIS.
Yes, this is one of the slower stories and yes, his era features Timeflight and Terminus, as well. But let's not forget Tom Baker's appalling Robot, Revenge of the Cybermen, the dreary planet of evil and Android Invasion and Hand of Fear all in the "golden age". Davison had gems like Earthshock, Five Doctors, Resurrection of the Daleks, Frontios, Visitation and Caves of Androzani, easily a match for Tom's top six! This story is a lesser example of his era, but Stratford Johns is cool and compelling as the alien who seems so mannered and polite and is insane enough to think he is God, underneath! Philip Locke (Thunderball) chills us as he reveals he is an android who used to be human, and the finale in space, while typically outrageous and stretching the scientific credibility, is certainly a very well done and engaging four minute FX sequence, for a low budget show. And the sets by Tony Burroughs are just brilliant! This is the story which kicks off the Davison era for me, and it is a great way to start. At first, the new crew totally fail to get along, just like in the Hartnell days. They learn to accept each other as they go along, only to lose Adric tragically in Earthshock...but that's another story!

You can do better than this in the Peter Davison era.

If your a big fan of the Peter Davison years there is a lot better stuff you can get. Only get this if your trying to complete your Peter Davison collection other wise don't get it .

Let me give a rundown of some of the problems. First off I've rarely seen an episode so obviously padded to fill time. There are alot of people just walking around in what looks to be an attempt to show movement so you won't notice nothing or very little is happening plot wise. There are the various cultural dances and displays they keep showing again and again and again in an attempt to have you not notice how slow the plot is going. Here is what I think happened Four till Doomsday had enough plot for two episodes the director do too format needed four episodes thus the endless walking around and cultural displays.

Other problems Adric is annoying you know the only Doctor Who's I have seen in years are the ones I own. And I have Adric only in the E-Space trillogy, I thought he did rather well in that and was suprised to read so many people thought he was annoying, all I can say is now I understand.Tegan acts like a panicky idiot the whole episode in a attempt to rachet up the tension. Nyssa she doesn't seem to have much to do.

In conclusion of the Peter Davison Doctor Who's I own I would highly recommend, Terminus,The Five Doctors, Resurrection of the Daleks and The Caves of Androzani.You can do a lot better than Four Till Doomsday, the only reason I gave it two stars instead of one is that for all it's problems it's more enjoyable than not but only barely.This is weak tea people.