The Sixth Doctor
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I agree that Colin was hard-done-by and under-rated, but it also must be conceded that there were times when he didn't help matters. His style was just too stagey for a program that (at the time) was being recorded on a small set largely made up of obvious strips of cardboard.
Colin is principally a theatre actor, and in some Doctor Who stories you can see it; his tendancy to yell lines with thorough over-pronunciation when the boom mike was less than two feet above his head made it seem like he was bellowing for the sake of the people on the back row of an audience that wasn't there. His performances in the courtroom in Trial Of A Time-Lord were truly painful, an exercise in ham overdose, while he only got away with his showing in Timelash because the script was so dire anyway, and Paul Darrow took such a blatant rise out of it on-screen, that hardly anyone noticed what Colin was doing.
For all that, I did quite like Colin's interpretation of the Doctor in patches, and he did put up a few good showings, especially his first two stories. But his best work in the role has been almost entirely in the Big Finish audios of recent years. And I can't help feeling that, in this case, it would have been better if he'd saved his best for *first *instead.
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Don't feel too bad for Colin - the Big Finish audios have allowed people to rejudge his Doctor, and I believe he was voted the best of the BF Doctors by DWM, something I entirely agree with. With decent stories, direction and that snazzy blue number they did him up in for the book publicity shots later, he would have been hailed as one of the greats back in the day. As it is, his moment of glory has come later than it should have, but he's most definitely considered awesome in his own right now.
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Don't feel too bad for Colin - the Big Finish audios have allowed people to rejudge his Doctor, and I believe he was voted the best of the BF Doctors by DWM, something I entirely agree with. With decent stories, direction and that snazzy blue number they did him up in for the book publicity shots later, he would have been hailed as one of the greats back in the day. As it is, his moment of glory has come later than it should have, but he's most definitely considered awesome in his own right now.
That's True, Colin has got his own back with the Big Finish Audio Dramas. I would love to see Colin return to the part on Television, they could maybe do another "Timecrash" episode with Matt Smith for Red Nose Day where this time it's the Sixth Doctor that he bumps into.
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I can't really contribute much to this topic as the only Sixth Doctor story I've seen is "Revelation Of The Daleks" which I own as part of the Davros DVD boxset - it's a great story and I've heard it being described as the best TV Who story Colin did. I really need to buy a couple of his Big Finish stories this year, but I'm also wanting to see "Vengeance On Varos" and "Attack Of The Cybermen" (partly to witness just how violent they were!)
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For awesome Colin Baker awesomeness, I recommend the Big Finish plays "Davros" (which acts as a prequal to Revelation, along with acting as an origin story for the title fellow) and "The Holy Terror" (where he's travelling with shapeshifting penguin Frobisher). Any of the ones with him and Evelyn Smyth are kickarse too. He's also surprisingly good with Mel, another example of a very-despised character in the original series who was done right in the audios ("The One Doctor", for example).
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Colin was rather badly done to in his time as the Doctor. Not only caught up in a time when the production team were having a bit of a crisis, the BBC were falling out of favour with the show as a product. No sooner had he completed his first year in the role, they went ahead and rested the show for 18 months.
And of course, he was then used as the scapegoat and ended up having his contract left unrenewed. Add that to a fairly poor attempt to charactertise the 6th Doctor as a bit of a madman...Sure, you can have the Doctor acting a bit hollier than thou, as many incarnations have done, but the whole strangle companions and argue with them forever was never going to work. I never felt Colin was at all to blame for this.
Still, as many have mentioned, his Big Finish stuff has seen a far better era for his character. It's well worth picking up a few stories just to flesh out his time in the show, some of them would have been very fine TV stories in the day, definitely.
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There's been a Sixth Doctor revival around the expanded universe recently, with all his graphic novel adventures released in two collections. And there's an excellent figurine of him here.
That costume.
I want it.
Now.
Check your local Forbidden Planet or suchlike. Not the costume itself, but £14 will likely get you the figure.
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On the subject of the mythical blue coat, check this out...
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I don't think there's any universally-agreed Best Sixth Doctor Story, he made so few (and that era in general is controversial enough to have at least one negative aspect per serial) but this I think is general fan consensus:
Twin Dilemma: Avoid like the plaque. Or watch if you want a hilarious example of how absolutely not to do a Doctor Who story.
Attack of the Cybermen: Awesome if you're a Cybermen fan (particularly a 'Tomb of the Cybermen' fan, the '67 Patrick Troughton story), dull and irritating if not.
Vengeance on Varos: Generally seen as pretty clever and groundbreaking but with some debatable violent sequences. Probably one I'd definitely pick to represent his era.
The Mark of the Rani: Average if fairly enjoyable with some annoying plotholes and cliffhanger revolutions.
The Two Doctors: Some absolutely love this, some hate it. I just think it was a wasted opportunity, a returning Doctor/companion barely used and the Sontarans just coming across as incredibly naff and unscary.
Timelash: Great villain but as hated a story as Twin Dilemma. I liked it as a kid although seeing pictures of some of the worst sets and graphics ever designed in the show's history, I doubt it would stand up well today.
Revelation of the Daleks: A mixed reception depending on if you agree with Eric Saward's vision of the show - I do and absokutely loved this, some incredible scenes and characters although suffering from a tired 1985 BBC budget. Would recommend it with Vengeance.
Then there's Trial of a Timelord which barely has anything redeeming about it at all - first story's dull, second is much better but impossibly confusing and unexplained, third is a children's show and the final two episodes are a bit of a mess due to being an odd mish-mash of four different writers.
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I've heard nothing but bad feedback about Trial of a Timelord, is it really that bad? I do like to judge myself and usualy tend to enjoy things most people dislike apparently.
I did watch the Dalek story today, I didn't think it was as good as the previous and next one. (resurrection or remembrance)
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I'd have to say, yes, Trial Of A Time-Lord is absolutely dire, bar a couple of quite interesting scenes in the last two episodes. The problem was that the writer who was supposed to script it, Bob Holmes, was dying of a severe illness, and so the first draft of what he wrote for it was understandably awful. It needed re-writing, but he was so ill that he simply couldn't continue. He died during production.
Other writers were brought in at short notice to redraft the story, but they all had very different, contradictory ideas about how to interpret what Holmes had done. And of course Holmes was no longer around for anyone to consult him about it, so the final product was a dreadful, confused mish-mash.
It is not helped that some of the production is unbelievably tacky, and the performances of Colin Baker, Anthony Ainley and Bonnie Langford are very stagey and kiddified. But it's not their fault principally that the story was so bad.
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On the surface it sounds like an interesting concept.
I'll have to check out at some point, Colin was never one of the Doctors I watched as a kid ( 5 nad 7 were the ones I used to watch)
I've just been running thought what I call the Davros saga, only one I not seen is Destiny.
Talking of Colin he will be at the Forum in Norwich signing things (as well as many others) Charity event being held.
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It's nice to see this old thread of mine being revived!
I still feel that Colin's sacking was unfair, though it's fair to say he got a fair crack of the whip during his era. He battled the Daleks, the Cybermen, Sontarans, The Master, The Rani and met Past & Alternative versions of himself (The Second Doctor & The Valeyard). Also there was Sil (Nabil Shaban), who was one of the best original monsters to come out of 80's Who.His tenure saw the introduction of 45 minute long episodes too, which we are now familiar with. People say that this period was a turbulent one for DW, some things worked & other's didn't but I think it was a productive time.
It's just a shame that Colin never got a proper send-off, the BBC fired him and then wanted him to come back for one story just to regenerate. You can understand why he refused!
Talking of Colin he will be at the Forum in Norwich signing things (as well as many others) Charity event being held.
He & Ian McNeice were going to appear in my hometown a few months back for a charity event. I was going to go, but sadly due to lack of promotion/ticket sales it was cancelled.
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The Sixth Doctor? What a mixed bag his time as the Doctor was! I can only agree with those who state that Colin suffered with some poor scripts. "Trial of a Timelord" was pretty poor, and I personally cannot stand The Two Doctors. I always loved multi Doctor stories. The Three Doctors and The Five Doctors were both superb. The Two Doctors just didn't come close. I seem to recall a gruesome figure who liked the taste of human flesh - which put me right off the story.
However, I do like Attack of the Cybermen (possibly because it is full of continuity references and ties in neatly with William Hartnell's "The Tenth Planet". I'm a bit geeky like that!) I also love "Revelation of the Daleks", which in my view is the strongest of all the Colin Baker stories, and features a very gruesome scene that shows a man who is half transformed into a dalek. Still freaks me out even now !
Finally, to be fair to Colin, he did suffer also with some very irritating companions!
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The guy who ate human flesh was called Shockeye, and he was a member of a species called 'Androgum' (anagram of 'gourmand'). There was also another Androgum in the story called Chessene (played by Jacqueline Pearce, who makes the story a bit confusing for me whenever I watch it as I keep thinking "SERVALAN!" whenever she speaks), although her behaviour is completely different.
To be honest, Shockeye's appetites don't seem far removed from a number of other monsters in the history of Who. Even the Vashta Nerada were much the same in that regard.
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It's just a shame that Colin never got a proper send-off, the BBC fired him and then wanted him to come back for one story just to regenerate. You can understand why he refused!
"SPOILER ALERT"
If you're a Whovian, then you probably already know this! Last year Big Finish Productions released a special box-set of audio dramas called Doctor Who: The Last Adventure, it may have took nearly 30 years, but Colin Baker finally got his regeneration scene and it gives The Sixth Doctor a fitting send-off.
https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-sixth-doctor---the-last-adventure-1212
The other day I came across this brilliant video from YouTuber Imagine that no door, they created a superb animation sequence to go with the above mentioned regeneration. Enjoy!
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