Doctor #6 is my favorite, although he's probably the least favorite of most people. What cemented it for me was that as far as I know he's the only Doctor to attempt to strangle one of his companions.

(Well, that and the fact he was so damned sarcastic all the time.)

He's not my favorite, partly because he replaced my favorite, but I also liked Colin Baker's Doctor, even before I started listening to Big Finish. He was definitely a pompous ass, but that was part of his appeal. Underneath that obnoxious exterior, you could tell he was the same Doctor we always knew. I would have traded Sylvester McCoy's era for more seasons of Colin Baker in an instant.

I would've given him a better outfit, though, and gotten rid of that tiresome arguing with Peri.

I really liked the Sixth Doctor. Unfortunately, he was hampered by horrid writing, dull companions and that clown costume.

But he was the snarkiest Doctor and as such, I've always liked him.

He's one of my favorites as well (around third or fourth behind Tom Baker and Jon Pertwee). I loved his bombastic nature; his tendency to shout; his occasional moments of reflection and regret. I also liked his snarky relationship with Peri. The only thing I really hated about his time was that dreadful, horrible, convoluted, nightmarish mess known as Trial of a Timelord. Aside from the hideous end for Peri (either of the presented options were dreadful), my brain imploded from trying to figure out the Mel timeline and how he managed to meet her before he met her.

On the subject of Trial, Nuallain posted this explanation in the old thread.

That's really the best attempt at explaining something so completely convoluted and silly that I can think of.

I've always thought about Mel's intro in the same way that I think about Highlander II... it doesn't exist. In fact, ignore the last two episodes of ToaTL and things get even better.

That explanation pretty much encapsulates why I hate Trial of a Time Lord. The fact that fanwanking is necessary at all. My personal explanation for Mel was that like in the Five Doctors when each Doctor and companion entered the Tardis they split up and returned to their own timelines, Mel and the Doctor split into their separate timelines. The past 6th Doctor continuing on without Mel eventually meeting her whenever he actually met her (by the by is there any version out there of the actual first meeting of Mel and the Doctor, in book, audio or comic form?) and the future 6th Doctor continued traveling with Mel. I also decided that the 6th Doctor went back and rescued Peri, returning her to Earth a short time into her future. After all, if I've got to make stuff up, I might as well make up a happy ending to Peri's travels.

I was never that crazy about Colin Baker's doctor until I heard some of the Big Finish audios. I have to say, he is one of my favorite doctors for the audios...

I like the way you think, lacorelli. I was never happy with either version of Peri's fate, and I can't imagine the 6th Doctor not visiting her after his trial was over, at least to see for himself what became of her.

Sorry, but his Doctor is still the only one that I can't get bear to watch. Don't know whether this is because of his appearance and character or some traumatic childhood experience.

Here is a list of Colin Baker's tales for the record:

Season XXI (1984):
137. The Twin Dilemma - 4 eps - Peri

Season XXII (1985):
138. Attack of the Cybermen - 2 eps - Peri
139. Vengence on Varos - 2 eps - Peri
140. Mark of the Rani - 2 eps - Peri
141. The Two Doctors - 3 eps - Peri
142. Timelash - 2 eps - Peri
143. Revelation of the Daleks - 2 eps - Peri

Season XXIII (1986):
144. Trial of a Time Lord: The Mysterious Planet - 4 eps - Peri
145. Trial of a Time Lord: Mindwarp - 4 eps - Peri
146. Trial of a Time Lord: Terror of the Vervoids - 4 eps - Mel
147. Trial of a Time Lord: The Ultimate Foe - 2 eps - Mel

I had a hard time dealing with Davison's departure, and it didn't help that Colin Baker was playing the Doctor as unpleasantly as possible. He also had a rather loud coat! What was really strange was the very adventures were continuing to get grimmer and darker, while our hero and heroine were looking more and more trivial. The first tale was utterly abysmal, and a horrible way to start off a Doctor, and was further crippling in that it aired as the last story of the season, so viewers had a bad sense of this Doctor to carry in their heads for months.

Colin Baker's first full season saw a change in format, as episodes went from their traditional 25 minute length, to 45 minutes. Unfortunately, most of the stories were at least initially written in 25 minute chunks so it led to some odd pacing at times as the production team adjusted.

There was also a lot of returning aliens, (not to mention a returning Troughton and Jamie), and perhaps an over-reliance on continuity, which could be off-putting to new viewers. Much has been argued and debated about where it all went wrong, or even if it did, but the bottom line is that the show was put on hiatus after that first year.

When it returned, it was back to 25 minute episodes, but the season was only 14 episodes long. It also returned in the shape of a convoluted epic 14 part story, in which much of the "action" was actually the Doctor on trial in a courtroom watching his adventures on TV, with the occasional outburst or objection. Somewhere in the midst of that, Peri was shuffled off, and Mel was somewhat confusingly unleashed. Whatever the reasons for the show's inability to capture the ratings it once had, the reality was that Colin Baker wasn't invited back for another full season.

Personally, I find Colin Baker's tales to be of rather low quality, but I must say that "Vengence on Varos" is one of the better ones, and perhaps even more relevent in this day and age than it was at the time. "The Two Doctors" is also one of the better ones. This era is an acquired taste, I feel, and it is a shame it never really got off the ground.

Revelation of the Daleks has already been released in the UK, and will be available in North America in June. It's one of Colin's best, but a very atypical Doctor Who story.

Timelash. Shudder. One of the very few stories I couldn't bring myself to watch the whole way through, and that's saying something. A pretty blonde dies near the start, which didn't help.

And beware of Terror of the Vervoids. There's one cliffhanger where Mel screams... It's like nothing I've ever heard before or since. It has power, it has volume, and it just keeps going. I can't imagine what her throat was like afterwards.

Poor Colin never had a chance, and, looking back on it, it's unfortunate. I was already sad about Davison's departure as it was, and the post-regeneration Doctor at the end of "Caves" was rather off-putting. Peri's line reading of "what happened" represents how I felt at the time.

Contrast that with the regeneration scene in "Logopolis," where an even more beloved Doctor was leaving after seven years in the role. Even 24 years later, it's a genuinely beautiful scene, right down to Davison sitting up with an innocent, wide-eyed smile, seemingly ready to tear into his new life. Colin Baker's Doctor, on the other hand, seemed utterly annoyed to be there.

She's a West End calibre performer, so she's got the pipes to pull that off. (And I'd totally be willing to ruin my vocal chords for a stint on DW.)

I need to eventually get around to watching the CBaker episodes again. I watched an old old videotape of the Cybermen story, and it didn't hold up all that well.

I think that costume was my biggest problem with the Sixth Doctor. I think anyone would have looked stupid in that thing.

Actually, the thing is that Bonnie Langford has perfect pitch, so they did the scream pitched perfectly to blend in seamlessly with the beginning of the closing credits...

One of the few things I remember about Colin Baker is that he was about the only person who got Jack the Blue Peter cat to sit on his lap.

I really hated this Doctor.

Really.

Stopped watching the show entirely, until a new (or old) Doctor appeared.

I simply pretend that Colin Baker's only role on "Dr. Who" is that of a security guard on Gallifrey. That ToaTL nonsense never happened.

He was the only Doctor that I did not see on a regular basis. I just did not like the way he played the character. I know that he might have not had the best writing and there were all sorts of problems behind the scenes. However, for some reason I just never took to him.

Have to admit I had a crush on him...can't explain it. I'd tie him with McCoy as my 2nd favorite doctor with Peter Davison as #1.

Silentforce, I was dropping by to confess the same thing and saw your post. I can't explain it either, but there it is. CBaker is extremely smart and funny (based on convention appearances) and that helps.

Sadly, the episodes are hard to watch because I LOATHE Peri with the heat a thousand burning nuns <TM TWoP>. That voice, that wretched fake accent, the perpetually stupid shoes and outfits. I would've loved to have seen Doctor #6 with a companion like Ace.

I've been watching some of the Baker eps thanks to Netflix (Varos, Two Doctors), and while I liked the Doctor (hence the screenname), yeah, the stories seemed to play a lot better twenty years ago when I was a teenager.

Revelation of the Daleks is coming out on DVD in June IIRC; that was one of the better ones. Supposedly some of the recent audios have been very good as well, according to the reviews I've read...

Didn't Peri call him "Porky" once when he was trying to lift her and had made a comment about her? Her leotard top and high waist shorts outfits crack me up, but I loved her slick hair as I was getting tired of my own permed big hair look. Mel, though, really bugged me. She was just too hyper for me.

I remember reading that there was some older woman in Britain who campaigned against violence in the media and Colin Baker's Doctor was too violent for her. Remember when Davros gets his hand blown apart and the Doctor says "Shake" for some proposal.

My view in the sixth Doctor is: good Doctor, too bad about the stories.

The stories were just appallingly rubbish in his era. He had a couple of almost gems but then you've got rubbish like TimeLash and MindWarp (easily the worst Who story of the 80s).

But if you listen to the Big Finish audios, you can hear how good Colin Baker's Doctor could have been had he had the same quality of writing that he gets there.

As for Mel..that is an example of JNT wanting a person in the show and not caring if he or she fit the role. Bonnie Langford may be a good actress, but the material she was given and the complete lack of any character to Mel (other than she loved to exercise and she was a screamer) did not help. Again, the novels and the audios have helped to make Mel tolerable...if not actually a decent character.

.

In my opinion this is one of the only Colin Baker stories (actually the only) which I think is truly great. The plot really worked for me and, strangely, the Doctor has very little to do in this story. Glad to hear it is coming to DVD so I can see if it lives up to my memory.

6th Doctor is tied with Doc #1 for my favorite. I admit that he has most of the worst episodes on the show. But he also has some of the best moments. And all of what Dr. Who became, the direction they went with 7 and even 9 now, started with #6.

I loved the potential he brought to the show. I loved that he wasn't Tom Frelling Baker. This Doctor was a freakin' alien! He didn't care what you thought about his coat, I'm sure it was quite fashionable on many alien worlds and timelines. (I actually liked it better once it got firmly linked in my mind to carnival attire by one of the Decalog stories.)

It's really funny, I think people would have accepted this Doctor much more if they'd let Colin do what he originally wanted to do...wear black. One, he said it was slimming. Two, it would give people a visual indication that this Doctor was sliding into something darker. They didn't think the Doc should wear black, so he said "well okay, then throw me in any old thing." Nowadays what does the Doctor wear? Black.

I loved that he was much more like the First Doctor than pretty much any other Doctor had been. That same kind of irritability that said "I am so much smarter than all this crap...sigh, I guess I'll just have to build a bomb or something." I loved that he was cynical and snarky. He'd make fun of villains just to throw them off balance.

My favorite #6 moment is still his first. The last few Docs have each said "That's the problem with regeneration...you never know quite what you'll end up with," after their changes. I was totally expecting that line. Instead I get "Change. And not a moment too soon." That makes you sit up. That lets you know that this thing is going off the rails so hold on. Too bad they just couldn't pull it off. I'm happy as hell that Colin has gotten a second chance of sorts to prove that yes, he was up to it. The ideas were sound.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that appreciated Six. When I heard that intro, I was shocked and totally expected anything. I heard later that that regeneration was planned from the start to be an 'off' one, not like the rest. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be. I'm so glad now we get to see the darker side of the Doctor.

Pity they really made him look like a clown.

I loved Six too, and was always a little surprised at how disliked he was-my guess is that it was much more a reflection on Peri (gag, hiss) than on him. And the same character dressed in black probably would have been very popular, but I think that most people just couldn't jib the whole wacky coat/dark character thing.
He and Nine would probably get along famously.

I thought Peri was a hoot. One of my favourite lines still is, "My name is Perpugiliam Brown, and I can shout just as loud as you can!" to the Master trying to hypnotize her...


I think had Six dressed in black as he wanted it could have been fascinating. Unstable and angry. You're right, there's a lot to see in Nine with him. Personally I think Ten's a good mix of Four, Five and Six.

I think all the Doctors had something too offer, but bad management decisions were made during the short eras of the last 2 Doctors of the original series that really undermined the programme's ongoing sucess. Both the 6th and 7th Doctors had stories that are worthwhile, but I believe both actors did their best Doctor-ish work in spin offs like The Stranger and The Airzone Solution that proved they could be decent as The Doctor, had they been given proper scripts and better directions.

I have never seen any episodes from the Baker era, but I am curious to see how Peri interacts with the Sixth Doctor after having watched her with the Fifth Doctor in The Caves of Androzani. I have not heard good things about this era, so I was wondering what stories would be considered the best. I enjoyed watching Revenge of the Cybermen and Earthshock years ago on PBS, so I also wanted to know if Attack of the Cybermen was a good story as well.

Attack is a bit quixotic. It's full of action and eye-candy, but it's plot is confusing and a bit weak, with far to many obscure continuity references (normally I love continuity references, but Attack takes it too far). If you are interested in the Sixth Doctor-Peri interaction, go for Revelation of the Daleks, with is probably their best story currently released on DVD...

I think that I may have to check out Revelation of the Daleks. I recently watched Resurrection of the Daleks (from the Davison era) for the first time. Just like the Cybermen, the Daleks have always been one of my favorite villians.

Just out of curiosity, is Attack of the Cybermen available on DVD?

Also, Nicola Bryant left the show at some point during the Colin Baker era, right? Did she leave the show of her own accord or was she dismissed in order to introduce a new companion for the Sixth Doctor?

I just watched part one of Timelash, and I am obsessing over Peri's voice. There's something weird about it that I can't quite put my finger on. I don't think it's just the faked accent...unless her accent coach was a Liza Minelli impersonator.

I have always liked Peri ever since I saw The Caves of Androzani. Although I have not seen any of the other stories that she has been in, I agree that there is something about her voice that seems a little off.

One of the defining characteristics of the CB stories is the violent nature of the eps (off the top of my head there's Lytton's hands getting crushed in the Cyberman story, the acid bath in Varos, Davros's hand getting shot off). As a teenager watching these eps in the 80s, I thought this was GREAT. I saw the violence as evidence of a more "adult" show back then, though now it's clear that it was used to cover up the crappy writing. But I also thought that Baker's pugnacious Doctor was an accurate reflection of the violent times in which he "lived", and his assholery was justifiable considering the Fifth Doctor spent the whole of the Caves of Androzani getting the crap beat out of him by psychotic villians and was lucky to get out of there even with the regeneration.

And although a lot of these stories are now rightly slagged, I see a lot of CB in Eccleston's portrayal of the Doctor, which makes me (as every Colin fan is wont to do) wonder what would have happened if they got some halfway-trained monkeys to write the scripts...

I haven't actually seen any Colin Baker episodes, but I really like him in the audio dramas. He's a bit pompous and abrupt, but you kinda love him for it. And his companion in the audios, Evelyn Smythe, is really great too, a good foil for his rather large personality.

Stick with the audio dramas then. They are infinitely better than the short series that Colin had on air. I'm one of those Colin fans that nevsky42 talks about.

I actually look forward to more Colin audio dramas (as well as the McGann ones!)

I just wanted to step in and say that Baker had at least one good story, in my opinion, "The Ultimate Foe." I rather liked the three way battle between him, the Master, and the Valeyard, as well as the mind games in the Matrix and the concept of the Doctor's darkest aspects from his personality manifesting from the end of his 11th/12th incarnations.

I just found out that Vengeance on Varos is available at the local public library. Is this story really as violent as I have heard? I would like to see this one, but hopefully there will be other stories from the Sixth Doctor to choose from as well. Attack of the Cybermen is on the top of my list of episodes that I would like to see.

Carlos1969 writes:


To date, "Attack of the Cybermen" has only even been released on VHS, but it was released fairly recently, and it can be found easily on eBay.

It's pretty violent in parts (the acid bath scene comes immediately to mind), but compared to some fare currently on television, it's fairly tame.

Which Sixth Doctor stories have you seen? Vengeance on Varos, The Two Doctors, and Revelation of the Daleks are all out on DVD here in North America, and The Mark of the Rani is due out in November.

The only story from the Sixth Doctor that I have seen (so far) is Vengeance on Varos. I actually just watched it yesterday. I liked Baker's portrayal of the Doctor. I thought that he had a good rapport with Peri in this one.

The story itself was a little slow at times, but overall, it was good. I didn't care for Sil though.

I would really like to see Attack of the Cybermen. I just watched Earthshock the other day, so I look forward to watching another Cybermen story. Plus, I like the idea of the plot involving Halley's Comet.

Nicola left of her own free will, unlike her Doctor. Most companions depart when the actor playing them chooses to move on, I think it was only back in the 60's that actors would be informed that their services were no longer required. From then on, it was mostly a case that the production team stuck with the companions they had until the actors decided to leave. I'm not sure if Matthew Waterhouse jumped or was opushed, although I know he was angry that his character was killed off.

Vengeance, IMO, was the best Colin Baker story, and the best example of who Colin Baker's Doctor was, good and bad. Not afraid to push back, not afraid to get caught up in a violent world bigger than he is, and not afraid to mix it up for the greater good.

And IIRC it's this last quality that caused some old-school fans to wince a bit. The acid bath scene was incredibly violent for its day, and the Doctor sets up two different traps that kill nameless guards. Personally, I never had a problem with that, it would be like getting upset every time Leia shot a Stormtrooper, but that's just me.

This was also the only episode of the season that didn't utilize or refer to an old enemy or some element of the Doctor's past, so it's CB's show...

Haven't seen that episode, but considering that he later committed genocide against the Daleks and the Cybermen in Remembrance of the Daleks and Silver Nemesis, that's rather minor on the scale of things.

True, but all that is pretty sanatized, with the violence either being mainly offscreen or being against non-human alien beings. But the violence in Vengeance is pretty graphic and in your face, as well as being against humans. Although there is a case to be made for the acid bath scene being self-defence/accidental (which was the production team's intent)...

Hey, sometimes soap isn't enough to get yourself clean. ;)

Brilliant! My brother and I used to do Peri impersonations, that whiny, trembly scream of hers.

I always thought Turlough should have let her drown in "Planet of Fire" 'cause I'm evil like that.