130 replies to this topic

[MisterZ]

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.)

[areacode212]

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.

[HeadCase]

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.

[lacorelli]

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.

[FoolishWanderer]

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

Basically, the Doctor and Peri land on the homeworld of Sil (the goey, short alien from the Varos story) where the leader is suffering from headaches due to the enormous (for his species) size of his brain. He has his brain transplanted first into a kind of Neanderthal version of his species that was found preserved somewhere, and then into Peri. Obviously having her brain scooped out is a bit fatal, so she's dead.

*However* the Doctor is shown all this by the Time Lords, who've arrested him and put him on trial for various offences including changing the path of galactic history (if he hadn't brought Peri there, this nasty dictator would have died). Later in the same story, the Time Lords rather unconvincingly claim that Peri survived and married one of her fellow prisoners to become Queen of a planet of warriors. Considering that this 'revelation' used stock footage and was only included because of viewer complaints about Peri's violent death on a childrens' program, I'm not sure how much stock you want to put in that.

Mel's presence is a bit of a head-twister. The Doctor's trial is structured like a Christmas Carol - with a story from his past, a story from just before the trial begins, and a story from his future presented as evidence (try not to think about how the presence of 'future evidence' pretty much shows he gets off the death-penalty charge he's on). In this 'future' story, the Doctor's accompanied by Mel. She's then called as a witness by the Time Lords and brought from the future to give evidence (along with a guy called Glitz). At the end of the story she goes off with the Doctor. In the next story, she's still travelling with him when he regenerates into the Seventh Doctor.

It's not confirmed onscreen, but the fanwank is:

>The Doctor meets Mel at his trial. Since she's from the future and has already met him, he brings her home (possibly after a few adventures) and leaves her there.
>Mel meets the Doctor in an untelevised story. He seems to already know who she is and she starts travelling with him.
>The Doctor regenerates
>The Seventh Doctor and Mel arrive at Iceworld and meet Glitz. Realizing that this is where she was taken by the Time Lords, he mutters something about 'crazy paving' and dumps her there with Glitz.
>Mel and Glitz are sent back in time by the Time Lords as witnesses where they meet the Sixth Doctor (whose never seen Mel before)

Clear as mud, eh?

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

[Pinwiz]

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.

[lacorelli]

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.

[patfam]

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...

[areacode212]

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.

[Adric]

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.

[Demetrios]

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.

[FoolishWanderer]

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.

[B. Will]

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.

Edited by B. Will, Mar 6, 2006 @ 10:30 AM.

[Pinwiz]

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.

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.

[Pooki]

Unfortunately, he was hampered by horrid writing, dull companions and that clown costume.

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

[Demetrios]

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.

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...

[Chenoeh]

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.

[ctcasares]

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.

[BK1978]

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.

[Silentforce]

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.

[Alexandria Bay]

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.

Edited by Alexandria Bay, Mar 25, 2006 @ 2:36 PM.

[sixthdoctor]

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...

[Silentforce]

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.

[bigorangemike]

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.

[SpecialBrew]

Revelation of the Daleks is coming out on DVD in June IIRC; that was one of the better ones

.

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.

[Frame Worker]

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.

[Red Adept]

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.

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.

[Misreall]

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.

[Red Adept]

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.