Sixth Doctor

The Doctor

The Sixth Doctor
Doctor Who character
File:Bakercolin.jpg
First regular appearance	The Caves of Androzani (Part 4)
Last regular appearance	The Trial of a Time Lord: The Ultimate Foe Time and the Rani (Replaced by Sylvester McCoy) Dimensions In Time (charity special)
Portrayed by	Colin Baker
Preceded by	Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison)
Succeeded by	Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy)
Information
Tenure	1984 – 1986
No of series	4
Appearances	17 stories (44 episodes)
Companions	on television: Peri Brown Mel Bush in spin-offs: Frobisher Angela Jennings Grant Markham Evelyn Smythe Charley Pollard
Chronology	Seasons 21 to 23

The Sixth Doctor is the name given to the sixth incarnation of the fictional character known as the Doctor, seen on screen in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by actor Colin Baker, and briefly by Sylvester McCoy during the Sixth Doctor's regeneration into the Seventh. This makes the Sixth Doctor one of only two incarnations of the Doctor to have been officially played by more than one actor, the other being the First Doctor.

Overview

The Sixth Doctor's brightly coloured, mismatched clothes and brash, overbearing personality set him apart from all his previous incarnations, in some ways hearkening back to the early irascibility and undertones of untrustworthiness of the First Doctor. The Sixth Doctor appeared in three seasons; however, in his first outing in Season 21 he appeared only in the final episode of The Caves of Androzani which featured the regeneration from the Fifth Doctor and thereafter in the following serial The Twin Dilemma to end that season. The Sixth Doctor's era is noted for the decision of the BBC controller Michael Grade to put the series on an 18-month hiatus between seasons 22 and 23.

He also appeared in the special Dimensions in Time. There are also novels and audio plays featuring the Sixth Doctor. A glimpse of a sketch of the Sixth Doctor was later seen in John Smith's A Journal of Impossible Things in the new series episode "Human Nature".

Biography

The Sixth Doctor's regeneration was initially unstable, and he nearly strangled Peri before he came to his senses. He encountered many old foes including the Master, Daleks, Cybermen and Sontarans, and even shared an adventure with his own second incarnation. Later, the Doctor was put on trial for the second time by his own race, the Time Lords. The prosecutor at that trial, the Valeyard, turned out to be a possible future, and evil, incarnation of the Doctor himself. The events of the trial tangled the Doctor's timeline slightly, as he left in the company of Mel, whom he technically had not yet met. (Originally this was the then producers idea that in the following season this would be explained).

When the TARDIS was attacked by his old enemy the Rani, the Sixth Doctor was somehow injured and regenerated into the Seventh Doctor; the exact cause of the regeneration, however, has never been revealed on-screen.^[1] When writers Pip and Jane Baker's novel of the story tried to explain the regeneration many were not happy with the outcome. There have subsequently been various explanations for the regeneration. Writer Craig Hinton proposed one explanation in his propose novel Time's Champion, which was completed after his death and published for charity. Script Editor Eric Saward's intent may have been as a result of a fight to the death with the Valeyard. Gary Russell's novel Spiral Scratch gives another explanation for the Sixth Doctor's regeneration.

The Sixth Doctor is the first incarnation of the Doctor for which an estimate of length of his tenure can be extrapolated from the dialogue of the television series. In Revelation of the Daleks, he states that he is 900 years old; in Time and the Rani, the Seventh Doctor, having regenerated from the Sixth only hours earlier, states that his exact age is 953, indicating (presuming the Sixth Doctor gave his real age earlier) that 53 years had passed (for the Doctor) between Revelation of the Daleks and his regeneration (the exact length of time between The Twin Dilemma and Revelation of the Daleks, however, is not indicated). Given the convoluted circumstances surrounding Trial of a Time Lord, a suitable gap does exist for this. When the series returned in 2005, however, the Ninth Doctor also claimed an age of 900 years, and the Tenth Doctor 903, seemingly contradicting the earlier claim by the Seventh Doctor.

Personality

The Sixth Doctor was an unpredictable and somewhat petulant egoist, whose garish, multicoloured attire reflected his volatile personality. He was both portentous and eloquent — even for any Doctor, of whom he saw himself as the finest incarnation yet — and his unpredictability was made even wilder by his mood swings, manic behaviour, bombastic outbursts and glib, unflappable wit. His personality also displayed occasionally fatalistic overtones.

The Sixth Doctor was almost supremely confident in his abilities and did not suffer fools gladly; he sometimes seemed to endure Peri's presence far more than he actually appreciated it, and his superiority complex applied to almost everyone he encountered. His intellect could support his ego -- for instance, the Sixth Doctor was the only one who was able to repair and operate the chameleon circuit within the TARDIS, allowing it to change shape to suit its surroundings rather than looking constantly like a police box (although the appropriateness of the Tardis' appearance to its environment was more-or-less nil) in Attack of the Cybermen. However, not only did his melodramatic arrogance and caustic wit eventually subside, it actually hid the fact that he had a strong moral sense and a heart of gold (glimpsed in Revelation of the Daleks, in which he showed great compassion to a dying mutant). Underneath his blustering exterior, he was more determined than ever in his universal battles against evil, possessed of a tenacity and a thirst to do what was right that was far more visible than ever before. Despite his often unstable demeanour, he was always ready to act when necessary, and very little — even his companions — could hope to stand in his way.

His condescension towards the universe around him also extended to his companions, especially Peri. While his use of violence against his foes and his abrasive relationship with Peri were both often criticised by fans, the violence was largely in self-defence, and his relationship with Peri had mellowed significantly when the programme returned from hiatus for Season 23's The Trial of a Time Lord.

He was well known for his love of cats, and always wore one of a number of cat-shaped pins or brooches on the lapel of his patchwork coat, itself said to be the height of fashion on a distant planet.

The events surrounding the production of Doctor Who in the mid-1980s caused the Sixth Doctor's tenure to be cut short, and for a long time Colin Baker bore the brunt of the blame as the "unlikeable" Doctor.

The Sixth Doctor's return in the Big Finish Productions audio plays, voiced by Baker, have gone some way to changing this impression, with the Sixth Doctor appearing to be a somewhat calmer, wittier and altogether happier character (attributed in-story to the influence of companion Evelyn Smythe). In a 2001 poll in Doctor Who Magazine, Baker was voted the "greatest Doctor" of the audio plays.

Costume

File:BFDW45 projectlazarus big.jpg

The Sixth Doctor's blue costume

Colin Baker wished to dress his Doctor in black, specifically black velvet, to reflect his character's darker personality. Producer John Nathan-Turner, however, opted for a deliberately tasteless costume with garish clashing colours (later described by Colin Baker as "an explosion in a rainbow factory"). He also retained the question marks embroidered onto his collar which Nathan-Turner had added to Tom Baker's costume in 1980 and had retained through Peter Davison's tenure. Baker added a cat badge to the ensemble.

In recent years, a blue variation of the costume has become a popular alternative. This outfit was used in the webcast Real Time as the clashing colours of the original design were tricky to animate. It also has been used on the cover of some of numerous audio drama stories from Big Finish Productions.

The earliest chronological appearance of the blue 6th Doctor outfit can be traced to the cover of the 1986 Random House edition of the Find-Your-Fate book "Search for the Doctor" by David Martin. The cover art is credited to "Romas". The original Inspiration for the image is unclear, but it is obvious that in this case it was not one stemming from ease of artistic depiction as is the case with Real Time, since the multicolored outfit appears in the cover art right alongside the blue one.

Story style

Season 22 attracted some criticism for its violent content. Ironically, torture for entertainment was explored as a theme in the story Vengeance on Varos. After the 18-month hiatus, Season 23 featured a reduction of episodes produced, and the 14-part serial The Trial of a Time Lord was felt by some fans to reflect the fact that the series itself was "on trial" at this time. (See History of Doctor Who for more details).

Other appearances

• "A Fix with Sontarans" (A segment of the children's television programme Jim'll Fix It)
• Dimensions in Time
• videoGaiden
• Top Gear -- In series 2, episode 8, the Sixth Doctor's Tardis appears on the test track, distracting a Cyberman trying to set a lap time in a Honda Civic. The Doctor sets a lap time of 1:43. This appearance is not considered canon.

Webcasts

• Real Time

Novels

Target Books Missing Episodes

• The Nightmare Fair by Graham Williams
• The Ultimate Evil by Wally K. Daly
• Mission to Magnus by Philip Martin

Virgin New Adventures

• Head Games by Steve Lyons

Virgin Missing Adventures

• State of Change by Christopher Bulis
• Time of Your Life by Steve Lyons
• Millennial Rites by Craig Hinton
• Killing Ground by Steve Lyons
• Burning Heart by Dave Stone

Past Doctor Adventures

• Business Unusual by Gary Russell
• Mission: Impractical by David A. McIntee
• Players by Terrance Dicks
• Grave Matter by Justin Richards
• The Quantum Archangel by Craig Hinton
• The Shadow in the Glass by Justin Richards and Stephen Cole
• Instruments of Darkness by Gary Russell
• Palace of the Red Sun by Christopher Bulis
• Blue Box by Kate Orman
• Synthespians™ by Craig Hinton
• Spiral Scratch by Gary Russell

Eighth Doctor Adventures

• The Eight Doctors by Terrance Dicks
• Seen in the TARDIS mirror in Camera Obscura

Time's Champion

In 2008, an unofficial Dr Who novel Time's Champion was published, written by Chris McKeon and the late Craig Hinton. All proceeds will go to the British Heart Foundation.

Telos Doctor Who novellas

• Shell Shock by Simon A Forward

Short stories

• "Brief Encounter: A Wee Deoch an..?" by Colin Baker (Doctor Who Magazine Winter Special 1991)

Comics

The Sixth Doctor was featured in a number of acclaimed comic strips drawn by John Ridgway. These featured visuals and storylines of a whimsical fantasy nature, similar to Alice in Wonderland. The Sixth Doctor was somewhat calmer and more restrained than on television. All of these comic strips appeared in Doctor Who magazine in the 1980s. Colin Baker himself wrote a comicbook special called 'The Age of Chaos' in which the Sixth Doctor and Frobisher visit an older version of Peri. The canonicity of these comics is uncertain.

Doctor Who Magazine

• The Shape-Shifter
• Voyager
• Polly the Glot
• Once upon a Time Lord
• War-Game
• Fun-House
• Kane's Story / Abel's Story / Warriors' Story / Frobisher's Story
• Exodus / Revelation / Genesis
• Nature of the Beast
• Time Bomb
• Salad Daze
• Changes
• Profit of Doom
• The Gift
• World Shapers
• Emperor of the Daleks
• Up Above the Gods

Classic Comic Special

• The Age of Chaos

Note

^ According to the BBC Books Past Doctor Adventures novel Spiral Scratch by Gary Russell, the Sixth Doctor was already dying and/or on the verge of regenerating before the Rani captured the TARDIS. The canonicity of the Doctor Who novels is uncertain.

The unofficial novel Time's Champion by Craig Hinton and Chris McKeon gives a different account of the events leading up to the Sixth Doctor's regeneration. Time's Champion, which was published for charity, posits that the events of Spiral Scratch are in fact the an overwritten timeline creation of the Sixth Doctor in his first act as Time's Champion, in order to save Mel from the clutches of the Time Lord God, Death. The Sixth Doctor, through the TARDIS' telepathic circuits, forces his own regeneration and leads his Ship towards Lakertya, setting up the events of Time and the Rani. The Sixth Doctor's final words become "You want me to become a god?"

See also

• History of Doctor Who - the 1980s

External links

• The Sixth Doctor at The TARDIS Index File website
• The Sixth Doctor on the BBC's Doctor Who website
• Sixth Doctor Gallery
• Sixth Doctor's first season theme music Quicktime file
• Trial of a Time Lord theme music Quicktime file
• Sixth Doctor first title sequence
• Sixth Doctor second title sequence
• Sixth Doctor fansite