The era of the Sixth Doctor marks the beginning of the decline in Doctor Who’s fortunes at the BBC, though the reasons have very little to do with the actual quality of the stories. Nevertheless, Colin Baker’s is perhaps the most controversial incarnation of the Time Lord: brash, sarcastic, pompous, arrogant. He warms up considerably as time passes, but he’s certainly the closest we’ve ever come to having Pride and Prejudice’s Mr. Darcy as a version of the Doctor - an acquired taste, to be sure.
The stories also became darker and more violent, modeled after the success of Peter Davison’s acclaimed finale, The Caves of Androzani, and taking a cue from the gritty, rough Thatcherite Britain of the 1980s. Not all of them were anywhere near as successful, but it certainly provided a unity of style to the 22nd season…and an excuse for BBC executives (who were no fans of the show) to begin gutting the program as quickly as possible.
In spite of all the controversy, there is still much to enjoy, much to be fascinated by, and much to consider during the 6th Doctor’s short tenure - and Colin Baker certainly grows on the viewer as time passes. His era deserves much re-evaluation.
ESSENTIAL VIEWING - THE SIXTH DOCTOR (COLIN BAKER)
1984 - 1986
Season 22 - 2 Forty-Five minute episodes
There are few stories as pilloried as Attack of the Cybermen…which confuses me to no end. How can a story with so many good qualities be such a pariah to fandom - qualities such as:
(1) Cybermen that seem unstoppable! Critics claim they are overly-vulnerable in this story…in actual fact, they seem to be everywhere, crawling out of the corners and the shadows…one falls, another takes its place. Even the CyberLeader is particularly masochistic and brutal.
(2) Moments of actual thrill - Cybermen commandeering the TARDIS; real violence with real consequences (the torture of Lytton still gives me chills); dark and creepy London sewers transitioning into the icy cold areas of Telos; the Doctor’s pyrotechnic confrontations with the monsters; painful and poignant sacrifices…
The last point is particularly important, as the minor characters are all given enough personality and background to make their deaths appropriately appalling. You actually feel the deaths of characters such as Griffiths, Russell, Flast, even Lytton…
(3) Colin Baker, taking advantage of the situation and delivering a stronger, more effective introduction to his character than his unhinged debut story. He’s brash, arrogant, pompous…but also protective, sly, dangerous, and heroic. He is also, on occasion, WRONG…and it’s something he faces up to in the final scene. Baker delivers a very underrated performance from his first minute of screen time.
(4) The direction is action-packed and fast-paced, on an Earthshock-level. Matthew Robinson takes advantage of every interesting angle, every fascinating close-up, and every set-piece to deliver a mini-action film. A shame this would be his final contribution to the classic series.
(5) The continuity…which is handled with surprising flair. Only the obsessed will care that the Cyber-tombs aren’t exactly like those in the Second Doctor’s era…the rest of the audience appreciates the superb scale of the sets. It’s a plot that manages to take many elements of previous Cyber stories and create something epic and fascinating (in the style of several Doctor Who novels)…WITHOUT alienating the general audience. How hard is it to understand? Cybermen wish to change history and save their original home world…makes sense to me!
It’s an uncompromising story, with much to enjoy. It’s proud of what it is, but it seems to rub many people the wrong way. Luckily, I’m not one of them.
Season 22 - 2 Forty-Five minute episodes
A much under-rated story, primarily remembered for its rather bleak, violent situations and the supposed “controversy” (and it’s nothing of the sort…watch the scene) of the Doctor trying to avoid a nasty acid bath. In actual fact, Vengeance on Varos is one of the most original stories in quite some time, dealing with issues of television-obsessed audiences hungry for more disgusting violence & spectacle - a spectacle used by the powers that be to distract the populace from the corruption and greed of their own government.
Full of top quality performances (especially Martin Jarvis as the tortured, conscience-stricken Governor), a very alien & distant Doctor, and the use of a wonderful Greek chorus in the form of the bickering TV watchers Arak and Etta, Vengeance on Varos actually feels even more timely and relevant in today’s reality-TV-consuming climate than it did in the 1980s. It also boasts the most wonderful monster creation of the Sixth Doctor’s era: the wriggling, slimy, devious businessman-cum-slug Sil, played with joyous, tongue-rolling malevolence by Nabil Shaban.
Apart from a few poor performances on the rebel side (stand up, Jason Connery), Varos is in need of much re-evaluation…if, for nothing else, than both the stunning episode one cliffhanger, and the downbeat, thought-provoking final scene.
Season 22 - 2 Forty-Five minute episodes
A gorgeous historical setting…some beautiful filming and exceptional direction…Colin Baker at his most Doctor-ish, protecting history from the machinations of two self-involved Time Lords…The Mark of the Rani is seriously under-rated, and a joy to watch.
OK, some of the dialogue is tongue-twistingly perverse (and this will be Pip & Jane Baker’s most restrained script for the series)…but that’s part of its charm. This a warm, bracing outing, sitting at the heart of a very dark and grim season of stories, and it contains much of the historical fun and games that used to be a hallmark of the First Doctor’s era. But it’s given a lovely 80s twist, with movie-calibre direction from the able hand of Sarah Hellings, who would take the lessons she learned here and apply them to other sumptuous productions, particularly Granada’s exceptional Sherlock Holmes series. It looks, feels, and - for the most part, sounds - like an English water-colour come to life…with a few action set-pieces thrown in for good measure. 
It’s also the story that introduces the sultry, cold and calculating Rani: a Time Lady scientist who wouldn’t be out of place in either an episode of Dallas or Dynasty…and she’s utterly brilliant. Whether going wit-to-wit with the Doctor, or taking the complete piss out of the Master and his schemes, Kate O’Mara’s performance fires on all cylinders…and she ranks with Sil as the other memorable creation of this era.
Watch The Mark of the Rani, and you’ll be convinced that all Doctor Who stories should be period pieces…and you’ll also wonder why anyone could have contemplated the notion that the sublime Colin Baker wasn’t a likeable Doctor!
Season 22 - 2 Forty-Five minutes episodes
There’s never been a Doctor Who like this one: a dark, morbid, twisted, black comedy art film, with flashes of Evelyn Waugh-inspired darkness, and Sam Peckinpah-influenced violence-as-poetry. It’s full of rich & witty dialogue, and has the best ensemble cast of the Colin Baker era, including William Gaunt, Clive Owen and Elanor Bron…
…with this week’s special guest stars…The Doctor and the Daleks.
There really isn’t anything to compare it to - a labyrinth of catacombs tying together a labyrinthian plot, with characters upon characters, schemes upon schemes, and glorious set piece upon glorious set piece. Sitting at the heart of it all is Davros, in what may be his best character moment since his introduction in Genesis of the Daleks. Is he slowly growing more and more insane? Or is he planning the most incredible deception-cum-takeover in galactic history? Terry Molloy has never been better as the scheming creator of the Daleks: adding soft, vicious, disturbing whispers & asides to his usual ranting and raving; he is able to showcase fully the guile, deceit and criminal genius that makes him one of the most dangerous & evil creatures in the universe. His newly minted gold-and-white Daleks add just the right luster to the proceedings.
This might not be for everyone: a futuristic DJ battling Daleks with a rock-n-roll gun…a vile and creepy soap opera between morticians…cannibalism taken to the most clinical level…another faction of Daleks sweeping in to (sort of) save the day…even the Doctor doesn’t seem quite sure what to make of it all…then again, he did suffer a momentary crisis of conscience about his (sort of) impending death…
…but as a one-off experiment, writer Eric Saward and director Graeme Harper score an operatic triumph with Revelation of the Daleks. It’s a great pity that the Doctor Who universe would have to wait another 20 years before maestro Harper returned to helm another episode…
Season 23 - 4 stories across 14 episodes
A season-spanning story-arc…covering 3 separate adventures and a final wrap-up…the Doctor on trial for his life…temporal paradoxes…a return to the nightmare of the Gallifreyan Matrix…The Trial of a Time Lord is, by turns, brilliant, boring, astounding, plodding, nuts, calculating, disappointing, and fascinating. The Sixth Doctor era in a nutshell, perhaps…?
It opens with The Mysterious Planet - which underlines the positives and negatives of the season as a whole. It raises the game of Doctor Who’s usual visual effects standards…it features the best ever depiction of the relationship between the Sixth Doctor and Peri - warm, friendly, and loving…it introduces us to the last great Robert Holmes double act, led by Tony Selby as the lovely rouge Sabalom Glitz…it introduces the frustrated Inquisitor, and the cold, calculating, sadistic Valeyard…
…and then it drops the ball! Joan Simms as a screeching, cliched harridan warlord…the most plastic-looking corridors ever…really REALLY bad extras in crowd scenes…a limp guest cast and a woefully mis-cast Tom Chadbon as the pathetic Merdeen…too many useless cuts back and forth between the trial room…
Hmmm…not such a good start.
Mindwarp comes next…and to this day I can’t understand why so many fans hate it…when it’s easily the best damn set of episodes in the Sixth Doctor’s entire era. It comes with an amazing ensemble cast (including Patrick Ryecart, Trevor Owen, and Christopher Ryan), led by the MAGNIFICENT (and you MUST use capitals when referring to him) Brian Blessed as King Yrcanos…some incredibly dark and disturbing direction…astonishing make-up and effects work…a sublime musical score by newcomer Richard Hartley…the apparent death of Peri as the climax to a script that actually goes out of its way to play with audience perceptions…trial scenes that suddenly seem very dangerous…
…and Colin Baker’s finest performance. At times, he is as insatiably curious, heroic and confident a Doctor as we have ever known him to be…and then he’s a slimy, crawling toady of a coward, no better than Sil…once again played with beautiful comic timing by the returning Nabil Shaban.
The only part of the Trial that lives up to its potential…and it’s held in contempt? The mind boggles…
Terror of the Vervoids comes along to ruin everything…and not because it’s the most traditional set of Doctor Who episodes in over a decade…and not because it’s a well-structured murder mystery (and it really is)…
Episodes 9 to 12 are a cheese fest. The direction is flat and limp, the lighting is too bright, the acting is too arch and/or too lazy…the effects work and musical score are terribly uninspired (the Vervoids are just…very strange and disappointing), and the dialogue so nails-on-blackboard horrible that it cemented Pip & Jane Baker’s writing reputation for all time! As for Bonnie Langford…dear god…even those people who actually LIKE Mel (and there are a few out there) must agree that her introduction tends to leave the audience speechless…and NOT in a good way.
Don’t believe me? Go and watch it yourself…and try not to mutter “dear lord”…
And then, due to behind-the-scenes issues, Robert Holmes collides with Pip & Jane at the scripting stage…it could have resulted in a nightmare. Instead, The Ultimate Foe almost (and I do mean, almost) pulls the entire season out of the fire. Revelations upon revelations…a sudden upswing in the quality of the direction…a return to some seriously good music and F/X…the welcome re-appearance of Glitz…the surprise appearance of the Master…and Colin Baker owning every one of his scenes…matched move for move by the incomparable Michael Jayston as the Valeyard.
Unfortunately, we get Bonnie Langford as the ramped up Mel…more action packed than in her Vervoids debut, but forced to spout even more ridiculous lines about megabyte modems and being as boring as they come. And while we’re on the subject of lines, can ANYONE tell me what the “catharsis of spurious morality” really is?!? It’s the last in a series of ridiculously scripted lines that would have made Tom Baker at his most erratic blush down to his very toenails!
And it ends on a cliffhanger…but one that hasn’t been dealt with since…which begs the question…what was the POINT? And the less said about the 6th Doctor’s final words (“Carrot juice, carrot juice, carrot juice”) the better!
The Trial of a Time Lord: a 14-part epic that lurches between the good and the gobshite. If nothing else, it gets points for ambition, and it does manage to entertain. It’s less than the sum of its parts, but as a closing commentary on the Sixth Doctor’s era, it remains essential viewing.
