Sixth Doctor
Encyclopedia : S : SI : SIX : Sixth Doctor
| The Doctor | |
| |
| |
| The Sixth Doctor | |
| Portrayed by | Colin Baker |
|---|---|
| Tenure | |
| First appearance | The Caves of Androzani |
| Last appearance | The Trial of a Time Lord:The Ultimate Foe Time and the Rani (played by Sylvester McCoy) |
| Number of seasons | 3 |
| Appearances | |
| Companions | on television: Peri Brown and Melanie Bush in spin-offs: Angela Jennings, Grant Markham, Frobisher and Evelyn Smythe |
| Related Articles | |
| Preceding | Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) |
| Succeeding | Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) |
| Series | Seasons 21 to 23 |
The Sixth Doctor is the name given to the sixth incarnation of 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.
Overview
The Sixth's Doctor's brightly coloured, mismatched clothes and brash personality set him apart from all his previous incarnations. The Sixth Doctor appeared in three seasons; however, 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. The Sixth Doctor's era is noted for the decision of BBC controller Michael Grade to put the series on an 18-month hiatus.He also appeared in the special Dimensions in Time. There are also novels and audio plays featuring the Sixth Doctor.
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.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.[#endnote_ssregen]
Personality
The Sixth Doctor was an unpredictable egotist, whose garish, multicoloured attire reflected his volatile personality. However, not only did his melodramatic arrogance and caustic sense of humour eventually subside, it actually hid the fact that he had a strong moral sense and a heart of gold (glimpsed at in Revelation of the Daleks, in which he shows great compassion to a dying mutant).While the Sixth Doctor's use of violence 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 when the programme returned from hiatus for Season 23's The Trial of a Time Lord.
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. However, 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.
Story style
Season 22 attracted some criticism for 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 the 14 episode long serial The Trial of a Time Lord, 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
Novels
Target Books Missing Episodes
- The Nightmare Fair by Graham Williams
- The Ultimate Evil by Wally K. Daly
- Mission to Magnus by Philip Martin
- Business Unusual by Gary Russell
- 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
- The Eight Doctors by Terrance Dicks
- Shell Shock by Simon A Forward
Audio dramas
- Business Unusual by Gary Russell
- 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
- The Eight Doctors by Terrance Dicks
- Shell Shock by Simon A Forward
Audio dramas
- Shell Shock by Simon A Forward
Audio dramas
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.
See also
- History of Doctor Who - the 1980s
- Doctor Who serials - Sixth Doctor
External links
- [Sixth Doctor's first season theme music]
- [Trial of a Time Lord theme music]
- [Sixth Doctor first title sequence]
- [Sixth Doctor second title sequence]
- [Alan Kistler's Profile on the Sixth Doctor]
- [Sixth Doctor and Colin Baker fansite]
| The Doctors |
|---|
| First Doctor | Second Doctor | Third Doctor | Fourth Doctor |
| Fifth Doctor | Sixth Doctor | Seventh Doctor |
| Eighth Doctor | Ninth Doctor | Tenth Doctor |
| Other Doctors |
| Cushing Doctor | Shalka Doctor |
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.