Re: Why WAS the 6th Doctor era SO BAD?!

On 10/01/2025 18:28, John Hall wrote:

In message <xn0p0n4qo8gvst5003@post.eweka.nl>, Blueshirt <blueshirt@indigo.news> writes

Ubiquitous wrote:
>

What went wrong with the 6th Doctor era? Was it really that
bad? Did Colin Baker deserve to be sacked from his role as the
Doctor?

>
Great actor but for me the Sixth Doctor was strangled at birth
by JNT's idea of making him look like a clown. Trying to
strangle his companion in his first episode [The Twin Dilemma]
didn't help his cause either.
>
It was all downhill after that...

 Yep. Colin Baker was let down by his producer and scriptwriters. An "edgy" Doctor just isn't right for someone who, for all his quirks, should be an unashamedly heroic character. (At least post the First Doctor's early days.)
 

>
>

00:00- Introduction
00:35- The End Of The 5th Doctor Era
02:12- The Twin Dilemma
04:23- Character
07:05- Season 22
12:00- Hiatus
13:33- Season 23
16:56- The Aftermath
18:36- Conclusion
>
https://youtu.be/Vzu4KwH5Owg?si=ccJUpBtGN0AxH3X2
>
Yeah, he's the worst of the classic series.

>
I'd be more inclined to say the Seventh Doctor was the worst
Doctor of the classic era... the failings of the Sixth Doctor's
era were not learnt from and whilst Sylvester McCoy generally
had [potentially] better scripts to work with, I don't think
McCoy was up to the task.

 I know I'm in a minority here, I rather liked McCoy's Doctor.

>
Both the Sixth and Seventh Doctor's were in a fight against the
BBC for survival at that time though, Daleks and Cybermen were
not the Doctor's main enemy. But for me, JNT played in to their
hands by turning the show in to a pantomime.

 Things greatly improved when Ace replaced Mel as the companion. Not that that was Bonnie Langford's fault, but again down to the way her character was written.
 I think there was a big improvement in the scripts for the final series, and "Battlefield" is one of my all-time favourite stories, with a couple

Battlefield was a big improvement over the previous McCoy episodes and the best of his final series. I was expecting him to last 3 more series especially then things were improving.

of others being almost as good. (And FWIW the authors of The Discontinuity Guide agree with me.) So I was particularly sad that it

That would be Keith Topping et. al. I have the original on my shelf. Did it ever get a second edition?

was cancelled when it seemed on an upwards trend. But it was clear that the BBC had the knives out for it when they scheduled it against "Coronation Street".

That was during Peter Davison's tenure. McCoy returned to Saturdays.
--
The True Doctor https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCngrZwoS0n21IRcXpKO79Lw
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