N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!
Unfairly maligned seems to be the description I go to when discussing the Sixth Doctor’s era. I’m not going to dwell on the events surrounding Colin Baker’s departure from the role — there’s been plenty written about that elsewhere.
We can speculate how much damage the low quality of the Sixth Doctor’s opening story might have done to his image in the public’s eye, but as I have previously remarked Colin Baker is the best thing in The Twin Dilemma by a country mile. Whilst the tone of season 22 wasn’t to everyone’s taste, I really appreciated finally watching it in broadcast order and, likewise, flawed in places though it might be, I’ve always liked the Trial season.
If I do have one general criticism of the Sixth Doctor’s era it’s related to the cliffhangers. Has a Doctor ever had a duffer set of episode endings to work with than Colin Baker. It’s a testament to the man’s versatility that he could manage to pull so many dramatic different facial expressions in all those end-of-episode close-ups. Even my liking for The Mark of The Rani‘s cliffhanger is tempered somewhat by it being one of those cheaters with a resolution that edits in some footage of action you weren’t privy to the week before.
It’s somewhat ironic then, that in an era of weak cliffhangers, there is also one of the greatest — Mel’s scream at the end of Part Nine of The Trial of a Time Lord is a remarkable lead-in to the sting!
It’s ironic given how short a tenure it is but the gaps between Revelation of the Daleks and The Trial of a Time Lord and the chronic leaps of narrative required to get Mel back into the correct timeline then go off and meet her, still makes it seem as though the Sixth Doctor’s is an epic lifespan, with perhaps only the Fourth Doctor, of his predecessors, at least feeling like he’s been around as long. It’s no wonder that the Sixth Doctor has proved fertile ground for Big Finish.
Colin Baker’s was the first Doctor I didn’t see any of as a child. Whether this has led me to be more or less objective is debatable, but what it has meant is that I have no nostalgic childhood memories of his all-too-brief time in the TARDIS.
The Sixth Doctor’s era may have been a tumultous one off-screen but based on what we saw on-screen, it’s a genuine shame we didn’t get to see more of him — like the Master watching the events of the Trial in the matrix, I’ve enjoyed myself immensely watching him these past few months.
"My favourite Sixth Doctor stories are Vengeance on Varos, The Two Doctors and The Trial of a Time Lord."
"My least favourite Sixth Doctor story is The Twin Dilemma."
