Colin Baker’s time as sixth Doctor Who cut short but audio dramas came to the rescue

Colin Baker was so angry when sacked as Dr Who that he refused to hand over the baton with a traditional ‘regeneration’ episode.

Colin Baker, who played Dr Who from 1984 to 1986.

When Colin Baker was told he would be replaced as the time-travelling adventurer in long-running television show Doctor Who, he was so angry that he refused to film the regeneration (the process by which one doctor transforms into the next), leaving Sylvester McCoy to don a blond curly wig as the sixth Doctor became the seventh.

Baker’s sixth Doctor – clad in a multicolour patchwork costume that became an emblem for his jumbled personality – was denied the opportunity to fully develop his iteration of the Time Lord from Gallifrey when his run, 1984-86, came to an end.

But the sixth Doctor has had a stellar and lengthy run in a series of full-cast audio adventures produced by Big Finish since 1999. It has given Baker the opportunity to see “old Sixie” – as he refers to him – evolve in the way he had always intended.

“I feel grateful, more content and less hacked-off than when I had to leave earlier than I wanted with my journey unfinished,” Baker, 78, tells The Australian. “I quite liked the idea of people not necessarily being what you think they are when you first meet them, and that was the brave decision we made with the sixth Doctor.”

When Peter Davison’s fifth Doctor regenerated, fans of the show were shocked to see a troubled and traumatic transformation. The new Doctor was irritable, erratic and arrogant. He tried to strangle companion Peri (Nicola Bryant). The boyish charm of his predecessor was gone. Fans did not warm to the new Doctor.

Nicola Bryant as Peri with Baker’s sixth Doctor.

“I had a plan for how the sixth Doctor would mellow,” Baker explains. “It was like the character of Darcy in Pride and Prejudice who for 90 per cent of the time is a pain in the neck but it turns out that he is really the only decent person in the story.”

Old Sixie became more balanced and compassionate while still commanding, bold and brash. The audio dramas have enabled this storyline to continue, with new and old companions including Peri and Mel (Bonnie Langford), as the Doctor travels through time and space in a blue Police Box, outwitting alien enemies and saving planets.

Baker had appeared in the series as Time Lord Commander Maxil, during Davison’s era, before being cast in the iconic role. Each actor blends their personality with the Doctor’s enduring traits: intelligence, wisdom, humanity and courage. “There is a chunk of me, I’m sure, in the sixth Doctor,” Baker says.

Thirteen actors have helmed the series since 1963. Baker is especially friendly with Davison, McCoy and Paul McGann, who played the eighth Doctor in a 1996 movie after the show was cancelled in 1989. The series was rebooted with Christopher Eccleston in 2005. “There is a separation between new Who and old Who,” Baker clarifies. “We are the classics and they are the current holders of the baton.”

In the 1985 story, The Two Doctors, Baker worked with Patrick Troughton, who had taken over from William Hartnell in 1966. “If Pat hadn’t done such a thundering good job of turning the first Doctor into the second Doctor, we wouldn’t be here,” Baker argues. He rates Troughton as his favourite Doctor.

In Baker’s second and final season, the sixth Doctor was put on trial by his fellow Time Lords, which echoed the program itself. It was looking tired and cliched, diminished by poor writing and starved of funds. There was an 18-month hiatus between seasons. The show’s future was in doubt. Michael Grade, BBC1’s controller, hated Doctor Who and clashed with producer John Nathan-Turner. Baker was collateral damage.

Several writers on the audio adventures were fans of the sixth Doctor as children. One was Russell T. Davies, who revived Doctor Who in 2005 and is returning as showrunner. As a 14-year-old in 1986, Davies wrote Mind of the Hodiac, to be released by Big Finish in March 2022.

“That the man who turned out to be Russell T. thought my Doctor was worth writing a story about is a tremendous boost and you can see the roots of the writer he became,” Baker says. “To have him back as showrunner guarantees the future of the show.”

Jodie Whittaker will hand in the Tardis key after the next season and several special episodes. Baker says Whittaker has been “wonderful”, adding a female Doctor was “long overdue”. He suggests another woman and an actor or colour would be better than another “middle-aged white guy”.

While the longest-running science-fiction television show will soon have a new lead protagonist, there will only be one sixth Doctor. It is a matter of pride, and vindication, that the sixth Doctor has been voted by fans as the most popular of the Big Finish Doctors. “It’s quite a nice badge to wear: I was the sixth Doctor,” Baker says. “And as one of my children pointed out to me very kindly, ‘When you die, it will be on the news you know’. Oh, thanks for that. Sadly, I won’t be watching.”

Doctor Who – The Sixth Doctor Adventures is available on CD or digital download, and Doctor Who – The Lost Stories: Mind of the Hodiac is available for pre-order from Big Finish