Originally published in Revia Volume 2, Issue 8 (March 1994)
Given my remarks about another well-known Baker from Doctor
Who in previous Revia, one might expect me to go with the flow
of fandom and rip on the other (in)famous Doctor that bears
that name. Oh, so he might like Pip and Jane, but besides that,
Colin Baker doesn't deserve half of the negative press he receives.
I don't think that anyone will dispute that Colin Baker himself
is a nice guy, but he proved such a nasty and unlikable Doctor
that his entire tenure as the Doctor has been written off
by the 'elder statesmen'. What these same fans don't seem
to grasp is that the Doctor intended to strand two innocent
humans back in the stone age and risked the lives of his companions
just to satisfy his curiosity in his first few appearances.
Andrew Cartmel's attempts to put mystery back into the Doctor's
character by making him the Dark High Lord of Ancient Gallifrey
were laughable. The whole approach to playing the Doctor as
an unlikable alien does not disrupt the whole of the series'
history, but also removes him from being a scarf-stumbling
idiot and restore him to a mysterious being. Besides, I think
that all of the regenerations are extensions of facets of
the Doctor's personality. With Hartnell representing age and
wisdom, Troughton representing nervousness and wit, Pertwee
representing action and gadgetry, Davison representing youthfulness,
and McCoy representing a script editor who had no idea how
that Doctor should be played. Colin Baker's Doctor just represents
the darkness and negativity in the Doctor's personality.
The saddest thing about Colin Baker's era is that he starred
in some less than fantastic stories, and even then in only
two seasons. This fact is almost wholly attributable to the
fact that John Nathan-Turner stayed with the series. Season
21 showed signs of burnout, and a new Doctor and new Producer
could have given the series a much needed freshness. I'll
just put it this way: Imagine JN-T leaving with The Caves
of Androzani. Graeme Harper comes in as producer, meshing
perfectly with Eric Saward who stays on as script editor.
Mel is never created, the show is not put on hiatus ('The
people making Doctor Who have become complacent'- Michael
Grade. A new team would not be complacent), Saward doesn't
get pissed off and leave, the series goes on with the original,
full-length season 23, and Colin Baker stays through at least
season 25.
If I had a time machine (the universe would not be safe-
ed.), one of the first things I would do is not retrieve missing
episodes, rather it would be to convince JN-T to leave at
the end of season 21. I cannot even begin to conceive how
amazing a 22 episode season 25 starring Colin Baker and Sophie
Aldred, overseen by Saward and Harper, would be. Colin Baker
would have the character of the Doctor totally down, and a
regeneration at the end of the season would spark the ratings
up and provide for another new beginning, leaving Colin with
a four-year legacy of at least decent episodes. You know there
was no way in hell Eric Saward would ever approve of something
like, well, like all of season 25 except Remembrance of the
Daleks. If my little theoretical chain of events came true,
I think that it is not inconceivable that that original series
would still be in production today.
So before you get out your pens and write some more boring,
derivative 'he's not nice' criticisms, go back and watch some
of the better stuff in Colin's era (Vengeance on Varos, Terror
of the Vervoids, Revelation of the Daleks) and remind yourself
that, like most Doctor Who in the late Eighties, it's all
JN-T's damn fault.
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