10 Biggest Controversies In Doctor Who History

Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor isn't exactly at the top of the pile when it comes to fan adoration, and his short tenure on the show - which was interrupted by an 18-month hiatus - is arguably the weakest in the programme's history.

But more specifically, an issue that's often brought up in relation to his era is its violence.

In Baker's debut serial - The Twin Dilemma - he strangles his companion Peri Brown. In Attack of the Cybermen, Lytton's hands are crushed into a bloody mess by the titular villains, and in Vengeance on Varos, the Doctor appears totally fine after causing two guards to fall into an acid bath and die horribly. Then, in The Two Doctors, he suffocates Shockeye after ambushing him in the woods. Brutal.

While there's always been violence and death in Doctor Who, it stood out during Baker's era because his Doctor had an almost nonchalant attitude towards it. For example, after the guards fall into the acid bath, the Doctor drops a cheesy one-liner rather than displaying remorse. A lot of fans hate this element of the Baker era because it feels unlike the Doctor to behave in this manner, and while there are those who defend it, there's no escaping the fact that it's controversial.

The darker tone of the Baker years is also one of the reasons why Michael Grade - a BBC boss in the 1980s - didn't like Doctor Who. In a 2004 interview, he stated that the show was "very violent and it had lost its magic", and as a result, he put it on hiatus, fired Colin Baker, and ultimately, it was cancelled altogether in 1989.

But more on that later.