It's a sad fact but in most surveys, Colin Baker's Time Lord will be at the bottom of the TV Docs, or very near to it, at least. Many things contribute to this: the decision to clad him in a garish circus outfit, the decision by script editor Eric Saward to make the series more adult and violent and the choice of making this Doctor initially unlikeable. In his first story, he is cowardly, vain, rude, and tries to strangle Peri. In Rassilon's name, what were they thinking of!? Season 22 is a nasty collection of amoral, cynical tales with a Doctor who quips when people die horribly. The Doctor is brutish, aggressive and verbally abuses his companion. Season 23 has a more toned down Doctor but by now, owing to the hiatus and tragic personal circumstances, Baker is now comfort eating and sporting a tight curly perm. Behind the scenes, the show is in total meltdown. It wasn't Baker's fault that the show was this bad but he didn't help matters much, either. If you watch Season 22, you see a lead performance that is broad and brash and totally lacking in nuance. Capaldi has shown how to make a less user friendly Time Lord work but in 1985 this seemed beyond Baker's capabilities. Since leaving, he's brought a totally different and brilliant Sixth Doctor to life for Big Finish but the truth is he was pretty poor on the telly.
Writer of The Blog of Delights, a review site covering film, TV, cult TV, books and audio. Fan of Dr Who, Bond, X-Men and Marvel. Also the writer of e-book 'Fictional Legends: Doctor Who - the TV Adventures' for Collca.
