Doctor Who: 5 Ways Big Finish Enhances The Sixth Doctor

Back in the 1980s, the show runners at the time decided that the Sixth Doctor would be rough and a little unpredictable, suffering post-regeneration trauma. This led to an arrogant know-it-all Doctor (even more than usual) who, for the majority of their time together, was arguing with his companion, Peri. This TARDIS team had great potential, which is now really exploited at Big Finish. It becomes irritating when your two leads aren’t getting on for no good reason. Any falling out in the audio stories is warranted and fully makes sense in regards to the story. But the pointless bickering is stripped away, leaving two best friends who in the audio scripts really understand.

A lot of the writing in general is much closer to the new series, and the team at Big Finish are marvellous at handling large and complex storylines. Throughout his time on audio, The Sixth Doctor has been involved in many stories, with standouts such as when he’s joined by The Eighth Doctor’s companion, Charley, and his 2015 ‘The Last Adventure’ release. With Big Finish you get a lot of attention to detail, which the stories benefit from massively, from the plot itself to their handling of The Doctor.

This is not to say the original TV scripts are bad, ‘Vengeance on Varos’ and ‘Revelation of the Daleks’ are some of the best stories of the 1980s. But their handling of Colin’s Doctor does not fully exploit his potential. Big Finish has created iconic stories such as ‘Davros’, ‘Jubilee’ and more recently ‘Hour of the Cybermen’. The writing is more complex and layered. With each new companion or villain being written perfectly to play off Colin’s Doctor.