Why Every Lead Actor Left Doctor Who

8. Colin Baker

Sixth Doctor Colin Baker
BBC Studios

Colin Baker was at the helm for one of the most turbulent periods in Doctor Who history.

In 1985, the show was put on hiatus due to concerns about its quality and its levels of violence. BBC executive Michael Grade believed Doctor Who felt cheap compared to the likes of Star Wars and E.T., saying "What we were serving up as science fiction was garbage".

Not exactly a fair comparison, but point taken.

Though Doctor Who did return after its hiatus with the season-long story Trial of a Time Lord, it wasn't long before Baker himself had a target on his back. With higher-ups still not convinced by the show's quality (or ratings), they removed him from the role.

Though he was offered a final adventure that would conclude with the Sixth Doctor's departure, Baker refused to return for anything less than a full season. As a result, he wasn't even present for his own regeneration scene, with Sylvester McCoy instead adorning a blonde curly wig.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!