Doctor Who - Colin Baker era, part 1

After all that reading, I thought it was time to talk about something else in my blog: my favourite programm, Doctor Who! As you would have seen before, I am a big big fan of when Doctor Who first started, and particularly the first two Doctor Who's. However, I am not one of those fans that will dismiss all the hard work of later producers, and I find a lot to enjoy in the eras of Pertwee, Baker, Davison, Baker, McCoy, McGann, Ecclestone, Tenant, and Smith. I particularly enjoy the McCoy era, because I think it was finally trying to get Doctor Who back on track, and it was 80% successful; I also really enjoy the modern era of Doctor Who (and love the Hartnell/Troughton retrospective stuff - like the photo, or the Macra!). Anyway, I thought I would do something very different on this blog as I thought it was time to re-look at the Colin Baker era.


I have met Colin Baker and do feel sorry for him (and McCoy) sometimes, because they are often lambasted as the wreckers of Doctor Who (though I think the blame is really at the door of JNT, BBC politics, Coronation Street, and so much more). In fact, both Doctor's were really excellent and playing the part at the wrong time - people had simply stopped loving Doctor Who. If you listen to them from Big Finish - this is how things should have been - you'll love them. Buy the first audio from here - The Sirens of Time (Doctor Who). Anyway...


...here are my views of the first quarter of Colin Baker's television time as Doctor Number Six! Click on pictures if you want to buy them. If you click on the link and purchase something a lovely charity called the Living by Giving Trust (see here) will earn some money to support its causes. :)





The Twin Dilemma: The problem with this story is that it comes along straight after Doctor Who - The Caves Of Androzani , which was Peter Davison's final story. The Caves of Androzani is everything that the Twin Dilemma is not: stylish, clever, sad, brilliant, beautiful. Why and how could this have happened? Well, John Nathan-Turner had decided that it would be a great idea to copy the production team of 1966 and bring in the new doctor somewhere in the season, so that the audience could see the new doctor, and then (according to his theory) be more excited when Colin Baker returned. Alas, this does not work in 1984, for various reasons, but especially as the production team had run out of money, so the Twin Dilemma looked cheap and a bit rubbish. Plus, the new Doctor was so different from the fifth incarnation, viewers were left shocked and (like me) a bit appalled! In 2012, however, and viewing the story out of this context, it is not all bad. It has some interesting elements, like the characters of Azmael and Mestor and I enjoyed this side of things..but the rest is pretty rubbish! I'd give it a 5/10. Sorry! :(





Attack of the Cybermen: Now this is more like it. The Attack of the Cybermen is the first episode of a new series, and is a good story. As ever, with this season, the story relies on past stories of Doctor Who, including The Tenth Planet and The Tomb of the Cybermen (which as a big fan of that era, I love the connections!). The TARDIS is lured to Earth in 1985 by a distress call sent by Lytton, who has made contact with a group of Cybermen based in London's sewers. The Doctor and Peri are then captured and forced to take Lytton and the Cybermen in the TARDIS to the Cybermen's home planet Telos. The Cybermen have stolen a time vessel from another race and plan to change history by crashing Halley's Comet into Earth and obliterating it before it can bring about the demise of their original home world, Mondas, in 1986. 8/10. Doctor Who is back on track. Well done to all involved on this one, I loved it. :)


Part Two coming soon, but for now please let me know what you think?