Previous Topics:
First
Second
Third
Fourth
Fifth

Now for the next installment; the Sixth Doctor. Same rules apply, from "The Twin Dilemma" to "The Ultimate Foe" what about the Sixth Doctor's era would you improve if you could.

For me the first thing I would do is changing his behavior in his first story. While I can understand how making him incredibly unstable after his regeneration can make a good story, at times he can come off as too psychotic, which didn't leave a good impression on most people, and even worse that it came at the end of a season, meaning it would be a good while before he'd have the chance to make up for it.

Improve the relationship between him and Peri; a vitriolic friendship is nice, but at times it seemed like the genuinely disliked eachother.

Less violence. It worked well with Five, because it contrasted against who he was, and I felt it paid off in "Androzani", but often times it looks like it's there simply for the sake of it.

Better communication during the Trial season between everyone that was involved. Stories were written without knowing how they would fit into the final product, with even the final story being rewritten completely, which lead up to a mess of a season, and some confusion amongst cast and staff. When Colin Baker asked about the Doctor's actions in "Mindwarp" and why he was acting like that, he was basically told "I don't know, just go with it".

Most importantly, give Baker his third season at the least, he signed on for three years, so don't cheat him out on that. Instead of blaming him for the show's failings. Use that to at least try and gets things right, as well as give Mel a proper introduction on where/when she met the Doctor.

Most of the stuff that needed changing with this era, we've discussed several times before, but here goes.....

The Doctor, get rid of that costume and give him something more appropriate to wear. Make him a lot less violent and arrogant and nasty to everyone in The Twin Dilemma and start him off how he was in Season 23 where he warm, funny and endearing. No Doctor should ever have to alienate the viewer like that on his debut in this way.

I agree with the OP, the bickering between the regulars I would tone down and have it more akin to Season 23 where they got on much better but it was too late.

As discussed in the last thread I'd have The Twin Dilemma start of Season 22, at least if people didn't like him initially they only had to wait a week rather than nine months to see if he was any better.

Season 22 would contain a lot less violence and The Doctor himself would not be responsible for throwing people in acid baths and killing Shockeye with a net. I'd sack Saward who seems to have been responsible for allowing a lot of that violence to happen and after Season 22 had finished I'd have got rid of JNT to freshen things up.

There would be no hiatus because I would have the power to stop it and therefore the original Season 23 would have taken place with the return of The Autons, The Ice warriors, Sil and The Celestrial Toymaker. Peri would have stayed until the end of the Season so the nice friendship would have flourished further.

As for the Trial Season itself, I would have the events of Mindwarp explained properly.Peri wouldn't have got killed off, I'd have brought Mel in and had her taken over by Kiv for that story...and kept it that way!

I'd variate the cliffhangers more, less zooming in on The Doctor's face nearly every week. Less courtroom action in Mindwarp, it went too far, it worked loverly in the Vervoid Story. I would also have The Master more involved in the main plot and in more episodes, maybe being the prosecutors himself, not sure how well that worked.

Finally, I'd have kept the same theme music from Davison's time the same throughout the Sixth Doctor's Era and best of all, I would never have sacked Colin Baker and let him do at least another two years in the role to establish himself and repair the damage from that terrible debut.

Well these two posts cover pretty much everything I would've said! The costume, too much bickering, the Saward cynicism.....

Season 22 Is my least rewatched season by some distance. However muddled it is, I have returned to TOATL and there is much to enjoy, though.

Like to echo the comments about Colin. By his second year, I'd come to really like his Doctor, and fans know how much he loved the part and what a lovely bloke he is. His treatment at the time was an expletive deleted disgrace. Thank heavens for Big Finish. (He was great in 5ish too...)

The Doctor: The problem was about planning. The writers (and Colin) thought they would have years so slowly unpick the character of the sixth Doctor but, in the end, we barely had two seasons out of him. What we ended up with was a Doctor who was not automatically likeable in a costume that was frankly ridiculous.

Peri: Likeable but ultimately afraid of her shadow. She had many more tender moments with the Doctor than is perhaps remembered, and by Trial they were really very fond of each other. She really needed to be stronger/braver and the relationship she had with the Doctor in Trial should have been the way they were written from Attack of the Cybermen.

The Writing: Just appalling by Season 22 - aimed totally at the fans, with continuity-laden plots that would have been utterly inaccessible to the vast majority of viewers. Many of the stories resolved themselves in a way that made the Doctor's presence incidental rather than crucial.

Violence: Whilst I don't mind a bit of violence, the show seemed to be going a little too dark. The Sontaran's severed leg and the rat being eaten live in The Two Doctors were a good example of completely unnecessary content at family tea time.

Colin Baker: In my opinion, he was just wonderful and I am greatly saddened that we didn't have a longer, more positive run with him as the Doctor.

The Format: The 45-minute episodes were not really taken advantage of. How wonderful if they'd gone for it - full on - and had a season of fast paced, self-contained 45 minute episodes like we do now. The Two Doctors - good lord, what a long, padded-out story!

Change the Doctor's costume
Tone down the violence
A friendlier relationship between the Doctor and Peri
Keep Colin on for longer

Agree about Colin's costume, simply awful. Deserved a better one.
Less violence, sack Seward.
Move JNT on and get another producer.
Keep the 45 minute episodes.
Keep Peri until the end of TOATL.
Let Colin have another season.

More bloody stories!

Cancelling for 18 months then claiming thats 1 year hes lost was bull**it!

Scrap the costume. Get a new producer and script editor. Keep the violence and the slightly more adult feel, but make it stylised, not simply nasty. Play to Colin Baker's considerable strengths as an actor ( particularly his erudition and sly wit). Keep the Doctor and Peri together for longer. Scrap the tiresome and tedious Trial of a Time Lord season and replace it with better stories.

Most of all, keep Colin Baker in the role for as long as possible, if only to prevent the gurning embarrassment that was to follow.

I presume that particular quote refers to mr. Mccoy. Little harsh IMO as i have always felt sorry for both the 6th & 7th doctors & especially the stories they were given.

Anyway back to the OP topic of convsersation:

1) At the time as a 14 year old i liked the 6th dr's costume, but when i see it now, its sheer embarrassing. To be fair to colin, he has always said he never got a say in his costume & to use his words "wanted a costume what chris (ecclestone) had.

2) Referring to my first paragraph. I always thought colin was a good actor for the role as i do everyone who has played the dr. What let colin ( & sylvester) down was shockingly badly, poorly written scripts.

3) He should have been given longer in the role.

Lovely to see so many people saying Colin should have had longer in the role!

It was. To this long time fan (since the Troughton era), the McCoy era was an utter travesty. I know the aim of Doctor Who is to have people watching the show through their fingers - but surely not at how terrible the show had become. The McCoy years failed in every department for me. The central character was played by someone who, in my opinion, could not act in any acceptable sense. He was saddled with the worst companion in the series' history (and the universe's oldest teenager). And the writing was atrociously bad.

It was a show dying on its arse and the death throes were excruciating to witness. It a relief when it was put out of our misery.

I enjoyed most of Colin's stories....I too think he should have stayed for another year at least.
BUT: Without that bloody awful coat!!
Have a new companion to replace screechy Mel!
Have him re-united with Peri......and they are so pleased to see each other again!
Have an adventure with 'The Meddling Monk' (bit of comedy banter between he and the Doctor)
Keep the Theme Tune as it was in Davison's era!!

Colin's era would have been great with a different producer, script editor, costume & you changed all the stories!

What was that new theme tune in 1986 all about? 'The Doctor Who Blues-Boogie', it should have been called.

QUITE! It was awful....sounded like someone trying it out on a Bontempi organ from Woolworths! No bass no nothing, just a whiny sound to my ears.

But to give it credit - not as bad as the non-seen Jon Pertwee 'New Music' (as shown on the Carnival of Monsters DVD) !!

I must be one of the few who never really thought much of his doctor. I know he's a lovely chap and would agree with the statement that he is probably the best on the big finish audios.... Yet were it up to me I don't know if I'd have given his doctor more years.

I think it's because I much preferred syl McCoy and probably would rather the extra seasons went to him.

OP, are you doing a thread on the 7th Doctor's Era?

I have a feeling that thread will provoke plenty of discussion........

No Twin Dilemma - go straight into Attack of the Cybermen and deal with the regeneration at the beginning, he was still quite erratic at the beginning so it could have worked.

Should have stayed with the 45 minute episode format - it works for new who!

No Trial of a Timelord, should have gone with the lost season.

JNT should have gone at the end of PD's run.

No Bonnie Langford. EVER.

No Pip & Jane Baker.

The costume.

Colin should have had more time.

Didn't mind the new theme tune to be honest.

The obvious ones (the cotume, Sawrd, the violence, Mel, the continuity porn of Attack) have been discussed to death too many times, so I'll focus on what I see as the biggest mistake that was made - Trial should never have happened.

I just don't know what was going through Sawrd and JNT's minds when they thought "We've just avoided being cancelled by the skin of our teeth, we're losing viewers in droves, and we need to bring people back to the show this season or it's all over... let's do a fourteen-part story!"

Obviously, we as fans know that really it's four (mostly) separate stories, but casuals - especially at the time - wouldn't know that.

Imagine what would go through the minds of all but the hardcore when thinking "There was all that fuss about Doctor Who being cancelled then coming back - let's see what all the fuss is about..." only to tune in and see the BBC continuity guys having to preceed the episode with a spoken recap of the season so far, followed by opening credits that mention "Part Eleven" or something... You just wouldn't bother carrying on, would you?

When you're making a show that nearly got permanently axed due in large part to alienating it's audience, don't come back with a bloody fourteen part story that not even people watching every week could really follow without help from the continuity announcers.

Season 23 should have been a sequence of short, unconnected stories (hell, I'd have probably done two two-parters, two three-parters and a four-part finale [budget permitting of course]) because surely, surely, if you desperately need new viewers to jump in in their droves, you should be giving them as many places to jump in as possible.

Was the official title 'valeyard' specially written so the Doctor could come out with snide and deliberate malapropisms upon that official name during the trial?