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From: The True Doctor <agamemnon@hello.to.NO_SPAM>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.drwho,uk.media.tv.sf.drwho,rec.arts.sf.tv
Subject: Re: Why WAS the 6th Doctor era SO BAD?!
Date: Sat, 11 Jan 2025 01:46:57 +0000
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On 10/01/2025 18:28, John Hall wrote:
> In message <xn0p0n4qo8gvst5003@post.eweka.nl>, Blueshirt 
> <blueshirt@indigo.news> writes
>> Ubiquitous wrote:
>>
>>> What went wrong with the 6th Doctor era? Was it really that
>>> bad? Did Colin Baker deserve to be sacked from his role as the
>>> Doctor?
>>
>> Great actor but for me the Sixth Doctor was strangled at birth
>> by JNT's idea of making him look like a clown. Trying to
>> strangle his companion in his first episode [The Twin Dilemma]
>> didn't help his cause either.
>>
>> It was all downhill after that...
> 
> Yep. Colin Baker was let down by his producer and scriptwriters. An 
> "edgy" Doctor just isn't right for someone who, for all his quirks, 
> should be an unashamedly heroic character. (At least post the First 
> Doctor's early days.)
> 
>>
>>
>>> 00:00- Introduction
>>> 00:35- The End Of The 5th Doctor Era
>>> 02:12- The Twin Dilemma
>>> 04:23- Character
>>> 07:05- Season 22
>>> 12:00- Hiatus
>>> 13:33- Season 23
>>> 16:56- The Aftermath
>>> 18:36- Conclusion
>>>
>>> https://youtu.be/Vzu4KwH5Owg?si=ccJUpBtGN0AxH3X2
>>>
>>> Yeah, he's the worst of the classic series.
>>
>> I'd be more inclined to say the Seventh Doctor was the worst
>> Doctor of the classic era... the failings of the Sixth Doctor's
>> era were not learnt from and whilst Sylvester McCoy generally
>> had [potentially] better scripts to work with, I don't think
>> McCoy was up to the task.
> 
> I know I'm in a minority here, I rather liked McCoy's Doctor.
>>
>> Both the Sixth and Seventh Doctor's were in a fight against the
>> BBC for survival at that time though, Daleks and Cybermen were
>> not the Doctor's main enemy. But for me, JNT played in to their
>> hands by turning the show in to a pantomime.
> 
> Things greatly improved when Ace replaced Mel as the companion. Not that 
> that was Bonnie Langford's fault, but again down to the way her 
> character was written.
> 
> I think there was a big improvement in the scripts for the final series, 
> and "Battlefield" is one of my all-time favourite stories, with a couple 

Battlefield was a big improvement over the previous McCoy episodes and 
the best of his final series. I was expecting him to last 3 more series 
especially then things were improving.

> of others being almost as good. (And FWIW the authors of The 
> Discontinuity Guide agree with me.) So I was particularly sad that it 

That would be Keith Topping et. al. I have the original on my shelf. Did 
it ever get a second edition?

> was cancelled when it seemed on an upwards trend. But it was clear that 
> the BBC had the knives out for it when they scheduled it against 
> "Coronation Street".

That was during Peter Davison's tenure. McCoy returned to Saturdays.

-- 
The True Doctor https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCngrZwoS0n21IRcXpKO79Lw

"To be woke is to be uninformed which is exactly the opposite of what it 
stands for." -William Shatner