About All Seven Regenerations: Colin Baker

Born 8 June 1943.

Colin Baker portrayed the Doctor as a "more alien person with an appalling sense of dress." His stomach wrenching costume of stripped trousers, orange shoes with green spats, and "coat-of-many-colors" was the BBC costume department's answer to John-Nathan Turner's request for something "in bad taste."

Colin's portrayal was over-the-top and departed from anything ever done with the character up to that time. His first performance in the role has the Doctor trying to strangle his companion, Peri! Colin Baker was one of the most unpopular Doctors and as such did not get to develop his character as he should have.

Doctor Who went on to be canceled and did not return until 1986. As the result of a worldwide campaign to save Doctor Who, the BBC brought the show back after a seventeen-month gap in production. But, the program's ratings remained poor. Colin Baker was blamed and fired as a result. Baker left the series without filming a regeneration scene, necessitating his successor, Sylvester McCoy, to double for him. Because of this and other factors there are those in fandom who, view Colin Baker as the man who brought the show down.

However, as unlike his predecessors he was told how to play the character by his producer, and did not even get to pick his own wardrobe. The BBC deserves some of the credit for Doctor Who's failing ratings at the time.

Colin Baker portrayed the sixth incarnation of the Doctor from the end of The Caves of Androzani (1984) until The Ultimate Foe/The Judgement, which was the last segment of Trial of a Timelord (1986). He worked with Peter Davison, the fifth Doctor, in the season twenty story Arc of Infinity, in which Baker played the Gallifreyan guard Maxil, a part which almost went to Pierce Brosnan. Baker also appeared with the second Doctor, Patrick Troughton in The Two Doctors, a story commemorating the twenty-second anniversary of Doctor Who. He also portrayed Commander Maxil in Arc of Infinity (1983).

Audio theme for the first Doctor (size: 443 KB. run time: 41.22 seconds).

Colin Baker (the sixth doctor) starred in the following episodes:

1•The Twin Dilema
2•Attack of the Cybermen
3•Vengeance on Varos
4•Mark of the Rani
5•The Two Doctors
6•Timelash
7•Revelation of the Daleks
8•The Mysterious Planet (Trial of the Timelord Part I)
9•Mindwarp (Trial Of The Timelord Part II)
10•Terror of the Vervoids (Trial Of The Timelord Part III)
11•The Ultimate Foe (Trial Of The Timelord Part IV)

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