Third Tuesday 2019-06: The Sixth Doctor Event Cache

The Sixth Doctor

Portrayed by: Colin Baker Years: 1984 to 1986 Seasons: 21 through 23 Number of Episodes: 31 Companions: Peri Brown Mel Bush

The sixth Doctor's regeneration was initially unstable, and he nearly strangled Peri before he came to his senses. Realising what he had nearly done, he initially considered going into a hermitlike existence on the planet Titan 3, only to be caught up in events on the planet Jocanda, after which he resumed his travels. He encountered many old foes including the Master, Daleks, Cybermen and Sontarans, and even shared an adventure with his own second incarnation in The Two Doctors. He also faced a renegade female Time Lord scientist, the Rani, who was conducting experiments on humans using the Luddite riots as a cover.

Later, the Doctor and Peri landed on the devastated planet Ravolox, which they discovered was actually Earth, moved across space with devastating consequences. Before they could discover the reason for this disaster, the TARDIS landed on Thoros Beta. What actually happened here is unclear, but initial accounts suggest that Peri was killed after being cruelly used as a test subject in brain transplant experiments and the Doctor was pulled out of time to a Time Lord space station where he was put on trial for the second time by his own race, the Time Lords. In reality the trial was a cover-up organised by the High Council. A race from Andromeda had stolen Time Lord secrets and hidden on Earth, so to protect themselves the Time Lords had moved Earth through space, burning the surface in a massive fireball and leaving it as Ravolox. The prosecutor at that trial, the Valeyard, turned out to be a possible future evil incarnation of the Doctor himself who was out to steal his remaining lives. He had also edited the Matrix recordings of the Doctor's travels; in reality Peri had survived events on Thoros Beta. The events of the trial tangled the Doctor's timeline slightly, as he left in the company of Mel, whom he technically had not yet met.

Colin Baker wished to dress his Doctor in black velvet, to reflect his character's darker personality. Producer John Nathan-Turner, however, opted for a deliberately "totally tasteless" costume with clashing colours. Designer Pat Godfrey made several attempts which were considered not tasteless enough before Nathan-Turner finally accepted the last one as sufficiently garish. Colin Baker later described the outfit as "an explosion in a rainbow factory".

The Sixth Doctor wears a red plaid frock coat, with green patchwork, and yellow and pink lapels over a white shirt with red question marks embroidered in the collar, a waistcoat and large Victorian style necktie, and yellow trousers with black stripes and a pair of green ankle boots with red spats. There were many variants on the waistcoat and tie, the earliest being the knitted brown waistcoat and turquoise polka-dot tie. The waistcoat was later changed to red check, and in the following story a new red polka-dot tie appeared.