Doctor Who: The Handbook - The Sixth Doctor

Doctor Who: The Handbook #6

by David J. Howe, Mark Stammers, Stephen James Walker

Colin Baker's tenure as the Doctor was brief, but coincided with one of Doctor Who's most turbulent times. The programme's audience ratings were falling, its future was in doubt - particularly during an 18 month absence from the screen - and, in the end, Colin Baker's departure was abrupt and marked by recriminations. The 6th Doctor's personality seemed to reflect this uncertainty; he was moody and unpredictable.

The Handbook: The Sixth Doctor contains a profile of Colin Baker, an analysis of the the development of the 6th Doctor, background information about the threats to the programme, and a crtitical review of all the TV stories, including what is known of the 1985 series that was never made.

This is the 2nd in the Handbook series by David J. Howe, Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker, the team that produced The Sixties, the definitive book about Doctor Who's early years.

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Reference, Fiction

250 pages, Paperback

First published November 18, 1993

Reviews

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume comes from a more fractious time, when the Colin Baker/6th Doctor era was still being dissected in a long post-mortem. It loses a point for the anti-80s review bias that all the 80s stories suffer in these handbooks, but the rest is quite a solid overview, and I loved the written DVD commentary covering "Revelation of the Daleks".

[Arthur B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not only a surgically precise dissection of the classic show's most contentious era, but also a landmark in the latter-day reappraisal of Colin Baker's merits as the Doctor. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/202...

[Leonardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Colin Baker's tenure as the 6th Doctor is an often overlooked and mostly underrated period in Doctor Who's history. Indeed, it was an all too brief and very chaotic period that was reflected in the uneven quality of the stories and the unfulfilled potential of that incarnation of the Doctor. Nevertheless, Colin Baker's portrayal of the Doctor has aged quite well and many of the stories of this period deserve a much wider recognition. This handbook has the same basic layout as other books in the series: excerpt from interviews with actors and members of the production team, an overview of every single story of the period, a detailed overview of an specific episode (Revelations of the Daleks), the development of the show's internal mythology, the pre- and post-production elements of the show, the relationship and reaction in the media, and fandom, among other aspects. As Colin Baker's period was the shortest tenure in the show so far and even faced the threat of cancellation (which finally became an 18-month "rest"), a very significant (and certainly "juiciy") section of the book is dedicated to the administrative entanglement within the BBC, and offers information that even today is not set forth in specialized websites with such clarity and a clear head. The book even includes a couple of pages with a summary of the stories that had been planned for Series 23, before the "rest" forced the production team to reconsider their plans and begin working in The Trial of a Time Lord. Another interesting section that had not been included in previous books in the series is a lengthy profile of the actresses that co-starred as the Doctor's companions, mainly Nicola Bryant, who portrayed Peri, the 6th Doctor's main companion, and a brief introduction to Bonnie Langford, who portrayed Mel. Although the 80s companions have been largely criticized for their "cypherness" (except for Ace, of course), it was interesting that the authors of this handbook decided to offers fans a look into the careers of Bryant and Langford, before, during, and after the show. While it can be argued that 80s Doctor Who was generally a low point in the show's history, it was so much more than "style over quality", and even in such a controversial time as Colin Baker's tenure there are stories and elements that are an essential to the Doctor Who universe. The 6th Doctor might have been the most alien Doctor in a long while, but he certainly was one of the more complex and memorable ones.

[Kristina Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

This not only gives the readers the facts behind the series but also the context, which is so often overlooked. So the ratings for each episode are given but also a comparison with what ITV were doing and why that had an effect. Similarly with the publicised reasons for taking the series off air for 18 months - BBC were drawing on the resources to launch Eastenders.
Each episode is given a synopsis and also a review from each of the three authors. This is nice since it raises the handbook from a generic guide. It's possible to use this book simply as an episode guide but it's equally valid to read cover-to-cover. Some books don't work both ways or are too heavy with facts and figures.
The authors have researched this very well and it's hard to imagine anything else that could improve it.

[Dmk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Truly interesting book, all chapters were easy to understand and enjoyable. Althrough dealing with very controversal period of Doctor Who´s history it seemed quite neutral and objective. And it answered me many questions I failed to find out on the interent (such as why viewing figures droped, why is Trial of the Time Lord so wierd, why is Second Doctor working as Time Lords´ agent in Two Doctors...)
Only minus of this book is that it sometimes becomes repetative since some events are describes in different chapters becouse of unusual structure of books on this series. I think it would be better if instead of this, some re-occuring themes (relations with Script Editor, controversies due to the use of violence and so on) would have their own chapters.

[Paul Doody · Rating 5 out of 5]

David J Howe and co wrote one book on each of television's Doctor Whos. This book covers the controversial era of the Sixth Doctor, played by the charismatic and charming Colin Baker. Baker was never popular within the BBC, and was finally sacked in a shoddy piece of office politics. Howe and Co cover this all-too-brief era - 1984-6 - in great detail. A true triumph of television journalism.