I’ve learned a lot today just reading those DWM Lost Stories.
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Easy peasy. One of the questions could’ve been worded differently, though.
https://www.doctorwho.tv/play/how-well-do-you-know-the-sixth-doctor
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Ooh, so close! I forgot the order of operations in Attack.
Loved the subtle Big Finish reference in the last question!
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I want to talk about Six. Anyone interested?
I don’t have anything specific I want to discuss other than him.
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Quite honestly he’s really jumping up in my rankings at the moment thanks to his stories with Evelyn. I’ve done quite a few audios with him before my MR binge/catch-up but damn I’m loving him!!
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He’s so awesome. If I could experience listening to the 1-50 MR with fresh ears for a week, I’d probably do it. That was an otherworldly experience, jumping from his televised run to BF, learning about Evelyn, finding all these brand new stories with Peri.
I remember how certain lines from those audios would lodge in my head. I’d repeat them constantly lmao.
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Honestly I’m loving it (mostly) so far! I’ve been let down with BF hype on a rare occasion (Charley) but Evelyn is just incredible, absolutely incredible. I’ve heard the odd story of 6 here and there, same goes for a lot of the classic Doctors, I mostly have focused on 8 these last few years. Its wonderful to finally do some main range stories though!
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I’m sure you’ll love that new boxset, too. I’m surprised you haven’t sprinted towards it yet!
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I really need to 
I’m determined to catch up to the audio club though ! I’ve done so many main range stories these last few weeks, and I have but three left! After that, the new set is on my list!
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I know there are a lot of Audio Clubs for Six, but speaking generally, I don’t know how you multi-range folk do it lmao. Then you add all the non-DW content there is to interact with and whew. I couldn’t do it!
I’d love if Colin had more televised episodes, but knowing that he came into the role hoping to film more than Tom did? It’s difficult enough for me to finish some random eight-episode series lol. Then again it’s Colin and that makes all the difference. Hello 92-episode series I watched in (something like) five days!
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Neither do I sometimes to be honest I was very very behind with a lot of BF apart from my core ranges (8 and aspects of TW) but lately due to circumstance changes I’ve been able to catch up! Tbh I’ve always been interested in so many different ranges since I started with BF aha.
I’m certainly excited to do more, I really really am enjoying his stuff the most out of the main range thus far.
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you spend a lot of money and cry then go insane because all you think about day and night is audios <3[1]
literally picking my bedtime audio right now
i have a problem ↩︎
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BF please give Colin another range so I can listen to more audios 
. I wish they would have put him in the Shakespeare renditions they did, or any other classic tale (he loves Pride and Prejudice!). I would have lapped them all up.
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Ik the whole ‘six is done dirty on tv but is legendary on audio’ thing is a MASSIVE cliche amongst the online fandom, but omfg if it isn’t true
Two of some of my favourite Doctor Who stories of all time are from the Main Range 1-50 alone, the 6/Evelyn run was generational
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I don’t think it’s true in the slightest, but I can understand why some would stand by it. Six in the 1980s isn’t for everyone.
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Sixth took me a hot minute to really get my head around. He had his highs on TV (Vengeance On Varos, Revelation Of The Daleks, The Ultimate Foe) but between the short stick he was given by production, being stuck in the middle of the show’s most turbulent decade, and having easily the worst post-regeneration story of any of the Doctors, I didn’t think much of him overall at first.
Then I listened to the audios.
Now, this isn’t a simple matter of Sixth on audio being better than Sixth on TV, although that certainly applies. Rather, it’s because the more I dug into his stories in the Main Range and his own boxsets, the clearer his specific incarnation became to me. And it’s something that applies readily to his TV showings as well.
It all comes back to the very first appearance he made as the Sixth Doctor, at the end of Androzani. Introducing himself to Peri, and the audience, by directly addressing the camera. Aside from creating an odd connection with Morgus and his own fourth-wall breaks in Androzani (which unintentionally foreshadow his… less-than-heroic actions during Twin Dilemma), it also establishes what makes Sixth stand out: He’s the Doctor who knows he’s in a fictional story.
From that first fourth-wall break, to Vengeance On Varos and its commentary on televised violence and Video Nasties, to spending his entire second season watching a deceptively-edited version of his own show, Sixth is the Metafiction Doctor. And what makes the audios hold up so damn well is that they often focused directly on that, from the Dalekmania satire of Jubilee, to the in-universe storytelling of Doctor Who And The Pirates, to the nightmare fairy tale castle in The Holy Terror, to his return to the Land Of Fiction.
Beyond the stories he tends to find himself in, his more pragmatic attitude to history and the people he encounters is really interesting too. I’m not always on-board with how it manifests in the stories themselves, but as something of a pragmatist myself, I appreciate his more even-handed approach to the standard Doctor meddling. It helps balance out his more blustery moments, as he’s also one of the more archetypal ‘heroic’ Doctors in his willingness to involve himself in events if it means helping others.
His companions are a big factor too. Peri is the only transitional companion (introduced for one, but sticks around for another) that works better with their initial Doctor, and Mel… is Mel. But on audio, he was surrounded by strong wills that were able to tame and soften him, and actually have it stick (which the TV show doesn’t usually allow for). He’s like if Tenth actually stuck to lessons learnt, rather than just stay as an egotist right to the end. Evelyn is simply the best just as her own character, but becomes even more so in context to how much she got through to Sixth over the course of their adventures.
Based purely on the TV show, I’d honestly rank him near the bottom of the list. His ego and social brashness are reminiscent of Tenth for me, and I really don’t like Tenth’s characterisation. But in the larger continuum, he scores much higher. He’s the representative of my favourite lane of the franchise, as I love stories about stories in general, and Baker’s performance in the role has gone from strength to strength over the years.
Just on the basis of how redemptive his turn has become, I can see why he’s one of the big fan favourites, but there’s a lot I like about his character as it stands too.
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This reminds me I need to watch Atta k if the Cybermen
I could write some paragraphs in response to your comment, but I don’t feel like it. I’ll just say my thoughts succinctly.
It really grates on me when people attribute Six’s softening personality to Evelyn. While it may seem like this in real time, canonically it doesn’t make sense. If Six was already less abrasive by The Mysterious Planet, that means it was Peri’s doing, not Evelyn. I like Evelyn, don’t get me wrong, but in my opinion she gets way too much credit. Then again, I also don’t believe Six needed redeeming and I like his TV personality/run just fine, so I’m already at odds with most of the fandom just by thinking that.
I don’t know if I can get behind what you say about Six being a metafiction Doctor who knows he’s isn’t real.
That being said, I think Six has too many actual meta stories throughout the different media. Everyone thinks they’re clever for writing the fiftieth rendition of the Michael Grade/hiatus situation.
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I get what you mean about Evelyn. Even with what I said, she does get over-represented as far as Sixth’s companions go. She’s the example that sticks out to me the most, but she isn’t the only one who had that kind of dynamic with him; she just set the precedent for it on audio. I agree that Peri and even Mel had their effects on his mannerisms on-screen, and Flip and Constance did much the same afterwards. But ultimately, that softening effect is down to Baker himself.
When I say ‘redemptive’, I don’t necessarily mean that as far as the character himself needing to be redeemed; it’s more of a reputational thing, as his era tends to get mythologised as the beginning of the end for the classic era. But as his run since then has shown, that was never his fault, even though some areas of the fandom still paint it as such.
What I wrote above was that Sixth is the Doctor who knows he’s in a fictional story, not that he himself isn’t real. I say that because I’ve noticed quite a few stories where, in-universe, he’s dealing with fabricated realities and artificial scenarios that, as you say, usually mirror the real-world situation of the show’s production during his tenure on TV. I think of it more like he’s the hero of other people’s stories, if that makes sense. I personally like the meta stories, frequent though they may be, but I don’t expect everyone else to have the same taste. I have a weakness for such things, especially with this show.
Apologies for another lengthy post, but you raised some good points and I wanted to clear up my side of things a bit.
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