Wednesday 25 December 2013

Time of the Doctor and the Death of the Sixth Doctor (that's right, Sixth!)



I'm still reeling from Time of the Doctor. I loved it but need to watch it again to fully form my thoughts on it. So instead of a review I'm going to use information gleaned from the episode to further my pro-Sixth Doctor agenda. Suffice to say there will be SPOILERS FOR TIME OF THE DOCTOR!!!

Here are a few facts:
  • Due to Colin Baker's shoddy treatment at the hands of the BBC, the Sixth Doctor never had a regeneration story. The BBC made do with Sylvester McCoy, with an obscured face and wearing a curly, blond wig, regenerating after an undignified bump on the head.
  • Until recently Colin and Paul McGann were the the only Doctors without a regeneration story. This year's minisode prequel to Day of the Doctor, entitled Night of the Doctor, finally showed us the Eighth Doctor's transformation into his next incarnation. This leaves Colin as the only Doctor without a death scene.
  • Several audio & novelised adventures have been set between the end of Colin's last TV adventure and the Sixth Doctor's bump on the head. 
  • At one point during his TV adventures the Sixth Doctor claims he is 900. Shortly after his regeneration the Seventh Doctor claims to be 953. However the Ninth later claims to be 900, and in the Day of the Doctor the Eleventh indicates that he may lie about his age from time to time. So, it's safe to say that we really don't have a definite idea of how much time passes in between the Sixth Doctor's last televised adventure and his abrupt transformation into his Seventh incarnation. 
  • Mel is with the Sixth Doctor when he dies, but as the Fifth and Eleventh Doctors have demonstrated, The Doctor has been known to drop off his companions and then pick them up again further down his timeline.
  • Time of the Doctor further establishes something already indicated to us by the First Doctor and the War Doctor. The Doctor's bodies age!
  • Time of the Doctor also shows us that an aged Doctor can appear youthful again during his regeneration.

What I'm trying to say with all this is that there is no reason why an older Colin Baker cannot film a proper regeneration scene for the Sixth Doctor! Current showrunner Steven Moffat has (rather foolishly and unfairly in my opinion) been reluctant to feature the Sixth Doctor in new episodes due to the significant differences between how Colin looks now and how he looked while he played The Doctor. But, as we've established, centuries may have passed during the time the Sixth Doctor was off our screens, and a pre regeneration rejuvenation of the sort the Eleventh experienced can explain McCoy's blond curly wig.

Imagine a ten minute minisode featuring an aging Sixth Doctor, alone in the console room (Mel is in another room), realising that he's about to die and delivering a haunting soliloquy on mortality of the sort that only Colin's Doctor could deliver. I can't be the only one who thinks that would be fantastic, right? This needs to happen!

The campaign begins here! Moffat, give Colin the long overdue send off he deserves!