Dr Who:Did Colin Baker deserve the grief he got?!
Question:
Dr Who:Did Colin Baker deserve the grief he got?
Could someone please tell me a bit about why Colin years were so controversial?The series was in trouble and he got the blame.Was his doctor and the episode quality that bad?Does anyone know the story?
Answers:
Who-producer John Nathan-Turner talks about this issue quite a bit in his memoir on the show. My impression is that Colin Baker was somewhat of a victim of circumstance. The eighties were a time when fans were flexing a bit of muscle, and Nathan-Turner was, in some ways, pandering to the Doctor Who audience. As a result, when fans complained that Peter Davison's portrayal of the Doctor was too bland, Nathan-Turner responded by making the next Doctor (Colin Baker) as flamboyant as possible.
Additionally, BBC Controller Michael Grade admitted to hating Doctor Who, especially Baker's portrayal of the lead role. Grade put the show on hiatus for a while and later reinstated it with (I believe) a lower budget and in a changed format (@ two 45-minute episodes instead of four 25-minute episodes). Finally, Grade also issued the dictum that no actor should portray the Doctor for more than three years, which put Nathan-Turner in the awkward position of having to let Baker go -- hence the lack of a satisfactory regeneration sequence to introduce Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor.