Doctor Who - Trial of a Time Lord (Mysterious Planet)

[anton1990]

Colin will always be my favorite doctor.

[upchuck69]

Colin's protrayal of the Doctor was quite original and I liked it. But he had 4 things working against him:

1 - Weak Stories

2 - Nicola Bryant (She was cutie but couldn't act)

3 - Bad costume (JNT apparently later admitted that his garb was a mistake)

4 - Execs who didn't like him

The TOT was a brilliant idea that fell apart at the end. If Steve Moffat decides at one point to revive the Valeyard (which I think he should do), then Colin's legacy as the Doctor will be redempted.

[101jir]

@upchuck69 As far as the costume, that was precisely the point. The Doctor is intended to be Bizzare. Utterly and totally BIZZARE. It worked perfectly. In what way were the stories weak? They were significantly stronger than "hey lets devise a weird plot that we have no idea what we are doing and just randomly do something" in the first episode with the Daleks with William Hartnell. As far as the acting, William Hartnell was significantly worse, and he played the Doctor.

[upchuck69]

@101jir Well stories like The Twin Dilemma (shoddy editing) and the Two Doctors (meandering story) were real let-downs. Vengeance on Varos and Revelation of the Daleks were good but there was nothing truly outstanding in that series. But it was not Colin's fault, he was great. What I liked about him was that he didn't try to mimic the early Doctors. He was his own person and was very original.

[101jir]

@upchuck69 Revalation of the Daleks at least had some new situations, and as usual, a nice complicated storyline. I thought that it was awesome that they actually had Dalek VS Dalek combat ("Obey" "exterminate"... LOL) As far as I know, that was unique in and of itself. There is no Doctor that I am aware of as bizzarre as Colin Baker, another unique attribute to the series, improving all the episodes. The other Doctors are just to subtle about being bizzarre in my opinion.

[101jir]

@upchuck69 I would agree, however, that the Valyard should come back. That wold be really interesting. Unfortunately, the Doctor only has 1 regeneration left (12 regenerations per time lord) How they would change the rules, I do not know, but they will find a way.

[upchuck69]

@101jir No he has two regenerations left as Timelords are supposed to have 13 lives (It takes 12 regenerations to do that). The Master said the Valeyard was an evil distillation coming from somewhere between the Doctor's 12th and 13th incarnation.

Since my original post, I've been encouraged with the new episodes that might hint at the Valeyard coming back. The Waters of Mars (Timelord Victorious) and the episodes with River Song where she knows the Doctor's future.

[101jir]

@upchuck69 This is really cool, I so hope that they do that.

[kwmoir]

@101jir I'm going to guess that with Gallifrey and the Time Lord race gone there is no one to enforce the reincarnation limit. Anything I've read has said the regeneration limit wasn't physical as so much a Time Lord Law

[willmott2k10]

@kwmoir Personally I would've thought it more as a physical limit, I mean look at the Master back in the episode The Keeper of Traken; he was at the end of his final regeneration and I highly doubt he would go to all that trouble of trying to steal the Doctor's body and everything else he did when he could just regenerate again. Don't get me wrong, it's quite possible it's all based around law but you would've thought there would be a limit to how much regenerative energy a Time Lord has. :-)

[MarthaRoseMad]

i met colin baker he was such a wonderful man!!so kind aswell and he came from rochdale!woohoo!go colin!

[fluffysbro]

I agree! I think it is unfaaiir that so many people dislike his portrayal of the doctor! So what he shouts at a few people? Its not that Hartnell Didnt do the same! And Colin never told Peri "What you need is a jolly good Smacked bottom!" like Hartnell did!