Doctor Who: The Carrionite Curse
by Simon Guerrier (Big Finish, 2017)
Guerrier captures the Sixth Doctor’s character and the salient features of that era (in a good way). Colin Baker’s vitality is undiminished 30+ years on, but the Carrionites—being the type of monster that screeches and threatens but never attacks—are disappointing.
Doctor Who: Planet of the Rani
by Marc Platt (Big Finish, 2015)
Colin Baker remains a powerful presence but the plot and character motivations are all over the place. Platt has latched on to the conceit that the Sixth Doctor can defeat all the evils of the universe solely through dint of supercilious speech-making.
Doctor Who, Series 8
(BBC, 2014)
Series Eight starts with an apology, ends with a folly turned helter-skelter. In-between this, Peter Capaldi simmers rakishly: the sort of caustic, ‘dislikeable’ Doctor that Colin Baker was aiming for, only with the necessary scripts and production values to support the characterisation.
Doctor Who: Vengeance on Varos
by Philip Martin; dir. Ron Jones (BBC, 1985)
A rare instance of a decent Sixth Doctor script. Colin Baker is still left with little to do but (a) run about and (b) look smugly unconcerned, but Varos at least gives a sign of how good his tenure could have been.
Doctor Who: The Sandman
by Simon A. Forward (Big Finish, 2002)
A nice SF concept, which affords plenty of scope for the Sixth Doctor’s almost bipolar swings between compassion and firewalled ‘otherness’. Colin Baker once again shows that he could have been great if given something to work with by JNT and company.
Doctor Who and the Pirates
by Jacqueline Rayner (Big Finish, 2003)
A bizarre audio drama, featuring an explicitly unreliable narrator (the story’s telling is itself the mystery) and Bill Oddie in gleeful Ecky Thump pirate mode. The third quarter sees Colin Baker and Co. drop into a full-on musical of the high seas.