Classic Who round-up: the Sixth Doctor
My gosh, it was a struggle to get through the Sixth Doctor's era. There were points where I had no desire to watch an episode. And there were only two seasons to get through!
After one episode into Six's run, I was all "Gah, I can't stand this!" Six tried to kill Peri?! What the hell? I get he was in his post-regenerative funk, but that's no reason to strangle your Companion. What an absolutely horrible start for Six. Here's this new Doctor and he's suddenly mean and very colourful, in more ways than one. But I laughed when Peri described Five as "sweet" and Six was all "SWEET?!!" The line at the end of "The Twin Dilemma" ("I am the Doctor… whether you like it or not!") was like the show saying, "Yeah, this Doctor is an eyesore and he's mean, too. Deal with it!" And Six knew his outfit was horrible; at one point he said, "I no longer even have any clothes sense..." So why didn't he change clothes?! I think Six was colour blind. And what was up with that cat pin? It was like the stick of celery. Pointless. Though Six had the habit of rubbing it like it was a good luck charm. But Six liked quotes, didn't he? He always seemed to be quoting someone. If I knew my quotes better, I might have been able to recognize some of them. :-)
As I got further in to Six's run, he sort of started to grow on me, but I always found myself going from one extreme to another with Six while watching a serial. At some points, I actually liked him. He could be funny and witty at times but then there were times where I just wanted to punch Six in the face. It was his attitude that bugged me the most. The Doctor's been dismissive of people before, but most incarnations actually listened to the other person before deciding he or she was an idiot. I think Six went around assuming everyone was an idiot right off the bat. And he always acted like everything he did was the right thing, like he was the expert on everything.
Or maybe Six flouted his cleverness for a reason. He acted like the know-it-all to get a reaction out of people. He could see how people would behave and then judge if they could be trusted. Or he invoked a reaction so people would actually think for themselves. Now that I think about it, Five sort of encouraged people, nurtured them to think on their own before he started going on. Six, well, he doesn't nurture people. He just shouts at people. So maybe that was why Six was like he was?
He did mellow a bit in his second season at least. He wasn't always yelling at Peri and he seemed quite fond of Mel (exercise regimes aside). But he was just too colourful for my taste, and I don't just mean his outfit. Everything had to be so grandiose with him. It's sort of a shame he never had a proper regeneration scene. From the clips I've seen, he simply hits his head on the console and when Mel rolls him over, he's the Seventh Doctor. No noble sacrifices or death defying adventures. A knock on the head. So poor ol' Six's last words are "Carrot juice, carrot juice, carrot juice."
Sixth Doctor round-up:
-Companions: Six only had two Companions, Peri and Mel, but he also only had two seasons.
Peri. I said in the last round-up she didn't annoy me, but I was going off two serials. I'm not sure what to make of Peri. She's the girl who wanted to travel, but what else? Apparently she was an amateur botanist or something. She was supposed to be studying ecology at university? At least they remembered she was American. It's kind of annoying when American characters on British TV shows use British terms and pronunciations. It's like the writer made no effort to get their script edited. But I was very pleased when in "The Twin Dilemma", Peri said "lieu"tenant and the Doctor and another character immediately shout back "left"tenant. Also "zee" versus "zed". But anyway... I don't get why Peri stuck around after the Doctor's regeneration. Here's this sweet guy who's suddenly a psycho and brighter than a rainbow and wouldn't you want to run for the hills? I'm surprised Six never told Peri to leave, which is proof, I think, that he did like her despite how mean he was to her. Ultimately, I don't think Peri added anything new to the role of Companion. She was American and wore horrible clothes. But she considered Six to be her best friend? I think I heard that correctly in "Revelation of the Daleks". Really? Best friend? Peri must not have very many friends. ;-) And boy, does Peri get a weird exit. First, she apparently dies but then it's revealed, nope, she fell in love with a loud-mouthed warrior king and became his consort. It kind of reminded me of Leela's departure: Companion meets random guy and goes off with him even though they had no connection whatsoever. I think Peri as a character got a bum deal. I think if she had another season, they could have turned the character around.
Mel. I barely knew she existed. She's not exactly an iconic Companion. She just appears, no introduction. I think that sucks. I don't think it's ever revealed how she meets the Doctor. From what I've seen so far, she's tiny and feisty and has a good memory. She's kind of like Zoe in that regard. So, I could end up liking Mel or I could not. She screamed a lot during "Terror of the Vervoids", which was kind of annoying. She carries over into Seventh's run, but I don't think she hung around for very long. We'll see.
-Enemies: The big one here, well, maybe not "big" but interesting, was the Rani. Another renegade Time Lord. Jeez, for a society that claims its peaceful and doesn't interfere, it sure does produce a lot of rouge elements. I'm not sure why they introduced Rani. She was supposed to be like a female Master? From what I got from her first episode, she's more like a scientist without any morals. She doesn't care about ending the universe. She just wants to keep experimenting no matter the cost. That's the thing that makes her different from the Master. Rani can see when a situation has gone FUBAR and she knows the wise thing to do is to leave. At least, that's what I got from one episode. The poor woman only showed up twice more and one of those appearances was "Dimensions in Time". Oh, and apparently, "Rani" is Hindu for "queen". So we have the Doctor, the Master, and the "Queen". Maybe River is the Rani in disguise!
We also got the Valeyard, the embodiment of the Doctor's darker side? I don't know. I didn't quite get what was going on with the Doctor and the Valeyard. The guy wanted to steal the Doctor's remaining regenerations, but if he is the Doctor, how can he steal something that he already has? I guess the Valeyard is like the Dream Lord. He just lurks in the Doctor's sub-consciousness and occasionally pops up to cause trouble.
-Stories: There was one thing I appreciated. In "Attack of the Cybermen", the Doctor returns to 76 Totter's Lane. There's a brief moment when he sees the street sign and he smiles to himself, completing ignoring Peri (which is nothing new, granted). I thought it was a nice little shout-out to the show's continuity. The scene doesn't draw attention to itself, but it's a nice reminder that this guy in multi-coloured plaid used to be a cranky old man who parked his TARDIS in a junk yard for repairs.
Oh, and I should mention "The Two Doctors". Of all the multi-Doctor stories they've done, I think I like this one best. "The Five Doctors" had too many characters and a thin plot and "The Three Doctors" was more like two and a half Doctors; the plot was okay on that one. "The Two Doctors" had an interesting plot involving time machines and a needless trip to Spain. Seriously, the story was just another excuse to go somewhere nice. But it was nice to see Two and Jamie again and everyone had something to do, for the most part. This was also the serial that generated the "Season 6B" theory, the extremely convoluted idea that Two didn't regenerate right away at the end of "The War Games" and instead he went to work for the Time Lords. Don't ask me to explain further; I barely understand it myself.
And I can't finish this round-up without mentioning "The Trial of a Time Lord". So the show went on hiatus for a year and a half and this was the way they wanted to come back: with a big seasonal arc. That's fine, I suppose, but the trial didn't make much sense, overall and from a story point of view. I guess the Valeyard had been manipulating the entire thing right from the start, but if he is the Doctor's darker side, how the heck is he a separate person walking around? And then the Master just randomly shows up at the end and we take a trip into the Matrix. I suppose the arc did it's job in the end. Doctor Who kept going for three seasons more. Personally, I think Six deserved another season. They had started to make the character a bit more mellow and he probably could have been likable had he had a few more stories. These are the waning years of Who, though, so I guess this was just the beginning of the end.
I am so glad I finished Six's run. Did it in about a month or so. Now I just have one more Doctor to go. Okay, two. I guess I'll watch the TV movie again for Eight. But I'm nearly done. It's going to be weird when I'm done.
After one episode into Six's run, I was all "Gah, I can't stand this!" Six tried to kill Peri?! What the hell? I get he was in his post-regenerative funk, but that's no reason to strangle your Companion. What an absolutely horrible start for Six. Here's this new Doctor and he's suddenly mean and very colourful, in more ways than one. But I laughed when Peri described Five as "sweet" and Six was all "SWEET?!!" The line at the end of "The Twin Dilemma" ("I am the Doctor… whether you like it or not!") was like the show saying, "Yeah, this Doctor is an eyesore and he's mean, too. Deal with it!" And Six knew his outfit was horrible; at one point he said, "I no longer even have any clothes sense..." So why didn't he change clothes?! I think Six was colour blind. And what was up with that cat pin? It was like the stick of celery. Pointless. Though Six had the habit of rubbing it like it was a good luck charm. But Six liked quotes, didn't he? He always seemed to be quoting someone. If I knew my quotes better, I might have been able to recognize some of them. :-)
As I got further in to Six's run, he sort of started to grow on me, but I always found myself going from one extreme to another with Six while watching a serial. At some points, I actually liked him. He could be funny and witty at times but then there were times where I just wanted to punch Six in the face. It was his attitude that bugged me the most. The Doctor's been dismissive of people before, but most incarnations actually listened to the other person before deciding he or she was an idiot. I think Six went around assuming everyone was an idiot right off the bat. And he always acted like everything he did was the right thing, like he was the expert on everything.
Or maybe Six flouted his cleverness for a reason. He acted like the know-it-all to get a reaction out of people. He could see how people would behave and then judge if they could be trusted. Or he invoked a reaction so people would actually think for themselves. Now that I think about it, Five sort of encouraged people, nurtured them to think on their own before he started going on. Six, well, he doesn't nurture people. He just shouts at people. So maybe that was why Six was like he was?
He did mellow a bit in his second season at least. He wasn't always yelling at Peri and he seemed quite fond of Mel (exercise regimes aside). But he was just too colourful for my taste, and I don't just mean his outfit. Everything had to be so grandiose with him. It's sort of a shame he never had a proper regeneration scene. From the clips I've seen, he simply hits his head on the console and when Mel rolls him over, he's the Seventh Doctor. No noble sacrifices or death defying adventures. A knock on the head. So poor ol' Six's last words are "Carrot juice, carrot juice, carrot juice."
Sixth Doctor round-up:
-Companions: Six only had two Companions, Peri and Mel, but he also only had two seasons.
Peri. I said in the last round-up she didn't annoy me, but I was going off two serials. I'm not sure what to make of Peri. She's the girl who wanted to travel, but what else? Apparently she was an amateur botanist or something. She was supposed to be studying ecology at university? At least they remembered she was American. It's kind of annoying when American characters on British TV shows use British terms and pronunciations. It's like the writer made no effort to get their script edited. But I was very pleased when in "The Twin Dilemma", Peri said "lieu"tenant and the Doctor and another character immediately shout back "left"tenant. Also "zee" versus "zed". But anyway... I don't get why Peri stuck around after the Doctor's regeneration. Here's this sweet guy who's suddenly a psycho and brighter than a rainbow and wouldn't you want to run for the hills? I'm surprised Six never told Peri to leave, which is proof, I think, that he did like her despite how mean he was to her. Ultimately, I don't think Peri added anything new to the role of Companion. She was American and wore horrible clothes. But she considered Six to be her best friend? I think I heard that correctly in "Revelation of the Daleks". Really? Best friend? Peri must not have very many friends. ;-) And boy, does Peri get a weird exit. First, she apparently dies but then it's revealed, nope, she fell in love with a loud-mouthed warrior king and became his consort. It kind of reminded me of Leela's departure: Companion meets random guy and goes off with him even though they had no connection whatsoever. I think Peri as a character got a bum deal. I think if she had another season, they could have turned the character around.
Mel. I barely knew she existed. She's not exactly an iconic Companion. She just appears, no introduction. I think that sucks. I don't think it's ever revealed how she meets the Doctor. From what I've seen so far, she's tiny and feisty and has a good memory. She's kind of like Zoe in that regard. So, I could end up liking Mel or I could not. She screamed a lot during "Terror of the Vervoids", which was kind of annoying. She carries over into Seventh's run, but I don't think she hung around for very long. We'll see.
-Enemies: The big one here, well, maybe not "big" but interesting, was the Rani. Another renegade Time Lord. Jeez, for a society that claims its peaceful and doesn't interfere, it sure does produce a lot of rouge elements. I'm not sure why they introduced Rani. She was supposed to be like a female Master? From what I got from her first episode, she's more like a scientist without any morals. She doesn't care about ending the universe. She just wants to keep experimenting no matter the cost. That's the thing that makes her different from the Master. Rani can see when a situation has gone FUBAR and she knows the wise thing to do is to leave. At least, that's what I got from one episode. The poor woman only showed up twice more and one of those appearances was "Dimensions in Time". Oh, and apparently, "Rani" is Hindu for "queen". So we have the Doctor, the Master, and the "Queen". Maybe River is the Rani in disguise!
We also got the Valeyard, the embodiment of the Doctor's darker side? I don't know. I didn't quite get what was going on with the Doctor and the Valeyard. The guy wanted to steal the Doctor's remaining regenerations, but if he is the Doctor, how can he steal something that he already has? I guess the Valeyard is like the Dream Lord. He just lurks in the Doctor's sub-consciousness and occasionally pops up to cause trouble.
-Stories: There was one thing I appreciated. In "Attack of the Cybermen", the Doctor returns to 76 Totter's Lane. There's a brief moment when he sees the street sign and he smiles to himself, completing ignoring Peri (which is nothing new, granted). I thought it was a nice little shout-out to the show's continuity. The scene doesn't draw attention to itself, but it's a nice reminder that this guy in multi-coloured plaid used to be a cranky old man who parked his TARDIS in a junk yard for repairs.
Oh, and I should mention "The Two Doctors". Of all the multi-Doctor stories they've done, I think I like this one best. "The Five Doctors" had too many characters and a thin plot and "The Three Doctors" was more like two and a half Doctors; the plot was okay on that one. "The Two Doctors" had an interesting plot involving time machines and a needless trip to Spain. Seriously, the story was just another excuse to go somewhere nice. But it was nice to see Two and Jamie again and everyone had something to do, for the most part. This was also the serial that generated the "Season 6B" theory, the extremely convoluted idea that Two didn't regenerate right away at the end of "The War Games" and instead he went to work for the Time Lords. Don't ask me to explain further; I barely understand it myself.
And I can't finish this round-up without mentioning "The Trial of a Time Lord". So the show went on hiatus for a year and a half and this was the way they wanted to come back: with a big seasonal arc. That's fine, I suppose, but the trial didn't make much sense, overall and from a story point of view. I guess the Valeyard had been manipulating the entire thing right from the start, but if he is the Doctor's darker side, how the heck is he a separate person walking around? And then the Master just randomly shows up at the end and we take a trip into the Matrix. I suppose the arc did it's job in the end. Doctor Who kept going for three seasons more. Personally, I think Six deserved another season. They had started to make the character a bit more mellow and he probably could have been likable had he had a few more stories. These are the waning years of Who, though, so I guess this was just the beginning of the end.
I am so glad I finished Six's run. Did it in about a month or so. Now I just have one more Doctor to go. Okay, two. I guess I'll watch the TV movie again for Eight. But I'm nearly done. It's going to be weird when I'm done.