Overview: The Sixth Doctor
Colin Baker
There has been an attempt to fill some of the apparent gaps in the Sixth Doctor's timeline which occurred in the hiatus before 'The Trial of a Timelord' and before Season 24. The Trial introduced the Valeyard as an "amalgamation of the Doctor's dark side from between his 12th and final incarnations". The Valeyard appears in the early post-trial tales as a personification of the doubts and fears that he provokes; elements of the arrogance and emotional instability of the Sixth Doctor.
As the Sixth Doctor's post-Trial tales continue, the Doctor has become far more mellow, both in the novel and audio range. There are occassional flashes of his darker side, such as in 'The Sandman' audio and his behaviour in 'Medicinal Purposes' which is closer to the Seventh doctor (and, arguably, the Valeyard!). He fights and comes to terms with his demons in novels such as 'Millennial Rites' and 'The Quantum Archangel'. Even his dress sense mellows as we see him adopt a more tasteful blue jacket, (in the 'Real Time' webcast for example), which is based on his 'Revelation of the Daleks' cloak. Eventualy he returns to technicolour at the end of his incarnation (for example in 'The One Doctor'). In reprising his role as the Sixth Doctor on audio, Colin Baker has enjoyed a huge leap in popularity in DW fandom.
Revelation of the Daleks - The Trial of a Time Lord
Somewhat of a gap occurs between Revelation of the Daleks and The Trial of a Time Lord , (though some of the events that occurred are subsequently explained in the Trial). The aborted stories of the originally scheduled Season 23 were novelized by Target as missing stories and are referred to by some writers.
Target Books
The Missing Episodes
These are 3 novels based on the cancelled 'Season 23' scripts:
#1. The Nightmare Fair
Graham Williams, May 89
#2. The Ultimate Evil
Wally K. Daly, Aug 89
#3. Mission to Magnus
Philip Martin, July 90
There is also a novel based on 'Slipback' by its writer, Eric Saward. The story was released by the BBC on CD in January 2001.
Doctor Who - Slipback
Eric Saward, Aug 86
Several books and audios have been produced set between Revelation of the Daleks and the Trial with the Sixth Doctor and Peri. Some of these display more of the warmer relationship between the Doctor and Peri which we see in Trial. The development of a warmer Doctor/Peri relationship is also seen in the sixth Doctor DWM comic strip which covers some of this gap as well as introducing Frobisher (see below), who also appears post 'Trial of a Time Lord' in other ranges.
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Post 'Trial of a Timelord'
Time of Your Life
The Virgin Missing Adventure 'Time of Your Life' has become generally accepted as the Sixth Doctor's first post 'Trial of a Timelord' adventure. The Doctor has to come to terms with the events of the Trial. Here he meets Grant Markham who travels with him in the story that follows directly on from it, Killing Ground featuring the Cybermen. Grant leaves in this story.
Evelyn Smythe is a major new companion traveling with the Doctor after the Trial appearing primarily in the Big Finish audios as well as a later adventure in the BBC book range (see below) and the BBC online 6th Doctor broadcast 'Real Time'. In Big Finish audios Charlotte Pollard, originally an 8h doctor companionm also travels briefly with him.
Frobisher
The companion Frobisher first appeared in the Doctor Who Monthly comic strip The Shape Shifter in May 1984 (issue # 88) and stayed for a total of 15 stories until October 1987 (issue # 129). He is a Whifferdill who can change his shape but usually adopts that of a penguin. In his natural form he wears glasses and is about three or four feet tall, with a bald spherical head which has no mouth or nose. He has appeared several times since. In the comic special 'The Age of Chaos' Frobisher meets up with Doctor while he is on vacation. In this tale set after Trail of a Timelord, ten years have now passed since the Doctor last visited Peri and Yrcanos (who we see married in Trial. ). His final story is the first Seventh Doctor DWM strip A Cold Day in Hell (DWM 130-133, Nov 1987-Feb 1988).
Frobisher has become firmly established in the Doctor Who mythos and has appeared in Big Finish audios set after Trial of a Timelord ( The Holy Terror , The Maltese Penguin ) and the BBC book Mission Impractical . Also in the BBC Eighth Doctor book The Scarlet Empress Iris Wildthyme claims Frobisher was her companion.
Melanie Bush
We saw Mel in the Doctor s future in the televised story Terror of the Vervoids . Mel s joining the Doctor is recounted in the BBC book Business Unusual . She appears in the Virgin Missing adventure Millennial Rites ,( which develops the Valeyard storyline), the Big Finish audio The One Doctor as well as the BBC books The Quantum Archangel and Instruments of Darkness ( which also stars Evelyn). Mel is the final companion of the sixth Doctor who we see traveling with the Seventh at the beginning of Season 24. The TARDIS is thrown off-course by the Rani and the Doctor falls off his exercise bike suffering a serious head injury, forcing his sixth regeneration.
The Virgin NAs and BBC books PDAs have dealt with Mel's eventual fate. Ws see Mel depart from the Seventh Doctor with Glitz in 'Dragonfire'. In the NA 'Head Games' we learn that this departure occurs because the Doctor has planted the desire to leave in her mind to protect her from the time of chaos he forsees ahead. Mel then leaves Glitz and is stranded on a planet for six months until the 7th Doctor arrives. By the end of this encounter she hates what the Doctor has become and she goes back to late twentieth century Earth. In the BBC PDA 'Heritage' we learn what may be Mel's ultimate fate, that she was somehow subsequently transported to the 61st century. Here she married Ben Heyworth and was involuntarily cloned. The 7th Doctor cannot explain how she got here and speculates that he may meet Mel again in his own future (if this is correct, in the 7th Doctor's timeline the events of 'Heritage' may occur before 'Head Games'). He laments that by trying to protect Mel he may have ultimately sealed her fate.... However, the events of Heritage are revealed in the EDA Sometime Never(EDA#67) to have been engineered by a race which is altering the timelines of the Doctor's companions so it is possible that, after their defeat, the events of 'Heritage' never happen. Certainly Sarah Jane-Smith's implied death in the PDA 'Bullet Time' seems to have been later reversed and we are told these events were also engineered by this race. We see an older Sarah in other novels (i.e 'Intereference' and 'Millennium Shock'). Sarah has also reappeared in a series of Big Finish audios, the new tv series and her own new CBBC spin-off 'The Sarah Jane Adventures' (2007) .
Both Mel and Evelyn also both appear together in the Big Finish Audio 'Thicker than water' (BF Audio #73 Sept 2005).
Postscript : The New Adventures
Peri appears in 'Bad Therapy' (NA #57) which details what happened to Peri and Yrcanos after Peri left the Doctor in 'The Trial of a Time Lord'. 'Love an War' (NA #9) sees the first suggestion that the seventh Doctor may have forced his sixth regeneration to avoid becoming the Valeyard. The novels 'Millennial Rites' and 'Head Games' shed more light on this. The Sixth Doctor tries to avoid meeting Mel (knowing this future path leads ot the Valeyard) but inevitably does team up with her and combats the Vervoids in the encounter he witnessed at his trial. In 'Millennial Rites' he is fighting a transformation into the Valeyard. He forces the regeneration in 'Time and the Rani' to avoid becoming the Valeyard and because he forsees the universe heading into a time of chaos where Time will need protecting. The 'Colourful Jester' becomes 'Time's Champion'. The Seventh Doctor's initial clowning ceases when he meets Ace realising she was sent by Fenric and that the dark times have begun...
The Sixth Doctor is trapped in the mind of the Seventh in what is referred to as a Room With No Doors in the NA of the same title (NA #59). The Seventh Doctor feels guilty over what he did to himself and is paranoid that the Sixth Doctor may break free from the depths of his mind during a regeneration to exact revenge. However, by the time Big Finish's' Zagreus' occurs (the Sixth Doctor having been drawn in theis story from the Eighth's mind) the Sixth Doctor is able to joke about how ridiculous his regeneration was, being triggered by a fall from an exercise bike! Gary Russell has apparently also presented us with another take on this regeneration in 'Spiral Scratch' BBC Past Doctor Adventure novel from Aug 2005
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