The Sixth Doctor
Portrayed by: Colin Baker
Years active: 1984 - 1986
Series: Classic
Companions: Peri Brown, Mel Bush
The Doctor's regeneration into his Sixth incarnation was even more troublesome than the regeneration between his Fourth and Fifth incarnations. Such was the troublesome of the regeneration, which was conducted in the TARDIS following the Fifth Doctor's exposure to Spectrox toxaemia; the Sixth Doctor had an unstable personality, even attempting to strangle his companion, Peri. Due to this, he decided to exile himself on Titan III, but he was soon involved with stopping Mestor and his gastropods. While on Titan III, the Sixth Doctor met a fellow Time Lord and old friend, Azmael, though throughout he experienced bouts of manic near-insanity and violence and experience extreme lows. After a short time however, the Sixth Doctor's personality began to settle itself down, though it came with an extremely large ego and his compassion was only experienced by his closest friends. The Sixth Doctor intended to fix everything and anything that was wrong with his aging TARDIS, even succeeding to temporarily fix its broken chameleon circuit, allowing it to change its appearance in Attack of the Cybermen (Classic Series) for a brief time. The Sixth Doctor met his Second incarnation in The Two Doctors (Classic Series) when the pair thwarted a Sontaran attempt at time travel after he landed on the Space Station Chimera. The Sixth Doctor also met Davros with Peri after travelling to the planet Necros with the intention of paying his respects to his old friend, Arthur Stengos, but falling into a set of circumstances engineered by Davros in Revelation of the Daleks (Classic Series). These events began after the Sixth Doctor saw a statue of himself, seemingly his tombstone, on the planet.
The Sixth Doctors life was marred by his trial, which took place over several adventures. In Mindwarp (Classic Series), the Doctor and Peri were forcibly separated by the Time Lords on the planet of Thoros Beta, where Peri remained on the planet in dire peril of having Mentor Kiv's mind transferred into her, while the Doctor was forced into his TARDIS by the council of Time Lords who made the TARDIS re-materialise in the Space Station Zenobia. An entity known as the Valeyard, both an enemy of the Doctor and, in some ways, the Doctor himself, acted as the prosecutor during the Doctor's trial in conjunction with an Inquisitor, Darkel. The Sixth Doctor had been taken out of time briefly, causing him to suffer from partial amnesia, but he was essentially put back on trial again for interfering with the affairs of the universe. The Doctor opted to represent himself at the trial, providing his own defence, and went on to present events from his life via the Matrix along with the Valeyard. Part of the Valeyards evidence consisted of Peri's apparent death on Thoros Beta, which dealt a severe emotional blow to the Sixth Doctor. The Doctor presented his defence, which included an adventure from his own future that he had not yet partaken on, where he had met an Earth woman, Melanie "Mel" Bush, though the Valeyard seized the opportunity to try the Sixth Doctor for the genocide of the Vervoids in Terror of the Vervoids (Classic Series).
In the aftermath of the trial, it became apparent that the Valeyard had falsified some of the evidence used against the Sixth Doctor, including the supposed death of Peri, who had in fact lived. The falsification occurred with the assistance of the High Council in order to try and cover up a conspiracy that the Doctor had already unknowingly uncovered, though by this time he had already won Darkel over to his side. With the help of the corrupt council, the Valeyard intended to steal the remainder of the Doctor's regenerations, while Mel was brought in as a witness, though paradoxically as the Doctor had not met her yet, as well as Sabalom Glitz. The Master also intervened at some point. When the news that the High Council was dishonest and corrupt, the populace of Gallifrey seemed ready to overthrow their leaders, with Darkel even suggesting that the Doctor should be the new Lord President, though he declined, suggesting that Darkel herself would be the better choice. Following this, the Doctor left in his TARDIS, taking Mel with him while it transpired that the Valeyard, supposedly killed in the Matrix, had survived.
The Sixth Doctor did not like his previous incarnation, and felt that his new body was a much better improvement, feeling that the Fifth Doctor had a feckless charm that wasn't him. The Sixth Doctor was unpredictable, arrogant and self-absorbed, childish and stubborn, tasteless and argumentative and was often seen as loathsome or un-likable. This incarnation of the Doctor did not like to deal with fools, and seemed to endure his companion's presence more than he appreciated it, though the brash exterior of the Sixth Doctor hid the fact that he was merely more determined to defeat any evil he encountered. Although he had an unstable demeanour, he was always quick to act if the need arose for it, with little to nothing being able to get in his way, not even his companions, though this incarnation was more of a fatalist, ready to accept his doom on more than one occasion. The Sixth Doctor showed a more accepting side to violence that his predecessors had not. Though his attack on Peri could be put down to the stressed caused by a regeneration, the Doctor reacted with humour after watching two men die in an acid bath in Vengeance on Varos (Classic Series), and even smothered Shockeye to death in The Two Doctors, though it was in self-defence. Perhaps due to this instable and erratic behaviour, Peri occasionally appeared nervous around the Sixth Doctor. Despite this, the Sixth Doctor did attempt to comfort Peri over the non-existence of London which distressed her in The Mysterious Planet (Classic Series), even showing empathy for her plight, though Peri noted that the Doctor talked about the ruining of the planet as if he were in a planetarium. The Sixth Doctor also had a more emotional and caring side and could be just as determined to save lives as his other incarnations. He was determined to save the survivors of the Ravolox conspiracy, even stating "I can't let people die if there's a chance of saving them." He was also visibly devastated when presented with the false news of Peri's death during his trial, and became enraged at discovering that the Time Lords had acted like second rate god's and engineer her execution. When he also discovered that the Time Lords had been behind the Rovolox conspiracy and murdered billions of humans just to keep their secrets from being revealed, he stated that his purpose in the universe was to stop evil and the power mad conspirators, but noted that he should have stayed on Gallifrey rather than travelling the universe to do so.
The Sixth Doctor had a habit of walking in a different direction than the one he proclaimed to be going on, a habit mirrored by the Tenth and Eleventh Doctor, though those incidents were put down to a lack of directional knowledge and post-regeneration "steering" issues respectively. This incarnation of the Doctor also had an ear for poetry, often reciting bits whenever events around him reminded him of it.
The Sixth Doctor was a tall man with long, curly, blond hair. Mel thought he was overweight, prompting him to take up an exercise regime and a diet that consisted mainly of carrot juice, neither of which he felt he needed. This Doctor usually wore a multi-coloured coat along with a variety of cravats and waistcoats. This Doctor also had a fondness for cats, a fondness that would leave him by the time the Tenth incarnation came around, always wearing one of a number of cat-shaped brooches or pins on his attire.
In Time and the Rani (Classic Series), the Rani fired a tractor beam at the TARDIS, causing it to land on Lakertya, though the resulting turbulence knocks both Mel and the Doctor unconscious, and prompts the Sixth Doctors regeneration into his Seventh incarnation.