Trials and Tribulations (documentary)
Trials and Tribulations was a documentary released as a special feature on the DVD release of The Ultimate Foe. It covered the behind-the-scenes issues during tenure of the Sixth Doctor, from Colin Baker's casting to his departure.
Sixth Doctor era
Baker's casting
According to Colin Baker, after appearing as Maxil in three of Arc of Infinity's four episodes, he and his wife were invited to the wedding of an assistant floor manager a few weeks later. Eric Saward, John Nathan-Turner and Gary Downie also attended.
Nathan-Turner would later tell Baker that he'd based his decision to cast him as the Sixth Doctor on the characteristics he'd shown during that party. Indeed, Nathan-Turner admitted that he would often advise actors playing the Doctor that "the clue to how you play it, is how you are at a party - it's just all your characteristics, one notch up."
Both Eric Saward and Ian Levine would later admit that they doubted the wisdom of casting Baker based on how he acted at a party.
Costume
Pat Godfrey was asked to design a costume that was "totally tasteless", in line with how Nathan-Turner imagined this Doctor. Eric Saward offered the idea, in his interview, that Nathan-Turner wanted to see his own style of dress reflected in this Doctor - a nod to his penchant for Hawaiian shirts. Godfrey struggled to meet the brief, with many of her designs being rejected by Nathan-Turner. Saward puts this down to her years of experience leading her to instinctively make the costume less tasteless, with more complementary colours. Eventually, according to Baker, Godfrey would create a design so tasteless that she did not expect Nathan-Turner to accept it but, to her surprise, he did.
Topics covered
- The events leading to Colin Baker's casting as the Sixth Doctor
- The costume design for the Sixth Doctor
- The Sixth Doctor's erratic behaviour and Peri's attitudes towards it
- Commissioning writers to write for the Sixth Doctor era and John Nathan-Turner's reluctance to preciously-used Doctor Who writers. This included the recruitment of Philip Martin
- The launch and transmission of Season 22, including a positive attitude between cast and crew
- The controversial announcement of the 18-month hiatus
- The protest/charity single Doctor in Distress
- John Nathan-Turner and Eric Saward's regrets to not leave Doctor Who following the 18-month hiatus
- The radio adventure Slipback
- Relaunching Doctor Who as 14 episodes, 25 minutes each. This included pre-production, promotion and untransmitted footage from The Trial of a Time Lord
- The departure of Peri Brown
- The casting of Bonnie Langford as new companion Melanie Bush, which included unfavourable views of her casting
- The unfavourable views of The Trial of a Time Lord, including a negative view from future Doctor Who writer and producer Chris Chibnall
- The death of Robert Holmes, which led to the fallout between Eric Saward and John Nathan-Turner over the conclusion of The Trial of a Time Lord and the fourteenth episode's rushed rewrite
- Eric Saward's controversial interview with Stardust, which led to him falling out with Colin Baker and John Nathan-Turner
- John Nathan-Turner being forced to axe Colin Baker as the Doctor and Colin's pledge to then-BBC bosses to extend his contract in order to give him time to record a regeneration story, which ultimately never happened.
People interviewed
- Colin Baker
- Nicola Bryant
- John Nathan-Turner (archive interview from the 1994 documentary The Doctors: 30 Years of Time Travel and Beyond)
- Eric Saward
- Philip Martin
- Pip & Jane Baker
- David Reid
- Jonathan Powell
- Ian Levine
- Gary Leigh
Home video releases
to be added
