Doctor Who: The Colin Baker Years Season 21 Serial 7

And here it is, the beginning of the end. The Sixth Doctor era begins with an even bigger rough start than the previous one, and it's the worst post-regeneration story in the history of the show for how utterly mediocre it is and the highly questionable decisions (not to say utterly idiotic) taken for the new Doctor okay making him a jerk, even the First Doctor was one at the start, but making him attempt to strangle Peri? Seriously?

Regeneration psychosis is such a fun concept. Too bad it was poorly handled and also stuck in this serial.

First things first, Twin Dilemma is peak fiction nothing you can say to convince me otherwise. The doctor is now insane, Colin Baker and is trying to deal with Gastropod Mestor who kidnapped two twins, what a dilemma.

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: The Caves of Androzani

I think it's a very bizarre choice to have this as the season finale to Season 21. I can't imagine having to wait however long it took for the next season to come out after this as your only taste of the Sixth Doctor. I'll start off by saying that regardless of the quality of the script, one thing that's certain is Colin Baker acts the hell out of it. He's given some of the worst dialogue in all of Who and manages to genuinely make it enjoyable and that alone is enough to confirm to me that he IS the Doctor.

And honestly, I'm willing to let all this go so long as he doesn't behave like this throughout the rest of his tenure, it's a post regeneration story after all (even if I disagree that fundamental traits of the Doctor shouldn't change in regeneration like being willing to let people die when he could easily save them or trying to strangle his companion).

Regarding the story itself, it's one of the better parts of this episode. Sure, it's cheesy Classic Who nonsense but it's nothing that hasn't been done before and it even has some nice moments if you can excuse the acting talents of the twins. Overall I think this story is deserving of it's reputation, it really botches the introduction of Colin Baker and is such a huge step down after Caves. At the very least though it isn't boring and I don't feel like I've wasted my time watching it.

“Whatever else happens, I am the Doctor, whether you like it or not.”

Next Story: Attack of the Cybermen 

Is that what all the fuss was about?

It has to be said that years of hearing this serial roundly pronounced "one of the worst Doctor Who stories of all time" along with Time and the Rani (which I have also seen and which also isn't quite as bad as people say) gave me some elevated expectations.

Instead I found a story which is, while messy and full of misjudged moments, still very entertaining, if not always for the reasons it intended. Is it so bad it's good or is it just OK? I don't tend to differentiate, but suffice it to say that I had a bit of fun.

Our new leading man immediately makes a strong impression, his boisterousness and grandiloquent speech both miles away from his predecessor. I really love Colin's voice; it does make me sit up and pay attention, even when the lines he's delivering are not very good. There are still a few here that I did appreciate, like when he cheerfully informs the chamberlain, "I don't like you," or when he says, "I no longer know if I'm coming, or going, or even if I've been!" His chinwag with Mestor is also pretty good, for what it's worth.

These aside, I must admit that the dialogue is hilariously elevated in this script, and we also get 'oof' lines like "... and may my bones ROT for obeying it!" or "Our genius has been abused!" or "a manic-depressive paranoid personality!"

This script definitely needed a third or fourth or fifth pass, but such are the usual end-of-season woes, where there's just no time. This makes the decision to slot this here instead of at the start of the next season very questionable indeed.

Story-wise, it is kind of interesting to see the Doctor struggle so much with the regeneration process, but in practice it is handled pretty messily. By far the worst part of this is the infamous scene where the Doctor tries to choke Peri, which is just as uncomfortable as I expected.

Still, aside from that one, the other moments mostly fall into the territory of lovable schlock. Looking back 40 years later it's easy to laugh when it's no longer "the story that killed Doctor Who".