Bonnie was 21 when she joined Doctor Who but had been on screen for years. She played a pushy, young starlet in 1976's Bugsy Malone (credited as Bonita Langford). She famously played the rather needy, spoilt brat, Violet Elizabeth Bott, in 1977's Just William for LWT. Catchphrase "I'll sthcream and sthcream until I'm sick!". She and an equally talented young singer, called Lena Zavaroni, were huge stars in the late 70s working together and with Morecambe and Wise. In 1977 she appeared in The Wombles movie, Wombling Free, which also featured the voice of Jon Pertwee! In the early 80s, she and Wayne Sleep were the stars of The Hot Shoe Show, a dancing-centric half hour, often seen on weekdays around 1983/4. In 1984 she and Tommy Boyd presented Saturday Starship, ITV's very short-lived answer to Saturday Superstore. Bonnie was also a huge star of Panto. Then in 1986,t to some disquiet amongst fans, she joined Doctor Who. There was a concern the series was "drifting into pantomime" and hiring Bonnie was seen as confirmation. Pleased to see Bonnie and Mel come back in 2024, with much better writing.
What I heard that the big finish audiobooks of the 6 doctor continued his story after the trial which finished his story arc, and his stories from what I heard from fans these stories are among the best stories of the franchise.
I think the change after Tom Baker is partly related to scheduling issues with the BBC. Peter Davison episodes were shown on weekday evenings rather than Saturday teatime, sometimes up against Coronation Street. Colin Baker episodes became 45 minutes long and shown late evening on a weekday. Then there was a big gap before Sylvester McCoy when Who was nearly cancelled. Prior to the days of catch-up and streaming, the core audience was becoming disenfranchised.
And iirc it was even worse due each era changing days partway through, like I want to say S19 was Mondays & Tuesdays while S20 was Tuesday & Wednesdays, C.Baker era was more consistent and with McCoy; S24 was Mondays, while 25 & S26 were Wednesdays. Like at least with Revival Who and New Who, they've stuck to "Weekend nights" and kept the same day for a Doctor's whole era (Saturday and later Sunday evenings for Revival Who, and in the case of New Who, Saturdays and later Friday Evenings/Midnight Saturday (for streaming) & Saturday evenings (for Broadcast)) save for Christmas and New Year's Day specials.
@@edwinhiley6281 It's certainly possible I misremembered the day (though I could have sworn it was a Thursday!) but I'm sure the time slot moved to after 9PM which explains why some the the storylines got darker.
@@LilleDanteIt was never shown as late as 9pm. I remember Peter Davison episodes being on after the evening news and Nationwide around 7pm. With the exception of The Twin Dilemma all of Colin Baker episodes were shown on Saturday early evenings in its more traditional time slot 6pm-ish. I remember Trial of a Timelord being shown after The Roland Rat Show but before the main prime time Saturday evening programmes. For the Sylvester McCoy’s era the show moved back to weekdays at around 7:35pm possibly after Wogan but unlike Peter Davison’s era there was just one episode per week rather than two.
I feel a lot warmer to the sixth Doctor now than I did as a kid, but I do feel bad for Colin that, despite his great passion for the role and for the show , he got such a raw deal thanks to all the behind the scenes turbulence that went on during his era. As a result, he never got the chance to properly fulfil his Doctor’s potential on TV, and that’s sad, even though he has gone on to do a lot of acclaimed work for Big Finish. I would say that the dividing line you notice in the later years of the classic show really falls at the start of the fourth Doctor’s final season, when John Nathan-Turner became producer and shook things up to bring the show into the 80s. JNT remained in charge for the rest of the classic run, and for me the feel of the fifth and sixth Doctor eras is quite similar in many ways. I would argue the next big break comes with the seventh Doctor, at which point the show’s storytelling moves in a different direction; indeed, in many ways the seventh Doctor’s era feels more like a precursor to New Who than a continuation of the classic show.
In the book "the Eight Doctors", which takes place after the TV movie, because of a trap by the Master, the Doctor has to travel into his past where he has to work with his former selves. His team-up with the Sixth Doctor revealed the real reasons behind his trial.
The Sixth Doctor was my doctor as a kid. He is still my favourite. It's funny because I like him for reasons that a lot of other fans dislike him, such as his arrogance, sardonic sense of humour with the violence in the show. Peri is also my favourite companion. You talk about dividing the series based on a change to the feel of it. For me, it is the hiatus. The Sixth Doctor prior to the hiatus feels like Doctor Who. When it returned, it felt cheapened. Unfortunately, this got worse with the Seventh Doctor. The Eighth Doctor is separate again...
Having The Twin Dilemma as the final story of a season in March '84, then no further Doctor Who until Jan '85, did Colin no favours whatsoever. If they had put it at the start of the following season then it would just have been a duff opening story and quickly forgotten, but instead the public's view of Six was shaped by that one dreadful story for 9~10 months and he never really stood much of a chance with some people after that.
The Third Doctor is my first one. I am a fan of the Sixth Doctor, whose era was cut too short. The writing for Colin was terrible, but the Revelation of the Doctor still shines. Colin also had poorly written companions.
Colin was a great doctor, but the BBC had a crisis thanks to their arsehole-in-chief Michael Grade, who killed the series. It was never meant to happen like this - the original 23rd season was another 13 45-minute episodes and was to feature the Toymaker, the Ice Warriors, Sil and possibly the Autons.
That era is one of those eras of the show I least go back to because the acting was bad, the stories were bad, the writing as god-awful and the characterisation was also god-awful I know I'll get flack for saying this that's my honest feeling on Colin Baker's time as the Doctor.
As bad as i feel for Colin Baker unfortunately I have to be brutally honest I thought this was the worst era of Dr. Who this was for me the beginning of the end of Dr. Who the 1980's was peak Dr. Who with unfortunately the worst annoying companions I know this will be controversial because there's some Peri and Mel fans out there but I'm sorry their acting was pretty bad I'm sorry to say Peri did nothing but complain with that annoying fake American accent and Mel did nothing other than scream at monsters and just something with the tone of her voice that puts me off her character al though she better acted in the Ncuti era i can't look past how she was originally it's too little too late to redeem her character in my opinion.
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Bonnie was 21 when she joined Doctor Who but had been on screen for years. She played a pushy, young starlet in 1976's Bugsy Malone (credited as Bonita Langford). She famously played the rather needy, spoilt brat, Violet Elizabeth Bott, in 1977's Just William for LWT. Catchphrase "I'll sthcream and sthcream until I'm sick!".
She and an equally talented young singer, called Lena Zavaroni, were huge stars in the late 70s working together and with Morecambe and Wise. In 1977 she appeared in The Wombles movie, Wombling Free, which also featured the voice of Jon Pertwee!
In the early 80s, she and Wayne Sleep were the stars of The Hot Shoe Show, a dancing-centric half hour, often seen on weekdays around 1983/4. In 1984 she and Tommy Boyd presented Saturday Starship, ITV's very short-lived answer to Saturday Superstore.
Bonnie was also a huge star of Panto. Then in 1986,t to some disquiet amongst fans, she joined Doctor Who. There was a concern the series was "drifting into pantomime" and hiring Bonnie was seen as confirmation.
Pleased to see Bonnie and Mel come back in 2024, with much better writing.
What I heard that the big finish audiobooks of the 6 doctor continued his story after the trial which finished his story arc, and his stories from what I heard from fans these stories are among the best stories of the franchise.
❤❤❤❤ love doctor who and your channel hope you are well
Loved ‘Sixie’ and still do. Shame about his scripts when he was actually in the on-screen role, but has done better with his audio work
You can visit one of the locations for Colin's Daleks story in Portsmouth. (and the Sea Devils of course). 🙂
I think the change after Tom Baker is partly related to scheduling issues with the BBC. Peter Davison episodes were shown on weekday evenings rather than Saturday teatime, sometimes up against Coronation Street. Colin Baker episodes became 45 minutes long and shown late evening on a weekday. Then there was a big gap before Sylvester McCoy when Who was nearly cancelled. Prior to the days of catch-up and streaming, the core audience was becoming disenfranchised.
And iirc it was even worse due each era changing days partway through, like I want to say S19 was Mondays & Tuesdays while S20 was Tuesday & Wednesdays, C.Baker era was more consistent and with McCoy; S24 was Mondays, while 25 & S26 were Wednesdays.
Like at least with Revival Who and New Who, they've stuck to "Weekend nights" and kept the same day for a Doctor's whole era (Saturday and later Sunday evenings for Revival Who, and in the case of New Who, Saturdays and later Friday Evenings/Midnight Saturday (for streaming) & Saturday evenings (for Broadcast)) save for Christmas and New Year's Day specials.
Apart from The Twin Dilemma, all Colin's episodes were shown on Saturdays.
@@edwinhiley6281yes I remember Colin bakers episodes back on a Saturday evening but was never a fan of his doctor but the twin dilemma did not help
@@edwinhiley6281 It's certainly possible I misremembered the day (though I could have sworn it was a Thursday!) but I'm sure the time slot moved to after 9PM which explains why some the the storylines got darker.
@@LilleDanteIt was never shown as late as 9pm. I remember Peter Davison episodes being on after the evening news and Nationwide around 7pm. With the exception of The Twin Dilemma all of Colin Baker episodes were shown on Saturday early evenings in its more traditional time slot 6pm-ish. I remember Trial of a Timelord being shown after The Roland Rat Show but before the main prime time Saturday evening programmes. For the Sylvester McCoy’s era the show moved back to weekdays at around 7:35pm possibly after Wogan but unlike Peter Davison’s era there was just one episode per week rather than two.
Both the 6th and 7th Doctor’s were cut short just as they were getting going.Both times by interference from the high ups at the BBC.
I feel a lot warmer to the sixth Doctor now than I did as a kid, but I do feel bad for Colin that, despite his great passion for the role and for the show , he got such a raw deal thanks to all the behind the scenes turbulence that went on during his era. As a result, he never got the chance to properly fulfil his Doctor’s potential on TV, and that’s sad, even though he has gone on to do a lot of acclaimed work for Big Finish.
I would say that the dividing line you notice in the later years of the classic show really falls at the start of the fourth Doctor’s final season, when John Nathan-Turner became producer and shook things up to bring the show into the 80s. JNT remained in charge for the rest of the classic run, and for me the feel of the fifth and sixth Doctor eras is quite similar in many ways. I would argue the next big break comes with the seventh Doctor, at which point the show’s storytelling moves in a different direction; indeed, in many ways the seventh Doctor’s era feels more like a precursor to New Who than a continuation of the classic show.
In the book "the Eight Doctors", which takes place after the TV movie, because of a trap by the Master, the Doctor has to travel into his past where he has to work with his former selves. His team-up with the Sixth Doctor revealed the real reasons behind his trial.
Six had a difficult start, then he got good, and was then unceremoniously shoved out the back door.
The Sixth Doctor was my doctor as a kid. He is still my favourite. It's funny because I like him for reasons that a lot of other fans dislike him, such as his arrogance, sardonic sense of humour with the violence in the show. Peri is also my favourite companion. You talk about dividing the series based on a change to the feel of it. For me, it is the hiatus. The Sixth Doctor prior to the hiatus feels like Doctor Who. When it returned, it felt cheapened. Unfortunately, this got worse with the Seventh Doctor. The Eighth Doctor is separate again...
Having The Twin Dilemma as the final story of a season in March '84, then no further Doctor Who until Jan '85, did Colin no favours whatsoever. If they had put it at the start of the following season then it would just have been a duff opening story and quickly forgotten, but instead the public's view of Six was shaped by that one dreadful story for 9~10 months and he never really stood much of a chance with some people after that.
The Third Doctor is my first one. I am a fan of the Sixth Doctor, whose era was cut too short. The writing for Colin was terrible, but the Revelation of the Doctor still shines. Colin also had poorly written companions.
Colin was a great doctor, but the BBC had a crisis thanks to their arsehole-in-chief Michael Grade, who killed the series. It was never meant to happen like this - the original 23rd season was another 13 45-minute episodes and was to feature the Toymaker, the Ice Warriors, Sil and possibly the Autons.
Your overdue on rewatch diaries
That era is one of those eras of the show I least go back to because the acting was bad, the stories were bad, the writing as god-awful and the characterisation was also god-awful I know I'll get flack for saying this that's my honest feeling on Colin Baker's time as the Doctor.
As bad as i feel for Colin Baker unfortunately I have to be brutally honest I thought this was the worst era of Dr. Who this was for me the beginning of the end of Dr. Who the 1980's was peak Dr. Who with unfortunately the worst annoying companions I know this will be controversial because there's some Peri and Mel fans out there but I'm sorry their acting was pretty bad I'm sorry to say Peri did nothing but complain with that annoying fake American accent and Mel did nothing other than scream at monsters and just something with the tone of her voice that puts me off her character al though she better acted in the Ncuti era i can't look past how she was originally it's too little too late to redeem her character in my opinion.