With the recent success of the new series we are hearing more and more backlash from many fans about the canonical nature of the TV Movie (TVM) starring Paul McGann. Most complain that it was “Americanized,” that the plot was jumbled, or that it messed too much if the past history of the show.

But was the TVM so different? Does it deserve its place in the history of the show?

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As the Doctor and Martha are mired in 1913, one year from the Great War and with the Doctor not quite himself, what better time than to take stock of our new companion, medical student Martha Jones?

You might want to harp on all day about Rose Tyler and her and the Doctor’s “special relationship”, but for me Martha Jones is the Real Deal. She has drive, ambition, a real desire to make a difference – and that’s before she’s even met the Doctor. Furthermore her introduction in Smith and Jones showed us that she has a brain that will accept the unknown. She mentions Mr Saxon’s claims of life “out there”, refers to the Battle of Canary Wharf and doesn’t lose it when the hospital is transported to the moon.

Martha’s relationship with her family is of course very different. She has a brother and older sister, both seen to best effect in The Lazarus Experiment, as well as a father experiencing a midlife-crisis (or a reaction to his horrible wife…?) and of course Martha’s mother, who seems to be imprinting herself on Series 3 as much as Martha herself – and we’ve only seen her three times!

There is of course the expected aspect of suspicion directed at the Doctor, seen previously with Jackie Tyler’s concern for her daughter. But Martha’s mother seems to have taken this to an almost psychopathic level, colluding with the dark forces of Mr Saxon…

Martha is also, I have to point out, very attractive. Actress Freema Agyeman is a popular actress with girls and boys, men and women alike, and while she isn’t photographed drunk or looking ill in the less respectable magazines and newspapers, this doesn’t mean that she is unpopular. Her predecessor Billie Piper has a long experience of appearing in magazines and newspapers, either to promote her work or on the arm of her ex-husband. It stands to reason that a different actress is going to require the press to follow different rules…

Which brings us neatly on to The Sun. This news paper recently stated that Freema Agyeman would be leaving Doctor Who, implying that she basically “isn’t very good”. This absolute rubbish should of course be treated with a pinch of salt, coming after a Friday Night with Jonathan Ross interview in which Series 4 was mentioned, and just hours before another superb, gutsy performance as Martha.

So far we have seen this beautiful, wide-eyed companion tackle a Plasmavore, meet and leave a distinct impression on William Shakespeare, encounter the Daleks and formulate a way of killing their Pig Slaves with conducted lightning, and of course deal with the Lazarus monster, a sentient sun and an amnesiac Doctor.

Freema Agyeman is a very different actress to Billie Piper, and this naturally gives us a very different companion. She isn’t filling the screen with her face, or ACTING; she is acting, delivering her lines in an understated, being a part of the action manner. Billie Piper never once gave an understated performance in Doctor Who, and often overwhelmed stories, and her co-star. Martha Jones is designed for the Tenth Doctor, and they make a much better pairing than the Tenth Doctor and Rose combo.

With just 5 weeks left of Series 3, Martha and the Doctor are going to see some changes. For instance, how will they deal galactic tart Captain Jack Harkness? What will happen when they return to London, and encounter Mr Saxon, and worse, Martha’s mother?

However Series 3 ends, whether Martha remains a traveller on board the TARDIS or not, some things are irrefutable. She has been a marvellous companion, she looks pretty hot, she has been a part of (up to now) the best series of Doctor Who yet, and she compliments her leading man perfectly. Furthermore, whether she lasts one series, two series or more, Martha Jones is and forever will be remembered as a companion of the Doctor.

And you can’t say Freema than that.

Illustration by Carolyn Edwards

“The Time Lords of Gallifrey” series continues with a look at one of the most notorious names in the annals of Gallifrey…

Time Lord history is littered with renegades, outcasts of society whose contribution to the annals of Universe’s oldest civilization was to embarrass, to challenge and to attempt to overthrow. None of these individuals were as notorious as the Master.

Little is known of the Master’s early life. It is known that he and the Doctor were once friends, and although there have been rumours of a family tie between them, this has never been established. It is also strongly rumoured that the Master was earlier known as Koschei, and later by his title the Magistrate, and was just another Time Lord until events conspired against him, leaving him trapped in a black hole until he was able to escape at the cost of his remaining regenerations.

Believing the Master dead for many years, the Time Lords eventually discovered that he was still alive, and planning revenge against his former friend the Doctor; an amusing diversion for the urbane sociopath while he completed his main ambition – the reshaping of all matter, all of creation, to his plan.

Almost permanently equipped with a Tissue Compression Eliminator – used to mortally shrink the target and thus banned by most universal conventions – and his intense mental strength (handy for hypnotizing lesser forms) probably developed during his time in the black hole, the Master and the Doctor would lock horns on countless occasions both on Earth, Gallifrey, and in deep space.

While on Earth, the Doctor was able to provide resistance to the Master’s malevolent machinations with the assistance of his friends at UNIT, and some assistance from the Time Lords of Gallifrey. The Master and the Doctor were for a time evenly matched, as contemporaries they were similarly educated and similarly ingenious.

A case in point would be the resourcefulness displayed by the Master while imprisoned at sea following his attempts to summon the Daemon Azal. Trapped on a sea fort with UNIT-trained personnel equipped with knowledge of psychic training to avoid hypnosis, the Master nevertheless managed to affect an escape, utilizing the hitherto unknown Earth sea reptiles as an army, thus restoring him again to a position of strength.

Following several events which involved the Master locating and utilizing an alien race or alien technology hidden on Earth, a key alliance with the Daleks to ferment war against the Humans and Draconians in the 25th century would lead to his ultimate destruction. The plot was exposed by the Doctor, thus restoring the powerful alliance between the Humans and Draconians and preventing the planned Dalek conquest of our galaxy. Sensing betrayal, however, the Daleks made the Master top of their “Most Wanted” list, and as a result the Master vanished…

Former Celestial Intervention Agency member Chancellor Goth had aspirations to stand for president of the High Council of Time Lords at the time of the only recorded assassination of a Time Lord council member in history. While initially framing the Doctor for this heinous crime, it transpired that Goth – who had some years earlier voted to banish the Doctor to Earth – was in league with the Master…

Now a tragic, pitiful figure, devoid of his legendary charm and sophistication, the Master was emaciated, almost crippled, shrouded in a hood that was as decayed as he was. It has been rumoured that the Master was taken by surprise following an attempted kidnap of the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan; it seems more likely however that the Master was simply holding on to life for as long as possible, his artron energy sustaining him in the absence of regenerations until a new body was available. With designs on the Eye of Harmony – the sacred Time Lord power source – the Master was intent on reclaiming his former glory, and disposing of the Doctor at the same time.

Encountering the Doctor many years later, it was now apparent that the Master had finally taken leave of his senses. His ultimately successful attempt to pervert the ancient energy of the Traken Union – the Source – resulted in his acquiring a new body. His subsequent meddling on the planet Logopolis lead to the destruction of a sizeable portion of the universe, including Traken. With the Doctor’s intervention, the Master was prevented from holding the universe to ransom with imminent heat decay – but he was yet to be beaten.

Displaying a flagrant disregard for his own safety in a universe that was witness to a growing Dalek present, the Master continued with his insane plot to destroy the Doctor at the cost of all else. Creating Castrovalva, a seemingly tranquil retreat that was in fact an elaborate space-time trap, the Master intended to trap the newly regenerated Doctor and companions yet his prey escaped at the last minute, leaving the Master stranded.

This was the first of several occasions in which the Master escaped from almost certain death. Later escapes would include Earth’s prehistoric era, the Middle Ages and the numismaton flame on Sarn, at the mercy of a rapidly growing tyrannosaurous rex in the Rani’s TARDIS, frozen by a limbo atrophier in his own TARDIS and escaping from the immediately imminent destruction of the planet of the Cheetah People.

Yet these were small fry compared to the Master’s final galactic Houdini routine. As hostilities between the Time Lords and Daleks began to reach cataclysmic proportions, the Master was handed over to them to buy time for the Time Lords and pay for his earlier transgression against the Daleks. Requesting that the Doctor collect his remains, the Master was revealed to have survived destruction by the Daleks, existing as a morphant creature. Taking another innocent body, the Master planned to take the Doctor’s remaining regenerations, but instead found himself lost in the vortex, falling through the Doctor’s TARDIS’ link to Eye of Harmony.

Which brings us to the case of survival once more; rumours abound that the Master is alive, having somehow survived the Time War. Truth, or tittle-tattle, one thing is certain – as the ultimate survivor, one day the Master will return.

Image by Vendetta

It could be argued that there is no greater subject for debate, in the Doctor Who world, than the life of the Sixth Doctor.

The range of emotion for this incarnation of our favorite hero is about as steady as a celebrity’s relationship.

There are those who think he is the best, though this feeling is rare. Then you have those who think “He’ll do” or “Well there isn’t another one on TV right now so…” And then there are those who can’t stand the ground he walks on and think that his character is about a tasteful as his suit.

But are these opinions fair? I mean they are just that, ‘opinions’. Colin Baker is a fine actor and very talented with accents and voices. He displays a marked range of emotion and when he played Commander Maxil during the Fifth Doctor era, you could feel his presence on screen more so then Peter Davison’s.

So how did he get such a bad rap?

Some say it was, former Controller of BBC One, Michael Grade’s fault, but how can this be? Sure we have all heard about the bad blood that is rumored to be between them, but he didn’t have anything to do with the two years of the show that aired with Colin Baker in it. He was just the evil dictator who canceled this brilliant show for a year.

There are those who say it was his outfit and I know they say ‘clothes maketh the man’ but that’s a bit unfair too. Sure it was the worst outfit ever seen in just about any production ever made (Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat notwithstanding), but the man underneath the clothes had to have done more then just look bad on screen.

Next we have those who feel it was his characterization and the writing; finally something that you can actually base these opinions on.

Colin Baker had a plan and really it was a good plan. Take the Doctor back to the early days of William Hartnell. Play him as a bit more grumpy and short tempered. Very different from the portrayal by the Doctor before him, so as I said, good plan. So what went wrong?

I feel it was a few different factors, namely his age. The character traits laid out for the Sixth Doctor were not bad, I mean they worked before, but then William Hartnell was in his mid-to-late fifties when Doctor Who first visited Totter’s Lane. If you are going for that sort of feel you risk losing credibility if you’re a youthful looking guy in his early forties…

So I get why most fans don’t like the Sixth Doctor on a first glance, or at the very least can tolerate his portrayal. But what do the fans who love him see?

It’s easy to look at the suit, the fits or anger thrown towards his companion, the smug nature of character, but if you invest the time and look a bit further into his life you will see something. That same something that captivated us since day one.

Underneath the color wheel coat lays a wonderful actor who had a knack for subtleties. It’s hard to see at first as the not so subtle aspects are much more in your face, but if you pay attention, if you give him a chance, you will see the same care and heroic man that makes up the Doctor.

Sure, it does seem hard to notice those moments in this era of the Doctors life, but they are there. The single thing that makes it easier for fans to appreciate Colin Baker’s tenure are the fantastic audio plays by Big Finish. Even if you don’t count these plays as canon, they do cast a new light on his TV stories.

The audios give the sixth Doctor a chance to grow. They allow him to evolve during his fifth regeneration and mellow the character out. Something Colin Baker had wished to do in the TV series. He had high hopes of beating Tom Bakers record in the part. With a goal like that, it’s completely understandable why his character came on so strong in his first year. If you want the character to grow on screen, then you need to have a starting point to grow from.

Watching him develop over his impressive collection of Big Finish plays – which I believe he holds the record out of the other Doctors so far – it gives you a newfound respect for the man. So when you go back and watch a TV story to feature his Doctor you can pick up on his little hints of the character that he would become. The aspects that make any great Doctor who they are.

Part of me thinks that if he had been given the opportunity to pick his own wardrobe that the range of emotion regarding his character would not be so sporadic, as listening to the plays you don’t have to see the coat. But that’s not necessarily true, as I said in other reviews and articles, that I watch these plays. The images are all in my head, so I can’t escape the suit. Sadly, I feel the suit is just the icing on the list of complaints that most people have.

I feel lucky and very thankful that Colin Baker is still involved with the show by continuing to do these plays. He genuinely loves this character and is always willing to please the fans. I can’t help but wonder what the fan opinions would be like today had his era not been cut so short.

Every Doctor has a title or a description that best suits them. Colin Bakers’ should be “Misunderstood.”