CB: Colin Baker

I: Interviewer

Here, Colin Baker talks about his regeneration scene in The Caves of Androzani:

CB: I think the actual scene of regeneration is the most difficult thing I've had to do since I've taken the part of Doctor because in practice what happened was Peter Davison was making The Caves of Androzani on one of the studio days. I had to come in to do essentially three lines which means that I came in in the morning, I was there; they were behind schedule and they unfortunately had to cut scenes as they went along, because they weren't going to finish otherwise - there was an atmosphere of business. All I had to focus on was that small scene, and as any actor will tell you, the hardest thing to do is small parts, because you focus all your attention and concentration on that small part. When you're playing the lead part, you don't have time to think about the whole of it, so you just have to steam on and get on with it. Playing a little scene like this means that it gets a disproportionate amount of your attention. So I was sitting around all day waiting nip into the TARDIS, lie down on the floor, sit up and say those two lines with Nicola. It's not that I actually got partciularly nervous about it, but instead of doing it in a relaxed way, I was overendowing it with importance, which means that I wasn't particularly pleased with that very brief scene. It was acceptable; it was fine, but I'd like to do it again now and slip it into the middle of something else I was doing so that it was more to my satisfaction.

I: What did you go through as an actor in preparing yourself for taking on the role? Did you decide how you were going to play it, and knew that John [Nathan Turner] would approve of it, or did decide you actually sit down in a process of deliberation, you know, X Y and Z?

CB: Yes, well we - during the period when he [Turner] said that I might be suitable for the part, and him offering me the part, there was a period of about 4 or 5 weeks when I looked at some old tapes of my predecessors - not with any intention of copying them, but just so that I could subliminally assimilate whatever quality it is that is common to all of the Doctors. And there are various essentials that are the Doctor - not that I could write a list of them, but you sort of get to feel it after awhile. And I came to meet with John and the script editor and the head of the series department of the BBC and we discussed the way in general terms that I would like to play the part, and they talked about what they saw in me which made them think I was suitable to play the Doctor - and it turned out that we were within narrow margins in total agreement, so then we briefed the writers so the scripts could be written, and we just took off from there. There were certain characteristics that I wanted to enhance - they've always been there - I wanted, for example, my Doctor to be arrogant, not in a deeply unpleasant way, but to be quite strongly arrogant, wit, I wanted to be a physical Doctor, in the same way that Pertwee was an active, physical Doctor; I wanted the occassional tetchiness of Hartnell; um, some of the off-the-wall, offbeat stuff that Troughton produced; the honesty of Peter Davison. A little bit of everyone, plus, I hope, something original of my own.

Obviously, there tend to be favorites. I think the one that most like is the one that they first watched, especially if they first watched it, in the case of England, when they were young children. And they will always say, "The best Doctor was..." and it turns out to be the one who was playing the part when they were first watching it. I think that becomes less and less the case now that it is so firmly established that it's a character that regenerates. The first couple of times, especially in the case of Hartnell to Troughton, it muave been a great shock, because it was a very novel idea, a character that is capable of changing its total appearance. Now it's established. It's happened five times; I;m the Sixth Doctor. It's no longer such a great shock; it's a feature of the programme. It's such an exiting moment. It's sadness tinged with excitement. We're losing something very familiar, but something exciting's going to happen. So I think that I'm benefitting from that, and at the same time as suffering from the disappointment maybe of some fans. I've had letters ranging across the whole spectrum - some saying, "I think you're great; I think you're wonderful; I'm so glad you're playing the Doctor" to "I've stopped watching Doctor Who now that Peter's gone." Between the two lies a constant, I guess.

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