Season 6B
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Season 6B is a fan theory related to the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It constitutes a hypothetical series of adventures undertaken by the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) between his final regular appearance in season 6 and the Third Doctor's (Jon Pertwee) debut in season 7. It was devised in order to explain the continuity issues that arose when Troughton reprised his role as the Doctor in The Five Doctors and The Two Doctors. Although the television series has not confirmed the existence of the season 6B timeframe, numerous stories in spin-off media have been set during this era.
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[edit] Continuity problems
The conclusion of The War Games, the last serial of season 6, sees the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) exiled to Earth by the Time Lords, who also force him into regeneration. This regeneration, however, does not take place on-screen and the newly-regenerated Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) first appears falling out of the TARDIS in Spearhead from Space.
Troughton reprised his role as the Second Doctor three times in the television series: in The Three Doctors (1973), The Five Doctors (1983) and The Two Doctors (1985). The latter two stories both see the Second Doctor's character contradicting established events from his original tenure.
In The Five Doctors, the Second Doctor and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart are retrieved via Time Scoop from a UNIT reunion, which the Doctor had travelled to in the TARDIS. However, prior to the Doctor's exile on Earth (and therefore for the entire of the Second Doctor era of the television series) the TARDIS's destination was unable to be determined by the Doctor. Later in the episode, illusions of Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines) and Zoe Heriot are dismissed because the Second Doctor knows that the Time Lords wiped their memories, and therefore Jamie should not have recognised the Brigadier. Since this only occurred shortly before the end of The War Games, it is unclear how the Doctor can be aware of Jamie's mindwipe unless he has already lived through his trial as seen in The War Games.
In The Two Doctors, the Second Doctor and Jamie appear on a mission for the Time Lords, who are even able to control the Doctor's TARDIS remotely. Again, this seems irreconcilable with the Second Doctor's original era, as the Doctor had no contact with the Time Lords between a time prior to the series' first episode and The War Games. Jamie is also aware of the Time Lords here, where The War Games saw him returned to his own time with no memory of his travels with the Doctor shortly after he arrived on Gallifrey. As in The Five Doctors, the Second Doctor is able to control the flight of the TARDIS much more effectively than before, deliberately piloting it to the space station where The Two Doctors takes place and also temporarily dropping off Victoria Waterfield before the episode begins.
[edit] Season 6B
The "Season 6B" theory was first published in the 1995 book The Discontinuity Guide, by Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping.[1] The theory reads that following his trial in The War Games the Second Doctor is not immediately exiled and forced into regeneration, but for a time works for the Celestial Intervention Agency, a covert Time Lord organisation that grants him increased control over his TARDIS at the cost of his freedom. If the Second Doctor from The Five Doctors and The Two Doctors comes from this period, the continuity issues described above are thus resolved.
During this time, the CIA may allow the Doctor to travel with both Jamie and Victoria as companions, acquires a Stattenheim remote control device to summon the TARDIS (as seen in The Two Doctors), and possibly receives a ring, bracelet, and a watch which home in on the TARDIS (which are found with the Third Doctor in Spearhead from Space). Eventually, the arrangement with the CIA comes to an end and the Doctor's original sentence is enforced. The Discontinuity Guide also postulates that the Doctor's memory was wiped of the events of season 6B when he went into exile, with the Third Doctor displaying memory issues at the start of Spearhead from Space.[1]
[edit] Adoption in tie-in fiction
The idea of a post-The War Games Second Doctor was first introduced before the Third Doctor had even appeared on-screen, in the TV Comic comic strip in 1969. Action in Exile (TVC #916-#920) sees the Doctor arrive in London without his TARDIS, where he checks into the luxurious Carlton Grange Hotel. From there, he proceeds to have five Earth-bound adventures, at the end of which he is re-captured by the Time Lords and forced into regeneration in a direct lead-in to Spearhead from Space.
Former Doctor Who series writer and script editor Terrance Dicks has utilised season 6B in two Past Doctor Adventures novels. Players (1999) features a flashback to this period, and World Game (2005) explicitly bridges the gap between The War Games and The Two Doctors. It follows the season 6B outline as described above, with only the minor difference that Jamie only believes Victoria has been travelling with himself and the Doctor due to the Time Lords altering his memories.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ a b Cornell, Paul; Day, Martin; Topping, Keith (1995). "Season 6 (b)" (reprinted on BBC Doctor Who website). The Discontinuity Guide. London: Virgin Books. pp. 105–107. ISBN 0-426-20442-5. http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/episodeguide/season6b.shtml. Retrieved 20 April 2009.
[edit] References
- Cornell, Paul, Day, Martin & Topping, Keith (1995). The Discontinuity Guide. London: Virgin Publishing, ISBN 0-426-20442-5.
