Song of a Baker

Good morning everyone.  Steady as we go - it's Colin Baker.

Colin chats about Big Finish work, and makes passing reference to the JumpCon problems.  He also mentions that Maria's dad in The Sarah Jane Adventures is brilliant in Hamlet at the moment alongside Louise Jameson as Gertrude.  Oddly he then decides to make an anagram out of Charlie's name.  It's like watching an episode of Crosswits. 

We turn to The Trial of a Time Lord boxset which is due out in August.  Colin was intrigued by watching the show again, as "contrary to opinion I don't sit at home every week watching my old stories."  Interestingly Colin first met Graeme Harper on the set of War and Peace in 1970.  He's then asked his opinion on the final two stories of the recent series, and Colin then sympathises with Steven Moffat for having to take over after RTD threw in the kitchen sink.  Colin cannot understand why they didn't cast Terry Malloy as Davros, but he loved The Silence in the Library. 

We get on to more controversial territory with ToaTL, but this potentially interesting area is lost when Charlie brings up the costume.  Colin wanted black, but JN-T differed.  Oddly Colin blames this on the 1980s as this was "an era of glam rock".  He then talks glowingly of audio drama as opposed to television and film.  He did a lot of Radio 4 drama work in the 1970s, and goes on to praise Peter Brooks' Shakespeare productions. 

As a side note, Colin is wearing bright red crocs - maybe you can't take the man completely out of the costume after all.  Charlie posits that Colin was the best thing about the show at the time and it was everything else that let him down.   It's an arguable point.

Colin praises JN-T, and then goes on to discuss whether RTD would be wise to attend conventions as you need a thick skin.  Charlie moves on to Colin's experience working with Patrick Troughton.  Colin was David Troughton's best man.  Colin had cross words only once with JN-T and that was when they were left out in the sun for too long.  The Sontaran glue didn't work because the actors were gushing with sweat. 

Q&A

Question 1:  "Nicole Bryant is my favourite companion.  Is she yours?"  Colin says no, and that he much prefered Frobisher.  Not really.  He says he loved working with her.  It doesn't get much more controversial than that.

He tells the old story about Peter Davison winding her up about him.

Things look decidedly ropey for a while when Charlie asked Colin "What's the most annoyed you've ever been at a convention?"  Time seems to slow down as a re-run of Col-gate looks not just likely but inevitable.  Fortunately, Colin not being paid once is ranked higher than the Tachyon TV escapade.

Question 2:  "Which monster would you rather face from any era of Doctor Who?"  Not sure.  We suggest the Midnight monster, and Colin praises the episode.  He suggests the Celestial Toymaker, but also thinks that the Davros of the "I, Davros" episodes is fantastic.

Question 3:  "How would the Doctor respond to the Railyard (Valyard)?" Not unreasonably Colin replies that he would react exactly how he did react in the episode.

Question 4:  "Who's your favourite Doctor?" (from a small child who likes him).  He agrees with her graciously.

Charlie ends oddly by saying that Colin will always be in their top three.

Back at some point.  The panels are a bit thin today.