Doctor Number Six tackles Bach, Jesus and “Fatties” – live from New York!
This interview originally appeared in DWM 406, published in March 2009.
Colin! You’re in New York! Any good?
“It’s a bit like the opening scene of Blade Runner. If you think of Leicester Square or Charing Cross Road, then stretch it up to 25 storeys, then multiply the electronics by a thousand – you’ve got New York. I’ve just done Comic-Con here, and I’m off to LA tomorrow for Gallifrey.”
How do US conventions compare to their British counterparts?
“Just as tiring. After a day of Comic-Con, you’re whacked. People think, oh, he’s just sitting there signing autographs. But it’s meeting people, constantly. It’s a big moment for them, so you want to give them good value. Your brain doesn’t get a chance to go into idle mode.”
Which questions from fans are you most fed up of answering?
“There are some where your heart does sink. When they ask me, ‘Which is your favourite story?’ – which they do – I find myself giving a different answer each time, just to keep myself amused. [Laughs] It’s a bit like saying which is your favourite child. There are elements of all of them that… hang on, my mobile’s ringing. I’d better answer it in case it’s my daughter. Can you call me back in five minutes?”
[Five minutes pass...]
Hello, Colin.
“Sorry about that. My daughter and her friends are over here at the same time, entirely by chance. She wants me to buy her breakfast.”
Have you hung out together much in New York?
“No. She’s a young person, so she’s off with her friends. I often find myself in interesting places entirely on my own, which is a bit frustrating. I’m not a great one for wandering around looking at things on my own. Not that there’s much time.”
I want to ask you about Attack of the Cybermen, which is about to be released on DVD. When someone says, “Attack of the Cybermen,” what do you think of first?
“I remember playing Bach on the… not the Hammond organ, but the TARDIS organ. The director, Matthew Robinson, was an accomplished keyboard performer and taught me how to play the first couple of chords of whichever Bach it is [Toccata and Fugue in D Minor].”
Do you still remember how to play it?
“Of course not. [Laughs] And I remember that scene of the policeman popping out of the manhole. I put my foot on his head, and then I come up with a policeman’s hat on – which is a tad naff, but it was quite funny at the time. And I remember standing over the Cyber Controller, with a gun, and wishing to do the Controller severe mischief. That didn’t endear my Doctor to a sector of fandom. I mean, I don’t want to compare myself to the Messiah –”
No, no, go on…
“It’s the scene with Jesus and the money changers in the Temple, isn’t it? It’s about righteous anger. The Doctor should be entitled to a little righteous anger now and then.”
Michael Kilgarriff, who played the Cyber Controller, has come in for a bit of flack too. He made a marvellous Controller in the 1960s, but –
“He’d put on a bit of weight by the ‘80s?”
Basically, yes. Clearly he’d spent most of the 70s and early 80s eating. In retrospect, was it a smart decision to cast him as the Controller in Attack, and put him in a tight silver jumpsuit?
“I see no reason why not. But then I wouldn’t, would I? I think the culture of ‘let’s knock the fatties’, which exists in this country today, is appalling. Yes, all right, Cybermen are supposed to be identical, but the Dalek Emperor doesn’t look like all the other Daleks. You might say that the Dalek Emperor is quite fat.”
Could Attack be shown on TV today, pre-watershed and uncut? It’s quite bloody in places.
“I would show it and be damned, myself. I have no time for this wrapping people in cotton wool. It’s absurd. The nanny culture is getting out of hand.”
This year is the 25th anniversary of your first appearance as the Doctor. Would you consider a return to the TV series?
“Of course I would, but I am 100% aware that the likelihood of it happening is very small. They did their nod to the past when they brought back Peter [Davison, for Children in Need mini-episode Time Crash], who it turns out was David Tennant’s favourite Doctor. Unless I happen to be Matt Smith’s favourite Doctor, I don’t suppose I’m going to be in it. Why confuse modern viewers by digging up the old fogies? With the best will in the world, we don’t look the same. I’ve turned into a Michael Kilgarriff. ‘You can’t have a fat Doctor, no, no, no.’ I don’t think there’s any likelihood of past Doctors coming back, because they don’t need it. The show is doing quite nicely without us.”
Colin Baker was talking to Benjamin Cook. Attack of the Cybermen is out on DVD from 16 March.
