As I was first learning about the pre-RTD Doctors, I heard a lot of love for Three, Four and Five, and a lot of hate for Six and Seven.  Although I’ve never understood why Seven was so reviled (perhaps because my first experience with him was Remembrance of the Daleks, which included Ace, who was to become one of my all-time favorite Companions), I must admit that I took an instant dislike to Six, as I’d come to expect I would.

I suppose it was partly a self-fulfilling prophecy, but when you consider my first exposure to Six (not counting the regeneration scene) was in Vengeance on Varos – in which he is exceptionally snotty to Peri (who, granted, kind of deserves it, but not that much…) – perhaps it’s not surprising I didn’t take to him right away. All I got from him was egomania and disregard for his Companion – not a Doctorly attitude at all. It wasn’t till much later that I discerned any sort of affection for Peri underlying the banter.

Since those first few months, though, I’ve come to appreciate him as a great character in his own right. Mostly, this is due to the brilliance of Rich Morris, artist and web comic writer extraordinaire, who penned the epic fan comic The Ten Doctors (also available in PDF format here). It was through Rich’s work that I was finally able to see the beautiful potential of Six, who really had been done a disservice by his writers, in my opinion. (Not to mention the costume designer – what is up with that nasty outfit? Why couldn’t they have gone monochrome?) The Six of TTD was extremely clever, yet never out of acerbic character from the televised episodes.  He was somehow simultaneously grumpy and charming. I had a lot of respect for that version of Six, and was able to superimpose the positive qualities exhibited there onto the on-screen Doctor afterward.  (In fact, I learned a lot about Doctor Who as a whole from both TTD and the associated forums, which are populated by some really knowledgeable folks in what is probably the friendliest community on Teh Intarwebs.)

It also helped when I was finally able to watch Trial of a Timelord.  In his second series, Six finally came into his own.  (Getting rid of Peri – my all-time least favorite Companion – was a step in the right direction, too.  …though Mel wasn’t much of an improvement.)  There’s finally a real, noticeable warmth between Six and Peri (at least before the brain scrambling incident in the second sub-story), and he radiates confidence without arrogance in the adventures viewed through the Matrix. He’s still kind of a prat in the courtroom on Gallifrey, though, faced with the Valeyard’s vitriol. It seems that being under fire brings out the worst in him (though having recently taken a couple of hits at work, I can’t really blame him); when he can’t be the one in charge, he gets huffy. However, when things clearly go awry as the Doctor tries to make his own case, his discomfiture affords him a bit of humility.  Without all that smug self-satisfaction, Six is actually rather engaging. Perhaps it’s that it gives him just enough of the “humanity” that the Companion (largely absent in court) usually affords the viewer.  Whatever the case, by the end of Trial, I was much more willing to cut Six some slack, and count him among “Doctors I Like,” rather than have him all alone on the other side of that tally sheet.

Sometimes it takes someone else’s perspective to make you take another look.  That experience changed my mind.  If you’ve never had an appreciation for Six, maybe it’s time for you to look again, too.