Colin Baker Colin Baker played the sixth incarnation of the Doctor from 1984 to 1986 , beginning with the concluding scene of " The Caves of Androzani " and ending with " The Ultimate Foe " . He reprised the role for the 1993 Children in Need special , " Dimensions in Time " , and has also voiced the Doctor for numerous " Doctor Who " audio stories for Big Finish Productions . As the Doctor , he had a mass of curly fair hair and a lurid patchwork coat . He was assisted by companions Peri Brown and Melanie Bush . Before being selected to replace Peter Davison as the Doctor , Baker was an established television actor . His most notable role was Paul Merroney in " The Brothers " . Baker also guest starred as " Bayban the Butcher " in an episode of " Blake ' s 7 " . Prior to being cast as the Doctor , Baker had guest starred in the programme , as Commander Maxil in the Peter Davison serial " Arc of Infinity " . At one point in the serial , Maxil shoots the Doctor ; Baker often jokes that he got the part of the Doctor by killing the incumbent . Before that , he had been considered by director Christopher Barry for the role of Arnold Jellicoe in " Robot " , which debuted Tom Baker as the Doctor . ( REF : " The Fourth Doctor Handbook " ) Baker ' s era was interrupted by an eighteen - month hiatus , officially because the show was moved back from the spring to the autumn schedule . He was ultimately dismissed from the part at the insistence of BBC management , who wanted to refresh the show . The Controller of BBC One at the time , Michael Grade , criticised " Doctor Who " , saying that the programme had become overly violent and its storylines farcical . Baker was offered the first four episodes of the next season in order to pave the way for a regeneration , which he turned down as he did not wish to miss out on other work in the meantime . He did offer to do the whole season and have the Doctor regenerate at the end , but this was refused . , he is the only actor to play the Doctor who has been fired by the BBC . Since leaving " Doctor Who " he has continued to act , mainly on the stage , where he played the Doctor again in " The Ultimate Adventure " , replacing Jon Pertwee in the part . He returned to television as the Doctor in the 1993 charity special " Dimensions in Time " . He has played a Doctor - like character in the BBV Productions video series " The Stranger " , reprised the role of the Doctor in a series of audio plays produced by Big Finish Productions and played an alternate version of the Doctor in AUDIO : " Disassembled " . In a poll conducted by " Doctor Who Magazine " , fans voted Baker the " greatest " of the Doctors in the audio plays . Post - " Who " television work during the 1990s included guest appearances in the BBC ' s medical drama " Casualty " and Channel 4 ' s adaptation of " A Dance to the Music of Time " . He appeared as himself as the resident celebrity in ' Dictionary Corner ' on the daytime quiz show " Countdown " , also on Channel 4 . He appeared in the first episode of " Jonathan Creek " ( 1997 ) . He also appeared in an episode of the George Lucas TV series " The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles " , making him one of four classic series Doctors ( the others being Jon Pertwee , Tom Baker and Peter Davison ) to appear in an American TV series after leaving the role . In an appearance in an episode of the BBC ' s long - running medical drama series , " Casualty " , Baker played a Doctorish patient named David Vincent ( named after Roy Thinnes ' character in " The Invaders " TV series ) who was a UFO nut and in an episode of Al Murray ' s pub sitcom , " Time Gentlemen Please " , made by Sky TV , he appeared as a character named Professor Baker . In 1994 , Colin Baker had the distinction of being the only Doctor to have written a " Doctor Who " story , penning " The Age of Chaos " , a graphic novel published by Marvel UK featuring the Sixth Doctor and Frobisher . He has also written several short stories for " Doctor Who Magazine " and its " Yearbook " s featuring the Sixth Doctor . Although Matt Smith is known to have written several short stories featuring the Doctor in preparation for playing the Eleventh Doctor , as of 2016 none have been published , making Baker still the only Doctor actor to have written published " Doctor Who " fiction . Colin Baker is of no relation to Tom Baker , who played the Fourth Doctor in " Doctor Who " . He was once married to Liza Goddard . He had 5 children . Jack is the most well known for activating Baker ' s support for the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths . Jack died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in 1983 . Since 1995 , Baker has written a column for the " Bucks Free Press " . In 2010 , Hirst Books published a volume of a hundred of these columns called " Look Who ' s Talking . " They announced a second collection , including Baker ' s Doctor Who fiction entitled " Gallimaufry " . Baker both wrote and read " The Wings of a Butterfly " for . Since Nicholas Courtney ' s death in 2011 , he has been the honorary President of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society . Although it is said the two didn ' t really know each other , Baker paid his respects to the late Elisabeth Sladen after she died the same year . In 2013 , Baker appeared alongside Peter Davison and Sylvester McCoy in " The Five ( ish ) Doctors Reboot " , in which they attempt to appear in the 50th anniversary special " The Day of the Doctor " . In 2015 , Baker finally saw a chance to perform a genuine regeneration story for his Doctor in the Big Finish audio anthology " " , putting to bed his jest that he had never handed over the role , which he discussed at length in the commentary featured with the release . At 28 years since his exit from " Doctor Who " , he holds the record for the longest time an actor who played the Doctor has waited to perform a regeneration scene after leaving the series , even surpassing Paul McGann ' s extensive wait of 17 years .