I’ve never seen it, but I remember finding the premise kind of silly. What’s so great about winning a trip to somewhere when you have a big blue box that goes anywhere?
Can you give me a cite that Time Lords and Gallifrey weren’t in the original concept? I’ll accept that regeneration may have been a later idea to bring in Patrick Troughton after William Hartnell, but I thought that the Doctor was a Time Lord from the first.
I like Colin Baker and think he was a great Doctor. Unfortunately, he was sabotaged by poor stories and the single most awful costume of the history of the show. From his seasons I’d only really recommend Vengeance on Varos. The Two Doctors was also cool because it had Patrick Troughton and Jamie, but had some serious issues. It’s also the last Doctor Who story written entirely by Robert Holmes. (Holmes was one of the best Doctor Who writers and one of my favorite TV writers, but TTD wasn’t his best effort.) I wouldn’t watch any other story featuring Colin Baker. If you’re really curious reading plot summaries on wikipedia would probably be a better idea.
To me Colin Baker’s best efforts on Doctor Who are all Big Finish audio plays. If you’re interested in those I’d recommend starting with The Marian Conspiracy, which introduced Evelyn, the best companion ever. I’d also recommend The Holy Terror (featuring Frobisher, the other best companion ever), The One Doctor (simply hilarious), …ish, Jubilee (kinda, sorta the inspiration for Dalek, the Ecclestone episode) and Doctor Who and The Pirates (it just maybe the best DW story ever because it features pirates, Evelyn and a Gilbert and Sullivan inspired musical episode in which the Doctor sings "I Am The Very Model Of A Gallifreyan Buccaneer".)
Sylvester McCoy was also a very good Doctor IMO and I really liked the direction that the producers chose for his character, but the production values for some of his episodes were low enough to bother me and that’s saying a lot. To me the stand-outs were The Hapiness Patrol (as has already been stated in this thread many people hate this), Remembrance of The Daleks (the best Dalek story after Genesis of the Daleks), The Curse of Fenric (as much a classic as Remembrance) and Survival (the weakest of this bunch, but worth it as it was the show’s last story for years). Ghost Light is my favorite story by McCoy, but so many people hate it that I’m not comfortable making a recommendation. The Greatest Show on Earth and Battlefield could have been very good but they’re just too cheap looking and Silver Nemesis has the same plot as Remembrance, only it’s bad everywhere Remembrance was good.
I’m sorry that I can’t give you a cite, but I too remember reading in more than one place that Gallifrey and the Time Lords were late additions to the show. Doctor Who unlike a show like Star Trek didn’t have a show bible and never was very much concerned with canon and continuity. Canon only became a concern in the 80s, much to the show’s detriment, IMO.
The last few McCoy serials are worth watching, and Ace was one of the better companions. To my mind, the McCoy era was just starting to come good when they canceled the show, which was a bit unfortunate.
But most of the Colin Baker and early Sylvester McCoy Dr Who’s were pretty wretched. Mel was one of the worst companions, and most of the sets looked like they were made from extruded plastic. Most of the Colin Baker era involved this overriding plot arc where the Doctor was on trial for genocide, and I lost interest in that long before the end.
The term “Time Lord” is first used in “The War Games” The War Games - Wikipedia (A Troughton episode) - six years after the series started.
The word “Gallifrey” is first used in “The Time Warrior” The Time Warrior - Wikipedia (A Pertiwee episode), five years after that.
It therefore seems very unlikely that the concept of Time Lords or Gallifrey was in anyone’s mind at the beginning.
The Doctor and Susan were established as aliens while she was still travelling with him, however. I believe The Sensorites was the first story that mentioned it - Susan apparently described Gallifrey (then unnamed) very similarly to how Ten described it in the revived series.
I didn’t know that. Interesting.