I am the Doctor, whether you like it or not.
Okay, come in. You studied law before becoming an actor. What was the turning point for you which made you turn away from your law career path and pursue a career in acting?
I never wanted to do law in the first place. When I was 18 my father said to me, what do you want to do son? And I said, well I'd like to go to university, read modern languages and while I'm there maybe join an amateur drama group and see if acting had any possibilities because I'd just started doing some local amateur stuff.
And he looked at me for a couple of seconds and said, you start in the solicitor's office on Monday. And I have to tell you 18 year olds then clearly weren't the 18 year olds of today because I went, oh alright.
And I did five years of that and I was just about to qualify as a solicitor doing my final exams when my poor old dad had a heart attack and a stroke at the age of 49 and that was virtually, I mean he died a few years later but he didn't contribute significantly thereafter, poor man.
And that made me think, in the words of the song, is that all there is? So I thought, if that is all there is I'm going to live the life I want to live and not do it for anybody else. So I just said, goodbye law, hello actor and went off to drama school.
And here I am sitting now talking to you. But I've checked the contract very carefully first.
One of your daughters was at school with Peter Davison's daughter Georgia Moffat. Do your children plan to follow you into acting?
Yes, Lucy and Georgia Moffat were in the same class together in the same school when they were four and five years old because Peter and I lived near each other in Oxfordshire.
So we followed Georgia's career with great interest which is lovely because she is a really good actress. Her performance is the Doctor's Daughter and wasn't that a swizz? The Doctor's Daughter, my bottom.
But her performance was excellent and I don't know, I sense a spin-off there. If they've got any sense they'll pick that character up because it was ended in such a way as to make that very possible.
So I hope someone does because I thought she was super. But yes, I've got four daughters. My oldest is working in television but behind the camera.
She's a researcher at the moment working on The Weakest Link and is about to move on to another programme. She hasn't decided which one yet.
My second daughter is studying musical theatre and has my daughter Bindi. She wants to be a singer. She's off to drama school in the autumn.
My third daughter wants to study English and film. She's just done her A-Levels and is waiting to hear whether she's got into Warwick which is where she wants to go where they have a good film course.
Again, she'll be behind the camera she hopes. And my fourth daughter, Rosie, is now 16. I've seen her doing stuff and she's a very fine little actress I have to say.
And she wants to be an actress and I suspect from what I've seen already she's going to do it. I neither support them nor stand in their way because I know what a hellish job it is.
Because even though I've been lucky I know lots of contemporaries who've struggled their whole lives. So it wouldn't be a career path I'd advise to anybody who wasn't 100% committed to it.
And if you're 100% committed to it you don't need any support because you're going to do it. So I wait to see with interest what will happen.
You mentioned about your fondness for Patrick Troughton which is very evident and your memories of the War Games. Have you got a particular favourite Patrick Troughton story and what is your favourite non-Colin Baker, Doctor Who story?
It's very hard to have a favourite Patrick Troughton story because so few of them remain sadly. So is it a cheat to say two Doctors? Because I know that well and remove me out of it and it'd still be a good story.
And he was a joy to work with. My knowledge and memory of the ones he was in is insufficient to choose one of them. But I mean he was just class in whatever he did.
My favourite all time story? Well until the new series came along I'd have probably just said Talons of Weng-Triang or Pyramids of Mars. But now I have to say that that other moffat has won me over because I thought the Empty Child and the Doctor Dances were absolutely superb stories.
And the line of the Doctors at the end of the Doctor Dances which was Everybody Lives was I think the first time I ever got chills down my spine watching Doctor Who.
Because that was a really wonderful moment of Doctor Who. I was so jealous of Eccleston having not only the script because the script was superb and the story but also the facilities they now have to make Doctor Who.
And also the commitment from the BBC to it which is evident. And also Blink, also written by Stephen Moffat. And now we've got to add to that the library one, the name of which escapes me, that one that might have been called the library.
I think they're all right up there with all time greats.
Looking back at your time on Doctor Who, what changes would you have made?
In my time? What changes would I have made? I'd have made the change of not firing me, keeping me on for a further few years.
Sadly that would have obliterated Sylvester McCoy but as it's not going to happen I don't need to apologise to him.
But I'd have happily done a few more years and been able to achieve the kind of stories hopefully that have subsequently been given to me in the Big Finish stories.
Because I am aware that my Doctor has been rehabilitated in the last few years by people listening to the Big Finish audios which have enabled my Doctor to develop in the way that he wasn't allowed to develop on screen.
You were recently voted the most popular Doctor in the Big Finish audio adventures. Are you surprised at the popularity of these audios?
I'm not surprised at the popularity because I think audio is the medium for something like Doctor Who.
If you can't get it right in audio you'll never get it right because the sets are exactly as big and wonderful and glossy or otherwise as you want to make them.
The monsters are as scary as your imagination will allow. So provided the writers can provide the material for the actors the opportunities are limitless.
And I have to say it's to the credit of Big Finish and to Jason Hay Gallery and to Nick Briggs now and his predecessor Gary that the standard has been maintained from the word go.
And they've done over a hundred now and I've never come across a duff script. Some are just very very good instead of brilliant but I've never come across anything that's satisfactory.
They've all been a joy to do and they get really good actors in them. So yes clearly it was nice to be given the Best Actor on Audio Award.
Perhaps people don't need to look at me, they need to listen to me. Perhaps it's looking at me that caused the problems on television.
But I think because I languished in the popularity stakes before then, because I had a bit of a run around and I entered the programme at a time when its popularity was waning.
So in retrospect I didn't have much of a chance. So I think people now they've seen what was possible for the sixth Doctor, have changed their opinion.
So it's the seesaw's gone the other way. Doubtless it will balance out soon and I think all Doctors are doing a fantastic job and why do we have to have polls anyway?
Let's all be good Doctors.
Talking about translation of scripts to screen, that didn't always occur very smoothly in the classic series.
What was good either in paper didn't necessarily translate well to screen. Are there any of your stories which you felt were excellent on paper but didn't actually translate very well into production?
I'm not sufficiently talented to judge what translates from paper to production so I don't think I'm qualified to answer that one really.
There were none that having read them I was disappointed with when we did them.
And it would only be in retrospect, having seen what can be done now, that I would criticise them.
Because at the time what we did was state of the art and the budget was the budget for everything and they hold up extremely well I think.
Classic Doctor Who and Doctor Who today is also well known for its calibre of guest star. Was there any particular actor you would have loved to have worked alongside either in Doctor Who or not in Doctor Who?
Gosh, where would one start? There are all sorts of wonderful actors that spring to mind.
Given the fact that Derek Jacoby recently did a Doctor Who and Ian McKellen went into Coronation Street, I suppose some of these classy actors might well have reconsidered.
But at the time to have someone like Frank Finlay or Ian Richardson or one of those actors in Doctor Who would have been mind-blowing.
David Warner, those great actors from the RSC, Roy Dutrees, people like that. It would have been wonderful.
But in those days there was no way they would have gone into Doctor Who.
I think now, not only has being on television become more acceptable for what one might consider the great actors of our country, also Doctor Who has become...
well it was kind of niche and now it's mainstream and acceptable, which is great for the programme.
And also, flipping the question, are there any roles that you would like to play that you haven't yet had the opportunity to play?
Oh gosh, if you ask me what I would like to play that I haven't played already, it would be to be the first person to play something which is considered as a part that others will want to play in the future.
To have been the person who played Morse or the person who played Frost to take those kind of series or anything really.
Or a play, to be the first person to have been in Hamlet. That's what I'd like to do. I'd like to create a part or not just be an additional part in somebody else's series.
We're talking about writing now and apparently there's a good fictional story in each and every one of us. Have we had yours yet?
Well I wrote my very, very wonderful graphic novel, Age of Chaos, for Marvel Comics. There probably is actually.
And it's one of those things I keep promising myself I do and as I get older I find I haven't done.
It's because I'm busy doing things like this. That's why I never get time. There's always people asking me stupid questions.
OK then finally, as an actor you spend a lot of time working away from home. Do you look forward to retirement or can your fans hope to see and hear you for a long time still to come?
I've had my retirement during my career. Most people work their socks off, and he said sausages off, there's no such expression.
Work their sausages off for 40 years and then retire, bang, 65 you're retired. Actors are of necessity out of work 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 months a year.
So if I add up my working life and my non-active life at the end of my life it'll probably balance out because I will continue working.
I could be drawing my pension now, but I'm not and I will continue to work because I like it, because I need the money, because there ain't no pension as an actor.
But I've been lucky because for instance in the middle of doing Doctor Who I got that year off when they cancelled the series which I spent with my first daughter when she was born.
So my retirement has been intermittent.
OK Colin Baker, thank you very much for your time.
Great pleasure.