Unsurprisingly, there have been many fan theories about Doctor Who over the years. Of the ones unconfirmed, some have been forgotten about, and others have persisted. One of the most persistent of them all, at least for Classic Series fans, is Season 6b.
For those who don’t know the theory, let me first recap the Second Doctor's final TV adventure. In the last episode of “The War Games”, the Doctor is put on trial by the Time Lords for interfering in the affairs of other planets. He is then sentenced to exile on Earth, with a forced regeneration as part of the sentence. The story's cliffhanger ending is the Doctor being sent to Earth, spinning in darkness and about to regenerate.
This is where Season 6b comes in. The theory is that – despite a seemingly conclusive ending – the Second Doctor’s life actually continued and he was sent on missions by the Time Lords, with his regeneration not happening until much later.
A supported theory
If the theory sounds a little unlikely – if not outright ridiculous – there’s a surprising amount of evidence from the Second Doctor’s later appearances that support it. Admittedly, this “evidence” is just the result of some major continuity errors in “The Five Doctors” and “The Two Doctors” and were more than likely unintentional.
But those errors were big enough to get fans speculating. In fact, it became such a significant theory that Terrance Dicks – the man who co-wrote "The War Games" – even wrote books explicitly set during Season 6b, first with the Sixth Doctor novel “Players” in flashbacks, and then even more extensively with Second Doctor novel “World Game”.
It’s not just continuity errors that have helped the theory to exist, though. There’s also exactly how “The War Games” originally ended. With the Second Doctor sent off into darkness, it certainly seemed to imply that a regeneration was happening. But it didn’t explicitly show it. Thanks to the Third Doctor not being cast at the time “The War Games” was made, there was no clear transition from one Doctor to another.
This brings me to “The War Games in Color”…
A disproved theory?
The new take on the Second Doctor’s final story included a few small additions and changes. The most significant of which was, thanks to a video made by Jacob Booth, a brand-new regeneration scene, one where we explicitly see Troughton change into Pertwee immediately after the trial. And while Booth’s original version of the video makes a clear reference to Season 6b, there is no such reference in the version used in “The War Games in Color”.
So does this mean that Season 6b is definitively no more? Not necessarily. When Big Finish decided to explore the theory in The Second Doctor Adventures, they came up with the perfect explanation. One where the Doctor still regenerates at the end of “The War Games”, but also allows him to have more adventures beyond it.
In The Second Doctor Adventures, the Doctor has been pulled out of his timeline, in the exact second before his regeneration is about to begin. To continue living as his current incarnation, he has to complete missions for the Celestial Intervention Agency. If he refuses, he’ll be sent back into his timeline and immediately regenerate.
An effective explanation
This is honestly my favorite explanation for Season 6b. I’ve previously flip-flopped on the theory before. While it does address some continuity issues, “The War Games” is such a brilliant final story, and the cliffhanger ending is so effective, that it feels a bit cheap to say that the Time Lords were lying and that the regeneration didn’t happen.
Big Finish’s explanation however allows fans to have it both ways. The Time Lords did send the Doctor to Earth, and he did immediately regenerate at the end of “The War Games”. Just as Clara definitely died in “Face the Raven”. But she also got to go on living thanks to being taken out of her timeline in “Hell Bent”. It’s clear what happened with Clara inspired Big Finish’s explanation for Season 6b, and it works.
This is true even with “The War Games in Color”. Again, there’s no explicit mention or nod to Season 6b in this version of the story. But considering Big Finish’s explanation basically means that the whole of it happens in less than a second of the Doctor’s timeline, it can still happen. In fact, it can happen the moment between the Doctor is sent spinning into space and when he's suddenly back on board the TARDIS.
Does Season 6b really need to remain a theory? Well, like I said, it does answer a few questions of continuity. Should it be confirmed on-screen, though? I don't think so. I love the expanded media that explore it, especially the audios. But as far as the TV series is concerned, it's best left as a theory for fans to still ponder and debate over.