Today, we look at the popular Doctor Who fan theory “season 6B”, specifically how it relates to the Second Doctor, and if it’s a theory that we should embrace into canon.

The War Games was the final story we saw of the Second Doctor. But was that really the end…?(Photo credit: Doctor Who/BBC.Image obtained from: BBC.)

A few days ago, fans were able to watch The Two Doctors on Twitch. For many fans, this was a great chance to watch this classic story for free. It was also a great chance to see Troughton’s Doctor again.

However, perhaps some of you noticed more than a few continuity errors. Some of them were purely cosmetic. These included the TARDIS control room for the Second Doctor looking noticeably more advanced than the one he had in his own era. Or the Sontarans looking considerably taller than usual.

But some of these errors extended to the plot, too. The most notable of which was the Second Doctor and Jamie working for the Time Lords.

What makes this so problematic? Well, aside from the fact that the Time Lords weren’t even mentioned before The War Games, Patrick Troughton’s final story as the Doctor. There’s also the problem that Jamie hadn’t even heard of them in that same story, either!

That’s not the only discrepancy, either. In The Five Doctors, the Second Doctor and the Brigadier come across Jamie and Zoe. They’re trapped behind a force field, and if the Doctor and the Brigadier don’t turn back, they’ll be killed.

However, the Doctor soon realizes that Jamie and Zoe couldn’t possibly recognize them, as they were sent back home with their memories erased. So how could they remember-

Wait, what?

Considering that supposedly happened right before the Doctor regenerated, there’s no way that the Second Doctor could remember that. And yet somehow, he did. How is that possible? And how could he and Jamie have worked for the Time Lords when Jamie didn’t even know who they were until The War Games?

The answer, according to the season 6B theory? Because The War Games wasn’t the end.

After the end

Season 6B was a way of fans explaining these major discrepancies with a huge retcon. It was originally created in The Discontinuity Guide by Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping.

The theory was that, since we didn’t see the Second Doctor completely regenerate at the end of The War Games, then it’s quite possible that it wasn’t the end of his story.

Instead, the Time Lords had sent the Second Doctor to complete some missions for them, before they imposed his exile. They brought back Jamie and Victoria to aid him on his travels, even restoring Jamie’s memories to help the Doctor on his way.

Then, at some point, the Time Lords sent Jamie and Victoria back home. Sometime later, they also caused the Doctor to regenerate, and sent him to Earth to live in exile.

For resolving two major discrepancies, it does sound pretty neat. When I first heard of it many years ago, it sounded really interesting and mysterious that there was this huge gap in the Doctor’s life that we didn’t even know about.

Even cooler, Terrance Dicks himself wrote a novel, World Game, that actually took place inside that gap. So fandom and even one of the show’s original writers had fully embraced the idea. And for a long time, I was a big supporter of the theory.

What changed? Actually seeing The War Games.