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Rob,

I don't have a problem with Sylvester or the Seventh Doctor generally: I do like them. And I particularly like his Big Finish stuff. It's just that the production team of that era seem somewhat lacking in discernment when it comes to what will work in the show and what won't, what is good for Doctor Who and what isn't. This is nothing to do with perceived fan opinion, it's just how I feel.

If JN-T had stuck with Pip & Jane's original setting for Lakertya - a tropical jungle - Time And the Rani would've looked better. If he had given Sylv clearer direction in the role, rather than "Just be yourself", Sylv wouldn't have been so inconsistent in those early stories. If the cleaning robots in Paradise Towers had been humanoid, they would have been convincing. If more thought had been put into Delta and the Bannermen it would have gelled better.

Then there's the comedy elements - which largely don't work. The skin heads in Silver Nemesis leap to mind.

I also have problems with the production style: Keff's theme music, the slick title sequence (with a winking face), that logo, and inappropriate incidental music...

That said, I enjoy Remembrance, The Greatest Show, The Curse of Fenric and Survival a lot, and I thought Sylv's performance in the TV Movie was great.

In the eras of Doctors 3, 4, 5 & 6 the comedy is well balanced (most of the time), the stories are more often than not thought through properly, the theme music and title sequences are better, the incidental music sets the mood just right, and so forth.

Sylv's era is for me like Bill's and Pat's: Some great stuff, but a lot of duffers - very inconsistent.