The character of Sarah Jane Smith, for example, may have been introduced during the Third Doctor’s run, but she quickly became synonymous with Tom Baker, travelling with him through time and space for almost three years. Unusually in the history of Doctor Who, the Fourth Doctor’s era spawned companions who became almost as famous as the Time Lord himself. For all his jokes and witticisms, there’s no doubt that you’ll always feel safe when you travel with the Fourth Doctor. For example, there is one moment in ‘The Creature from the Pit’ where he faces certain death, as the eponymous creature looms over him menacingly, and the Doctor simply cries out, “You’re standing on my scarf…”Įqually, you can quake in fear in stories such as ‘ The Pirate Planet‘ where he screams manically at the deranged Pirate Captain, desperately trying to get him to see reason. He could, however, be hard to take seriously at times. As well as being tall in stature, the Fourth Doctor had incredible presence, and had no compunction with sizing up to monstrous aliens or villains, no matter how powerful.
According to Tom Baker, this required very little acting on his part, as he quickly realised that the best way to play a mysterious alien from another planet was “to just be Tom Baker.” As such, it can often be difficult to work out where the Fourth Doctor ends and Tom Baker begins, a problem which occasionally reared its head on set, when the actor would sometimes clash with directors who were perhaps less familiar with the show.īut despite the character’s zaniness, there is no doubt that he commanded authority. Like Hartnell, he’s certainly eccentric and whimsical. However, Verity Lambert ( Doctor Who‘s original producer) did go on record saying that Tom Baker’s portrayal was closest to her vision of what the Doctor should be like. Some may look to the very first Doctor, William Hartnell (the original, you might say) but beyond that, his or her characterisation is very much up for grabs. Of course, there is an endless debate as to what constitutes a definitive ‘Doctorish’ personality, and there’s really no way of settling that argument. Even today, for people less familiar with the programme, he’s one of the first names that comes to mind when Doctor Who is mentioned. long scarf (we sell them don’t you know, plug plug.)īut who was the Fourth Doctor? And if you’ve never seen one of his adventures, where on earth should you begin? All teeth and curlsĪs I said, for many people Tom Baker was the one and only Doctor Who. For many people, he became the definitive Doctor, instantly identifiable by his bohemian get-up, his penchant for jelly babies, and his multi-coloured, 18 ft.
This was a trend that would continue over the next seven years. His first season was immensely popular with viewers, peaking at a dizzying 13.6 million during the transmission of his second story ‘The Ark in Space,’ written by Robert Holmes.
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