Posted in: BBC, Doctor Who, TV | Tagged: Audio Drama, bbc, big finish, doctor who, tom baker

Doctor Who: Let's Celebrate 50 Years of Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor

In honor of the 50th anniversary of his debut as the Fourth Doctor on Doctor Who, we look at how Tom Baker became the show's "ambassador."

There's another Doctor Who anniversary that's more meaningful for fans of the classic series. Tom Baker made his debut as the Fourth Doctor fifty years ago. Baker played The Doctor the longest, seven years, and became the face of the series to fans worldwide, especially Americans. This is significant in so many ways. You could say Doctor Who wouldn't be as well-known globally if it wasn't for Tom Baker.

The First Truly Modern Doctor

The Fourth Doctor became the image non-fans still associate with Doctor Who, the long scarf, the TARDIS, and time travel. During his seven-year run, his episodes were the most frequently repeated on PBS in the United States, so the image became cemented in the minds of Americans. And we all know America tends to set the trend in global entertainment. The irony is many Americans still think the series is a rickety, low-budget, shot-on-video mess with cheap sets. Not everyone lives on the internet like fandom does, after all.

Baker is currently one of the last and oldest surviving actors from Classic Doctor Who. His predecessors, William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, and Jon Pertwee, are all gone. Fans who discovered the series when it was revived in 2005 might not think so, but he was the first truly modern Doctor. He pushed the persona of The Doctor into one that felt truly modern, anarchic, and anti-establishment with his wild hair, old clothes, and long scarf like he picked them up at a charity shop and threw them together, yet his costume was endlessly practical, especially with the pockets.

Wackiness and Wit

The First and Third Doctors had the air of pro-establishment patriarchs. Baker's performance was an extension of Patrick Troughton's, taking the comedic hobo wandering to new heights. He often had the best speeches and the funniest put-downs, not even bothering to hide his contempt for would-be despots and megalomaniacs. He was the one who amped up the Doctor's eccentricity, but it turned out he was really playing himself. Even when he hit stardom in his first seasons of the series, he was allegedly homeless (after selling his flat and not buying a new one) and even slept in the studio after hours. Much of his performance was infused with his personality. He adlibbed a lot of his lines when he wasn't satisfied with them. He sensed how much children needed the Doctor and always played it with a wink.

John Nathan-Turner, the producer of his final years, began to neglect all the things that made the Fourth Doctor fun: the sarcasm, the goofy but quick wit, the sense of fun and irreverence, and Baker's exhaustion and disgruntlement showed, though he still did his best. But the middle years of his run were frequently goofy, witty, and hilarious, infused with his sense of the absurd and the screwball comedy dynamic he had with his companions. Having Douglas Adams, who also began to write The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy at the time, as the script editor certainly helped. You could tell when Baker enjoyed the script and was having fun because he made the fun infectious. His final season made him a tired old scold to a bunch of younger companions.

Baker has returned to play the Doctor in audio dramas for Big Finish. He may sound a bit older, but he hasn't missed a beat. We should enjoy his new stories as long as he can still appear in them.

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