Tom Baker

Tom Baker
Other names:	Thomas Stewart Baker
Birth date:	20 January 1934
Work in the DWU
Main roles:	Fourth Doctor, the Curator
Main jobs:	Actor
Stories:	See credits section
Main time period active:	1974-81, 2009-present
Career highlights
Notable non-DWU work:	Z-Cars, Dixon of Dock Green, Nicholas and Alexandra, Jackanory, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Black-Adder II, Tales of Aesop, The Silver Chair, Medics, Dungeons & Dragons, Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased), Little Britain, Monarch of the Glen, The Wind in the Willows, Treasure Island, Star Wars Rebels, Baker's End
IMDb profile
Official site
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You may wish to consult Tom Baker (disambiguation) for other, similarly-named pages.

Thomas Stewart "Tom" Baker (born 20 January 1934 in Liverpool) played the Fourth Doctor from 1974 to 1981, beginning with an uncredited appearance at the conclusion of Planet of the Spiders, continuing from Robot to Logopolis.

He later reprised the role in the thirtieth-anniversary Children in Need special, Dimensions in Time, and in audio for both BBC Audio and Big Finish Productions, most notably in his own series, the Fourth Doctor Adventures. It is the role with which he remains most associated. Baker would return to the television series as the Curator, a possible future version of the Doctor, in the 50th anniversary special The Day of the Doctor, which he would reprise in Big Finish's Stranded and UNIT: The New Series audio adventures.

In 2019, Baker's runtime in Big Finish audio stories reached and began to exceed the runtime of his original era on television.

Early life and career

Baker was born in Liverpool. His father, John Stewart Baker, was a sailor who was rarely at home, resulting in Tom being raised largely by his mother, Mary Jane, in her Roman Catholic faith. He left school at fifteen to become a novice monk and remained in the monastic life for six years. He left to go into the Merchant Navy, at the same time taking up acting, at first as a hobby. In 1971, he got his first big break, playing Rasputin in the film Nicholas and Alexandra (which also starred Michael Jayston, who later played the Valeyard). Other early roles for Baker included Lynch in The Mutations, Jenkin in "The Miller's Tale" segment of The Canterbury Tales, and Dr Ahmed el Kabir in a BBC television version of The Millionairess, co-starring Maggie Smith.

Tom Baker in Doctor Who

In 1974, Baker took on the role of the Doctor from Jon Pertwee. He was cast largely because of his performance as the evil sorcerer Koura in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. Baker was working as a brick hauler on a construction site at the time, as acting jobs were scarce. Initially he was dubbed "Boiler Suit Tom" by the media, as he had been supplied with old studio set clothes to replace his modest garments at a press conference.

He quickly made the part his own. As the Doctor, his eccentric style of dress and speech — particularly his trademark long scarf and fondness for jelly babies — made him an immediately recognisable figure, and he quickly caught the viewing public's imagination. His decision to move on in 1981 was regretted by many of the programme's fans, and his incarnation is generally regarded as the most popular of the Doctors (his nearest rival not arriving until David Tennant in the 2000s). Baker played the Doctor for seven consecutive seasons over a seven-year period, making him the longest-serving actor in the part.

In The Hand of Fear part four, Bob Baker and Dave Martin intentionally left the departure of Sarah Jane Smith untouched. Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen wrote Sarah's departure scene themselves.

In The Armageddon Factor, Baker got into arguments with producers over how he should play the Doctor, and was furious with producers over their scripts, yet he got along very well with director Michael Hayes. Baker also got along well with Valentine Dyall, who played the Black Guardian, and John Woodvine, who played the Marshal. He usually got along well with the regular cast and guest cast, but got angry at the crew sometimes. Baker, along with the cast and crew, disliked Alan Bromly, who directed Nightmare of Eden.

Tom Baker (centre) poses with wax sculptures of the Fourth Doctor (left) and Meglos (right), made by Madame Tussauds. Baker was the first person ever to be portrayed twice at the famous London wax museum. (DWM 48)

When John Nathan-Turner became producer of Doctor Who in 1980, Baker, Lalla Ward and Christopher H. Bidmead all angrily protested Nathan-Turner's decisions to take Doctor Who in a different direction. Tom Baker also disliked Matthew Waterhouse and Janet Fielding, although the three became friends years later.

In 1980 he married Lalla Ward who had co-starred in Doctor Who (playing his assistant Romana II) with him for two years — their marriage lasted only sixteen months. In 1986, Baker married Sue Jerrard, who had been an uncredited assistant editor on the Doctor Who television story Horror of Fang Rock. (DWM 501) They moved to a converted school in Maidstone, Kent where they kept lots of cats before emigrating to France in 2002.

Post-Doctor Who career

Baker has played various character parts on television since leaving Doctor Who, such as Captain Redbeard Rum in the second series Blackadder episode Potato (1986) and Puddleglum in the BBC's production of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair (1990). He also had a significant role in one episode of The Life and Loves of a She-Devil (1986) as Father Ferguson. In 1982 he played Sherlock Holmes in the BBCs four part TV adaptation of The Hound of The Baskervilles, with Terence Rigby as Dr Watson, and he also appeared in an episode of ITV's Jemima Shore Investigates, namely Dr Zeigler's Casebook as Dr Norman Zeigler in 1983.

Baker has also appeared in radio shows, such as John Mortimer Presents the Trials of Marshall Hall (1996) in which he played Britain's most celebrated criminal barrister, Sir Edward Marshall Hall.

The popularity of Doctor Who in the US in the mid-1980s led to some work on American television, including the roles of Sir Guy de Gisbourne in The Zany Adventures of Robin Hood, with George Segal and Morgan Fairchild, and a renegade Interpol agent in an episode of Remington Steele.

Baker continued some involvement with Doctor Who in the early 1980s, recording audio book versions of several novelisations, including Doctor Who and the State of Decay and Doctor Who and the Brain of Morbius.

Prior to leaving Doctor Who he had also hosted the ITV children's literature show The Book Tower (1979/80). He became mostly known, however, for doing advertising voiceovers. Baker's distinctive voice has become a gift for impressionists, and he was regularly impersonated as the Doctor by Jon Culshaw in the comedy series Dead Ringers.

In the 1990s, Baker played series regular Professor Geoffrey Hoyt in ITVs Medics and had a recurring role in the Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer revival of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) for the BBC. He also had a part in the 2001 BBC Radio 4 version of The Thirty-Nine Steps as Sir Walter Bullivant and narrated the BBC radio comedy series Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World. In the 2000s, he narrated both the radio and television versions of Little Britain, created by and starring David Walliams and Matt Lucas.

Also in the early 2000s, it was reported that Baker was a candidate for the role of Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings films, after playing a minor role as a wise elf in the Dungeons & Dragons film.

In 2002, he had a speaking role in the critically-acclaimed but commercial flop Hostile Waters as the Narrator.

In 2004, Baker completed filming a season of Monarch of the Glen, a BBC drama series. He played Donald McDonald, an eccentric former race car champion who, having been away since early childhood, returns home after hearing of the death of his brother Hector (who was played by Richard Briers until his departure at the end of the previous season). In 2005, he voiced the role of the villain ZeeBad in the computer-animated film version of The Magic Roundabout, and played the role of the Captain in the Challenge TV version of Fort Boyard.

He continues to be associated with the Doctor, appearing on documentaries like The Story of Doctor Who and Doctor Who Confidential, giving interviews about his time on the programme. He has also participated in numerous DVD releases of his stories, recording commentaries with his co-stars and on-camera interviews. On the DVD release of his final stories, New Beginnings, Baker is notably candid about his behaviour in the final months of his tenure, and the reasons for his departure from the series.

Baker would later be cast in the animated series Star Wars Rebels as Bendu, an ancient Force wielder who is neither Jedi nor Sith but describes himself as "the one in the middle".

In late 2019, Baker narrated a trailer promoting the release of the classic series of Doctor Who to BritBox, which began hosting the series from Boxing Day.

Returning to the role

Although Baker reappeared as the Doctor for the 1993 charity special Dimensions in Time, he had, for many years, declined to follow his successors and reprise the role for any of the audio dramas based upon the series and produced by Big Finish Productions.

Between 2009 and 2011, Baker reprised his role as the Fourth Doctor for three series of audio dramas for BBC Audio under the umbrella titles of Hornets' Nest, Demon Quest and Serpent Crest. Discounting his one-off cameo in 1993's Dimensions in Time and his voice role in the 1997 video game Destiny of the Doctors, Hornets' Nest marked Baker's first serious performance of the role since Logopolis. In October 2011, Baker appeared in The Fourth Doctor Box Set, an audio anthology from Big Finish's The Lost Stories series which consisted of audio adaptations of the unmade television stories The Foe from the Future and The Valley of Death. Starting from January 2012, Big Finish began releasing a series of Fourth Doctor audio plays starring Baker called The Fourth Doctor Adventures in parallel with their monthly Doctor Who audio series.

In November 2013, Baker returned to televised Doctor Who for the show's 50th anniversary episode The Day of the Doctor, in which he played the cameo role of the Curator, an elderly incarnation of the Doctor who informed the Eleventh Doctor that Gallifrey was lost in another universe. This makes Tom Baker the first actor who was the main actor for two incarnations of the Doctor before David Tennant also returned to the role as the Fourteenth Doctor in 2022 (when Sylvester McCoy briefly played the Sixth Doctor for the his regeneration scene, he was merely standing in for Colin Baker who declined to be filmed for it).

He also played the Fourth Doctor in the Doctor Who 50th anniversary audio drama The Light at the End. As he continued to perform for Big Finish over the next decade, he was also part of the 60th anniversary audio drama event Once and Future.

Baker dressed as in the Fourth Doctor attire in 2023

In September 2014, Baker starred alongside Louise Jameson as Leela in a one-off box set called Philip Hinchcliffe Presents consisting of stories by 1970s producer Philip Hinchcliffe adapted by Marc Platt. In 2015, Baker starred with Lalla Ward in a series of audio adaptations of Fourth Doctor and Romana II novels, starting with adaptations of The Romance of Crime and The English Way of Death from the Virgin Missing Adventures range in January.

For the 60th anniversary, Baker again dressed in his Fourth Doctor attire for a photoshoot with the Radio Times.

Despite having been away from the role between 1981 and 2009, during this absence, the image of Baker as the Doctor continued to serve as a form of visual shorthand when American productions attempted to reference Doctor Who. An animated version of Baker was used in several episodes of The Simpsons that referenced Doctor Who; when Paris Hilton participated in a science fiction-related skit on Saturday Night Live, she donned the Fourth Doctor's hat and scarf in a reference to the series; and in the 2007 Family Guy episode Blue Harvest, a Star Wars parody, the opening credits of Tom Baker's era (along with an image of Tom as the Doctor) was used as part of a joke involving jumping to hyperspace.

In the DWU

In Bafflement and Devotion, an overtly meta-fictional story, Paul Magrs mentioned that the Fourth Doctor "was" Tom Baker. It should be noted that Iris Wildthyme (one of the main characters in the story) was also described as "being" an actor, but not in the sense of actually being said character, but a lookalike. In another story featuring Paul Magrs, it was mentioned that Tom Baker was Paul's favourite Doctor, and Paul was extremely happy to work with the actor when the scripts he wrote were produced into CDs.

Tom Baker was also the titular protagonist of the audio series Baker's End, which was a short audio series that had several legal links to the DWU, including being the continuation of The Nest Cottage Chronicles, however it was determined in the inclusion debate for Gobbleknoll Hall that the series wasn't supposed to be set in the DWU.

Tom Baker in COMIC: TV Action!

In the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip TV Action!, a villain named Beep the Meep takes the Eighth Doctor and his companion, Izzy Sinclair on a chase into an alternate universe where they end up at the BBC Television Centre where Tom Baker is taping an episode of Doctor Who. Beep mistakes Baker for the "real" Fourth Doctor and is distracted, first by terror and then by anguish from Baker's babble (all lines from real interviews with Tom Baker). Thanks to this, Beep's plans are foiled.

Miscellaneous

Baker's autobiography entitled Who on Earth is Tom Baker? (ISBN 000638854X) was published in 1997. He has also written a short fairytale-style novel titled The Boy Who Kicked Pigs (ISBN 057119771X), which has been described as "A Grotesque Masterpiece". His first book for children, The Boy Who Forgot to Grow Down (ISBN 0099349108), was published in 1984. Another was Never Wear Your Wellies In the House.

Several reference books published in the late 1980s erroneously reported that Baker died of a drug overdose in 1982. Baker does have a reputation, acknowledged in his autobiography, of being a heavy drinker like fellow Doctor actor William Hartnell, and sometimes makes humorous reference to it. In response to the numerous inquiries he gets about his time as the Doctor he often replies, "You will have to excuse me but I was drunk at the time." The confusion over the 1982 date of death arises from the death of an American named Tom Baker who died of a drug overdose that year. (That Tom Baker was the friend of another famous drinker, Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors.)

In 1983, the BBC made a 90 minute Doctor Who special entitled The Five Doctors. Baker declined to return to play the Fourth Doctor as he felt it was too soon to return to the programme. (His absence from the special inadvertently lent credence to the mistaken reports of his death.)

Baker had a brief foray into the world of music, providing the monologue to the track Witness to a Murder (Part Two) on the album Six by Mansun. He has also done voice work for the video games Perfect Dark (2000) and Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future (2000).

In 1972 he appeared in an edition of the American talk variety programme The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. This predated his Doctor Who involvement; he appeared in regards to his recent appearance in Nicholas and Alexandra. His appearance marked the first time one of the Doctor actors made a major appearance on an American TV programme.

Tom Baker is not directly related to Colin Baker, who played the Sixth Doctor in Doctor Who. According to a magazine special published by Radio Times magazine in 1983 to honour Doctor Who's twentieth anniversary, Jackie Lane, who played Dodo Chaplet on the series in the 1960s, was Tom Baker's agent for a time, and has been credited with getting Baker the audition for Doctor Who.

In 1981, the new wave pop group Human League released a tribute song to the actor entitled "Tom Baker", found on their Travelogue album.

In a poll published by BBC Homes and Antiques magazine in January 2006, Baker was voted the fourth most eccentric star, being beaten by quirky Icelandic singer Bjork, UK boxer Chris Eubank, and alien-conspiracy theorist David Icke.

When former Doctor Who producer Barry Letts (the man who cast Baker in the role he's most famous for) passed away, Baker gave a eulogy at the funeral.

The 2010 DVD release of Underworld includes several minutes of raw studio footage. Included in this footage is a candid moment where Baker is heard talking to Louise Jameson and another actor about his wish that he had been born in the late 1800s so he could have taken part in the silent film era; he also expresses a particular fondness for Buster Keaton.

Credits

Appearances as the Fourth Doctor

Television

Doctor Who

• Planet of the Spiders (uncredited)
• Robot
• The Ark in Space
• The Sontaran Experiment
• Genesis of the Daleks
• Revenge of the Cybermen
• Terror of the Zygons
• Planet of Evil
• Pyramids of Mars
• The Android Invasion
• The Brain of Morbius
• The Seeds of Doom
• The Masque of Mandragora
• The Hand of Fear
• The Deadly Assassin
• The Face of Evil
• The Robots of Death
• The Talons of Weng-Chiang
• Horror of Fang Rock
• The Invisible Enemy
• Image of the Fendahl
• The Sun Makers
• Underworld
• The Invasion of Time
• The Ribos Operation
• The Pirate Planet
• The Stones of Blood
• The Androids of Tara
• The Power of Kroll
• The Armageddon Factor
• Destiny of the Daleks
• City of Death
• The Creature from the Pit
• Nightmare of Eden
• The Horns of Nimon
• Shada
• The Leisure Hive
• Meglos
• Full Circle
• State of Decay
• Warriors' Gate
• The Keeper of Traken
• Logopolis
• Castrovalva (uncredited)

Mini-episodes

• Dr. Who For Keep Australia Beautiful
• Dimensions in Time

Direct-to-video

• Shada: VHS release
• Shada: DVD release

Webcasts

The Collection

• Home Assistant - Narrator
• Risen - Narrator

Video Games

• Destiny of the Doctors

Audio

BBC Audio

• Doctor Who and the Pescatons
• Exploration Earth: The Time Machine

The Nest Cottage Chronicles

As the Fourth Doctor, an identity of the Master of Nest Cottage.

• Hornets' Nest
  • The Stuff of Nightmares
  • The Dead Shoes
  • The Circus of Doom
  • A Sting in the Tale
  • Hive of Horror
• Demon Quest
  • The Relics of Time
  • The Demon of Paris
  • A Shard of Ice
  • Starfall
  • Sepulchre
• Serpent Crest
  • Tsar Wars
  • The Broken Crown
  • Aladdin Time
  • The Hexford Invasion
  • Survivors in Space

Special Releases

• Night of the Stormcrow
• The Light at the End
• The Legacy of Time
  • Prequel
  • Collision Course

The Fourth Doctor Adventures

• Destination: Nerva
• The Renaissance Man
• The Wrath of the Iceni
• Energy of the Daleks
• Trail of the White Worm / The Oseidon Adventure
• The Auntie Matter
• The Sands of Life / War Against the Laan
• The Justice of Jalxar
• Phantoms of the Deep
• The Dalek Contract / The Final Phase
• The King of Sontar
• White Ghosts
• The Crooked Man
• The Evil One
• Last of the Colophon
• Destroy the Infinite
• The Abandoned
• Zygon Hunt
• The Exxilons
• The Darkness of Glass
• Requiem for the Rocket Men
• Death Match
• Suburban Hell
• The Cloisters of Terror
• The Fate of Krelos / Return to Telos
• Wave of Destruction
• The Labyrinth of Buda Castle
• The Paradox Planet / Legacy of Death
• Gallery of Ghouls
• The Trouble with Drax
• The Pursuit of History / Casualties of Time
• The Beast of Kravenos
• The Eternal Battle
• The Silent Scream
• Dethras
• The Haunting of Malkin Place
• Subterranea
• The Movellan Grave
• The Skin of the Sleek / The Thief Who Stole Time
• The Sons of Kaldor
• The Crowmarsh Experiment
• The Mind Runners / The Demon Rises
• The Shadow of London
• The Bad Penny
• Kill the Doctor! / The Age of Sutekh
• The Sinestran Kill
• Planet of the Drashigs
• The Enchantress of Numbers
• The False Guardian / Time's Assassin
• Fever Island
• The Perfect Prisoners
• Purgatory 12
• Chase the Night
• The Planet of Witches
• The Quest of the Engineer
• Shadow of the Sun
• The World Traders
• The Day of the Comet
• The Tribulations of Thadeus Nook
• The Primeval Design
• Blood of the Time Lords
• The Ravencliff Witch
• The Dreams of Avarice
• Shellshock
• Peake Season
• Ice Heist!
• Antillia the Lost
• The Wizard of Time
• The Friendly Invasion
• Stone Cold
• The Ghost of Margaret
• Storm of the Sea Devils
• Worlds Beyond
• Matryoshka
• The Caged Assassin
• Metamorphosis
• The Face in the Storm
• Dominant Species

The Lost Stories

• The Fourth Doctor Box Set
  • The Foe from the Future
  • The Valley of Death
• Return of the Cybermen
• The Doomsday Contract
• Daleks! Genesis of Terror
• The Ark

Philip Hinchcliffe Presents

• The Ghosts of Gralstead
• The Devil's Armada
• The Genesis Chamber
• The Helm of Awe
• The God of Phantoms

Novel Adaptations

• The Romance of Crime
• The English Way of Death
• The Well-Mannered War

Classic Doctors, New Monsters

• Night of the Vashta Nerada
• The Tivolian Who Knew Too Much

The Comic Strip Adaptations

• Doctor Who and the Iron Legion
• Doctor Who and the Star Beast

Time Lord Victorious

• Genetics of the Daleks

Once and Future

• Past Lives
• The Union

Out of Time

• Out of Time

Dalek Universe

• The Dalek Protocol

The Diary of River Song

• Someone I Once Knew

The Eighth of March

• A Ghost of Alchemy

Appearances as the Curator

Television

Doctor Who

• The Day of the Doctor

Audio

Stranded

• Lost Property
• The Long Way Round

UNIT: Nemesis

• The Curator's Gambit

Other DWU appearance

Television

Doctor Who

• The Android Invasion - Android Doctor
• The Face of Evil - Voice of Xoanon
• The Creature from the Pit - Voice of Erato, uncredited
• Meglos - Meglos, uncredited

Audio

The Nest Cottage Chronicles

• Tsar Wars - Father Gregory

Doctor Who Unbound

• Dust Devil - Fourth Doctor

Audiobook readings

Target Novelisations

• State of Decay
• Doctor Who and the Giant Robot
• Doctor Who and the Brain of Morbius
• Doctor Who and the Creature from the Pit
• Doctor Who and the Pyramids of Mars

BBC Novelisations

• Scratchman

Time Lord Fairy Tales

• Jak and the Wormhole

Documentary

• Doctor Who's Who's Who
• Myth Makers: Tom Baker
• Who on Earth is Tom Baker
• The Tom Baker Years
• Adventures in Space and Time
• The Story of Doctor Who
• A New Beginning
• Bringing Back the Doctor
• Aliens: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
• I Get a Side-Kick Out of You
• The Dark Side
• Special Effects
• Weird Science
• The World of Who
• Genesis of a Classic
• Changing Time
• The Crowded TARDIS
• A New Body at Last
• A Matter of Time
• Planetary Performance
• A Darker Side
• The Rise and Fall of Gallifrey
• The Matrix Revisited
• The Last Hurrah
• On Target: Ian Marter
• The Sandmine Murders
• The Doctors Revisited - The Fourth Doctor
• Doctor Who Live: The Afterparty
• Like Nothing on Earth
• The Tin Men and the Witch (Blu-ray version only)
• Return to Skaro

Audio commentary

• Planet of Evil

to be completed

Other

• Disney Time
• Blackpool Exhibition advertisement
• Merry Christmas Doctor Who
• Keep Australia Beautiful advertisement
• Season 17 (trailer)
• Animal Magic 1979
• Prime Computer advertisement
• Superannuation advertisement
• Introduction to the Night
• Who on Horror idents

Writer Credits

BBC Books novelisations

• Scratchman (with James Goss)

External links

• Tom Baker at the Internet Movie Database
• Official website
• BBC Online News Item 9th January 2006 concerning the vote for most eccentric star