Baker's End (audio series)
Baker's End was an audio series released by Bafflegab Productions. The series starred Tom Baker in the lead role as a fictionalised version of himself — although Colin Baker later took on the lead role in the final story — and co-starred Susan Jameson as Fenella Frimbly. While not branded as part of the Doctor Who universe, it featured many thematic parallels to Magrs' previous series The Nest Cottage Chronicles and served as a spiritual successor to it.
Connections to the DWU
Baker's End was the conceptual continuation of The Nest Cottage Chronicles, which had always been considered by its author to depict a version of the Fourth Doctor transcendent of television continuity.[1] This is made clear in many ways.
On first glance, it seemed to provide Tom Baker a role other than the notorious character of the Fourth Doctor. However, it had previously been established in Bafflement and Devotion that the Fourth Doctor was Tom Baker, which this series built up and expanded upon; the Fourth Doctor becomes "Tom Baker", taking on many qualities of Baker while also keeping many Doctor-ish elements and memories of the Doctor's experiences in Hexford.
Susan Jameson's Mrs Fenella Wibbsey becomes "Fenella Frimbly", staying the same character in all but name; Frimbly's history explicitly matches with Wibbsey's and she is said to have a history of being possessed, a reference to the Nest Cottage Chronicles. Her surname changing is akin to Cleavis' forename and the spelling of Arthur Korns' name shifting between sources.
Captain reappears as "General Dogsbody". The general setting of Baker's End also continues from the Nest Cottage stories, with Hexford becoming Happenstance Village and Nest Cottage becoming Baker's End; this equivalency is confirmed with Happenstance neighbouring Darkholmes and being located in Sussex. The 2020 short story Mrs Frimbly's Festive Diary emphasized the majority of these equivalencies, drawing further links between Nest Cottage and Baker's End.
After his first death, the resurrected Tom Baker takes the title "King of Cats" and claims to have nine lives. Because of this cat connection, he frequently uses the word "Ungow", a catchphrase of Fester Cat.
The following table notes details of this series' stories which are relevant to this wiki.
| # | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The King of Cats | Mrs Frimbly is one of the main characters. Features Klacky the Dragon, who also appeared in Klacky the Christmas Dragon in Christmassy Tales. |
| 2 | Gobbleknoll Hall | Set in Darkholmes. Features the character of Vince Cosmos, with references to the events of Vince Cosmos: Glam Rock Detective, Enter Wildthyme, and Hang onto Yourself. Features Manifest Yourself, which previously appeared in The Brenda and Effie Mysteries. Klacky reappears. |
| 3 | Tatty Bogle | Tom Baker alludes to the Great Big Book Exchange. Baker takes on a cabbage as a companion, fulfilling the actor's decades-old desire.[2] |
| 4 | The Happenstance Pox | After dying in the previous story, Baker comes back to life as Colin Baker. The character Derek Titts mentions an alpaca among the numerous supernatural forces he has fought, referencing Magrs' charity Doctor Who story "Miss Hawthorne and the Alpaca of Doom" in A Target for Tommy. |
Gallery
The King of Cats
Gobbleknoll Hall
Tatty Bogle
The Happenstance Pox
Footnotes
- ↑ Paul Magrs: Ten Years of Nest Cottage
- ↑ DWM 180 Interview with Tom Baker [1]
