Tom Baker (in-universe)
- You may wish to consult
Tom Baker (disambiguation)for other, similarly-named pages.
Tom Baker was an actor who played the Fourth Doctor in the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who. He was known to exist in various universes where the show Doctor Who happened to exist, including (by some sources) the Doctor's universe.
By some accounts, Baker was the Master of Baker's End, (PROSE: Mrs Frimbly's Festive Diary) however by other accounts it was the Fourth Doctor. (AUDIO: The Stuff of Nightmares, Survivors in Space, et al.) One account even indicated that Tom Baker and the Fourth Doctor were the same individual. (PROSE: Bafflement and Devotion)
The Doctor's reality
Acting career
Tom Baker (as the Doctor) was present on a Doctor Who jigsaw released in 1977. He was Paul Magrs' favourite actor to portray the character. (PROSE: The Story of Fester Cat)
Sometime around 2000, Paul wrote a prose piece about what influenced and inspired him with his works, and in that piece, he mentioned that Tom Baker was the Fourth Doctor. (PROSE: Bafflement and Devotion)
Around 2007, Paul was in awe that he actually got to work with Tom when the scripts that he wrote were being produced into CDs. (PROSE: The Story of Fester Cat)
In the 21st century, Tom's friend Louise Jameson once spoke to him over the phone, telling him about how wonderful her Home Assistant V14 was, but she had to disconnect when it malfunctioned and began trying to kill her. An image of him in-character was featured on the front cover of Doctor Who The Collection Season 14. (WC: Home Assistant)
Life in Baker's End
At some point in his life, Baker settled down in Baker's End, a cottage in Happenstance Village. During his time there, he had books delivered Ebay (the dimension, not the website). Baker also trapped a Sinisterest Sponge in his space machine, then had left and forgotten about it in the downstairs bathroom, and it tried to eat his housekeeper Fenella Frimbly. Other adventures included meeting the Eye-Spiders of Perigross, finding a Sphinx in an alien desert, a trip to the Neuronic Nightmare world, meeting the blue baboons who rode on ships that resembled spoons, and being at the edge of the universe, next to the Thousand and One Doors to Elsewhere. (PROSE: Mrs Frimbly's Festive Diary) By 2010, Mike Yates was friends with a person called Tom, and he and Yates made honey for the Brigadier. (PROSE: Happy Endings)
After Hexford was returned to Earth from its transportation to space, (AUDIO: Survivors in Space) Baker left for two years, leaving Fenella to look after Baker's End in his absence. On Christmas Eve, Baker sent a robot dog to look after Fenella, and the day later, he returned Happenstance Village, and the robot dog and Fenella ran to him. (PROSE: Mrs Frimbly's Festive Diary)
Other realities
Versions of Tom Baker were also known to exist in explicitly alternate universes.
Godfrey Porter's World
In the world of Godfrey Porter, Tom Baker played the Doctor in Doctor Who during the 1970s. Godfrey Porter submitted a story idea titled Doctor Who and the Sprites intended for his Doctor, but it ultimately went unfinished as the script editor at the time wasn't keen. (PROSE: The Thief of Sherwood)
Doctor Who Weekly universe
In one parallel universe defined by the existence of magazine Doctor Who Weekly, Tom Baker played the Fourth Doctor in the show Doctor Who.
On 12 October 1979, the Eighth Doctor accidentally slipped into this reality while following the fugitive Beep the Meep. Baker was a crucial part of foiling the plans of Beep, who was controlling the minds of those inside the BBC Television Centre. By simply babbling in front of Beep, who he thought was the show's next monster, Baker was able to annoy him and bring back enough memories of his enemy the Fourth Doctor to destroy his plan. (COMIC: TV Action!)
Ally's universe
In a parallel universe visited by the Eleventh Doctor, a Doctor Who fan named Ally had Tom Baker's autographed photo on her bedroom wall. (COMIC: The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who)
Behind the scenes
This in-universe version of Tom Baker would later appear in Bafflegab Productions' Baker's End series, which is not covered by this wiki.
Tom Baker was planned to cameo in The Dying Days, but he was ultimately cut.[1] His co-star Lalla Ward appeared, albeit not by name.
Z-Cars, a television series that Tom Baker starred in in the real world, also exists in the DWU.
The 2000AD strip Caballistics, Inc., which is implicitly set in the DWU through cultural references, once featured an actor called "Bill", a thinly-veiled Tom Baker, who was killed by Scottish nationalist demons.
Information from invalid sources
As a child, Sean and his mother queued for hours in the chiller section of a supermarket in order to see Tom Baker for a fleeting amount of time. (NOTVALID: Doctor Who and the Fangs of Time)
Whilst introducing an unseen audience to The Day of the Doctor, Strax mentioned that Tom Baker returned to the role as "who was that supposed to be anyway?" (NOTVALID: Strax Saves the Day)
In 2021, Baker reprised his role as the Doctor in the Big Finish audio adaptation of the unproduced 1978 Doctor Who story The Doomsday Contract by John Lloyd, with Lalla Ward, John Leeson, and Julian Wadham. (NOTVALID: Tom Baker stars in John Lloyd's lost Doctor Who adventure, The Doomsday Contract)
