Doctor Who Tom Baker is still in the house

Tom Baker occupies a special place in the hearts of Doctor Who fans that remains unrivalled.

Doctor Who actor Tom Baker is still much loved by fans.

With a mop of brown curly hair, a wide toothy grin, a penetrating blue gaze and dressed in a frock coat and dangling multicoloured scarf, Tom Baker, for generations of Doctor Who fans, is the Doctor.

He may be just one of more than a dozen actors who have played the time-travelling hero in the long-running science fiction television series, battling monsters with charm and cunning throughout the galaxy, but he has a place in the pantheon of doctors that remains unrivalled.

“Of course, I never stopped playing the Doctor,” Baker, 87, tells Review. “Even when I played Macbeth I was still playing the Doctor because that is the only part I really can play. I suppose everyone who is playing the Doctor is playing themselves.”

Even on the phone, Baker’s unmistakably rich honeyed voice conveys a warmth that is deeply affecting. He played the iconic role with a mix of childlike amazement and curiosity combined with energy, courage and integrity. He describes the Doctor as “a benevolent alien” and it is no wonder he is still so loved.

“Each generation has its own doctor,” he explains. “But my generation of children who watched me are now in middle age and when they see me they are often very emotional and very amusing as they recall their own childhood.”

Baker as Doctor Who: “It is the only part I really can play.“

“They say how much they loved me. And I say, ‘Thank you. That’s lovely.’ And they say, ‘But I am telling you that I love you, Doctor’. It makes me almost want to weep when I recall it now. But it is not difficult to respond to love. I mean, who does not respond to love? Oh dear.”

Last year, the ABC rediscovered film of Baker dropping in on school students in Sydney in 1979. Doctor Who was at the height of its popularity. It is extraordinary to watch the wonderment in their eyes as they ask if he is scared of monsters or ever trips over his scarf.

Although Baker played the Doctor in the series from 1974 to 1981, longer than any other actor, he is still immersed in the role. He has been recording new audio adventures for Big Finish from home, due to the pandemic, which will see the Fourth Doctor voiced until at least 2024, and likely well beyond.

“In many ways it is much more fun playing the role on audio because you can have many more words and it makes it much easier for the action sequences,” he jokes. “I have all the best lines and it is really quite enjoyable saying them at home, sometimes in bed. But what one misses mostly is the fun of us all being together.”

The Big Finish audio stories – available via digital download or on CD – have reunited Baker with television companions Louise Jameson (Leela) and Lalla Ward (Romana), who is also his former wife. Baker has also teamed up with fellow doctors Paul McGann (1996) and David Tennant (2005-10). With impressive production values, incidental music and sound-effects, the stories certainly fire the imagination. This is Baker’s 10th year with Big Finish.

In early 1974, Baker was an out of work actor employed on a building site in London. He was feeling a little unwanted and unloved, and lost. He wrote a letter to BBC executive Bill Slater, with whom he had worked in the past, looking for an acting gig. A few days later he had secured a role that made him one of the most recognisable and most loved people in the world.

“It transformed my life,” Baker recalls. “I suddenly realised that, you know, I’d hit the jackpot. People seemed to feel real affection for me and that is really very gratifying. It still thrills me when it happens. Like, I’m thrilled to be talking to you now because I know there will be some people in Australia who might enjoy hearing me and I’m delighted to be talking to them.”

The Doctor is a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey who travels in a time machine known as the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension In Space) and is perennially called upon to save civilisations. Baker followed William Hartnell (1963-66), Patrick Troughton (1966-69) and Jon Pertwee (1970-74) in the title role.

Each regeneration allows the Doctor to cheat death and become an entirely new persona. Baker, coming after the swashbuckling Pertwee, brought a new complexity to the role with a rollercoaster of emotions and a bohemian eccentricity, including a love of jelly babies. The series took a darker turn by introducing degrees of horror and violence. It led many children, as they say, to watch the show from behind the sofa.

In 1981, after seven years, Baker felt it was time to move on. He acknowledges sometimes behaving in an “outrageous” way towards scriptwriters, directors, producers and fellow actors.

Baker has also had a prickly relationship with other Doctors. “I wouldn’t dream of watching them,” he says. And why would he? He IS the Doctor. At fan conventions and media events, Baker says there is always “a little frisson of self-consciousness” when with his other selves.

Although devoted to the fans, he disappointed them by declining to appear in the 25th anniversary program in 1983, The Five Doctors, with his predecessors Troughton and Pertwee, and his successor, Peter Davison (1982-84). (Richard Hurndall played the First Doctor as Hartnell died in 1975.)

He did, however, return for the 50th anniversary show in 2013 in the role of the Curator alongside the 11th Doctor, played by Matt Smith (2010-13). His two-minute scene was captivating. “I never forget a face,” the Doctor said. With a twinkle in his eye, the Curator replied: “I know you don’t. And in years to come you might find yourself revisiting a few. But just the old favourites, eh?” It begged the question: is the Curator the Doctor?

Baker does not rule out returning for the 60th anniversary in 2023, if he is asked.

There will soon be a new Doctor as Jodie Whittaker (2018-21) – the first woman to front the series – is reportedly moving on after three seasons. While Whittaker’s portrayal attracted a fair bit of criticism, and ratings dipped, the popularity of the show endures.

It is the Doctor’s amiability, good nature and love for others that is the secret to the show’s success, Baker says. “The character of the doctor is terribly predictable. He is not really violent. He is not interested in power or wealth. It’s all very innocent and sweet. This character that I was playing was not, as you may well have noticed, very far away from myself.”

Although he has become “a bit frail” Baker says there are “lovely aspects to being an old Doctor Who”. He celebrates the fact that he is still able to enjoy the role and gets immense satisfaction from being able to make people “laugh and feel happy”.

It is not a bad epitaph, he suggests. “I was just having a good time. They’ll write that somewhere: Here lies Tom Baker. He had a good time – or so he said.”

The Fourth Doctor Adventures: Series 10 Volumes 1 & 2 are available from Big Finish