Fourth Doctor

Appearances

Television

After contracting radiation poisoning from the crystals of the planet Metebelis 3, the Third Doctor makes his way back to UNIT headquarters in the TARDIS, where the Time Lord K'Anpo Rimpoche aids him in regenerating (Planet of the Spiders).

In his new incarnation, the Doctor is eager to leave Earth in favour of exploration, thus drawing back from continuous involvement with UNIT (with which he had worked closely as the Third Doctor). He has also grown tired of working for the Time Lords. Despite attempts to avoid them altogether, the Time Lords continue to send him on occasional missions, including an attempt to prevent the creation of the Daleks (Genesis of the Daleks), during which he also meets Davros. The Doctor travels with journalist Sarah Jane Smith, whom he had befriended prior to his regeneration, and, for a time, with UNIT Surgeon-Lieutenant Harry Sullivan.

After a battle with Zygons in Scotland, Harry (having just spent an entire season with the Doctor as they tried to get back to the TARDIS) decided that taking the train was safer than the TARDIS, which the Doctor and Sarah Jane chose to try to make an appointment in London. Instead they ended up on the planet Zeta Minor (Planet of Evil), located at the far edge of the known universe. From this point on, the Doctor and Sarah Jane travelled alone.

The Doctor's companionship with Sarah Jane came to an end when he received a telepathic summons to Gallifrey, as humans were not then allowed on the planet. The summons turns out to be part of a trap set by his enemy the Master. The renegade Time Lord has used up all his regenerations and has degenerated into little more than a withered skeletal husk. The Doctor is framed for the assassination of the President of the High Council of Time Lords and put on trial. To avoid execution, the Doctor invokes an obscure law and declares himself a candidate for the office, giving himself the time he needs to prove his innocence and expose the real culprit. This ultimately results in a climactic battle with the Master (The Deadly Assassin).

The Doctor is seen to travel alone for the first time, returning to a planet he had visited centuries before. During his previous visit, he had accidentally imprinted his own mind on a human colony ship's powerful computer, Xoanon, leaving it with multiple personalities. On his second visit the Doctor is now remembered as an evil god by the descendants of the colonists, some of whom had become a warrior tribe called the Sevateem. After the Doctor cures the computer, one of the Sevateem, Leela, joins him on his travels (The Face of Evil). The Doctor brings the intelligent but uneducated Leela to many locales in human history, teaching her about science and her own species' past. In Victorian London, the pair encounters the magician Li Hsien Chang and his master, the self-styled Weng-Chiang (The Talons of Weng-Chiang). Weng-Chiang is revealed to be a time-jumping criminal from the Earth's distant future.

Other mentions

Visions of the Fourth Doctor appear in the Fifth Doctor serials Earthshock (1982), Mawdryn Undead (1983) and Resurrection of the Daleks (1984), and in the 21st century series in the episodes "The Next Doctor", "The Eleventh Hour", "The Lodger", "Nightmare in Silver", "The Magician's Apprentice", "Twice Upon a Time", "The Timeless Children", "Rogue", "The Story & The Engine", "Wish World" and "The Reality War". His voice is also used in "The Almost People". The Fourth Doctor also appears in Sarah Jane's flashback in The Mad Woman in the Attic, via footage taken from The Hand of Fear. Similar flashbacks appear in The Sarah Jane Adventures story Death of the Doctor. In "The Name of the Doctor," he is seen briefly by Clara Oswald wandering around the TARDIS (clip taken from The Invasion of Time). He was also seen as an echo running past Clara inside the Eleventh Doctor's time stream in the end of "The Name of the Doctor." Archival images were used for his appearance in "The Day of the Doctor". During the special, Tom Baker portrays a mysterious museum curator who speaks with the Eleventh Doctor and hints to him that he may be a future version of the Doctor "revisiting" a favourite past incarnation. The Fourth Doctor is also seen briefly during Missy's exposition of the Twelfth Doctor's fighting android assassins ("The Witch's Familiar"). The Fourth Doctor also appears via archival footage taken from Pyramids of Mars in "Empire of Death" to provide context on the return of Sutekh.

Development

Casting

The Doctor had been played by three actors between Doctor Who's debut in 1963 and Tom Baker's casting. The concept of regeneration—a biological process in which the title character takes on a new body when fatally injured—had been introduced in 1966 to allow the production team to change lead actors.

English actor Tom Baker established himself playing eccentric supporting roles in genre and fantasy films. Baker was attached to three film projects which had all collapsed by late 1973. He was working part-time on a building site and became anxious at his career prospects. On 3 February 1974, he wrote to Bill Slater, a director he had previously worked with who had been recently appointed as BBC Head of Serials, asking for acting work. Slater recommended Baker to Doctor Who producer Barry Letts, who was seeking a successor to Third Doctor actor Jon Pertwee. Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks were impressed by Baker's performance in the recent fantasy adventure film The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973), and following a meeting with Baker in the BBC bar, the actor was quickly cast as the Fourth Doctor. Baker's casting was announced to the press on 15 February. He was considered the first "non-name actor" cast as the Doctor.

Baker relished his status as a children's hero, preferring to be the Doctor than to return to his "tangled" private life. He avoided smoking or swearing in public out of awareness that the Doctor was considered a role model for children. Baker became proprietorial over the role of the Doctor and often berated writers and directors whose work he disliked.

In 1980, Baker clashed with newly-appointed producer John Nathan-Turner. He found Nathan-Turner's approach to the series "unbearable" and decided it was time to depart the role. Baker stated in 2014 that he may have stayed in the role for one season too long. Baker announced his departure on 24 October 1980, and he was succeeded by Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor in Logopolis (1981).

Characterisation

Although Baker had little idea of how he would play his version of the Doctor when cast, he quickly made the part his own, highlighting the character's alien qualities. Baker incorporated much of his own eccentric personality into the Doctor's and frequently made comedic scripting suggestions and ad-libs.

"My Doctor Who was entirely Tom. It was just Tom. I wasn't acting. ...they said how are you going to do it? And I said I don't know. And I started saying the lines and the children loved it... I thought hey, so who wants to act? I can be Tom."

He was required to shave off his beard for the role. According to Baker, the Doctor's scarf was the idea of costume designer James Acheson. Knowing little about knitting, Acheson procured large quantities of wool in various colours and commissioned Begonia Pope, a friend of his, to create a colourful design. She proceeded to use all of the wool provided, resulting in the absurdly long, but iconic, accessory. According to both the creators of the show and Baker, the character's look was originally based on paintings and posters by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec of his friend, Aristide Bruant, a singer and nightclub owner whose trademark was a black cloak and long red scarf.

Imposingly tall, with eyes that seem to constantly boggle, a mass of curls for hair and prominently displayed teeth, the Doctor favours an outfit that usually consists of a white shirt, waistcoat, cravat, trousers, a frock coat (with pockets containing a seemingly endless array of apparently useless items that would nevertheless suit the Doctor's purposes when used), a fedora and, most famously, his impractically long, multi-coloured scarf, which was apparently knitted for him by Madame Nostradamus (whom he refers to as a "witty little knitter"). When it is damaged in The Ark in Space (1975), the Doctor declares with regret that it is "irreplaceable."

Producer Philip Hinchcliffe had wardrobe create four distinct coats for Baker to wear depending on the type of story, the first being a rust safari jacket that he wore throughout all of his first season and for two serials of his second; the other three (full-length) coats were of dark plum burgundy velvet, later replaced by a similar dark brown velvet following the in universe loss of the former in The Deadly Assassin and light grey tweed. The Wardrobe Department also sourced a brown wide-brimmed felt fedora from Herbert Johnson. The rest of Baker's costume pieces (cravats, trousers, boots, shoes, waistcoats and shirts) were sourced from various sources, with several pieces custom made for Baker, notably his brown leather knee length cuff boots acquired during the production of The Deadly Assassin. A wider, brighter-coloured scarf debuted with Baker's fourth season and a light brown coat was introduced late in his fifth season. Baker also appeared in a one-off Sherlock Holmes-inspired costume in The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

Reception

This incarnation is generally regarded as one of the most recognisable of the Doctors and one of the most popular, especially in the United States. In polls conducted by Doctor Who Magazine, Tom Baker has lost the "Best Doctor" category only three times: once to Sylvester McCoy (the Seventh Doctor) in 1990, and twice to David Tennant (the Tenth Doctor) in 2006 and 2009. The Fourth Doctor's eccentric style of dress and speech – particularly his trademark look of wearing a long scarf and having a fondness for Jelly Babies – made him an immediately recognisable figure and he quickly captivated the viewing public's imagination. The producer of Baker's early seasons, Philip Hinchcliffe, stated that the Fourth Doctor's bohemian appearance and anti-establishment style appealed to older, college-age students. The Fourth Doctor's time enjoyed a significant boost in viewing figures, averaging between 8 and 10 million viewers in just his first year (20–25 percent of the entire viewing audience of Britain). By 1979, the figures averaged between 9 and 11 million, going as high as 16.1 million for the final episode of City of Death (though this was during the ITV technicians strike of 1979 which meant the BBC was the sole broadcaster on the air for several weeks).

After succeeding Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor, Baker's portrayal of the Fourth was not initially received enthusiastically by all of the critics. One writer in the Daily Mail complained in early 1975 that, "Mr. Baker makes Doctor Who look like Harpo Marx let loose from Horse Feathers." Baker himself responded by saying, "We are not playing Doctor Who for laughs. I am trying to stress his strangeness, that he is not of this world, not human, therefore his reactions will be different from ours. I take it all very seriously. He has to be genuinely lovable, not pleased by violence, and he must be honest. Humorous, but never comical."

There are also novels and audio plays featuring the Fourth Doctor. Two early audio plays featuring Tom Baker voicing the Fourth Doctor date from Baker's television tenure as he had mainly declined to appear in any further audio plays since leaving the series. In 2009, however, it was announced that a new five-part series would be produced by BBC Audio (see below).

Story style

The early stories of the Fourth Doctor were characterised by a strong "Gothic Horror" theme. The duo of writer/script editor Robert Holmes and producer Philip Hinchcliffe consciously tapped into horror icons like mummies (Pyramids of Mars) and Frankenstein (The Brain of Morbius, Robot), vampires (State of Decay) and Jekyll and Hyde (Planet of Evil), and even transformation (The Ark in Space, The Seeds of Doom) and various themes like alien abduction. In these stories, they were given a science fiction explanation, rather than the typical magic.

The Hinchcliffe Era (1974–1977) is one of the most controversial in the classic series run, the increasing horror elements and depictions of violence attracted much criticism from Mary Whitehouse, who had previously attacked the Barry Letts era for serials like Terror of the Autons (1971). The controversy led BBC Director General to apologise to Whitehouse for the ending of one episode of The Seeds of Doom (1976). Hinchcliffe was moved on to police drama Target in 1977 at the conclusion of his third year. Graham Williams – who had been developing Target – was brought on to take over as producer for Baker's fourth season.

Williams was given specific instructions to lighten the tone of the stories, thus playing to Baker's strengths. However, the first three stories (which were geared towards the previous style) had already been commissioned. Robert Holmes had agreed to stay on to edit them, but he ended up leaving after only doing the first two, Horror of Fang Rock (1977) and The Invisible Enemy (1977). The task of editing Image of the Fendahl (1977) fell to his successor Anthony Read. The season was only narrowly finished. With the cast and crew suffering from burnout and lack of resources, the season finale The Invasion of Time (1978) was completed largely by virtue of it having been written to make use of preexisting sets, props, and costumes.

For their second season, Williams and Read had planned out an overarching storyline that would run through the whole of the season. With more editorial control, it was also decided that the writers would put more emphasis on elements of fantasy and humour. Holmes wrote the first story, The Ribos Operation (1978), and the writing team of Bob Baker and Dave Martin handled what would be the final story of the season, The Armageddon Factor (1979). Douglas Adams wrote the second story, The Pirate Planet (1978), while another newcomer, David Fisher, wrote the third and fourth stories. Again, difficulties began to arise when the fifth story fell through. Robert Holmes consented to writing what would become The Power of Kroll (1978–79).

International reception

For audiences in the United States, who saw the show only in syndication (mostly on PBS), Tom Baker was the incarnation of the Doctor who is the best known, since his episodes were the ones most frequently broadcast stateside. The first four seasons of these Time Life distributed stories added narration by Howard da Silva at the beginning and end of each episode. Also in Italy, where most of the classic series of Doctor Who were never broadcast on television, the only episodes to be broadcast were those of the Fourth Doctor.

Other appearances

Spoofs

The Fourth Doctor's distinctive appearance and manner have made him a target for affectionate parody. The character has appeared several times on The Simpsons and twice on Robot Chicken. He also had a cameo on Futurama emerging from the stomach of a space whale, and another episode, where he is briefly seen running into the TARDIS. On The Big Bang Theory, Stuart dresses as The Fourth Doctor at a party in the episode “The Justice League Recombination”. In the computer game Hugo II, Whodunit?, the player can save the Fourth Doctor from a Dalek in return for his sonic screwdriver. He is frequently impersonated by impressionist Jon Culshaw on the radio and television series Dead Ringers, who also voiced the Doctor for the Big Finish audio The Kingmaker. Archival footage of the Fourth Doctor's first title sequence was used in the Family Guy episode "Blue Harvest" to parody hyperspace from Star Wars. In American Dad! some Whovians were shown, with several of them dressed as the Fourth Doctor. As the narrator of Little Britain, Tom Baker has himself alluded to Doctor Who. In the 24th episode of the series Epic Rap Battles of History the Tenth Doctor is in a rap battle with Doc Brown from Back to the Future when he is shot by a Dalek and regenerates into the Fourth Doctor (played by George Watsky).

A background character appearing in one episode of Toast of London portrayed by Lewis MacLeod highly resembles the fourth incarnation of the Doctor, and is heavily implied to be him in the episode itself. Peter Davison, who played the fifth incarnation, also appears in the series as himself.

Advertising

In 1979 and 1980, Tom Baker played the Fourth Doctor (alongside Lalla Ward's Romana) in a series of four television commercials for Prime Computer. Disliking the scripts he was given, Baker agreed to film the advertisements only if he could rewrite them himself, and added a scene where the Doctor follows the computer's instruction to marry Romana. In 1997, Baker reprised the role once again in a spot for New Zealand's National Superannuation insurance company.

Argo Records audio drama

Doctor Who and the Pescatons

BBC audio dramas

Exploration Earth: "The Time Machine"

Hornets' Nest

Demon Quest

Serpent Crest

Tom Baker also recorded narration, in character as the Fourth Doctor, for a 1976 audio release of Genesis of the Daleks, which was subsequently re-issued by the BBC on cassette and CD as a radio drama. Baker returned again to Doctor Who for the 1990s audio cassette releases of "lost" Doctor Who stories. For some of these stories, he is in character as the Doctor. For others, he merely provides descriptive narration.

Big Finish audio dramas

The Kingmaker (cameo voiced by Jon Culshaw—see above)

The Beautiful People (adventure related by the character Romana II) (2007)

The Catalyst (adventure related by the character Leela) (2008)

Empathy Games (adventure related by the character Leela) (2008)

Stealers from Saiph (adventure related by the character Romana I) (2009)

The Pyralis Effect (adventure related by the character Romana II) (2009)

The Time Vampire (adventure related by the character Leela) (2010)

The Invasion of E-Space (adventure related by the character Romana II) (2010)

Ferril's Folly (adventure related by the character Romana I) (2011)

Tales from the Vault (short adventure related by the character Romana I) (2011)

The Fourth Doctor Boxset (adventures related by the characters the Fourth Doctor & Leela) (2011)

The Foe from the Future

The Valley of Death

Destination Nerva (adventure related by the characters the Fourth Doctor & Leela) (2012)

The Renaissance Man (adventure related by the characters the Fourth Doctor & Leela) (2012)

Short Trips audios

Death-Dealer

Chain Reaction

Seven to One

The Wondrous Box

The Old Rogue

Audio books

Glass

Old Flames

Novels

Timewyrm: Genesys by John Peel (appears as a holographic message for the Seventh Doctor, warning his future self of danger before his memory of the threat is lost)

Timewyrm: Revelation by Paul Cornell (appears as the Doctor's memory of him in the Seventh Doctor's subconscious)

Evolution by John Peel

The Romance of Crime by Gareth Roberts

System Shock by Justin Richards

Managra by Stephen Marley

The English Way of Death by Gareth Roberts

The Shadow of Weng-Chiang by David A. McIntee

A Device of Death by Christopher Bulis

The Well-Mannered War by Gareth Roberts

Eye of Heaven by Jim Mortimore

Last Man Running by Chris Boucher

Millennium Shock by Justin Richards

Corpse Marker by Chris Boucher

Tomb of Valdemar by Simon Messingham

Heart of TARDIS by Dave Stone (Also features the Second Doctor, although neither Doctor meets the other, each Doctor simply tackling a different end of the same crisis with only the Fourth aware of his other self's involvement)

Festival of Death by Jonathan Morris

Asylum by Peter Darvill-Evans (features the Fourth Doctor early in his life interacting with Nyssa from a point after she has left the Fifth Doctor)

Comics

"Death Flower"

"Return of the Daleks"

"The Wreckers"

"The Emperor's Spy"

"The Sinister Sea"

"The Space Ghost"

"The Dalek Revenge"

"Virus"

"Treasure Trails"

"Hubert's Folly"

"Counter-Rotation"

"Mind Snatch"

"The Hoaxers"

"The Mutant Strain"

"Double Trouble"

"Dredger"

"The False Planet"

"The Fire Feeders"

"Kling Dynasty"

"The Orb"

"The Mutants"

"The Devil's Mouth"

"The Aqua-City"

"The Snow Devils"

"The Space Garden"

"The Eerie Manor"

"Guardian of the Tomb"

"The Image Makers"

"Woden's Warrior"

Video games

Dalek Attack

Destiny of the Doctors

Lego Dimensions

Fall Guys