| The Doctor | |
|---|---|
| The Fourth Doctor | |
| Portrayed by | Tom Baker |
| Tenure | 1974–1981 |
| First appearance | Planet of the Spiders (1974) |
| Last appearance | Logopolis (1981) |
| Number of series | 7 |
| Appearances | 41 stories (172 episodes) |
| Companions | Sarah Jane Smith Harry Sullivan Leela K-9 Romana Adric Nyssa Tegan Jovanka |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) |
| Succeeded by | Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) |
| Series | Seasons 12–18 |
The Fourth Doctor is the fourth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC British television science-fiction series Doctor Who.
He was portrayed by Tom Baker for seven consecutive seasons (from December 28, 1974 (Part One of Robot) to March 21, 1981 (Part 4 of Logopolis), and remains the longest-lived incarnation of the Doctor in the show's on-screen history, counting both the classic and modern series.
Within the series' narrative, the Doctor is a centuries-old Time Lord alien from the planet Gallifrey who travels in time and space in his TARDIS, frequently with companions. When the Doctor is critically injured, he can regenerate his body, changing his physical appearance and personality in the process.
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The Fourth Doctor appeared in 172 episodes (179, counting the regeneration in Planet of the Spiders and the aborted Shada) over a seven-year period, from 1974 to 1981. This makes him the longest running on-screen Doctor of both series. He also appeared in the specials The Five Doctors (via footage from the incomplete Shada) and made his final appearance as the Doctor in the charity special Dimensions in Time (aside from a series of television advertisements in New Zealand in 1997[1]).
This incarnation is generally regarded as 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 2009.[2] The Fourth Doctor's 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 captivated the viewing public's imagination. Producer Philip Hinchcliffe has often stated that the Fourth Doctor's Bohemian appearance and anti-establishment views appealed to older, college-age students. The Fourth Doctor's time enjoyed a significant boost in viewing figures, averaging between 8 to 10 million viewers in just his first year (20-25 percent of the entire viewing audience of Britain).[3] By 1979, the figures averaged between 9 to 11 million, going as high as 16.1 million for the final episode of City of Death.[4]
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).
After contracting radiation poisoning from the crystals of the planet Metebelis 3, the Third Doctor makes his way back to UNIT headquarters, 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 a new adversary, 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 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 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. In order to avoid execution (by vaporisation), 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 since season 1, 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.
Later, the Doctor and Leela visit the Bi-Al Foundation medical centre, where they acquire the robot dog K-9 (The Invisible Enemy). While K-9 is malfunctioning, a time distortion leads the TARDIS back to contemporary rural England. While investigating the distortion, he and Leela are confronted by an ancient being that feeds on death from Time Lord history, called the Fendahl (Image of the Fendahl). Eventually, the Doctor returns to Gallifrey and declares himself Lord President, based on the election held during his previous visit. This is in fact a ploy to reveal and defeat a Sontaran invasion plan. In the aftermath Leela and K-9 decide to remain on Gallifrey. The Doctor comforts himself by producing K-9 Mark II (The Invasion of Time).
Shortly afterward, the powerful White Guardian assigns the Doctor the task of finding the six segments of the Key to Time, sending a young Time Lady named Romana to assist him. The two Gallifreyans travel to a variety of planets, encountering strange and unusual allies and enemies, gathering the six segments and defeat the equally powerful Black Guardian- who sought the Key for himself. After the conclusion of the quest, Romana regenerates into a new form (Destiny of the Daleks).
In an effort to evade the Black Guardian, the Doctor installs a "Randomizer" in the TARDIS so that not even the Black Guardian can anticipate where they go. Ironically, the first place the Randomizer sends them is the home planet of the Daleks, Skaro (Destiny of the Daleks). Perhaps because of this, the Doctor begins frequently overriding the machine- first travelling to Paris for a holiday, only to get caught up in an alien scheme to steal the Mona Lisa (The City of Death). He eventually discards the device altogether, remarking that he's fed up with not knowing where he's going.
Shortly after this, the Fourth Doctor and Romana are projected outside the known universe and into a universe of negative coordinates, known as Exo-Space. The TARDIS lands on a planet called Alzerius (Full Circle), where they are joined by a young prodigy named Adric. It's in E-Space that the Doctor destroys the last of a race of giant Vampires who had once threatened all life in his universe. Eventually, the Doctor and his two companions find themselves in a white void with no coordinates- a sort of membrane between the two universes. A way out soon forms, but Romana and K-9 chose to remain behind to help free a race of enslaved creatures in E-Space (Warriors' Gate).
The Doctor and Adric have only just made it back when they're asked to help the people of Traken from a creature known as "Melkur." On Traken, Adric and the Doctor are introduced to the aristocratic Nyssa of Traken. Both Nyssa and her father, Tremas, assist the Doctor in stopping Melkur- who is in fact revealed to be another TARDIS that is controlled by the Master. The Master is narrowly defeated, but managed to take over Tremas' body- thus giving himself a new incarnation.
The Doctor decides to travel to Earth to scan a real Police Box as part of a plan to repair the "Chameleon Circuit"- the shape-changing mechanism in the TARDIS. However, the Doctor soon spots a mysterious ghostly figure looking at him in the distance. He eventually confronts the figure, who warns him of future dangers.
As the Doctor prepares to travel to the planet Logopolis to get the Chameleon Circuit fixed, Tegan Jovanka appears in the console room (having previously gotten lost in the corridors of the TARDIS). The conduit between E-Space and our own universe is revealed to be a Charged Vacuum Emboitment (CVE) – created by the mathematicians of Logopolis as part of a system to allow the Universe to continue on past its point of heat death. Nyssa shows up, explaining that she was brought to Logopolis by the same figure that the Doctor encountered. Logopolis soon falls under the Master's control, but the stasis field he is generating ends up releasing Entropy and eroding matter throughout the universe- threatening to destroy the entire universe!
The Master agrees to help the Doctor stop the spread of Entropy by adapting the Pharos Project radio telescope on Earth so that they are able to reopen the CVEs. However, when the Master tries to take control of it, the Doctor runs out under the upturned radio dish to sever the cable linking the Master to the CVEs. The Master makes the dish start rotating so that the Doctor will fall to his death. Before he falls, he manages to tear out the cable, only to leave his companions watching as he clings to the cable. As his grip begins to slip, he sees visions of all the enemies he's faced over the years, then falls. Adric, Nyssa, and Tegan gather around the mortally wounded Doctor and call out his name. The Doctor begins seeing visions of all his companions and even the Brigadier calling his name.
He then looks up at the three of them and utters his last words: "It's the end-- but the moment has been prepared for..." He then motions to the white-clad figure of the Watcher, who begins approaching the Doctor. The Watcher, a manifestation of the Doctor's future incarnation, merges with the Doctor and triggers his regeneration. "So he was the Doctor all the time?" remarks Nyssa, as the three watch him transform into the Fifth Doctor.
The Fourth Doctor appears once more in the 20th anniversary special The Five Doctors. A renegade Time Lord attempts to pull the first five incarnations of the Doctor out of time, inadvertently trapping the Fourth Doctor (and Romana) in a "time eddy" from which they are later freed. Brief holographic clips of the Fourth Doctor appear in "The Next Doctor" and "The Eleventh Hour"
To an extent, the Fourth Doctor is the most unpredictable in terms of his emotional depth, slightly more distant and Alien than his other incarnations - before or after.[5]
Despite his obvious moments of whimsical charm, offbeat humor, permeated by his manic grin, the Fourth Doctor is more aloof and somber than his previous incarnations. He could become intensely brooding, serious and even callous. He also displays a darker edge to his personality and in The Invasion of Time he seems to cruelly taunt and play with the Time Lords, after his emergency inauguration as President. He also has a strong moral code, such as when he faces the dilemma of whether to destroy the Daleks in (Genesis of the Daleks) stating that if he did, he would be no better than the Daleks himself. He is truly appalled at the actions of the Pirate Captain in The Pirate Planet and refuses to listen to Professor Tryst's attempts to justify drug-running in order to fund his scientific work (Nightmare of Eden), simply telling him to go away.
At the same time he is capable of moments of genuine warmth. In The Ark in Space, he salutes the human race's indomitability and latter stories establish that Earth is his favourite planet (The Ribos Operation). He is the first Doctor to refer to his companions as his best friends.
To his companions, especially Sarah Jane Smith, he was protective and somewhat of a fathering figure. In stories such as Pyramids of Mars he is concerned that he is approaching middle age with almost melancholic weariness, something which becomes the main focus of his personality in his final season. He often contemplates his outsider status to both humanity and his Galifreyian heritage, as he seems more inclined toward a solitary existence (The Deadly Assassin). In contrast to this "outsider existence" he emphasises that he found mankind to be his "favourite species" as if he was scientifically studying it. He could also be furious with those he saw as stupid, frivolous, misguided or just plain evil. When taking charge, he could be considered authoritative to the point of controlling and egocentric. He generally maintained his distance from the Time Lords, remarking in The Pyramids of Mars that, while being from Gallifrey, he doesn't consider himself a Time Lord. He clearly resents that even after they had lifted his exile, they continue to beckon the Doctor whenever they deemed it necessary (Genesis of the Daleks). .
Although like all his other incarnations he preferred brain over brawn, he is a capable swordsman (The Androids of Tara) and fighter when needs dictate, following on from the martial expertise of his immediate predecessor. He improvises non-lethal weaponry when necessary (Genesis of the Daleks), but was also not averse to more lethal weaponry as a necessity against both sentient and non-sentient beings, like the matter-destroying DeMat Gun (The Invasion of Time) or contemporary firearms (Image of the Fendahl and The Talons of Weng-Chiang).
One of the Doctor's most significant relationships occurs during his fourth incarnation and is explored further in his tenth incarnation. His friendship with Sarah Jane Smith is implied to be deeper than the relationships he shared with other companions to that point (as alluded to in the Tenth Doctor episode School Reunion). She is consequently still profoundly affected by their separation many years later in her personal timeline.
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 shirt, waistcoat, 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 wide-brimmed hat 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").
According to Baker, the Doctor's scarf was the idea of costume designer James Acheson. Acheson, knowing little about knitting, procured large quantities of various colours of wool, 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.[6]
Producer Philip Hinchcliffe had wardrobe create three distinct coats for Baker to wear depending on the type of story, the first being the reddish-brown blazer that he wore throughout all of his first season; the other two (full-length) coats were dark brown (for the darker horror stories) and light grey (for more action-packed stories). The Wardrobe Department also provided a brown wide-brimmed felt fedora. The rest was often picked from his own clothes (like neckties, trousers and a waistcoat). 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.
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.[7]
Characteristics such as pockets that store an infinite amount of junk (a common gag of his tenure); his wild, curly hair; overcoat; and the Fourth Doctor's grinning, wide-eyed general appearance have many viewers, including DW historian David F. Chapman, making comparisons between him and comedian/film star Harpo Marx. Other viewers have noted similarities between the fourth Doctor's clothing and the hat/scarf/coat ensemble worn by Malcolm McDowell at the start of director Lindsay Anderson's film If.... (1968).
When John-Nathan Turner became the show's producer in Baker's last year, the Fourth Doctor was the first to sport an item of clothing adorned with red question marks as a motif, in this case, above the points on his shirt collars. His overall costume was redesigned, changing the colour focus from brown to red. Designer June Hudson later revealed in an interview that JNT had even given her permission to remove the scarf altogether if she wanted to.[8] Hudson opted to keep the scarf, as it was such an iconic part of the character.
The new outfit included a full-length burgundy overcoat and wide-brimmed fedora, a matching blazer (worn under the overcoat) and trousers, and a vest worn over a specially-made white dress shirt. The new, redesigned scarf (which consisted of varying reds and purples) proved to be longer than any previous scarf Baker had worn. After just one story, the blazer was discarded and the hat was relegated to a hat- and coat-stand in the background. His boots returned by his third story.
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 (The Pyramids of Mars) and Frankenstein (The Brain of Morbius, Robot), Jekyll and Hyde (Planet of Evil), and even transformation (The Ark in Space) and various themes like alien abduction. In these stories, they were given a science fiction explanation, rather than the typical magic.
While the Hinchcliffe Era (1974–1977) is generally seen by fans and critics as the best era in the classic series run, the increasing horror elements and depictions of violence attracted much criticism, notably from Mary Whitehouse, who had previously attacked the Barry Letts era for shows like Terror of the Autons. Hinchcliffe was moved on to police drama Target in 1977 at the conclusion of his third year. Graham Williams 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 and The Invisible Enemy. The task of editing Image of the Fendahl 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 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, and the writing team of Bob Baker and Dave Martin handled what would be the final story of the season, The Armageddon Factor. Douglas Adams wrote the second story, The Pirate Planet, 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.
Williams' third and final year on the show proved even more difficult, as he found Tom Baker increasingly hard to cope with. Douglas Adams became script editor and his distinctive style can be seen in the dialogue and stories. For example, in Destiny of the Daleks, Adams included a scene of the Doctor trapped under a boulder that resembles a similar scene in the second series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Adams' brief tenure (1979–1980) is controversial with fans, some of whom believe that the humorous elements had gotten out of hand, while others cite Adams' stories as some of the best. His time as script editor was beset by problems; Adams often ended up having to greatly edit and even rewrite stories. Once again, facing burnout and lack of funds, Adams eventually agreed to write the final story Shada. Production proved difficult and ended up being unfinished due to a strike at the BBC. Williams left the show, dissatisfied with having left on what he considered to be a low note.
In Season 18, John Nathan-Turner became the series' producer. He instituted a number of changes to the show, including toning down the humour and introducing more science fiction concepts. During this season the Fourth Doctor became very much subdued and, on occasion, melancholy. Baker began the season in poor health, though he eventually recovered. Both the actor and the character seemed noticeably older and tired, due to Baker's gaunt appearance and greying hair. Baker had been finding the role harder and harder to maintain and the previous season had been particularly draining on him. Many of this season's stories also had an elegiac tone, with entropy and decay being a recurring theme.
New script editor Christopher Bidmead found himself faced with a serious problem from the outset of his time on the show. He ultimately deemed many of the stories left to him by Adams to be unusable, being too close to the humour-driven stories of the previous season. The only one he ended up using was The Leisure Hive, though only after heavily editing it. Bidmead asked a pair of writing friends to come up with what would be the second story of the season, Meglos, which ended up being regarded as one of the weakest shows in the series' history up to that point.[9] In recent years, some have suggested that Meglos was meant to be a comedy. This may make sense, as many of the elements seem to be satires of common SciFi archetypes.
Bidmead only began to gain some momentum by the fifth story, Warrior's Gate. The story is notable for the Doctor's sombre mood and seeming death wish, as well as the surprisingly adult nature of the story. The surreal, even dream-like elements, such as time shifts and walking through mirrors, also earned the story some distinction. At John Nathan-Turner's insistence the Master was brought back. This was accomplished by Bidmead changing the villain in The Keeper of Traken into the Master.
The overarching theme of decay reaches its conclusion in Baker's final story Logopolis, which Bidmead personally wrote. The story is particularly sombre, even grim at times. Themes of decay and death are constant in the story, personified in the ghostly Watcher, effectively a harbinger of the Fourth Doctor's 'death'.
The Fourth Doctor's stories saw fewer recurring (or returning) enemies than in previous eras. The Daleks only appeared twice and the Cybermen only had one story, Revenge of the Cybermen. UNIT, which had featured in most of the Third Doctor's adventures, only appeared in four early Fourth Doctor stories, playing a minor role in its last appearance, Season 13's The Seeds of Doom in which none of the regular UNIT staff appeared.
At the same time, stories such as The Deadly Assassin established most of the mythology surrounding the Time Lords and the Doctor's home planet Gallifrey and that would remain a key feature for the rest of the classic series and still be felt in the revived series. For example, it is established that Time Lords only have a limited number of regenerations, which is a driving plot point in the stories Mawdryn Undead, The Five Doctors, The Trial of a Time Lord and the 1996 telemovie.
Visions of the Fourth Doctor appear in Earthshock, Mawdryn Undead, Resurrection of the Daleks, "The Next Doctor", "The Eleventh Hour" and "The Lodger", and his voice is 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.
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. Further proof of his popularity in the US came when American Distributor Time Life began selling his stories on VHS in the late 1970s. Time Life added narration by Howard da Silva at the beginning and end of each episode.
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. 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. In an episode of Barney Miller, an eccentric man wearing a long striped scarf claimed to be a time-traveler. Archival footage of the Fourth Doctor's first title sequence was used in the Family Guy episode "Blue Harvest" to parody Star Wars hyperspace. In American Dad some Whovians were shown, one of their number dressed as the Fourth Doctor. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure featured a time machine in the form of a phone booth, as well as casual meeting by the protagonists with noteworthy figures of history. As the narrator of Little Britain, Tom Baker has himself referenced Doctor Who.
In 1980, Tom Baker played the Fourth Doctor (alongside Lalla Ward's Romana) in a series of television commercials for Prime Computers.[10] In 1997, Baker reprised the role once again in a spot for New Zealand's National Superannuation insurance company.[11]
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.
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| Season | Season 12 | Season 13 | Season 14 | Season 15 | Season 16 | Season 17 | Season 18 | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serials | 075 – 079 | 080 | 081 – 085 | 086 – 087 | 088 | 089 – 091 | 092 | 093 | 094 | 095 – 097 | 098 – 101 | 102 | 103 | 104 – 105 | 106 – 108 | 109 – 110 | 111 – 113 | 114 | 115 |
| Companions | ← Sarah Jane (→) | Leela | Romana I | Romana II | Nyssa → | ||||||||||||||
| Harry | K-9 Mk. I | K-9 | K-9 Mk. II | K-9 | K-9 | Tegan → | |||||||||||||
| Adric → | |||||||||||||||||||
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