- 7 months ago
Step into the golden age of Doctor Who with the unforgettable Fourth Doctor, played by Tom Baker. With his iconic scarf, curly hair, and booming voice, Tom Baker brought mystery, mischief, and a magnetic charm to the role that made him the longest-serving and most beloved Doctor in the show’s history. In this video, we explore his legendary run—from battling Daleks and Cybermen to traveling with fan-favorite companions like Sarah Jane Smith and K-9. Discover how Baker’s Doctor helped transform Doctor Who into a cultural phenomenon.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00The Doctor is the eternal child and never more so in the hands of the brilliant and the mercurial
00:20and the frightening and the inspiring Tom Baker. The fourth Doctor was the coolest thing about
00:26the 1970s and stood out as an effortlessly stylish alien. With a big grin, long scarf and
00:32a pocket full of jelly babies, he charmed galaxies and a whole generation of children
00:37who were unable to imagine anyone else as the Doctor. Suddenly, the Doctor was being played
00:43by what seemed an impossibly young student. I think the casting of Tom Baker was one of
00:49these moments when the absolute right fit for something is just found.
00:52When I became Doctor Who, you know, I didn't play Doctor Who. I was Doctor Who. There was
01:00no acting involved at all. The script, the magical script, and poor old Tom Baker such as he was,
01:07absolutely coalesced, you know. And all I had to do was say it. And everyone liked it.
01:12Is that all? No. Dramatic recitations, singing, tap dancing, I can play the trumpet voluntary
01:20and a bowl of live goldfish. He seems to have, for free, all that kind of madness. The kind
01:28of wild-eyed, extraordinary, baffling energy that just seemed to fit that character so well.
01:36I'm also a master hypnotist. Now then, how long since you were under the influence, sir?
01:43I'm a man of character and determination, sir. The Rock of Gibraltar would be more easily...
01:50more easily. He genuinely was larger than life. He had a very striking appearance, huge shock
01:57of curly brown hair. His personality was enormous, kind of radiated energy.
02:03He's the most alien of all the Doctors, because he seemed to have a sort of strange,
02:07starey-eyed logic and weirdness about him.
02:10Henry Gordon Jago, I command you to remember everything you were ordered to forget.
02:16When I count to three, you will remember everything. One, two, three.
02:24One of the great decisions in Doctor Who, of course, is that ridiculous scarf.
02:28They had a wonderful designer who later became an Oscar winner, Jim Atchison.
02:33We didn't know what the Doctor was going to look like. This kind of crazy costume evolved.
02:37The scarf was a happy accident. Jim bought, you know, a truckload of wool and sent it down
02:43to a woman called Begonia Pope. She just used up all the wool, you know, she just kept knitting.
02:50And when we got there, she had a little house. You could hardly get in the room because of the wool and scarf, you know.
02:56So we tried it on, it was terribly funny. I said, well, are we going to cut it too?
02:59He said, no, let's, let's.
03:02It probably remains the iconic piece of Doctor Who costume. He hasn't worn that scarf since 1981, but it really stuck.
03:11The fourth Doctor had the biggest sense of humor in the universe. This Doctor didn't just laugh at villains.
03:17He also didn't take himself seriously. Suddenly, a big kid was in charge of the TARDIS.
03:22It's quite a shock. In the midst of, you know, a serious Invasion Earth story, he walks out the TARDIS dressed as a Viking.
03:30And has absolutely no idea why that's a bad idea.
03:33Don't you like that?
03:35Unit is supposed to be a security organization.
03:38Do you think I might attract attention?
03:40It's just possible.
03:42One moment.
03:44And then goes through a whole lot of costume changes.
03:52So it was just the beginning of Tom Baker's wayward and brilliant comedy that he brought to the part.
04:00The fourth Doctor wasn't afraid to use his sense of humor to get him out of trouble.
04:05They often use humor to diffuse situations or to confuse his enemies.
04:09I'd never enter into fisticuffs or whatever it was. I was always outwitting them.
04:15He uses humor. He uses accidentally pratting about to get out of trouble.
04:24One of my favorite moments being when he's flung into the room and city of death and says,
04:27I say, what a wonderful butler. He's so violent. Hello. I'd call the Doctor.
04:32The fourth Doctor left his home on Earth far behind him.
04:38This was a Time Lord who couldn't wait to get back to wandering in eternity.
04:44The science advisor to Unit version of the Doctor, he was very single-minded.
04:51He was very driven. He wanted to get off the planet.
04:54You can't really imagine him being a sort of long-term scientific advisor to Unit
04:59and having his own laboratory. It just doesn't suit the kind of freewheeling nature
05:04that the fourth Doctor seems to have.
05:07The Earth isn't my home, Sarah. I'm a Time Lord.
05:11Oh, I know you're a Time Lord.
05:13You don't understand the implications. I'm not a human being. I walk in eternity.
05:18What's that supposed to mean?
05:22It means I've lived for something like 750 years.
05:25Oh, I'd still be middle-aged! Yes!
05:27He quite purposely breaks the ties.
05:31Yes, he says, I've got time I've found something better to do
05:33than run round after the Brigadier.
05:34No time I've found something better to do than run round after the Brigadier.
05:37Oh, come on, if you're tired of being Unit's scientific advisor,
05:40you can always resign!
05:42He then left and took his adventures out into the universe.
05:45Now the Doctor was out again, you know, among the stars again,
05:48ranging through time and space.
05:50Doctor, about that dinner at the palace, Her Majesty...
05:58Yes.
06:00Well, I'll tell them you'll be a little late.
06:02Sarah Jane Smith was probably the greatest of all of the Doctor Who competitors.
06:08Louise came in then with a very sexy kind of jungle girl costume.
06:12She was from a tribe of savages, so she had a knife and she would kill people
06:16and she was violent.
06:18All things that the Doctor disagreed with, quite a change from Sarah Jane Smith
06:22because they'd been very much kind of best mates.
06:24Sarah Jane Smith was probably the greatest, certainly in a wonderful way,
06:34the longest lasting of all of the Doctor Who companions.
06:39The fourth Doctor's best friend was Sarah Jane Smith.
06:43Played by Elizabeth Sladen, she became the series' longest running companion.
06:47A thoroughly modern woman, she was a trained journalist
06:50with a natural love of adventure and an enormous sense of fun.
06:55Almost half of Tom Baker's time was spent with Sarah.
06:58He called her Sarah.
06:59She'd become Sarah Jane in later years, but she always called her Sarah.
07:02So when I was on the show and Elizabeth Sladen came back,
07:05we used to always tweak the script so that the Doctor...
07:08Everyone else called her Sarah Jane, but the Doctor called her Sarah.
07:11There was something about her that was just so accessible and so warm
07:17and they just felt right, they were the perfect couple.
07:23She played so beautifully with the idea that the Doctor is my best friend
07:27and I would do anything for my friend the Doctor
07:29and the Doctor would do anything for her.
07:31Well, big, big. Relative dimensions, you see, no constant.
07:35That's not an answer.
07:36How big are you at the moment?
07:38Five-four, Justin, that's still not an answer.
07:40Listen, listen. There are no measurements in infinity.
07:42You humans have got such limited little minds.
07:44I didn't know why I like you so much.
07:46Because you have such good taste.
07:48That's true.
07:49Elizabeth, from the word go, found most of what my ideas were funny.
07:56I adored her fabulous taste in comedy.
08:01So we became a double act.
08:03Don't panic, Sarah, don't panic.
08:05Ease round and try again.
08:07I'm jammed.
08:09I can't move. I can't move. I can't move. I can't move.
08:11I can't move.
08:12The friendship between the Doctor and Sarah is up to the test
08:16because he's a much more difficult Doctor.
08:18Stop whining, girl. You're useless.
08:20Oh, Doctor.
08:23Oh, Doctor. Is all you can say for yourself?
08:26The Doctor manages to make her angry enough by insulting her
08:30and makes her want to prove to him that she, you know,
08:34she isn't a helpless female. She can get out of the situation.
08:37Oh, wait.
08:39You've done marvellously, Sarah.
08:41I'm very proud of you. I really am very proud of you.
08:44What?
08:47Comed again. You're a brute.
08:50You're a brute? Yes.
08:51Don't be ungrateful. I was only encouraging you. Come.
08:54It shows how close their relationship has become,
08:56how well they know each other.
08:58I think it's a lovely moment between the two of them.
09:02After the thoroughly modern Sarah Jane,
09:05Leela came as a bit of a shock.
09:07A bright but savage warrior, she was a trained killer
09:10who ran around wearing little more than a loincloth and a snarl.
09:15Louise came in then with a very sexy kind of jungle girl costume,
09:19didn't she? You know, an awful lot of flesh was on view.
09:22I didn't know anything about the costume when I was offered the part.
09:25I knew it would be some kind of savage warrior something.
09:29So it was quite a surprise when I was presented with the leather leotard.
09:33This changed everything, you know,
09:34because Elizabeth was always dressed very modestly.
09:37And so, I remember it so well.
09:41So when we were diving through pipes
09:43and all sorts of undignified things were happening,
09:45you know, when you're in a panic running away from the Daleks
09:48or the Cybermen or whatever they were,
09:50I used to bundle Elizabeth up ahead of me, you know,
09:53and I'd scramble behind her.
09:55But now, with Louise, with very few clothes on,
10:00you know, it would have been very immodest
10:02if I'd actually been climbing in there behind her.
10:08I did ask for the little flap to be added on the back.
10:11She was from a tribe of savages, so she had a knife
10:14and she would kill people and she was violent
10:17and all things that the Doctor disagreed with.
10:19It was a great character and beautifully played, actually,
10:22but quite a change from Sarah Jane Smith,
10:25because they'd been very much best mates travelling through time and space
10:28and suddenly it was a kind of pupil teacher thing, really.
10:31Doctor? Can I stop now?
10:35If you want to.
10:37It will not affect this.
10:39Affect this? Oh, it's a yo-yo. It's a game.
10:42I thought you were enjoying it.
10:44Enjoying it?
10:45You said I had to keep it going up and down.
10:47I thought it was part of the magic.
10:49Magic, Leela. Magic.
10:51I know, I know. There's no such thing as magic.
10:53Exactly. To the rational mind, nothing is inexplicable, only unexplained.
10:58I think Leela's really rather wonderful.
11:01If you take Talons of Weng Chiang, for example,
11:04that whole Eliza-Doolittle-Higgins relationship,
11:07I think it worked really well.
11:10They really exploit her as an untutored warrior.
11:14In the Talons of Weng Chiang,
11:15when Lightfoot's inviting her to dinner
11:18and she just starts picking up hunks of meat
11:22and eating them as she would.
11:24Ham? Roast beef? Chicken? Tongue?
11:27Those look like quail, unless I'm much mistaken.
11:29Eat?
11:31Yes, well, perhaps we shouldn't wait for your friend, the doctor.
11:34Help yourself, my dear.
11:36Plates on the end of the table.
11:37Lightfoot, concerned not to embarrass his guest,
11:40is forced to do the same.
11:42It's a good knife.
11:44Aren't you going to eat?
11:47Yes, yes.
11:49Just going to eat?
11:56A little bit of comedy of manners.
12:03And a brilliant use of that character.
12:06The doctors had many companions,
12:08but K-9 was his first actual pet.
12:11He was a robot dog with a laser in his nose
12:14and an aerial in his tail.
12:16A sophisticated supercomputer,
12:18he considered himself far brighter than the doctor,
12:20was more often in the right
12:22and was never afraid to correct his master.
12:24Queen, to 9-6.
12:28There?
12:29Even simple one-dimensional chess exposes the limitations of the machine mind.
12:43I think Leela and K-9 were really good mates,
12:48because the doctor's character is obtuse and erudite
12:54and knows an enormous amount of stuff that certainly Leela doesn't
12:59and sometimes K-9 didn't,
13:01so we could be like the naughty children.
13:03She, I think, immediately took to K-9,
13:07and K-9 immediately took to her.
13:09Check, master.
13:11What?
13:12Machine mind computes mate in six moves.
13:16Rubbish!
13:18The dog didn't function very well,
13:20or we didn't have it at the rehearsal room,
13:22you know, because it was still slightly evolving.
13:24I mean, you couldn't run over a cigarette end,
13:26it would stop it or fall over.
13:28The amazing thing was that John Leeson,
13:30who is a lovely imaginative actor,
13:33he didn't stand at the sidelines,
13:36he used to get in there.
13:38The tradition stuck,
13:40and so at every rehearsal thereafter,
13:42I was running around being K-9,
13:44but it also gave me a dynamic to work with Tom.
13:48We were face to face.
13:50John was there, playing this part,
13:53you know, calling me master and looking up at me
13:55and doing all sorts of funny things to make us laugh.
13:58We could spark off each other,
14:00and so that was a solid basis
14:02from which K-9 could develop.
14:05By the time we transferred to the studio
14:07and got the tin dog,
14:09we had formed a relationship with this creature,
14:12and it was actually a great dynamic,
14:14because John got on extremely well with both Tom and I,
14:17and it became much more of a family.
14:19I think that's the secret of K-9's success.
14:22It's a very emotional thing to be in that Doctor Who thing,
14:25because you never get away from it, you know.
14:26There was something about the meeting of that actor
14:29and that part that produced this sort of seemingly effortless performance
14:34of kind of lunacy.
14:36There's just a sort of freewheeling anarchy to what he does.
14:40Zygons look like big red babies with suckers,
14:45and frankly, do I need to see them all?
14:48Lurking underneath Loch Ness,
14:50the Zygons were shape-shifting aliens
14:52who had spent centuries planning a takeover.
14:54While the rest of the United Kingdom was arguing over North Sea oil,
14:58the Zygons were ripping up oil rigs
15:00and sending the Loch Ness Monster up the Thames to devour Parliament.
15:06The Zygons, when we first meet them,
15:09are living under Loch Ness,
15:13and they have the Loch Ness Monster as their pet.
15:17They have one crashed spaceship which is underneath Loch Ness,
15:21and they're trying to re-establish themselves and take over the world.
15:25Zygons are terribly funny,
15:27and their computers look like pizzas, I remember.
15:30They're one of the greatest designs of Doctor Who's history.
15:33They are really great voices,
15:35which is very important for a Doctor Who monster.
15:37Nasty, whispery voices.
15:39Open this door!
15:41The idea of whispering villains was, to me,
15:45you know, that just absolutely stacked up for me.
15:48Social call?
15:57You admire our technology, human.
16:03Well, I'm not human and I've seen better.
16:05They are shapeshifters and they can pretend to be anyone.
16:09Very good, very good.
16:22Almost impressive.
16:23It was the mid-70s, but they're one of those designs
16:27that you would happily see in a monster movie today.
16:30Doctor Who's maddest scientist was Davros.
16:34With all life dying on the planet of Skaro,
16:36he came up with a uniquely horrible way for the population to survive.
16:40Davros created the Daleks.
16:43Half man, half Dalek, this alien had his one eye fixed on world domination.
16:49There was a fellow called Michael Wisher who played Davros,
16:53who was a kind of half Dalek, half man.
16:56You immediately look at him and you go,
16:58this is the creator of the Daleks,
16:59because he's basically sitting in a Dalek machine up to his waist.
17:04He's a fantastic character because he's brilliant and insane.
17:08There's a wonderful scene between him and Tom Baker
17:10where they rather philosophically discuss good and evil.
17:14Davros, if you had created a virus in your laboratory,
17:18something contagious and infectious that killed on contact,
17:22a virus that would destroy all other forms of life,
17:25would you allow its use?
17:27It is an interesting conjecture.
17:29Would you do it?
17:30The only living thing.
17:32A microscopic organism, reigning supreme.
17:37A fascinating idea.
17:40But would you do it?
17:41It's really the doctor trying to find out just how nuts he is.
17:44And you discover in that moment that Davros actually says,
17:47you know, quite famously for Doctor Who fans,
17:49yes, I would do it.
17:51Yes.
17:53To hold in my hand a capsule that contains such power.
17:59To know that life and death on such a scale was my choice.
18:05To know that the tiny pressure on my thumb,
18:09enough to break the glass, would end everything.
18:13Yes.
18:15I would do it.
18:18That power would set me up above the gods.
18:22And through the Daleks I shall have that power.
18:26He's that mad that in order to make himself powerful,
18:29he would wipe out, what, everyone?
18:32The Fourth Doctors remembered for his sense of humour,
18:35but when the situation demanded it,
18:37he could take things very seriously indeed.
18:40When offered the chance to destroy the Daleks forever,
18:43he gave it careful consideration.
18:45One of the most defining moments for The Fourth Doctors
18:48where he holds the two strands together,
18:50just touch these two strands together and that's it,
18:52the Daleks are finished.
18:54I remember a wonderful moment when I had a chance to blow them all up
18:57for two reasons, of course, I wasn't allowed to do that.
18:59One is that the writer would have been out of work
19:02and also it was a good formula.
19:04Well, what are you waiting for?
19:07Just touch these two strands together and the Daleks are finished.
19:13Have I that right?
19:15There was always a kind of rather pious side to Doctor Who,
19:18you know, of being on, on the, on, you know,
19:21paralyzing fairness of saying, have I the right?
19:24To destroy the Daleks, you can't doubt it.
19:26Well, I do.
19:28You see, some things could be better with the Daleks.
19:31Many future worlds will become allies just because of their fear of the Daleks.
19:35It brings up the wider moral question of,
19:39does the Doctor have that right?
19:41Even though he can travel back in time and stop evil things,
19:44doesn't that make him as bad as the evil things in the first place?
19:47If it was a disease or some sort of bacteria you were destroying,
19:49you wouldn't hesitate.
19:51But if I kill, wipe out a whole intelligent life form,
19:55then I'd become like them.
19:57I'd be no better than the Daleks.
19:59Think of all the suffering there'll be if you don't do it.
20:02She would say, listen Doctor, could you just blow them up please?
20:06Doctor!
20:08Doctor, I've been looking everywhere for you.
20:11Davros has agreed to our terms.
20:13Tom Baker played the Doctor for longer than anyone else.
20:16He, he, he, he cast a long shadow.
20:20And he, he captured the hearts and minds of a generation,
20:25there's no doubt about it.
20:27It's a very emotional thing to be in that Doctor Who thing
20:30because you never get away from it, you know.
20:32It's a wonderful thing because we are all fans of someone.
20:36There was something about the meeting of that actor and that part
20:41that produced this sort of seemingly effortless performance
20:45of kind of lunacy.
20:47There's just a sort of freewheeling anarchy to what he does
20:51that, that I think as a, particularly children, just loved.
20:55The eyes of the children playing Doctor Who, I was a hero.
21:04The Doctor needs us, you more than anyone.
21:07Make the cabbage, now!
21:08The question is, have there been any similar murders?
21:12The Doctor?
21:13What's he doing here?
21:14There is trouble.
21:15Where else would he be?
21:21You've redecorated.
21:22I don't like it.
21:24The season premieres, Doctor Who.
21:27Saturday at 8.
Be the first to comment