Tom is incredibly tall and incredibly friendly. He is not far off from his Doctor Who character at all. The warmth of his smile will knock you clear off your feet.
Tom wasn’t the Fourth Doctor, the Fourth Doctor was Tom. I think it probably made him feel even better knowing that because he was essentially just acting as himself, the fans loved him for him. That must be so fulfilling, it’s no wonder he stayed on so long.
NOTES/CONTEXT: His expressed reluctance to take up the role again notwithstanding, Tom did return to playing the Fourth Doctor, but for Big Finish Audio Productions, in 2011. He did his own stunt once, during the shooting of "Sontaran Experiment" (the first location shoot of his tenure in 1974) and broke his collarbone. It happened when Styre knocked him to the ground after The Doctor discovered Sarah being tortured. Eagle-eyed viewers may have spotted him using his scarf as a makeshift sling in the second episode.The script he mentions working on with Ian Marter was "Doctor Who Meets Scratchman", which never saw publication until it was released as a novel in 2019, with help from James Goss. (I have a copy) lovely shot of them together at the end. William Hartnell had passed in 1975, and Peter Davison was the incumbent in 1983, so I think that's possibly the record, four actors who played The Doctor together at one time. Although, now that I think of it, in "The Five-ish Doctors Reboot" (2013) there was one scene where Paul McGann appeared alongside Peter Davison, Colin Baker, and Sylvester McCoy. Still four Doctors, though.
Tom looked years younger here than he did in Logopolis which was 3 years before this show. Working with JNT and being sick on his last reason really made him look tired and old. But here he looked great.
Jon Pertwee loathed Tom Baker. Years later Tom, Jon and Peter Davison did a car commercial, Peter revealed in his autobiography that he had to stand in between them because of the feud
Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker absolutely loathed each other. I think it was mostly due to their different personalities/acting styles, but yeah… They couldn’t stand to even be in the same room together.
Wow, I never thought I'd ever see moving footage of Tom and Jon in the same room, there are a few pictures of them together but only at WHO conventions, Tom even said he'd see Jon at voice overs, I don't know why they would dislike each other as they never met before WHO so MY question would be when would they have had the time to build up heat with each other, I think Tom was over protective of his role and when he always no showed events the other Doctors probably took it personally and thought Tom was up himself. He signed by book 🙂
Ah dammit, what a missed opportunity, I thought we'd hear them (including Tom) answering questions as they were all sitting down, where's the footage?,...that's the footage we all want to see with Tom sitting with them.
Tom was on a schedule, and he didn't fancy doing the convention because he had just left the role in 1981, but they talked him into it, and by his own admission he had a good time. He didn't wish to get back into the Doctor Who world so quickly, he wanted to move on. That's why he didn't turn up in "The Five Doctors" except in archive footage. Because of his last-minute schedule wrangling, his time at the convention didn't overlap as much with that of Patrick, Jon, and Peter, so he missed out on most of those panels. (Source: Doctor Who Magazine, I have a back issue from that time that also has a great description of Patrick and Jon's water follies) Of course, I freely admit that my own memories of 1983 are likely imperfect.
Thank you for posting this!! I wouldn't be surprised if i was fortunite enough to be invited to Tom Bakers house, that after a cup of tea and an offer of some jelly babies, He took me to the garage, where he had parked the tardis and wondered if i fancied a quick trip somewhere. Explaining, that he had got fed-up with the bbc documentary team following him around and asked them to stop in 1981. To any child of the 70's there is something wonderful and magical about 5.45 on a saturday and that whole era......
Was Tom Baker at the '93 Panopticon? Here is a youtube video link I found online: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-r8k6Uucpk50.htmlsi=zANWoi0M3pc7f7jZ or perhaps you would be interested in this one from the '80s: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HW6YawZzih4.htmlsi=Ol7o1fo3Coh6LStU
