Doctor Who: 10 Behind The Scenes Bust-Ups BBC Doesn't Want You To Know

6. Tom Baker Vs. John Nathan-Turner

Tom Baker Fourth Doctor Angry
BBC

Tom Baker starred in Doctor Who for an insanely long time, so it's not really surprising that he didn't get along with everybody he worked with.

The legendary actor played the lead role from 1974 until 1981, and according to the man himself, it was a feud with producer John Nathan-Turner that made him realise his Doctor Who days were over.

Baker has stated that there was nothing about Nathan-Turner's showrunning style that he liked, adding that he found him "unbearable", and that there was "a lot of tension" between them both. The actor also singled out the question marks on the Doctor's collar - a Nathan-Turner idea - as being a "vulgar" and "cheap" decision.

Nathan-Turner is a controversial figure within the Doctor Who fandom, and clearly, he was also a controversial figure behind-the-scenes too. It truly is a shame that Baker felt pressured into leaving a show that he absolutely adored for many years.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!