Doctor Who: 10 Wise Things We Learnt From Tom Baker's Doctor

6. When All Else Fails, Hit It

Like most other incarnations, the Fourth Doctor was a pacifist and abhorred weapons. Sometimes, he'd bent his own rules, getting shot of the Sontarans invading Gallifrey with a humungous gun but this was a Doctor who would rather talk his way out of trouble. That didn't stop him having a savage companion who could threaten people with knives, or the aforementioned robot dog that had a handy blaster. That didn't mean that the Fourth Doctor wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty and, if needed, the Time Lord could swing a mean right cross. The Fourth Doctor wasn't one for Venusian Aikido or elaborate fighting moves but he knew sometimes you have to fight to be a Time Lord. The Fourth Doctor was at his most pugilistic when facing Harrison Chase's flunkies in The Seeds of Doom, leaping through skylights and biffing heavies left, right and centre. Perhaps he'd been watching The Sweeney on the UNIT telly that week. Other memorable scraps include one with Sontaran Styre on Earth (even though Baker had broken his collarbone), a rematch with the Master on Gallifrey, and a fight with his own robot double in The Android Invasion. He was also present when Duggan threw 'the most important punch in human history' to defeat Scaroth on Prehistoric Earth. When all else fails, the Fourth Doctor teaches us, hit it.