1. Tom Baker Is The Doctor
And when I became Doctor Who, of course, I didnt play Doctor Who. I was Doctor Who. There was no acting involved at all. The script, the silly scripts, the magical scripts, and poor old Tom Baker such as he was, absolutely coalesced. And all I had to do was say it, and everyone liked it.
The Fourth Doctor was one job among many and Tom has rarely been short of work as an actor since leaving the show. Without doubt, though, he sees Doctor Who as his definitive role. For lack of any meaningful external reference point to play a completely alien character, Tom reasoned: "I felt the best way to suggest I was an alien - and had dark thoughts, wonderful thoughts - was to be Tom Baker." A quick perusal of his website will show just how wedded to the character of the Doctor Tom has become.
Sometimes when Im faced with the fans they ask me which other Doctor I admired. Which is you know, fans love asking questions like that because theres something deliciously childlike about it. And so I always affected to be absolutely Id say other Doctor? Other Doctor!?
A similar reaction is given to Jon Culshaw when he makes a prank phone call to Tom, posing as the Fourth Doctor (Dead Ringers, BBC Radio). It may have been scripted but it is entirely in keeping with how Baker would react: "Tom, I am the Doctor." "That's odd. There must be some kind of mistake. I am the Doctor. Are you sure you're not Davros?
" This mock sense of being the character in reality is not unique to Tom, but without a doubt it runs deeper within him than it does for any of the other incumbents. For Tom Baker, the Fourth Doctor was a hero, a figure to be inspired by, to emulate. Inevitably his own personal values, shaped as they were by his upbringing and experiences in war and peace, gave him firm beliefs about the kind of hero he would play. Today, the character of the Doctor is a little at odds with Toms own vision and as a hero he is not so easily defined. But when Tom Baker became the Doctor: Here we have a character who strangely enough you know doesnt fall in love, is not greedy or inquisitive in any sense, he has no property he is obviously anti-fashion from the way he dresses and he is not violent at all and yet he is amusing and witty and nice to be with, and so we look towards him because he solves things, and never, ever disappoints us."