How Every Doctor Who Got Cast

The story of how Tom Baker became the Fourth Doctor is the stuff of legend.

In the early 1970s, Baker's career appeared to be in the ascendant after he was cast in movies like Nicholas and Alexandra, and The Canterbury Tales. Unfortunately, the roles dried up by 1974, and Baker found work on a building site.

Meanwhile, Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks were casting the actor who would replace Jon Pertwee as the Doctor. They had considered actors like Bernard Cribbins (can you imagine!), Graham Crowden, and Fulton Mackay – all of whom, incidentally, have appeared in Doctor Who in other roles.

That was until BBC Head of Serials Bill Slater received a letter from Tom Baker, whom he'd previously worked with. Slater passed the details on to Letts and Dicks, suggesting that they go see Tom's latest movie, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad.

Letts and Dicks were both captivated by Baker's performance as the sorcerer Koura, and offered the out-of-work actor the role of a lifetime.

Baker recalls his last day on the building site in his autobiography in suitably quirky fashion:

"That lunchtime I shook hands and swore eternal friendship with everyone, and full of tears and good resolution, I tottered off. I never saw them again. I was Doctor Who now. I was an alien."

And the rest is history.