Why Every Lead Actor Left Doctor Who

Tom Baker is the longest-serving Doctor to date, but in hindsight, the man himself thinks that he might have stayed a bit too long.

The actor has cited the early part of his tenure (under producer Philip Hinchcliffe) as his favourite period of the show, but confessed that he grew more and more frustrated when John Nathan-Turner took the reigns in 1980.

Nathan-Turner added a lot more characters to each story, and Baker felt that the short 25-minute episode format meant that most of these characters ended up being useless. "John Nathan-Turner and I did not see eye-to-eye about very much", he said in 2014. "I think I should've gone when John was taking over to liberate him to recast. Maybe I did one series too many."

In a separate interview, Baker stated that Nathan-Turner "diminished" him in the role, and that he was annoyed by the addition of question marks to the Doctor's collar.

The tension ultimately proved too much, and by the time 1981 rolled around, Baker had decided that his time as the Doctor was over.