The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon: A Tom Baker Era Overview

 Well, it’s happened. I’ve reached the end of the Tom Baker era, and it all felt strangely muted and a little underwhelming. Unlike the drama and excitement of his two predecessors, it just kind of happened. Perhaps it’s because I’ve often felt that Baker should have left sooner (especially in the middle of the Graham Williams era), or perhaps it’s because Tom seemed so tired and bored throughout his final season; I suspect it’s a mixture of both. However, I shouldn’t focus on the negatives. This is an overview of his entire era and, whilst he isn’t my favourite Doctor (of the four to have portrayed the character so far I think I place him fourth), there were nonetheless some good times and some absolutely fantastic stories.

Tom’s seven seasons on the show were overseen by three different producers – Philip Hinchcliffe, Graham Williams and John Nathan-Turner. Each brought their own different flavour to the show, ably helped by Script Editors Robert Holmes, Anthony Read, Douglas Adams and Christopher H. Bidmead.

Seasons 12-14 are widely regarded as the best by fandom, and on the whole they’re good, but only really impress at either end. Following an absolutely awful start with the dreadful ‘Robot’ (still my least favourite story in the show’s history), things improved drastically with a great run of adventures featuring Sarah Jane and Harry as the companions. Run ins with Sontarans, Daleks and Cybermen were bolstered by the insidious Wirrn and the shape-changing Zygons. Even though I may have found the Dalek story hard going, over-long and a bit miserable, and the Cyberman serial a little nonsensical and silly, these five stories really got the 4^th Doctor’s era off to an incredibly successful start. Unlike his predecessor, Tom’s Doctor felt perfectly at home galivanting amongst the stars and here we see some of Baker’s best performances. At his side are Sarah Jane Smith, who continues to devolve into the bolshie damsel-in-distress after a promising start at the beginning of Season 11 (like the 3^rd Doctor, I think she works far better in Earth-based stories, and only writer Robert Banks Stewart really seemed to nail her character in the Baker era), and light relief hero-type Dr Harry Sullivan. Harry really is the unsung hero of these stories. He gives Baker’s Doctor someone to talk down to and playfully insult whilst also softening the more grating aspects of Sarah Jane’s character. Sarah’s habit of jumping to conclusions, insulting people, complaining and getting into trouble are tempered by Harry’s very old-fashioned ways. Constantly calling her ‘Old thing’ and coming out with statements like his surprise at seeing ‘a member of the fair sex at the top of the totem pole’ serve to unintentionally provoke Sarah’s ire, but since they come from such a nice and well-meaning character Sarah herself becomes more amiable. Much like Captain Hastings in ‘Agatha Christie’s Poirot’, Harry regularly comes out with observations and statements which are sexist or just plain dumb and from any other character would be regarded as embarrassing and uncomfortable to watch, but here just underline a sort of naivety which says a lot about the character’s background, upbringing and social standing. Harry is a military man raised in the post-war period where people had roles in life defined by gender (despite the advances in women’s rights brought about by the conflict) and men were expected to be honourable, take charge, and have a stiff upper lip. He’s there to fulfil the role that Ian, Steven and Ben previously occupied, but since the Doctor is able to be an active hero himself, Harry’s purpose in the series had to change. This worked very much in the character’s favour. He subsequently becomes a bit of a clumsy individual and the butt of jokes (but in a well meaning way), notably in ‘The Ark In Space’ and ‘Revenge Of The Cybermen’, but he also retains that heroic streak. He becomes primary companion throughout the early episodes of ‘The Ark In Space’ and ‘Genesis Of The Daleks’, and saves the day in ‘The Sontaran Experiment’. In fact, this two parter shows Harry at his best, trying to save the victim of Styre’s dehydration experiment and sabotaging the Sontaran’s ship while Styre fights the Doctor. Harry’s medical background is regularly a part of the script which also gives him purpose and focus. It also helps that Tom, Lis and Ian all got on so well behind the scenes. When speaking of their times on the show, it’s almost always the period between ‘Robot’ and ‘Terror Of The Zygons’ that both Tom and Lis speak of so affectionately, and it translates so well onto screen.

It’s a massive shame that the production team made the decision to write Harry out of the show after one series. The dynamic between Baker and Sladen alone is very different and clearly missing something. Whilst Season 13 is widely regarded as the very best by the majority of fans, for me it sees a downturn in both the writing and atmosphere of the programme. The majority of stories start off incredibly well before falling apart after the halfway point. ‘Planet Of Evil’ is brilliant throughout Episodes One and Two, featuring a wonderfully atmospheric mystery/horror played out in a stunning alien jungle, but loses its eeriness and pace in the second half when everything moves onto the Morestran ship and the plot goes from referencing ‘Forbidden Planet’ to ‘Jekyll and Hyde’; ‘Pyramids Of Mars’ is great until the final episode which just looks cheap, drags terribly, and recycles part of ‘Death To The Daleks’ (even pointing the fact out in Sarah’s dialogue); ‘The Android Invasion’ starts off well and has a great idea behind it but falls foul of Terry-Nation-By-Numbers syndrome which just doesn’t pay off the set up. It also writes Harry and Benton out of the series in the most unsatisfactory way. Nevertheless, ‘The Brain Of Morbius’ is worthy of its high reputation and both the opening and closing Robert Banks Stewart serials are highlights of the era. And despite the other stories of Season 13 falling short, they all at least have very memorable villains and monsters which probably explains the season’s reputation more than anything else.

Season 14 is, for me, the first highlight of the Baker era. Whilst his acting is arguably better in his first series (before he started to relax into the role and began to be himself rather than the character), the stories here are more rewarding and you get a feeling of the production team being at the top of their game. Even dreary season opener ‘The Masque Of Mandragora’ is raised by some excellent location filming in Portmeirion. Sarah Jane’s long-awaited departure comes in the strikingly different-looking serial ‘The Hand Of Fear’ where Lis Sladen gives an amazing performance when possessed by Eldrad – her child-like nastiness (“Eldrad must live!”) is a world away from her usual demeanour. Judith Paris is also a highlight of the series, given a truly beautiful costume and a brilliantly interesting character. It’s just a shame they drop the ball in the final episode with an OTT performance from Stephen Thorne and the unconvincing scarf incident. The rest of the season is the Hinchcliffe era at its peak, though, with a string of incredible stories which both look amazing and grab the attention with intelligent scripts, drama and jeopardy. We return to Gallifrey for a confrontation with a decaying Master, meet brilliant new companion Leela in two wonderfully realised scripts from Chris Boucher and bring the era to a close with a sumptuous adventure in Victorian London. Granted, not casting a Chinese actor as Li H’sen Chang was a bad move, but John Bennet plays the part sympathetically and his death scene in the opium den is quite touching. On the whole, I’d have to agree that the series under Philip Hinchcliffe was a high point of the show, although I’d argue it got better towards the end.

Yet it isn’t without its faults, and one of those would be remedied by Hinchcliffe’s successor. I’ve always found it annoying that so much of the Hinchcliffe era is devoid of female characters. In three seasons, 6 of the stories feature the companion as the only woman with a speaking part, and that isn’t including ‘The Deadly Assassin’ which features no female characters at all. Of those that remain, 5 feature only one other woman (if you include Heather Emmanuel as Tessa in the last episode of ‘The Android Invasion’ – I’m also not including ‘Robot’ which was produced by Barry Letts), and only ‘The Brain Of Morbius’ and ‘The Robots Of Death’ feature more than two women with large speaking parts (both featuring three characters each). Even ‘Talons…’, featuring a total of four female speaking roles, relegates three of them to bit parts – the ghoul, the prostitute and the cleaner! Even ‘The Hand Of Fear’ does better overall, giving us Eldrad and Miss Jackson! The stories produced by Hinchcliffe are far from the only culprits of this shocking oversight, but given that both Sarah and Leela are meant to be strong, female protagonists, it does feel a little disappointing that this aspect of the show seemingly went unnoticed.

Graham Williams tenure as Producer is a mixed bag. It starts off incredibly well – 1977 being the best year for stories on the whole. Only ‘The Invisible Enemy’ lets the side down with its silly monster, poor effects, and daft diversion into the Doctor’s mind using miniature clones of himself and Leela. Elsewhere, we have the glorious horror of ‘…Fang Rock’ and ‘Image Of The Fendahl’, and the wonderful satire of ‘The Sun Makers’. All these were Script Edited by Robert Holmes, the latter also written by him, and continue to give us great adventures with witty dialogue, strong drama and interesting characters. Leela is a fresh and fascinating addition to the show, more proactive than Sarah, less annoying or inclined to whine, and only screams when being gnawed on by giant rats. She’s quite definitely the most violent of companions, killing members of her tribe in her debut story and a Tong assassin in ‘Talons…’. Once her murderous streak has been tempered on request of the Doctor, she’s still pretty hands-on, booting Uvanov in the crotch and holding a knife to more than one character’s throat during her travels. Louise Jameson is brilliant as the alien savage, regularly showing us that ‘savage’ is far from what she is. ‘Horror Of Fang Rock’ is a brilliant story for her as she unselfconsciously strips off her wet clothes in front of mortified innocent Vince (after calling him ‘stupid’ when he tells her he sometimes speaks to the seals out on the rocks), whacks the irritating Adelaide across the face to stop her wailing, and faces off against the Rutan scout. The juxtaposition of her character against the posh, racist, bigoted secretary of Lord Palmerdale is perfect, showing us exactly how and why Leela is a better person and such a defining companion. Likewise, she shines in ‘The Sun Makers’, holding her own against Mandrel and Veet and taking matters into her own hands when the Doctor is captured. Her relationship with the Doctor is also an improvement on her predecessor. I think the decision to have an ‘Eliza Doolittle’ relationship between them with the Doctor acting as a tutor to her on their adventures was a brilliant choice. It gives them a defined relationship which I feel was missing from many of the stories with Sarah Jane. Without a defined character (other than feminist and Journalist), Sarah had very little scope for development and thus the writers fell back on the tired ‘damsel in distress’ trope. Tom and Lis may have been best friends off screen, but very little translated to their televised adventures, and Sarah devolved over time. Leela maintains a strong personality and a clear relationship with the Doctor throughout her time on the show, which only really begins to falter toward the end.

By the time Anthony Read took over as Script Editor, things had started to go awry. He’d worked alongside Holmes on ‘The Sun Makers’, but following story ‘Underworld’ just isn’t particularly strong and is hampered by much of the story being filmed with CSO (as they called it back then). Add to this Tom’s changing attitude in the lead role, and everything starts to become a bit of a mess. By Season 15, Tom had become a victim of his own success. He was the lead in one of the BBC’s most popular serials and it’s quite tangible that his approach to the part has changed. In his early seasons he’s quite clearly acting a part (and very well, too), but with changes in the cast and production team his attitude in each serial becomes decidedly erratic. His obvious bad mood throughout ‘Horror Of Fang Rock’ actually helps up the tension of an already claustrophobic story, but with the instruction from above that the show needed to become less violent and more comedic, he very obviously starts relaxing into the role and taking the opportunity to mess about. By the time Season 16 starts, it often feels like he’s phoning it in. Previously, his performance throughout ‘Underworld’ can be explained by the difficulty of the filming process, but with Holmes’ departure he was clearly pushing the boundaries to see what he could get away with. In ‘The Invasion Of Time’, also fraught with problems, his performance is also off-kilter, so much of Season 16 sees Tom breeze in, deliver his lines, flash his teeth and saunter off again. Occasionally, the script lives up to the actor’s expectation, but this is few and far between; he clearly relishes working alongside Beatrix Lehmann and has flashes of his old brilliance in scenes from ‘The Pirate Planet’ and ‘The Androids Of Tara’, but on the whole he brings a lacklustre and counter-productive air to the role. His onscreen relationship with new companion Romana doesn’t really go anywhere, either. An academic with no real life experience outside the stuffy confines of Gallifrey, Romanadvoratnelundar is the polar opposite of Leela and thus perfect for a similar relationship where the Doctor teaches her what a dangerous and often unfair place the universe really is. You occasionally see this, and it’s great to see Romana as academically superior to the Doctor, easily landing the TARDIS in ‘The Pirate Planet’ and tracking down the fourth segment of the Key To Time almost immediately, and Mary Tamm’s performance is faultless, but again, as the series progresses, she gets less and less to do, eventually spending most of ‘The Armageddon Factor’ wandering through corridors and being chained up. By this point in the series, I was finding the show a bit of a chore to watch and wished Tom would leave. I regularly got the impression he wasn’t really interested in the scripts, which weren’t exactly sparkling anyway – I found it astounding that Robert Holmes was responsible for the dull, plodding ‘The Ribos Operation’ – and was larking about too much. I was seriously considering giving up on my marathon!

Fortunately, Season 17 saw more changes behind the scenes with the arrival of two individuals who would have a profoundly positive effect on Tom Baker and his performance. New Script Editor, Douglas Adams, had provided a quirky script the previous season which had clearly been given to a director who didn’t understand his sense of humour. His sophisticated, high-brow style is apparent through the entirety of Season 17 and Tom clearly loves it. And it’s very clear that Adams’ script editing isn’t the only thing he loves – Lalla Ward’s arrival injects new life into the old dog and with that the show suddenly becomes fun again. I’ll be honest – I don’t think the series had been as much fun to watch since Season 10. The Daleks were back, all battered-looking on a desolate Skaro and facing off against gloriously bright disco androids. The Doctor and Romana were running around Paris – actual Paris! – in a plot about the Mona Lisa. They encountered phallic aliens and greedy Capitalists in one of the show’s most stunning jungle sets, fought drug traffickers and Muppets, and Romana even got to steal the show while Tom fannied about with some old bull. It was as if the Doctor suddenly had his mojo back! The series was once more aimed at all the family. Dialogue sparked with witty asides for the adults and older teenagers while it still had the thrills of monsters and aliens for the younger viewers. The Doctor and Romana were suddenly having fun running around the universe, acting like a couple of undergraduates sticking their noses where they shouldn’t and getting away with it.

I think rewriting Romana’s character as more like the Doctor was the saving stroke brought to the series with Season 17. Mary Tamm made the character interesting and believable as a Time Lord – over-educated and inexperienced – but such a character had limited potential. For her to regenerate into someone more inquisitive and outgoing, rather than an academic put in a position she’s not entirely comfortable with, was exactly the right dynamic needed. After all, isn’t the show about the Doctor and his companion(s) travelling the universe and having fun adventures?

Speaking of the Doctor having ‘companions’ (plural), I haven’t yet mentioned K9. For a character introduced at the last minute, I don’t think he did badly, especially since he became the Doctor’s longest-running companion! Granted, there were two different versions of him from Seasons 15-18 and, yes, he wasn’t in every story, but he’s nevertheless one of the most well known of the Doctor’s friends. Most of the time he seemed quite underused. K9 Mark 1 was fairly well handled, stories such as ‘The Sun Makers’ and ‘Underworld’ gave him plenty to do but his replacement was slightly less fortunate, being almost entirely absent from ‘The Power Of Kroll’, ‘Destiny Of The Daleks’, ‘City Of Death’, and ‘The Leisure Hive’, and spending several other stories either sidelined or incapacitated. He did, however, give Tom someone to talk to when Romana was elsewhere – perhaps he would have been okay with a talking cabbage after all!

The next regime change was pretty much the death-knell for Tom Baker as Doctor Who. The arrival of John Nathan-Turner and Christopher Hamilton Bidmead as Producer and Script Editor respectively clearly didn’t go down well with the show’s lead. Buried under a mass of burgundy, he doesn’t seem remotely happy from the opening scenes of ‘The Leisure Hive’ onwards, and by the time he’s said good-bye to Romana at the Gate, it feels very much like Tom can’t wait to get away. Season 18 has a very odd atmosphere. It was Bidmead’s intention to get rid of the humour and replace it with hard science, thus making the show more modern and dramatic (if ‘hard science’ is your thing, I guess). The thing is, by stripping away the humour you take away the fun. And as far as injecting the show with ‘hard science’, there’s very little on show, and when there is it really may as well just be technobabble. Tom and Lalla are still great together, we have some quality scripts and great ideas, and the show looks stunning with its shiny new opening titles, electronica-inspired remake of the theme and incidental music that screams of the Eighties, but Tom looks and feels so out of place. It’s well known that he didn’t get on with JNT, and that he was very ill during production of ‘Meglos’, and that both these factors resulted in his decision to leave. It’s rather sad that this is the way his time as the Time Lord ended, though, as I think I would much rather have had him leave at the end of the joyous Season 17. Indeed, Douglas Adams would no doubt have written him a truly brilliant swan song.

Instead, however, we got ‘Logopolis’. As I state in my main Blog about the serial, it has a central conceit which sounds great on paper – the Doctor saves the universe from destruction by his long-time arch enemy, the Master. On screen, however, it’s a rather tawdry affair, largely due to the incredibly bland writing of Chris Bidmead. Having seen the Master return and take possession of the body of Tremas of Traken, we spend the first two episodes watching absolutely bugger all happen. Most of it happens in the TARDIS, a new companion is introduced but does very little but run through corridors, and you just get the feeling that we’re treading water until the final episode. The only thing remotely good is the relationship between the Doctor and Adric. Having been introduced in ‘Full Circle’ as one of the less interesting juvenile cast members, he was barely involved in the next two serials. Once Romana and K9 have left, though, Tom and Matthew shine in their scenes together. Their relationship recalls Jo or Leela with the Doctor recognising his companion is smart and taking time to explain things (mainly the plot). These scenes are also some of the few where Tom actually looks like he’s enjoying himself (whether he actually was or not behind the scenes). It’s all too short lived, though. Ultimately, in the final episode of ‘Logopolis’ we watch an incredibly weary-looking Doctor skulk about various sets and locations, chatting about saving the universe, before climbing a radio telescope and falling to his death pulling the plug on the Master’s plan. Even that sentence sounds more exciting than what we actually see. Tom Baker’s tenure ends lying on his back on some Astroturf surrounded by Adric and two relative strangers. To put it bluntly, it really isn’t the heroic end this Doctor deserved despite the whole of creation being saved.

It’s inevitable that in a little over 6 years and throughout 7 seasons, Tom Baker’s time on the show would be varied in both style and quality. His performance as the titular Time Lord was equally varied with the gravitas he brought to his earlier stories being replaced by a frivolity midway which would develop into jollity and then a resigned depression. His mix of companions were as varied and interesting as his performance and all worked on one level or another. Likewise, he had a veritable plethora of adversaries and foes, and I think the era benefitted from steering clear of returning enemies. We see the Daleks (and Davros) twice, likewise the Sontarans, the Cybermen only once, and the Master’s two returns are in forms very different from the original. Every other story sees the Doctor encountering something new which means that the show feels fresh, and when old enemies do return it feels exciting. The variety clearly worked in the show’s favour (as it always has done) and each season no doubt has its champions in fandom. While many revere the horror overtones the Hinchcliffe era, others will laud the lighter tone of Graham Williams’ time as Producer, the ‘college humour’ of Douglas Adams, or the fresh look and science of Season 18. There are even those who think ‘Logopolis’ was the perfect way to see Baker off! I personally feel that, after many ups and downs, the era ended not with a bang but a long, protracted whimper. Nevertheless, there’s no doubt that Tom Baker’s tenure on the show was one of the most popular there has ever been.