The
Fourth Doctor is the name given to the fourth
incarnation of
the
fictional character known as
the Doctor in the long-running
BBC television science-fiction
series
Doctor Who. He was
portrayed by
Tom Baker for seven
consecutive years, and remains the longest-lived incarnation in the
show's on-screen history. For American audiences, who saw the show
only in
syndication (mostly on
PBS), it was this incarnation of the Doctor who
is the best known, as his episodes were the ones most frequently
broadcast stateside.
Within the series' narrative, the Doctor is a centuries-old Time
Lord alien from the planet
Gallifrey who
travels in time and space in his TARDIS, frequently with
companions. When the Doctor is critically injured, he can
regenerate his body; in doing so, his physical appearance and
personality change.
Overview
The Fourth Doctor's eccentric style of dress and speech —
particularly his trademark long
scarf and
fondness for
jelly babies — made him an
immediately recognisable figure and he quickly captivated the
viewing public's imagination. This incarnation is generally
regarded as the most recognisable of the Doctors and one of the
most popular, especially in the
United States. In polls
conducted by
Doctor Who
Magazine, Tom Baker has lost the "Best Doctor" category
only twice: once to
Sylvester McCoy
(the
Seventh Doctor) in 1990, and
once to
David Tennant (the
Tenth Doctor) in 2006.
The Fourth Doctor appeared in seven consecutive seasons over a
seven-year period, from 1974 to 1981, making him the longest
running Doctor on screen.
He also appeared in the specials The Five Doctors (via footage from the
uncompleted Shada) and Dimensions in Time, Tom Baker's last
appearance in-character as the Doctor (aside from a series of
television advertisements
in New
Zealand
in 1997).
There are also
novels and audio
plays featuring the Fourth Doctor. Two early audio plays
featuring Tom Baker voicing the Fourth Doctor date from Baker's
television tenure as he had mainly declined to appear in any
further audio plays since leaving the series. In 2009, however, it
was announced that a new five part series would be produced by BBC
Audio (see below).
Biography
After contracting
radiation
poisoning on the planet
Metebelis 3, the
Third Doctor makes his way back to
UNIT headquarters,
where the
Time Lord K'Anpo Rimpoche aids
him in
regenerating
(
Planet of the
Spiders).
In his new incarnation, the Doctor draws back from continuous
involvement with UNIT (with which he had worked closely as the
Third Doctor) and the Time Lords. The Time Lords continue to send
him on occasional missions, including an attempt to prevent the
creation of the
Daleks (
Genesis of the Daleks), during
which he also meets a new adversary,
Davros.
The Doctor travels with journalist
Sarah Jane Smith, whom he had befriended
prior to his regeneration, and, for a time, with UNIT
Surgeon-Lieutenant
Harry
Sullivan.
The Doctor's companionship with Sarah Jane is ended when he
receives a
telepathic summons to
Gallifrey, as humans were not then allowed on the planet. The
summons is part of a trap set by his enemy
the Master, who has used up all his
regenerations and become
little more than a withered husk. The Master frames the Doctor for
the assassination of the President of the High Council of Time
Lords. In order to avoid execution the Doctor invokes an obscure
law and declares himself a candidate for the office, giving himself
the time he needs to defeat the Master (
The Deadly Assassin).
The Doctor is seen to travel alone for the first time since season
1, returning to a planet he had visited centuries before. During
his previous visit, he had accidentally imprinted a human colony
ship's powerful computer, Xoanon, with his own mind, leaving it
with
multiple
personalities. On his second visit the Doctor is remembered as
an evil god by the descendants of the colonists, some of whom had
become a warrior tribe called the Sevateem. After the Doctor cures
the computer, one of the Sevateem,
Leela, joins him on his travels
(
The Face of Evil). The
Doctor brings the intelligent but uneducated Leela to many locales
in human history, teaching her about science and her own species'
past. In
Victorian London, the pair
encounters the magician Li Hsien Chang and his master, the
self-styled Weng-Chiang (
The Talons of Weng-Chiang).
Later, the Doctor and Leela visit the Bi-Al Foundation medical
centre, where they acquire the robot dog
K-9 (
The
Invisible Enemy).
The Doctor returns to Gallifrey and declared himself Lord
President, based on the election held during his previous visit.
This is a ploy to reveal and defeat a
Sontaran invasion plan. Leela and K-9 decide to
remain on Gallifrey; the Doctor comforts himself by producing K-9
Mark II (
The Invasion of
Time).
Shortly afterwards, the powerful
White
Guardian assigns the Doctor to find the six segments of
the Key to Time, sending a young
Time Lady named
Romana to assist him. The two
Gallifreyans find the six segments and defeat the equally powerful
Black Guardian, who sought the Key
for himself. After the conclusion of the quest, Romana regenerates
into a new form (
Destiny of
the Daleks).
For a time, the Fourth Doctor and the second incarnation of Romana
travel in another universe known as E-Space. There, they are joined
by the young prodigy
Adric. When the Doctor
finds a way to leave E-Space, Romana and K-9 Mark II choose to
remain behind. Adric and the Doctor are joined by the aristocratic
orphan
Nyssa of Traken and, in the
Fourth Doctor's last adventure, by the opinionated
Tegan Jovanka.
The conduit between E-Space and our own universe is revealed to be
a
Charged Vacuum
Emboitment (CVE) — created by the mathematicians of
Logopolis as part of a system to allow the
Universe to continue on past its point of
heat death. As he investigates
this, the Fourth Doctor begins experiencing ominous feelings and
spots a white-clad entity, "The Watcher," observing him. After
succeeding in stopping the Master from disrupting the CVEs and
destroying the universe, the Fourth Doctor is mortally wounded when
he falls from the Pharos Project
radio
telescope control tower, where he utters his last words: "It's
the end -- but the moment has been prepared for." The Watcher is
revealed as a manifestation of the Doctor's future incarnation.
Before the eyes of the Doctor's
companions, the Watcher merges with
the Fourth Doctor, regenerating him into the
Fifth Doctor.
The Fourth Doctor appears once more in the 20th anniversary special
The Five Doctors. A
renegade Time Lord attempts to pull the first five incarnations of
the Doctor out of time, inadvertently trapping the Fourth Doctor
(and Romana) in a "time eddy" from which they are later freed. A
brief holographic clip of the Fourth Doctor appears in "
The Next Doctor".
Personality

The fourth Doctor was known for his
love of Jelly Babies
Fourth Doctor is a natural
bohemian who
permanently left
UNIT in order to return to a
life of deep universal wandering. More so than his previous
incarnations, he is thrilled by discovery and adventure. Galvanised
by higher purpose, he is disarmingly loopy (constantly offering
friends and foes
jelly babies; this
trait is referenced in the Tenth Doctor episode 'The Sound of
Drums', where the John Simm incarnation of the Master is seen
enjoying a bag of jelly babies on board the Valiant), brilliant and
entirely serious, all at the same time. To an extent, the Fourth
Doctor is the most unpredictable of his incarnations, befuddling
all with his intelligence, constantly leaving others wondering if
they have his full attention and using his more off the wall
mannerisms against adversaries to distract them while arranging to
take control of the situation. His keen judge of character also
enables him to navigate his way through situations with new people,
helping him to discern friend from foe. Although like all his
selves he prefers his brain over his brawn, he is a capable
swordsman and wrestler, following on from the martial expertise of
his immediate former self. He improvises non-lethal weaponry when
necessary (
Genesis of the
Daleks) but was also not averse to more lethal weaponry as
a necessity, against both sentient and non-sentient beings
(
The Invasion of Time,
The Talons of
Weng-Chiang).
Despite his charm and offbeat humour, the Fourth Doctor is arguably
more aloof and sombre than his previous incarnations. He could
become intensely brooding, serious and even callous, and would
keenly scrutinise his surroundings even when playing the fool. In
stories such as
Pyramids of Mars he
is concerned that he is approaching middle age and often
contemplates his outsider status. He could also be furious with
those he saw as stupid, frivolous, misguided or evil. When taking
charge, he could be considered authoritative to the point of
egocentricity, but as it is, he is usually the only one capable of
solving the situations he finds himself in. He generally maintained
his distance from the Time Lords even after they had lifted his
exile, and resented that they were now capable of re-entering his
life when they deemed it necessary. Not only did he seem more
inclined toward a solitary existence (
The Deadly Assassin), he also
emphasised his distance from humanity, although he stated on more
than one occasion that he found mankind to be his favourite
species.
Two of the Doctor's most significant companionships occur during
his fourth incarnation. His friendship with
Sarah Jane Smith is implied to be deeper
than the relationships he shared with other companions to that
point (as alluded to in the Tenth Doctor episode
School Reunion). She is
consequently still profoundly affected by their separation many
years later in her personal timeline. His relationship with Romana
(specifically her second incarnation) borders on romantic
attraction while being bolstered by her capacity to maintain pace
with his mental processes. The largest proof of his influence on
her is when she chooses to exile herself from Gallifrey to explore
new worlds and help others, as he himself has done.
Appearance
_1892.jpg/180px-Lautrec_ambassadeurs,_aristide_bruant_(poster)_1892.jpg)
Painting of Aristide Bruant by
Lautrec, which inspired the Doctor's famous look
Imposingly tall, with eyes that seem to constantly boggle, a mass
of curls for hair and prominently displayed teeth, the Doctor
favours an outfit that usually consists of a shirt,
waistcoat, wide-legged trousers, a
frock coat (with pockets containing a seemingly
endless array of apparently useless items that would nevertheless
suit the Doctor's purposes when used), a wide-brimmed hat (on
occasion) and, most famously, his impractically long, multicoloured
striped scarf, which was apparently knitted for him by Madame
Nostradamus (whom he refers to as a
"witty little knitter").
According to the creators of the show and Baker, the character's
look was originally based on paintings and posters by
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec of his
friend,
Aristide Bruant, a singer
and nightclub owner whose trademark was a black cloak and long red
scarf.
When John-Nathan Turner became the show's producer in Baker's last
year, the Fourth Doctor was the first to sport an item of clothing
adorned with red question marks as a motif, in this case above the
points on his shirt collars. His coat and scarf were changed to a
burgundy colour scheme.
Story style
The early stories of the Fourth Doctor were characterised by a
strong "horror" theme. The combination of writer
Robert Holmes and producer
Philip Hinchcliffe consciously
took well known themes such as
Frankenstein (
The Brain of Morbius,
Robot),
transformation (
The Ark in Space,
Planet of Evil),
alien abduction, and even some elements
lifted directly from Universal horror movies, such as the
mummies in
Pyramids of Mars, although they were
given a
science fiction explanation,
rather than the typical
magic.
This era is generally seen by fans and critics as the best era in
the show's classic run.
This horror element attracted much criticism, notably from
Mary Whitehouse, and Hinchcliffe was moved
on to police drama
Target in 1977. The fourth season of
Baker's run was produced by
Graham
Williams who was given specific instructions to lighten the
tone of the stories, thus playing to Baker's strengths. Williams'
three years as producer, see the tone of the stories shift from
horror stories, such as
Horror of
Fang Rock, to fairy tale-like ones such as
The Androids of Tara and eventually
more comic ones such as
City of
Death.
During the Fourth Doctor's run, in
Season
17, the science fiction author
Douglas
Adams was script editor and his distinctive style can be seen
in the dialogue and stories of some of the
serials such as
City of Death and
The Pirate Planet. For example, in
Destiny of the
Daleks, Adams included a scene of the Doctor trapped under
a boulder, that resembles of similar scene in the second series of
The Hitchhikers
Guide to the Galaxy. Adams' tenure is controversial with fans,
some of whom believe that the humorous stories are uncharacteristic
of the series, and others who contend that the diversity of the
storytelling was one of the series' strong points.
In Season 18,
John Nathan-Turner
became the series' producer. He instituted a number of changes to
the show, including toning down the humour and introducing more
science fiction concepts. During this season, the Fourth Doctor
became very much subdued and, on occasion, melancholy. At the time,
Baker's health was temporarily impaired, although he eventually
recovered. Both the actor and character seemed noticeably older in
this season, due to Baker's gaunt appearance and greying hair; many
of this season's stories also had an elegiac tone, with
entropy and decay being a recurring theme. This
reaches it conclusion in Baker's final story
Logopolis, in which the Doctor becomes aware
of his own approaching regeneration by the ghostly figure of the
Watcher.
The Fourth Doctor's stories saw fewer recurring elements than
previously with few aliens and monsters appearing in more than one
story. The Daleks only appeared twice and the Cybermen only had one
story,
Revenge of the
Cybermen.
UNIT, which had
featured in most of the Third Doctor's adventures, only appeared in
four early Fourth Doctor stories, playing a minor role in their
last appearance, Season 13's
The
Seeds of Doom in which none of the regular UNIT staff
appeared.
At the same time, stories such as
The Deadly Assassin establishes
most of the mythology surrounding the
Time
Lords and the Doctor's home planet Gallifrey, that would remain
a key feature for the rest of classic series and still be felt in
the revived series. For example, it is established that Time Lords
only have a limited number of thirteen regenerations, which is a
driving plot point in the stories
Mawdryn Undead,
The Five Doctors,
The Trial of a Time Lord and
the 1996 telemovie.
Other mentions
Visions of the Fourth Doctor appear in
Earthshock,
Mawdryn Undead,
Resurrection of the Daleks
and
The Next Doctor. The
Fourth Doctor also appears in Sarah Jane's flashback in
The Mad Woman in the
Attic, the footage is taken from
The Hand of Fear
Other appearances
Spoofs
The Fourth Doctor's distinctive appearance and manner have made him
a target for affectionate parody. The character has appeared
several times on
The Simpsons
and twice on
Robot Chicken.
Even once in "Hugo Whodunnit 2", a computer game where the player's
character can save Tom Baker's doctor from a dalek and in return he
gives you his infamous screwdriver.He is frequently impersonated by
impressionist
Jon Culshaw on the radio
and television series
Dead
Ringers. (Culshaw also voiced the Doctor for the Big
Finish audio
The
Kingmaker--see below.) Even
Barney Miller had an episode featuring an
eccentric man claiming to be a time-traveller, and wearing a long
striped scarf. Archival footage of the Fourth Doctor's first title
sequence was also used in the
Family
Guy episode "
Blue
Harvest" to represent (and parody)
Star Wars hyperspace. Tom Baker, as the
narrator of the series
Little Britain, has referenced Doctor
Who.
Argo Records Audio Drama
BBC Audio Dramas
- Exploration
Earth: "The Time Machine"
- Beginning in September 2009, five new full-cast dramas starring
Baker and written by Paul Magrs will be
released under the umbrella title Hornets' Nest, where the
Fourth Doctor meets an aged Mike Yates
many years after his departure from UNIT and have a series of
adventures together.
- Tom Baker also recorded narration, in character as the Fourth
Doctor, for a 1976 audio release of Genesis of the Daleks,
which was subsequently re-issued by the BBC on cassette and CD as a
radio drama.
- Baker returned again to Doctor Who for the 1990s audio
cassette releases of "lost" Doctor Who stories. For some of these
stories, he is in character as the Doctor. For others, he merely
provides descriptive narration.
Big Finish Audio Dramas
Audio books
Novels
Comics
TV Comic
- Death Flower
- Return of the Daleks
- The Wreckers
- The Emperor's Spy
- The Sinister Sea
- The Space Ghost
- The Dalek Revenge
- Virus
- Treasure Trails
- Hubert's Folly
- Counter-Rotation
- Mind Snatch
- The Hoaxers
- The Mutant Strain
- Double Trouble
- Dredger
- The False Planet
- The Fire Feeders
- Kling Dynasty
- The Orb
- The Mutants
- The Devil's Mouth
- The Aqua-City
- The Snow Devils
- The Space Garden
- The Eerie Manor
- Guardian of the Tomb
- The Image Makers
TV Comic Annual
- Woden's Warrior
- The Tansbury Experiment
- Jackels of Space
TV Comic Specials
Doctor Who Magazine
- Black Destiny
- Victims
- The Iron Legion
- City of the Damned
- K9's Finest Hour
- Timeslip
- The Star Beast
- The Dogs of Doom
- The Time Witch
- Dragon's Claw
- The Collector
- Dreamers of Death
- The Life Bringer
- War of the Words
- Spider-God
- The Deal
- End of the Line
- The Freefall Warriors
- Junkyard Demons
- Neutron Knights
Doctor Who Magazine Specials
- The Naked Flame
- Rest and Re-Creation
- The Seventh Segment
- Starbeast II
- Junkyard Demons II
Video games
See also
References
External links