Doctor Who In Perspective 1974-1981
John Hussey continues his Classic look back, this time with the Tom Baker era.
“If someone who knew the future, pointed out a child to you and told you that that child would grow up totally evil, to be a ruthless dictator who would destroy millions of lives… could you then kill that child?”
Tom Baker really got stuck into the role, practically becoming the part he loved so dearly, and it really showed. His seven years onscreen brought about a fantastical tale for the Doctor and granted some of the best stories through his outstanding incarnation.
What I most loved about the Fourth Doctor was his childish nature; something that was made very clear from the get-go in his debut serial ‘Robot’. Something else that stood out about the Fourth Doctor was his release of anger, resulting in him snapping at his enemies or often than not supporting/reoccurring characters. This granted him a sense of multiple personalities which made him the most unpredictable incarnation at that point. As well as this the Fourth Doctor stood out as being smug in his intellectual superiority, usually taking centre stage within a situation in order to take control of it to win the day.
During the first half of the Fourth Doctor’s tenure he was perceived darker and more alien. He also had a disregard for responsibility, showcasing on many occasions childish tantrums towards both the Brigadier and the Time Lords. ‘Robot’ saw him attempting to run away from UNIT HQ in order to return to his adventures, with the resolution showing him doing just that only this time alongside Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan. It wasn’t long after that until the Fourth Doctor abandoned UNIT completely, moving on from his job as scientific advisor after his final involvement with the organisation in ‘The Seeds of Doom’.
Even though the Fourth Doctor came across as childish he had a true love for justice. What made his incarnation stand out was he was often willing to do whatever was necessary to win. He didn’t dwell on more violent actions and they were often results of self-defence or being pushed by his villain’s grotesque nature. The Fourth Doctor did still try and bring peace wherever he could. One of his greatest moments was from early on in his tenure during ‘Genesis of the Daleks’ where he questioned his mission in committing genocide on the Daleks in order to change the future.
It was intriguing watching the Fourth Doctor interacting with his own people. These exchanges showed us why he originally abandoned his home due to their traditions being old fashioned. The Fourth Doctor cleverly abused the Time Lord’s system to cheat the death penalty in ‘The Deadly Assassin’ which ultimately made him a candidate to become Lord President. He then used this backdoor opening to his advantage within ‘The Invasion of Time’ to gain the actual title, and deceived everyone into thinking he was the enemy in order to prevent the Sontaran’s invasion.
As time went on the Fourth Doctor mellowed out into a fun, loving character. This eventually overshadowed his nastier natures as he became more of a clownish adventurer but this never altered the fact that his behaviour was alien, a trait that always remained throughout his life. His companions helped define him, with Sarah Jane becoming his beacon towards humanity in his earlier days. She was one of the rare humans he didn’t shout at and their chemistry grew immensely, leading him to be quite upset when they had to go their separate ways at the end of ‘The Hand of Fear’.
With Leela the Fourth Doctor once again became a tutor and really enjoyed teaching the savage about her heritage whilst also complimenting her on her devilish skills with a knife. It was a great moment when the Fourth Doctor taught her about the mechanics of how the dimensions of the TARDIS worked during ‘The Robots of Death’.
Romana proved to be his greatest companion through her superior intelligence, witty nature and smugness. They shared a wonderful chemistry together. I think the Doctor simply enjoyed having a friend who was within the same league as his own, even pushing him to compete against Romana due to sometimes being outsmarted. It was an absolute joy to watch them two bounce off one another. The Fourth Doctor was immensely proud of Romana’s decision to leave the TARDIS at the end of ‘Warrior’s Gate’ in order to undergo her own journey to free the Tharils from slavery.
The Fourth Doctor returned to being a tutor upon Adric’s arrival but due to the young boy’s mathematical genius he fell very similar to Romana in terms of friendship. The Fourth Doctor found Adric to be a helpful friend, understanding his importance aboard the TARDIS. This was shortly before the the Fourth Doctor’s tragic fall. After seven long, successful years onscreen Tom Baker finally bowed out.
“You don’t understand the implications. I’m not a human being. I walk in eternity.”
Sarah Jane Smith was introduced within ‘The Time Warrior’ and followed the Third Doctor during his last season onscreen. She was present during his regeneration and was there to see the Fourth Doctor’s beginning. I always found her to be a strong, independent woman which made her unique at the time. Her investigative skills proved most helpful for the Doctor, often pointing out things that he’d overlooked. The sad part about Sarah Jane’s development was her becoming less independent and too glued to the Fourth Doctor’s feet. She became less impressive and more pitiful. It’s sad to see how low her character fell and it seemed like her departure was the best thing for her.
Harry Sullivan was a good companion to see introduced in the Fourth Doctor’s early days and it was sad to see him depart as quickly as he did. I felt Harry played against the Fourth Doctor well, proving himself as a good friend and useful in his strengths as a medical officer.
It was sad to see the Brigadier and newly appointed Warrant Officer Benton quickly written out of the show after all they been through with the Third Doctor. The tragic thing was they both weren’t given a good send off, with Benton’s last shot seeing him unconscious in ‘The Android Invasion’. At least Benton got some scenes to shine within ‘Robot’.
Leela is definitely one of my favourite companions due to her ability to fight back and present herself as a female bodyguard for the Doctor. Sadly she lacked in intelligence due to being a mere savage, but this didn’t stop her from being a likeable character. Often than not her lines depicting her threatening to cut someone’s heart out made me chuckle just because that’s who she was. Unfortunately her departure in ‘The Invasion of Time’ was met with an unsatisfactory resolution due to her declaring her love for Commander Andred out of the blue, despite no prior indication of this build-up of chemistry.
Romana was a wonderful companion and is perhaps my favourite of the lot. She was witty and was generally independent and didn’t really need the Doctor half the time because she could do it herself. Being a Time Lady it added a new depth to the companion relationship which was fresh, allowing the Fourth Doctor to be on equal ground with his companion. Also she didn’t need to ask questions, taking away the fundamental role of the companion. I loved how she proved herself better than the Fourth Doctor in the beginning, smugly comparing their grades (with the Doctor having scrapped through on his second attempt). Gradually the Fourth Doctor taught her the things he learnt after leaving Gallifrey and it was nice seeing that educational side of their relationship whilst they grew closer and became a patching pair.
The most fascinating companion relationship the Fourth Doctor had was with his trusty robot dog K9. K9 will always be an awesome companion in my eyes because he’s just unique and brings a certain charm to any narrative he appears in. The Fourth Doctor would be very playful around K9, on multiple occasions played chess with him (my favourite time being in ‘The Sun Makers’ when the Fourth Doctor deliberately caused the TARDIS to jolt, forcing the two of them to reset the game on the account K9 was winning). The Fourth Doctor relied on K9 a lot and thought of him as his best friend. I always find the scene at the end of ‘The Androids of Tara’ adorable seeing K9 trapped on a boat calling for his master.
Adric was a great character in my eyes and I found him to be a nice little addition to the mix. He could be foolish, especially in ‘State of Decay’, but he always shone with his mathematical skills and proved helpful to the Fourth Doctor towards the end of his tenure.
“Yes. Yes. To hold in my hand, a capsule that contained such power. To know that life and death on such a scale was my choice. To know that the tiny pressure on my thumb, enough to break the glass, would end everything. Yes. I would do it. That power would set me up above the gods. And through the Daleks I shall have that power!”
The villains of this era tended to be insane, blinded by absolute power in order to perpetuate their greed. Davros was by far the greatest of the Fourth Doctor’s villains because of his connection with the Time Lord’s life. This insane specimen turned out to be the creator of the Doctor’s greatest enemy. Davros’ own insanity reflected on why the Daleks became what they are. The Kaled scientist wanted nothing more than to create the ultimate creature through experimenting on mutating members of his own kind. His presence within ‘Genesis of the Daleks’, and the attitudes of his subordinates, reflected back to Terry Nation’s inspiration of the Nazis. Davros in some respects was inspired by Adolf Hitler. His greatest weakness was his self-centred superiority which made him believe he was the Daleks master, failing to realise his creatures were too powerful to control.
A surprising arrival came with Morbius, a new Time Lord renegade that actually tried to wage war against the galaxy. This resulted in his execution. Using the idea of Frankenstein’s monster as a basis Morbius was reborn in a horrific manner. His rage was contained within his brain trapped in a jar before being combined with a monstrous body. Although he was more showcased as a psychotic monster, Morbius had his villainous qualities through his ambitions and status within Time Lord society.
The last of the new arrivals came with the Black Guardian which formulated the nice little idea that the universe is controlled through a ying and yang theory. The White Guardian controls the good whilst the Black Guardian controls the bad. Through the incorporation of the Key to Time, the Fourth Doctor was sent on a quest to help rebalance the universe. The Black Guardian interestingly wished to cause further chaos by misusing the Key’s power. Unfortunately he was underused within his first appearance at the end of ‘The Armageddon Factor’, despite his massive build up throughout Season Sixteen, it never grows tired watching the Fourth Doctor outwit the dark force by re-scattering the Key’s segments and escaping his clutches through the means of the Randomiser.
There was the minor return of reoccurring enemies, which is another thing I love about this era as it allowed some fresh ideas to formulate. The Daleks saw two scattered returns but became the backdrop for Davros’ development as primary villain. The Cybermen were granted a long earned return in ‘Revenge of the Cybermen’ but it wasn’t anything exceptional. The Sontarans were given two returns, with their second serial allowing them to be the first enemy to invade Gallifrey. The Master became the most dominating of the reoccurring villains through his three appearances, two of which depicted his desperate attempt to cheat death after exhausting all of his regenerations.
“Interfere? Of course we should interfere. Always do what you’re best at, that’s what I say.”
Another new era was established upon Jon Pertwee’s departure leading to the latest production team in the form of long-time writer Robert Holmes as Script Editor and Philip Hinchcliffe as Producer. Their grasp on the show was unique due to them incorporating horror themes into the serials, creating a much more adult approach to storytelling. Their narratives spanned from telling stories about fascists trying to cause a nuclear holocaust, an insane scientist trying to control a death machine, a Frankenstein Time Lord, killer plants, killer robots and a Jack the Ripper style villain.
These stories were grittier, far more realistic in their approach, often creating violent scenarios such as Solon shooting Condo (resulting in a blood splatter), Harrison Chase killing a UNIT officer with a compost machine and Magnus Greel sucking the life out of innocent girls to survive. Even the Master’s new appearance was made to be grotesque. I found this era was effective in its approach.
Upon Graham Williams taking over as show-runner the show became less gritty and more space-adventure orientated, reflecting upon Douglas Adams science-fiction style of writing (even more so when he became Script Editor). The show started to be lighter and more family based compared to T. Baker’s earlier seasons. At first the show remained dark whilst Robert Holmes was transitioning his role, but upon Season Sixteen Williams took the show into his own hands and incorporated the first full season story arc, dubbed ‘The Key to Time’ arc.
Another point in which a story-arc was told was through the story connections between ‘The Deadly Assassin’ and ‘The Invasion of Time’, as stated above. It also formed a loose story arc for Borusa’s character, showcasing his slow development into higher power which continued into the Fifth Doctor’s era. These stories were certainly different due to the Doctor actually having an adventure on his home-planet and having to protect the Time Lords from invasion. The first story was even more so different being the only serial where the Doctor didn’t have a companion, a narrative that reminded him of why he needs one by his side.
The William’s era briefly incorporated the Randomiser, a device that controlled the destination of the Fourth Doctor’s travels which meant for the first time since his earliest days the Time Lord was unaware of where he would be arriving.
The final stage of this tenure was when John Nathan-Turner took over the show upon the arrival of the 80s. His version of the show was to be the most transformational yet, having gone for a truly science-fiction tone of storytelling and presentation. I do feel that this style didn’t suit the Fourth Doctor’s characteristics and in many ways changed him back into a more serious character after being mellowed out over Williams’ era. Despite this I do feel some impressive stories came out of Turner’s take over, especially within ‘The E- Space Trilogy’. This era finished with ‘The Master Trilogy’, a story arc that actually followed on into the Fifth Doctor’s era which meant theoretically the Fourth Doctor’s era didn’t fully conclude.
I can honestly say I enjoy watching the Fourth Doctor’s era because due to its length, you can really see the massive implications placed within the Fourth Doctor’s development and it’s always wonderful to re-watch and explore. This is a testament to both Tom Baker’s never faulting performance and dedication to the role and the different show-runner’s who lead this overwhelming growth of story-making.
