| The Fourth Doctor - Tom Baker 1974 - 1981 |
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| Tom Baker was the Doctor to appear in the most episodes, having an unbroken seven year tenure in the role. His characterisation of the Doctor was very much as an alien being. He portrayed the role with a great deal of humour, and occasionally with almost childlike wonder, but he was also very much a crusader for good, and like other Doctors, good at portraying riteous anger and drama. Baker however was most famous for the humour which he injected into the role, in order to keep younger members of the audience entertained. He was known for improvising in rehearsals, changing some of the lines, which did however earn him something of a reputation for being difficult. Another famous part of the image of Baker's Doctor was the infamous long scarf. When designing the costume Baker and designer James Acheson decided that a multicoloured scarf would suit the image of the Doctor. Acheson bought many balls of various different coloured wool and took it to a woman whom he knew could knit a scarf, called Begonia Pope. He did not however specify how long the scarf was to be, so she knitted up the whole delivery of wool into an enourmous scarf, and that's how the look was created. Back to Doctor Who Page |