HomeTVRevisiting Tom Baker's era of 'Doctor Who'

Revisiting Tom Baker’s era of ‘Doctor Who’

A lot of conventions are abandoned during the early Tom Baker era

Doctor Who Tom Baker
Credit: BBC

Not only is the Brigadier and UNIT largely written out, freeing the Doctor to stay away from Earth for longer periods, but we oddly don’t see the new Doctor at the controls of the TARDIS for quite some time. It is only with the second story of his second season, ‘Planet of Evil’, that we finally see the Fourth Doctor piloting his ship. Up until then, we only see him enter and exit the police box. Perhaps they were saving money on studio sets. ‘Planet of Evil’ is also the last time we see the Fourth Doctor’s original costume. Never again would he wear a jacket, opting instead for the long great-coat style of outer garment that became so synonymous with his character. From the moment we see the knee-length maroon overcoat in ‘Pyramids of Mars’, we know that an already iconic costume has been fine-tuned and improved.

Greg Jameson
Greg Jameson
Book editor, with an interest in cult TV.

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