My first episode was Destiny of the Daleks all the way back in the 1980s, which I think was a good episode to start on.
Tom Baker was my first Doctor too, though I don’t remember exactly which story. Might have been The Ark in Space.
If I remember correctly Ark in Space was his second episode, right after Robot. So you caught him from the beginning basically.
For my money, Horror at Fang Rock and Stones of Blood are the two best Who serials, full stop.
I would go with City of Death. It’s hard to beat Douglas Adams.
The Cleese / Bron cameo at the end of brilliant.
The idea of the TARDIS being disguised as an exhibit in an art museum is great too.
Exquisite.
Ark in Space.
Tom Baker is also my first doctor. The first story I watched was Robot, which I didn’t realize until much later was also his first story. Of course, I didn’t understand anything at that point, except it was fantastic.
I’m in the U.S., so I was watching on PBS. Due to the weirdness of our cable system at the time, I could never reliably figure out when it was on again. Life was different then.
I also watched it on PBS via antenna though. 2 seasons over and over. There was no nerd culture then, just nerd. My mom knitted me a scarf just like his
I’ve got the scarf my mom made hanging in my laundry room waiting to be very, very gently washed (for the first time ever, so I’m a bit nervous).
In high school marching band I would roll it up and bring it with to football games, then unroll it on the aluminum bleachers and let the majorettes sit in a row on either side of me. Did that until I got a girlfriend who played flute in the band. Then we’d use it.
When I was in college, a friend gave me a complete run of Five that he had taped from his PBS station and every single time, there was a break and the announcer would say, “we’ll return to the Doctor Who movie in just a moment…” and it drove me crazy because, you know, it’s not a freakin’ movie!
We couldn’t even see it on PBS because our local station didn’t show it. My (much older) brother had a friend in another state who would send us VHS tapes and he would hook one VCR to another VCR and copy them and send the tapes back. He had mostly Three and Four episodes, but he sent a few Five ones before my brother went off to college.
I have not seen a photo of him since the 50th Anniversary Special. He is still one of my favorite Doctors. He and Sarah Jane!
NuWhovian here. It took me a while to watch Classic, and between the pacing and missing episodes the early Doctors were tough going.
Then the Third Doctor regenerates into this tall, shock-haired eccentric, and it just… clicked. Tom Baker was peak Classic Who, he is magnetic to watch. I can definitely understand why his version remains iconic.
Happy birthday, good sir!
Even though I grew up with classic Who, it took me a long time to get into One and Two’s episodes, as you said, the pacing is very slow. I’ve gone back to them since and I enjoy them a lot more now. I’m especially impressed with what they tried to achieve on such a limited budget. It sometimes was a complete failure, but every attempt was interesting.
Oh, I agree. What the production pulled off with tighter and tighter budgets is impressive. The Ark in space bubblewrap monster is phenomenal 😂
I’ve become quite fond of Patrick Troughton’s Doctor as well, and I see some of the same quirkiness in his performance as in Tom Baker’s. The Second Doctor with Jamie is as memorable as Four with Sarah Jane, just a pity so many episodes were junked.
Did he play the curator in the 50th anniversary special?
He did!
yes. I’m watching the reboot in order currently. It was interesting to see him come in and do a great performance in only 3 or 4 minutes of screen time.
Would YOU like a jelly baby?
Always.
Jelly babies are good, but I prefer gummy bears. Probably cause I grew up with Haribo Gummy Bears.
The definitive Doctor for me. Growing up during the wilderness years and VHS and UK Gold repeats were what we had to go on I loved both the earlier ‘horror’ seasons and the more humorous ones with the Romanas.
Wonderful actor.
He was also the narrator on Little Britain and was great in that too.
I know he was much younger when he was the Doctor, but he looks like Jon Pertwee as the Doctor!
Fun fact! David Tennant is now older that Jon Pertwee was when he was cast as the Doctor.
Defeater of bubblewrap!
Happy birthday Tom!!
ive never seen the old doctor who but i’ve always loved his outfit and my brother got me his scarf that i wear everyone.
i started watching his first series on iplayer over christmas and o-m-g, he is the best i love him so much <3
(ace will be the next one i watch since ive seen clips on tiktok and i love her too :D)
Ace is one of the best companions for sure. No one else comes with a backpack full of explosives they invented themselves.
Ace is one of the best companions for sure.
[Leela has entered the chat.]
Ace and the 7th Doctor were the first Doctor Who I saw - her beating up a Dalek with a baseball bat is my favourite companion moment ever from all of Who!
Ace and the 7th Doctor were the first Doctor Who I saw - her beating up a Dalek with a baseball bat is my favourite companion moment ever from all of Who!
The scene where Leela is knifing a Sontaran in the back of his helmet’s breathing hole was right up there as well.
I was listening to “doctoring the TARDIS” by the timelords today during a KLF binge I love you Tom happy birthday!
I actually got him to give my sister a kiss once, at a convention (actually the day after, on the beach in SoCal, that we were all there for autograph signing).
Was the most fantastic ‘younger brother being a brat revenge on his older sister’ moment that I ever experienced. Can’t believe he actually did it after I asked him to.
He was my favorite doctor before he did that, and he’s ascended to Timelord godhood in my eyes after that.
