Fourth Doctor

Fourth Doctor
The Fourth Doctor
Aliases:	Doctor Who; The Doctor; 4th Doctor
Series:	Doctor Who
Gender:	Male
Notability:	Main character
Occupation:	Time Lord
Race:	Gallifreyans
Location:	The TARDIS
Relatives:	Doctors I-III (predecessors); Doctors V-XII (successors)
Status:	Regenerated
Died:	1981 (Regenerated into new body)
First:	"Planet of the Spiders (Part 6)"
Final:	"Logopolis (Part 4)"
Actor:	Tom Baker

The Fourth Doctor, commonly referred to simply as "The Doctor", was the main character in the BBC television series Doctor Who. Played by British actor Tom Baker, this version of the perpetually regenerating Time Lord was introduced in an uncredited appearance in the final chapter of the 1974 serial "Planet of the Spiders". Baker served in the capacity of the Doctor from June of 1974 to March of 1981, appearing in a total of 173 episodes, comprising 41 story-arcs. The first serial to fully feature the Fourth Doctor was "Robot", which ran from December 28th, 1974 to January 18th, 1975. His final turn as the Doctor was in "Logopolis", which ran from February 28th to March 21st of 1981. Tom Baker's Doctor was preceded Jon Pertwee, who played the Third Doctor in 124 episodes, and he was succeeded by Peter Davison who played the Fifth Doctor from 1981 to 1984 (70 episodes in total). Baker's iteration of the eponymous hero is arguably the most famous and recognizable version of the Doctor, characterized by his dry sense of humor, animated, wide-eyed facial expressions, his wide-brimmed fedora and his long, flowing coat and scarf.

Biography

"Robot"

Main article: Doctor Who: Robot

"Genesis of the Daleks"

A Time Lord sent the Doctor, Harry Sullivan and Sarah Jane Smith to the planet Skaro in the distant past on a mission to prevent the development of the Dalek race. Arriving on Skaro, he found the planet's two dominant races, the Kaleds and the Thals, engaged in a bitter war that had rage for more than a thousand years. The Kaled military leaders captured the Doctor, and he learned that the architect behind the Daleks was a mutated quadriplegic named Davros. Davros had only recently begun putting his Dalek travel machines into production. The Doctor was able to escape and attempted to petition the Kaled leaders to stop Davros' mad experiments, warning them what it would mean for the universe should the Daleks seize power. Failing to entreat the support from either the Kaleds or the Thals, the Doctor returned to the Kaled bunker where he sought to destroy the Dalek incubation chamber. He partially succeeded in his task, but a small group of Daleks survived the explosions that rippled throughout the bunker. The Doctor left Skaro content that if nothing else, he at least forestalled their further development by a thousand years.

"City of Death"

The Doctor and Romana traveled to Paris, France on holiday, but immediately became aware of an apparent time slip that was localized to the area. Investigating further, they discovered that the time slip was being caused by an ancient alien named Scaroth - last of the Jagaroth species, whose physical essence had been splintered into twelve different aspects and scattered across the time stream. The present day aspect of Scaroth had disguised himself as human and went by the name Carlos Scarlioni. He had succeeded in stealing the Mona Lisa from the Louvre and used the money to finance the creation of a time machine that could send him back into Earth's primordial past so he could prevent the accident that fractured his physical being. Doing so however, would have prevented the development of life on Earth, so the Doctor, Romana and a private investigator named Duggan used the TARDIS to follow Scaroth back in time and stopped him altering Earth's history.

Notes & Trivia

• The Tom Baker episodes of Doctor Who were the ones broadcast most often in the United States, usually on PBS, giving rise to the Fourth Doctor's increasing popularity and iconic status as Doctor Who.

• The Fourth Doctor has had several companions during his tenure on the series, beginning with Sarah Jane Smith (played by Elisabeth Sladen), who became one of the more popular of the recycled companions and even appeared on the 2005 revival of the series and the lead character in her own spin-off program The Sarah Jane Adventures. Other companions included Harry Sullivan, the alien Leela, the robotic K-9 Mark I and II, Gallifreyan Time Lady Romana I and her reincarnation as Romana II, a young boy named Adric, Tegan Jovanka, and a woman named Nyssa.

• Actor Tom Baker was married to co-star Lalla Ward (who played Romana II, the Doctor's companion) for sixteen months.

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External links

The Fourth Doctor at IMDB The Fourth Doctor at the TV IV The Fourth Doctor at Wikipedia

The Fourth Doctor at ShareTV.org The Fourth Doctor at the Doctor Who Wiki The Fourth Doctor at the Universal Experiment Wiki