Doctor Who: The Tom Baker Years

THE TOM BAKER YEARS differs very much from the previous three YEARS tapes , all of Baker`s episodes existed in the BBC archives unlike the William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton eras ( Which was the original idea behind the Hartnell and Troughton YEARS tapes )so here we see Tom Baker commenting on a clip from every story he starred in .

You could vaguely describe this as a precurser to the commentary tracks used on present day DVD features but that would probably be too kind as I get the feeling it was released just to fleece DOCTOR WHO fans . The clips shown are more often than not poor choices with a clip from Genesis Of The Daleks being devoid of any Daleks or their creator Davros while The Invasion Of Time clip doesn`t feature the Sontarans who are one of the most popular villains from the series . Worst of all THE TOM BAKER YEARS was released on a two tape set costing £20 when it could have easily have fitted on a single tape for ten quid

Baker makes a gives a few anecdotes and has a dead pan sense of humour , but often he fails to remember details or names of stories , forgets the name of aliens and even fails to recall the name of one of his assistants ( She`s called Leela ) which leads me to believe it`s a tape designed just to cash in on the show`s popularity amongst die hard fans . It`s worth watching if you can borrow a copy for free but I`d certainly avoid paying money to see it

Tom Baker was the fourth actor to play the Doctor in BBC's greatest sci-fi series, DOCTOR WHO. Making his debut in the four-part adventure, ROBOT, Baker remained in the part for seven years and became the most popular incarnation of the character in the programme's history. Here, Baker himself takes you through almost all of his many episodes, including such favourites as THE ARK IN SPACE, GENESIS OF THE DALEKS and THE TALONS OF WENG CHIANG. This is a must for WHO fans and Baker, the actor, is just as interesting to watch as the fictional Dr Who.

Tom Baker's memory may be shot to hell, but I still enjoy watching him reminisce about "Doctor Who" on this unusual two-tape special. The format is a bit bizarre; a short segment from the series is shown, and then it cuts back to Tom, sitting in a chair and "oohing" and "aahing" about what he's just seen.

The selection of clips is controversial (some are appropriate, others are not), but what really matters is that Tom is consistently informative and entertaining. While he does forget plot details of certain episodes (not to mention people's names), he remembers plenty of outrageous anecdotes and offers up his insights on all manner of topics, including violence in the series and his own typecasting.

Good stuff - I felt it was worth the price of admission.

Tom Baker is very cool...has a great dry wit, and a fabulous voice to listen to. :-) It's true that he forgets co-stars' names and story plots (but remember, this nostalgia is happening more than a decade after the fact...besides having done a great many episodes...I wonder how YOU would react if you did a series nearly 10 years and then tried to remember all the details?), but he is a very entertaining personage. The details he gives about some of the episodes' production are a hoot. Would have been a 10+ review if the tapes included deleted scenes! Any chance this could be re-released as a DVD set anytime in the near future? :-)