Tom Baker May Return To Doctor Who For 50th Anniversary

Date: Jul 10, 2012 | Author: David Wharton | Category: Sci-Fi

Current Doctor Who lead Matt Smith got one hell of an introduction in the 2010 episode “The Eleventh Hour,” culminating in a rooftop confrontation with a giant floating alien eyeball and one of the coolest callbacks to the show’s long history ever seen. Now it seems that the modern incarnation of Who is set to honor its forbearers in a big way: former Fourth Doctor Tom Baker will be putting in an appearance in Doctor Who for the show’s epic 50th anniversary celebration next year.

The news comes from the Daily Express, who quotes an unnamed Who insider as saying, “It will be fitting to have Tom back to mark the 50 years. He was a big part of the show’s success and is much-loved by the fans.” Naturally, sources both official and unofficial are keeping mum about the nature of Baker’s appearance. Will he be playing the Fourth Doctor? If so, how will they explain the fact that he’s, well, three decades older? He could just be playing an entirely different character, but I’m sure the fans would love to see him return in the role that made him famous, and which some fans still consider the quintessential Doctor. Of course, this is Doctor Who, so I’m sure they can come up with some sort of technobabblish explanation for his current appearance if they so wish.

Baker played the role of the Fourth Doctor from 1974 – 1981, strutting around the cosmos with the trademark scarf, mound of curls, and silly hat that became the image of The Doctor for many (including myself) until the show relaunched in 2005. Stay tuned to GFR for more news about Doctor Who‘s upcoming 50th anniversary as we hear it.

And just for good measure, here’s Matt Smith’s unforgettable introduction to the world as the Eleventh Doctor.

Comments

http://www.facebook.com/people/Dusty-Rhodes/100001408648181 Dusty Rhodes

My inside source at the BBC also says that Sean Pertwee looks exactly like his father in the wig and smoking jacket… And that Peter Davison has lost forty pounds recently…
http://www.facebook.com/nathan.p.kennedy Nathan Paul Kennedy

What else is CGI for?
BebopHitchhiker

I think it would be GREAT if Tom Baker came back as The Doctor. There have been several episodes with one or more Doctors involved, including one with Tom, Jon Pertwee, Peter Davison, and Patrick Troughton, and I think even Colin Baker. I mean, come ON!!! This is the Doctor!!! The TARDIS can go anywhere and more importantly, anyWHEN!! i can’t wait to see it.
http://www.facebook.com/mark.lawson.77312 Mark Lawson

There is but ONE Doctor Who! Daleks, Cybermen, and many others fear him. His name is The Doctor: Tom Baker!
Sassy

Sadly the show had devolved from the original charming premise into a
sick sleazy perverted Full Blown Space Opera! The stories are crap!
Anyone who can’t figure out where a story is going within the first 5
minutes is either very young or very stupid!

And the disgusting Incestuous River/Doctor storyline is beyond GROSS! I
don’t care what feeble-minded laughable statements Moffat makes, THE
ONLY TIME LORD DNA THE TARDIS HAS ACCESS TO IS THE DOCTORS?! DUH!!!!

Anyone who can’t figure that out is an extra-special kind of stupid. Or
someone who just shuts their brain down when they watch the show. RME

River is such a joke! she IS a sociopath! That IS a scientific FACT! She
s a textbook case. The laughable so-called “Reasons” why she can’t are
beyond dumb!

And anyone with an actual working brain knows the so-called 50th
Anniversary will PRIMARILY be about the last 8 yrs or the time when
Little Miss Moffat worked for the show. He’ll focus about 20% of the
story on the pre-2004 years and focus 80% on the show after 2004! So in
reality it will turn out to be MORE of an tribute to his laughable self
and his pathetic miserable wanna-be stories. What a waste! Like one guy
put it, “It’s too adult for children and too childish for adults” which
pretty much leaves hormonally driven teenagers! Moffat’s so-called
talent would be better put to use on porn!
- http://www.facebook.com/domdjd Dominic Draper
  
  You are awfully angry. I think you miss the whole point of the show and science fiction in general. It is pure escapism. To criticise the show for what you think it should be and not what it actually is, is ludicrous. The fact is, Steven Moffat is one of the most in demand writers at the moment, whether you like it or not. If you do not like the show, watch whatever rubbish ITV is churning out on a Saturday night nowadays.
- Twirlip of the Mists
  
  You’re a very angry person, aren’t you?
  
  Come out of your basement and get some sun before The Rage consumes you.
- http://twitter.com/DaVeO52 DaVeO52
  
  “River is such a joke! she IS a sociopath! That IS a scientific FACT!” And you would know about sociopaths, wouldn’t you?
- http://www.facebook.com/rocksors Matthew Rocksors
  
  I pity you, I have a hunch no one cares about any of your
  opinions. Is that why you are so angry?
  
  Also, the Doctor wasn’t the only time lord to use the Tardis,
  it was quite well travelled when he got it so would have other
  samples of DNA.
  
  Go sit in the corner being wrong with your wrongness.
Sassy

LOL! IN short I would be very disgusted and VERY disappointed if Tom Baker returned to this disgusting cease pool of muck and grime! It would be the same as saying he approves of how far the Show has sunk into the gutter! I hope he doesn’t do any SMUT Moffat produces from his bottom.
Mr_Katanga

It’s already been established that previous doctors sort-of age relative to their successive incarnations (as in the Peter Davison short from a few years back) so “explaining” Baker’s age should be no problem – hopefully they’ll do something interesting with him, rather than just a fanboy cameo.
I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the new series, but overall, I’m glad they’re being made – as with many shows, you get a few duds and then a few awesome episodes that make it all worthwhile.
http://twitter.com/DaVeO52 DaVeO52

Seeing the Eighth to Ninth regeneration during the Time War would be sweet.
http://www.facebook.com/tomrog Tom Rogers

Maybe this can finally make up for his absence from The Five Doctors! Though it seems Eccleston will play the spoiler role this time, messing up any reunion!

I’ve thought it would be interesting if they could do some storyline where a villain (the Master?) somehow figured out a way to get rid of his nemesis by trapping each incarnation in “normal”, linear time, forcing them to live out their normal lives, a little like Human Nature meets Blink! Maybe the 11th doctor would find himself sort of fading, a la Marty McFly, as his earlier selves grow old and/or die. Start the mad dash to round up and save his earlier selves, all noticeably (but at least somewhat justifiably) aged!

Eh, just a thought…beats using footage from some unaired episode and saying they were all trapped in the time vortex!
CrimsonA

Even though I’ve never been a huge fan of the Fourth Doctor this has got me excited.
http://profile.yahoo.com/PZGWWR2XX66GUDICIT75FDWJ3I Jessica Johnson

What a bunch of loser! yet like Moffy so ultra predictable! When someone correctly points out that River is a sociopath because she held the Universe hostage and had no remorse about the trillions of people who could have died because of her and yet here you prattling twats are babbling out of your rear-ends about ‘how angry” Sassy is?!
Really? Of course there couldn’t be anything to her comments! Oh No! That would require using your brains and that is something moffy doesn’t encourage. anyone using their brains might soon discover what a load of twaddle the stories are
it’s escapism? from what? common sense? common decency? just what kind of garbage are they teaching kids these days?
I agree with her 100% The show has gone to hell in a handbasket
And so what if someone is angry? What extra-special kind of stupid actually thinks that in any shape, manner or form discredits anyone’s opinion? That is the thinking of complete imbeciles!
The show sucks! River sucks! Sassy pointed out how the sick romance between dr and river is incest and the best you feeble minded idiots could come up with is “You sound angry?” Really? So is this your assinine way of trying to deflect from her excellent points?
probably, but it doesn’t work. not for those of us who can think for ourselves and not be led around by the nose by a pompous jackass
moffy may be in demand amongst those with little or no standards but not among those with good taste and decent moral standards
in fact 99% of the world (outside of the U.K) has never even heard of that joke of a writer Steven Moffat! He is a 5th rate writing hack! And those who call his archiac brain dead ultra-cliched, ultra-predictable crap as genius are clearly not ones themselves. lol
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=576225446 Lucy Cox
  
  I’m sorry, can you [or Sassy] point out to me exactly how River and the Doctor being together is incestuous?
http://twitter.com/kerrie_1980 kerrie

For me, Moffat has killed Doctor Who. NuWu is as bad as Eastenders and as pointless “Spoilers” as it has… River being Amy’s Daughter…Wow so what? I guessed it by the end of The Doctor’s Wife, which was the best episode under Moffat by far.

I won’t be watching it, neither will most of my mates and their mates (so at least 20+ ppl there) I just wonder how many more fans he’ll lose this season?
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1127571843 Amanda Pursell

I remember him saying he’d only come back if he could play The Master. Please let him play The Master.
BebopHitchhiker

Seeing Tom Baker come back will be a HUGE thrill for me. That was when I first became a Whovian. And to have him as the 4th Doctor again… well, he IS a Time Lord. Time has no real meaning. He can be anywhere and anywhen..

Giant Freakin Robot