Part 8 Doctor Who: The Ultimate Guide

Welcome to Doctor Who The Ultimate Guide

where we celebrate 50 years of Doctor Who.

We're going to take a look at the genesis of this

unconventional hero of sci-fi and his many faces.

Come with me.

Now, if there was one man who knew how to take out a Dalek in style,

it's Doctor number three, all-round man of action, Jon Pertwee.

Probably the most flamboyant Doctor of the lot,

number three became known as a bit of a dandy.

Do you mean me?

-Enormously flamboyant.

-It's an excellent vintage.

It's really a completely different phase.

There was a bit of espionage about him.

Nobody sends me anywhere, I'm a free agent.

Very... majestic and powerful.

I am a Time Lord.

When Jon Pertwee takes over the Doctor,

he establishes the eccentric, amusing scientist.

What Jon Pertwee brings to it, for the first time,

is the action hero.

SONIC SCREWDRIVER BEEPS

Imprisoned on Earth and with his TARDIS grounded

by his fellow Time Lords,

the Doctor's adventures were now very much based in the modern world.

That's interesting.

He even had a proper job, working for UNIT,

where his new companions included Liz Shaw...

That's impossible.

..Jo Grant, Sarah Jane Smith...

We need somebody to make the coffee.

..and favourite sparring partner, the Brigadier...

-The Brigadier is an idiot.

-..with whom he rarely saw eye to eye.

-I wouldn't like to have to order you.

-I wouldn't advise you to try.

It's this great voice, with this fiery energy behind it.

If you cannot reverse the energy drain,

the fabric of the entire universe could be torn apart.

Though he never managed to fix his knackered TARDIS,

the Doctor more than made up for it with his fleet of vehicles.

The third Doctor was every inch the action man.

He was a real adventurer in real life.

And so any time there was a motorbike or anything,

we were there, we were playing. It was fun.

A bit more of a James Bond than we'd seen before.

Yes, from motorbikes to jet skis...

I remember he had a hover car.

..he had it all,

including his trademark bright yellow Edwardian roadster, Bessie.

Soon, even Bessie was left in the garage

and he upgraded to his own specially created pimp wagon, the Whomobile.

This new car of mine is exactly what I need.

Pertwee spent five years as the Doctor,

featuring in over 100 episodes.

But the all-action third Doctor eventually succumbed

to his inevitable demise at the hands of a huge,

and not entirely convincing, spider.

HIDEOUS SCREECHING

Doctor!

The Planet Of The Spiders.

It was very sad. I didn't want him to go.

Please... don't die.

-AS THE DOCTOR:

-A tear, Sarah Jane?

A tear...

Sarah Jane?

Don't cry, don't cry.

And then...

..this regeneration happened.

Well... here we go again.

And so third generated to fourth

and the role of the Doctor was never the same again.

Once Jon Pertwee lays down those tracks, the other Doctors run on it.

They're always a little bit action-y after that.

-Need a car.

-Don't worry,

I commandeered a vehicle.

SIREN WAILS

Have this wonderful comfort, that no matter how dreadful

the aliens were, Jon Pertwee's Doctor would protect you

and you were OK, and you just sort of travelled in his wake.

He didn't pretend to be anything

other than the cleverest man in the room.

Well, I'm 45 years old. So my favourite Doctor is Tom Baker.

HE WHISTLES

Would you like a jelly baby?

I've no choice about that.

Spending seven years in the TARDIS,

Tom Baker's Doctor was the longest serving and the most unpredictable.

You simply don't know what's going to come out of that man's mouth

or what is going on behind those remarkable eyes.

All change at Venus for the Brighton line.

SHE SIGHS HEAVILY, BANG

-Was that bang big enough for you, Brigadier?

-Nicely done, Doctor.

-Tom Baker was eccentric, flamboyant.

-You mustn't believe all they say.

-His eyes!

-Keep looking into my eyes!

And sort of walking around like that. Casting a very big shadow.

He was quite sort of imposing,

quite sort of grand.

-AS TOM BAKER:

-Oh, my God, it's, like, all kicking off and that.

This is, like, so well bad, I'm going to have to totally, like,

-sort this out and that.

-You stay here.

With his playful nature and trademark flowing scarf,

it didn't take long for the fourth Doctor to capture the public's imagination.

Enormous zest.

Bigger than the screen in which he was appearing, and yet it worked.

He embodies, in all its weirdness, what the Doctor is,

what the Doctor means.

-AS TOM BAKER:

-Home sapiens - puny, defenceless bipeds.

They are indomitable!

He bases a lot of his scenes on being four years old.

-Do you think I might attract attention?

-It is just possible.

And probably offer you a jelly baby.

Would you like a jelly baby? Do you care for a jelly baby?

-Would you like a jelly baby?

-Shut up!

It was kind of acceptable back in the day.

You'd be like, "Would you like a sweet?"

Someone would be like, "That's a really lovely gesture."

If you give someone a sweet now, they'd be like,

"No, get away from me, you weirdo.

"That's clearly got something in it."

A simple "no, thank you" would have been sufficient.

After the third Doctor's exile on Earth, this Doctor brought with him

a new sense of adventure.

I can't waste any more time. Things to do, places to go.

He took us on a journey of dark tales in otherworldly universes

which gave his era a Hammer horror feel.

Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!

By the end of Tom Baker's era, he'd defeated more villains

and travelled to more places in time than any other Doctor before him.

And if that wasn't enough,

he was even crowned President of the Time Lords.

I invest you...

Lord President of the Supreme Council.

In the end, the fourth Doctor succumbed to his regeneration

in a suitably heroic fashion -

saving the Earth from his evil nemesis, the Master.

Leaving behind the legacy of creating arguably the most

iconic Doctor of all time.

I think whenever the Doctor's a bit quirky and eccentric,

it makes them more human and more warm and lovable,

and I think Tom Baker definitely had a lot of that about him.

He was completely mesmerising. Full stop, Tom Baker.

It's the end.