Now we come to in my opinion, the face of Doctor Who, he may not be my favourite Doctor, but the Fourth Doctor to me is the most iconic Doctor of all time, admittedly a debatable topic between him and David Tennant, the two certainly are the most iconic of their generations. But Tom Baker does win out with the mileage and being a part of the most successful period in the show’s history, the golden age as many called it. Lasting seven years, longer than any other Doctor and an era that went through multiple styles over the years, starting off by carrying over from the Pertwee-UNIT style, before shifting into gothic horror, then morphing into more of a comedy show before settling into sombre sci-fi in his final year. There’s a lot to recommend so let’s begin.
The Ark in Space - Baker’s first recorded episode as the Doctor and boy does he approach it like someone who’d already been playing the role for years, The Ark in Space as many have pointed out is basically Doctor Who does Alien but four years beforehand!
Genesis of the Daleks - Of course this was gonna be here! No recommendation list for the Fourth Doctor feels complete without the most well recognised episode of Classic Who, it’s eent television unlike any other with the effects still rippling out in Doctor Who today! It’s true succes come from how organic it crafts this origin story for the Daleks, fleshing out and giving more depth to Skaro, their ancestors and the war against the Thals. Villain origin stories often have a tendancy to crowbar in everything we already know about the villains and what makes them popular, but Genesis of the Daleks show a lot of restraint and brings the Daleks to life in a very natural way.
Terror of the Zygons - The Brigadier’s last full time appearance in the show and he bids farewell in a great season opener, we’re introduced to the titular Zygons which for the time were some of the best monster makeup works the show had ever done, they still look amazing today.
Pyramids of Mars - Sutekh cements himself as an all-time great villain, literally without so much as lifting a hand! That scene with him face to face with the Doctor is one of the most intense in the show’s history and one of Baker’s best performances, really selling how powerful this god-like being is through sheer terror and helplessnes.
The Brain of Morbius - My favourite part of The Brain of Morbius was when the giant brain said “It’s Morbin’ time!” and then proceeded to morb all over Tom Baker! And then Matt Smith came in to do a shirtless dance!
The Seeds of Doom - This was one of my earliest experiences of Classic Who and it stuck with me so much as a kid, as an adult it’s only gotten better. Even the best Classic Who stories have the occasionaly hammy or bad acting, but The Seeds of Doom is one of the most well performed episodes the show’s ever done; featuring a great guest appearance from John Challis, surprisingly not playing the rich snob as he’d excel at in another TV classic!
The Deadly Assassin - My one issue with The Deadly Assassin was that it remade the Time Lords into the worst version of themselves. Fans have complained for years about how pathetic and non-threatening the Time Lords became after such an awesome first appearance in The War Games, and this is the episode that started it. But with that aside, it’s still a great story, featuring the return of the Master in his first new incarnation and the Doctor going solo for the first time in the show’s history.
The Robots of Death - Giving the story goes for a whodunnit type plot, the title is more than a little ridiculous! The whole “robots go mad and start killing people” premise may be offputting to those who’ve seen this kind of story time and time again, but I’d say this is one of the best in that category. Not to mention it includes the sickest burn the Doctor’s ever dished out (you’ll know it when you hear it)
Horror of Fang Rock - With Hinchcliffe stepping away as showrunner, the Fourth Doctor era took a bit of a hit in terms of quality, adopting more a silly tone to appease the overbearing parents. But Hinchcliffe gets one last hurrah in one of Doctor Who’s most gothic and darkest stories as the Doctor and Leela are trapped in a lightouse with a group of terrified humans as a thick fog rolls in and something out there is picking them off one by one
The Pirate Planet - The sudden shift to a more comedic show was a huge downgrade from the Hinchcliffe era, mainly beacuse those involved didn’t know how to do it well, but when the legend himself Douglas Adams was brought in, he managed to find that right balance of good humour and The Pirate Planet marks a significant improvement in the show. One of the most insane episodes with some of show’s the most glorious overacting to date.
City of Death - Doctor Who’s peak in terms of viewing figures with over 16 million views for part four, a feat not even the 50th anniversary special achieved. Of course there’s the semantics of there only being a couple chanels at the time but all the same, City of Death earns it’s place in Doctor Who history and gives us one of the show’s cleverest and wittiest scripts of all time. It’s Tom Baker at his very best, you can tell he’s just having a blast every moment he’s onscreen.
Shada - City of Death may have been the best episode written by Douglas Adams, but Shada is hands down Douglas Adams’ magnum opus, the legendary lost episode fully restored only a few years back. Unlike most lost episodes in TV shows with so much hype going into them, this one doesn’t dissapoint, and cutting out all the cliffhanger openings and end credits give this the vibe of watching a Doctor Who movie
Logopolis - Anyone who’s watched Season 18 can tell that Tom Baker was just looking to get out by this point, you can clearly see that his heart isn’t in it like it used to be. But for his final outing, he gives it his all one last time, it really hits hard when you watch through the Fourth Doctor era in its entirety and finally come to this episode and the episode is even aware of that point with the flashbacks during his regeneration. We also get the debut of Anthony Ainley as the Master and he just owns this role with his cat-like sinisterness
The Old Rogue - Going to Volume 4 of the Big Finish Short Trips range, The Old Rogue centres on a cafe owner who was once one of the most powerful and evil dictators in the galaxy, now he’s serving sausage and chips and battling rodents and health inspectors as the Doctor pops in occassionaly to rub it in his face.
The Foe from the Future - Tom Baker makes his grand first appearance in Big Finish with one of The Lost Stories, once you’ve listened to it you’ll know right away that budget was the reason this never made it to TV, it would’ve looked utterly ridiculous had they event attempted to film this for the show (think The Web Planet but bigger). But in audio form it’s such an enjoyable listen and another story that kind of feels like it would’ve made for a great Doctor Who movie (with a movie budget obviously)
The Wrath of the Iceni - Getting special treatment of having his own series, the first series of the Fourth Doctor Adventures features a true standout story for Leela as she meets a fellow warrior in Boudica in the midst of her rebellion. It’s a great tale of how even a rebellion against an oppressive empire can have its own dark side.
The Crooked Man - I can’t say too much as the real joy of this story comes from a surprise reveal resulting in a great cliffhanger that makes this a sequel to one of Classic Who’s best.
The Doctor’s First XI - This is another subscriber only Short Trips that comes alongside The Architects of History, if you haven’t bought anything from the Monthly Range in 2010 I recommend getting a bundle pack with The Architects of History, 2010 was one of their best years and you get this great bonus story where the Doctor and Romana go through a bit of a Heaven Sent kind of dilemma where they play a very very very long game.
Requiem for the Rocket Men - Technically part one of a two parter, but it is enough of it’s own story to stand on it’s own, and honestly the follow up is nowhere near as good. John Dorney and Matt Fitton do a lot of tandem work but sadly Fitton is the weaker writer of the two. Dorney on the other hand delivers a stellar entry to the Fourth Doctor Adventures where for once, it’s the villains who are on the back foot right from the start, but it’s played out in a very satisfying way
The Paradox Planet/Legacy of Death - If you’ve listened to enough of Jonathan Morris’s works you’ll notice his stories incorporate some kind of playing about with time element, so of course he was the right person for a story of this magnitude, the Doctor and Romana being caught up in a war an entire civilisation is waging, on it’s own past! It’s gen X vs gen Z at it’s most bloodiest!
The Trouble with Drax - John Dorney channels his inner Douglas Adams with a story that’s a true love letter to his writing with the Time Lord con artist, Drax, executing his grandest scheme yet, one he’s spent literally all his lives preparing for!
Sound the Siren and I’ll Come to You Comrade - Taking a darker turn now, we have a story set in a soviet nuclear testing ground as the Doctor and Leela are picked up by Russian troops to be taken to their bunker, but something else has spooked the soldiers as among the wasteland, something is stalking them. The only problem I have is that it is a short story, this would’ve been perfect for a full length release
A Full Life - One of the more depressing stories Big Finish has done, this features a whopping twist halfway through that for a while when I first heard it I was waiting for the miracle save to be revealed, except this time that never comes and we’re left with Matthew Waterhouse putting in his best work as Adric
How to Win Planets and Influence People - Switching to something a bit cheerier, we have the meddlesome Monk delivering a presentation to a conference of war-like aliens on how to conquer the Earth and what to do in the event of the Doctor turning up. It’s Rufus Hound at his most entertaining as with each retelling of his humiliating defeats at the Doctor’s hands he struggles more and more to keep his composure.
The Haunting of Malkin Place - This hits all the right notes at being an effective ghost story, but not entirely in a horror sense, more of the grief and guilt that comes from dealing with ghosts
The Skin of the Sleek/The Thief Who Stole Time - An epic two part finale to the sixth series of the Fourth Doctor Adventures, with Lalla Ward delivering one of her strongest performances as Romana in a story that’s very personal to her
Night of the Vashta Nerada - Our opening story to Classic Doctors New Monsters Volume 2, the Doctor finds himself in a deserted amusement park planet where all the workers and visitors have seemingly vanished. Joining him in solving the mystery are a team of mercenaries who let’s just say are all coincidentally one day away from retirement
The Crowmarsh Experiment - Admittedly it’s a story we’ve all come across before in other shows and we know how it usually plays out, a lead character being knocked out mid-adventure and waking up to a world that tells them over and over again that their old life was nothing but a dream. We’ve all come across this before but in fairness it’s rarely done wrong and this one keeps up that tradition.
Erasure - More focused on one of Big Finish’s top tier characters Narvin as he recounts a story of how he first met the Doctor. Narvin’s one of Doctor Who’s best evolved characters, first appearing as an antagonist but gradually over the years shifting to a more heroic figure, and here he looks back shamefully on his early years in the CIA and gives us a glimpse into the darker side of how the Time Lords maintain their power
The Diary of River Song Volume 4 - Again, like New Recruits, this one’s a very fun set as River is in an uphill battle against a race that have mastered time travel and now use it with complete disregard to the web of time. Eventually bringing in the Doctor to help save the universe but even he may not be enough to set things right.
I Am the Master - More a story that features the Fourth Doctor, but unqeustionably one of the Master’s best, both written and performed by Geoffrey Beevers, he really shows how well he understands the character of the Master and how he relishes every evil second of this story.
The Perfect Prisoners - Series 8 of the Fourth Doctor Adventures is not one of the best in the range, in fact I’d say this story is what saves it from being the worst. Series 8 really doesn’t deserve having a finale this good, especially one that harkens back to all the prior (and meh to rubbish) episodes of the series. But it’s a great payoff nonetheless with a huge twist reveal with our original audio companion Ann Kelso and her ties to another former companion of the Doctor from whole lifetimes ago.
The Comic Strip Adaptations Volume 1 - Very poorly named as there’s been no volume 2 in the near six years since this came out. Maybe it’s down to licensing and rights issues but I’d really love to see Big Finish have anothe rcrack at this concept, there’s a lot of milage you can get from some of Doctor Who’s best comics. This set features two highlights of the Fourth Doctor comics, The Iron Legion and The Star Beast, both with Tom Baker putting in his most energetic performance since joining Big Finish and The Star Beast being much more enjoyable than the onscreen adaptation.
Chase the Night - We return to E Space where the Doctor, Romana and Adric find themselves on a train that’s constantly running away from rising sun as the heat is so intense it burns all life on the planet. It surpisingly gets a bit Last of Us in it’s second half but it leads to quite a well done conclusion
The Quest of the Engineer - This wraps up the E Space series of the 4DAs quite satisfactoraly with one of the range’s best villains
Shadow of the Sun - A very significant story being among the first to be recorded and released during the 2020 Lockdown, a very special treat from Big Finish to help brighten (no pun intended) fans’ moods during those early dark days.
The Fourth Doctor Adventures Series 10 Volume 1 - A great first half to mark ten years of the Fourth Doctor’s return to Big Finish. Featuring a very entertaining opener that pulls a surprise twist in being a sequel to The Sun Makers, though addmitedly that may go over some people’s heads. Then followed up with a more dramtic tale about the Doctor trying to escape from a fixed point in time that came as the result of his people’s most shameful actions.
The Tribulations of Thaddeus Nook - Another fun entry to Series 10 where the Doctor pursues a time travelling Del Boy who’s set up a travel tour business through history.
The Doomsday Contract - Another entry in The Lost Stories and one that would’ve fit perfectly with the Douglas Adams era, loaded with Douglas level humour as the Doctor faces one his greatest challenges yet, courtroom beuracracy
Watchers - The second of the Audio Novels and one written and narrated by Matthew Watterhouse. Serving as a penultimate story (or close to one anyway) for the Fourth Doctor’s life, the two time travellers find themselves stranded in a graveyard of time ships. But they’re not the only ones stranded as they’ll meet many friendly and not so friendly faces both new and old.
Blood of the Time Lords - Putting the terrible behaviour of the actor for our lead villain to one side, I honestly always found James Dreyfus to be kinda boring as the Master, he always felt like A Master rather than THE Master. And let’s be honest, the only reason his Master even exists is cos Big Finish hadn’t yet decided to use Jon Culshaw as the Delgado Master. But, I will give the man credit, he does give a good performance in this one, at least I wasn’t falling asleep this time round. But Blood of the Time Lords is a great story regardless, very reminiscent of In the Name of the Rose as it takes place at a vast Time Lord monastery where a wave of murders is taking place among the eldest and wisest residents.
The Dreams of Avarice - This one features an incarnation to one of Big Finish’s best triumphs, the Eleven, a Time Lord who surffers from a rare condition where all his previous lives continue to exist and speak through him, think Smeagol if he had ten Gollums in his head! This story features the Nine voiced by John Hefferman, the kleptomaniac of the collective who’s plotting his biggest heist yet. This villain’s always fun to be around and the Nine especially is one of the more entertaining versions.
Angels & Demons - The second volume of Series 12, featuring a new original companion in Margaret Hopwood, unlike the one with Ann Kelso, this series is mostly not disappointing all the way through. Featuring a tense Weeping Angel story called Stone Cold (does not feature the Texas Rattlesnake sadly!) and a wonderfully emotional farewell to Margater in The Ghost of Margaret
The Box of Terrors - A bonus Audio Novel to celebrate not only the show’s 60th anniversary but also 50 years since The Three Doctors with a story that acts as a worthy sequel. The Third and Fourth Doctors are brought together to once more battle Omega, but on this occassion, they’re both travelling with their respective Sarah-Jane Smiths! This one’s got loads of surprise extra characters involved so I won’t give much away but it’s an absolute blast of a story.
Morbius - My favoruite part of Morbius was whe-no wait, I already did that! But seriously, the first trilogy in Dark Gallifrey is a great reinvention of the Time Lord dictator Morius in a story that takes clear influence from Dracula. This is more Morbius’s story than the Fourth Doctor’s, but he is a more than welcome precense.
And that’s my list for the Fourth Doctor, as always do leave your own recommendtions as well as anything you agree or disagree with. See you all tomorrow for Five!