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Doctor Who the Handbook: The Fourth Doctor (Dr Who Handbooks)

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Tom Baker, for being the most popular actor ever to portray Dr. Who, has also stayed out of the sportlight. This book combines episode guides with collected interviews to form a facinating look at Baker's era as the Doctor. Really THE essential book on Tom's era as the Doctor

"Doctor Who: the Handbook"--a somewhat plain and generic title, but this handy little tome is after all just what it says it is: a trade-paperback sized reference for the dedicated Doctor Who fan. One of a seven-volume set each of which focuses on a particular Doctor of what has now come to be called the classic series, this one of course covers the Tom Baker years, a particularly definitive era for the long-running sci-fi program.

For its unassuming size, the book packs a lot of interesting information and this from a number of angles. Excerpts from interviews with Tom Baker on everything from his early life and acting career to his many thoughts on different aspects of his tenure as the Doctor start things off; this alone is worth the price of the book, as these many comments are taken from vastly scattered sources, including newspapers, magazines, and fanzines now all but inaccessible to all but the most obsessively diligent scrapbook keeper. Then a brief overall account of this period in the show's history puts everything in context, followed by a summary of each storyline with associated facts, observations, and comments (the latter of which are a bit critical sometimes but seem fair and balanced overall, as these things go anyway). After this comes a number of sections zeroing in on particular facets of the show: the succession of producers and their differing approaches to the program, the nuts-and-bolts making of the show using "The Brain of Morbius" as an example, the development of special effects, the ups and downs of location filming, and the show's impact on popular culture more generally (including its rising profile in the realm of barely reputable British tabloids--no publicity is bad publicity?).

As the book was published in the early 1990's before the advent of the internet and DVDs, some aspects of it are just a bit retroactively obsolete. The story summaries and related data can mostly be found online nowadays and the remarks by the director and set designer on the filming of "Morbius" read like the old-fashioned equivalent of a DVD commentary track. Still, if you ever desperately need to look up the author of "Meglos" during a power outage, this book's got you covered. With that in mind, though, the majority of the book is full of fascinating information, amusing anecdotes, enlightening reminiscences, and nuanced overviews of the show's history and development that all stand the test of time nicely. The authors also demonstrate throughout a balanced view of the constraints under which the "Doctor Who" creative team worked and a fair and realistic sense of the varying audiences to which they needed to appeal--diehard fans, casual viewers, and everything in-between. In general they strike a tone that's appreciative and positive without being gushingly overenthusiastic. This is the kind of reference book that one can just sit back and enjoy reading at one's leisure, a nifty behind-the-scenes look for anyone who loves the show and wants to know more about it.

Tom Baker was the first Doctor that I watched, and for me he will always be THE Doctor of the original series. This book has great quotes from him on all sorts of subjects, which in itself is worth the cost of the book. The dedicated Tom Baker fan can clearly hear him making these comments. The book also includes details of every episode and fascinating information about behind-the-scenes decisions, in particular special effects and location shooting.

This book is great for info on the stories and behind the scenes details about the 4th doctor (Tom Baker) and his companions.