Hi all,

Tom Baker is probably my favourite Doctor but during his 7 years in Doctor Who, I heard he was difficult to work with and he would often throw scripts at writers if he didn’t like them. What actually happened behind the scenes and which writers did he not get on with. Any stories about it would be appreciated.

Thanks.

I read across various interviews and articles that he loved working with Elisabeth Sladen and, after she left, didn't want a new companion.

I am sure I have read interviews with Louise Jameson (Leela) and Mary Tamm (Romana 1) where they say he was difficult to work with. However I think they were both fond of him later on. I've also read that Matthew Waterhouse was a little bit frightened of him!

He famously hated K9 and was regularly grouchy around scenes that he had to interact with him.

Tom started to be difficult to work with after Hinchcliffe left. When Williams took over, Baker wanted more control over scripts. He also didn't like the character of Leela. If he didn't like a script, he would chuck it over the room. When Adams took over as script editor, the increase in humour was more evident in season 17. When JNT took over, he wanted to reign Tom in, to be more serious. He also fell out with Lalla Ward on set after they got married. He was difficult to work with at that time.

Suddenly, this makes a lot more sense - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMQ7X3wauRQ

Baker got on well with John Lesson who did the voice of K9, he just hated the prop,

Love that. Capaldi would have hated K9 and swore at him as well.

Tom's life was quite chaotic at the time: his autobiography hints at it, but there are plenty of stories about him drinking too much and sofa-surfing through the late 70s.

His relationship with Lalla was very stormy. Matthew Waterhouse's book is fascinating on the subject. Louise Jameson often talks about how she felt Tom hated her, and it's only in recent years that they have become close. Graham Williams was beaten into submission by Tom, and John Nathan-Turner's very firm and no-nonsense approach brought some of the worst excesses under control. There are numerous stories about him describing a script as "shit" and throwing it out of the window. He verbally attacked actors who were (in his opinion) under-prepared for the show (I think he had a row with John Abbott in Fang Rock). He would often argue with directors.

Tom was pretty wild, and took it out on people all around him. He was probably quite unpleasant, back in the day.

Hinchcliffe got the best out of Baker. Williams struggled to control him and JNT went to far in taking out the humour.

His on-set arguments with Lalla Ward actually happened before they got married! (although they were in a relationship). Apparently their subsequent announcement that they were getting married stunned everybody who'd seen their on-set behaviour.

There's an interesting section in the Horror of Fang Rock DVD commentary where Louise Jameson highlights a scene which was a turning point in her relationship with Tom. She insisted that a scene be done in the way they had rehearsed it, despite Tom's consistent refusal to do so. Eventually she got her way and their relationship started to take a turn for the better, so much so that by the end of her time in the programme they weren't getting on as badly as before.

If there's anything that can be taken from this story, it would seem to be that, as happens with many people of a controlling (or, some may say, bullying) nature, all it takes is for someone else to stand up to them to knock them down a peg or two. Obviously, by this point Tom's position as the star of the show was so great that there probably weren't so many people who felt they were able to stand up to him so good for Louise for doing so.

Tom's on record as saying he regrets the way he behaved during this period and it should go without saying that using one's position to throw one's weight about and belittle others is reprehensible (and, sadly, something which still occurs in many workplaces today) but to a certain extent much of Tom's behaviour (throwing scripts away, arguing with directors) could be seen as a measure of how responsibly he took the role and how much he cared about the programme. Whether his vision of the programme, were it to have fully been realised (talking cabbages, anyone?), would necessarily have been a good thing is another matter entirely!
Last edited by brouhaha : 27-01-2015 at 17:24

Horror of Fang Rock is an interesting one. As well as his confrontation with Louise Jameson (and his row with John Abbott), he was very set against the director, Paddy Russell.

There's a scene that begins with the Doctor and Leela walking into the common room of the lighthouse, and Tom insisted on running into the room. Paddy asked that he not, be he insisted. Eventually, she let him carry on as he liked and kept the camera on Leela.

Paddy Russell was also the director on Pyramids of Mars who insisted that Tom wear the Mummy costume for the sequence where the Doctor disguises himself as a Mummy.

In both instances, Paddy Russell won over Tom. Maybe part of the issue is that she's a woman? I may be over-thinking that, though.

Another Fang Rock problem is that it was made in Brum rather than London. Tom was not happy about having to go out to the provinces. All-in-all, it was an unhappy experience for all involved. One of my favourite stories though.

^^^^^ Mind you - I gather that Paddy Russell was quite a horrific director altogether!
On the commentary of Pyramids - even Lis Sladen sounded like she didn't like her. And Paddy said on the commentary that this was the only story she liked working on (she was also seperated from the other commenters, and was 'slotted' in at certain points!!).
Says a lot methinks

He was easier to work with than Hartnell, who was an absolute pain by all accounts.

Yes he almost certainly was a **** back then with a huge ego,I think he is probably a much nicer person to be around now.
He famously wouldn't do the 5 Doctors back in the day but interestingly enough when Big finish were doing their 50th stuff he was pressing them to be involved and insisting it should be a Multi Doctor story and was apparently very keen that everybody should get their spotlight.

I think Paddy's separate on the DVD cos she's quite unwell and is in her 90s, so they recorded bits at her home rather than lug her into the studio.

Oh, I didn't know that. But she still seemed to be a bit of a pain regarding the actors in her day!

I met Tom Baker in the early 80's - I was a hotel porter, 17 years old and sold him 'The Times' at the reception desk. I was so in awe of him I couldn't speak! He was very sombre and just sat in a corner quietly reading. I sooo wanted to go across and ask for his autograph - but he seemed so scary! I think he was filming that ITV series 'The Book Tower' at the time.

I'm such a geek I always clock the scene in Fang Rock where Tom makes a completely unnecessarily abrupt entrance!

Said before I think Tom was at his least consistent in his fourth year. Huge success in the role, egomania, change of producer, losing Elisabeth Sladen, personal life....we all know he liked to imbibe. Quite a lot. Probably a, er, cocktail of all those things made him a trickier customer after the Hinchcliffe era.

Still....Season 16, City of Death, performances in Season 18 stories like Full Circle and Warrior's Gate; I forgive him! Seems most people who were there at the time have too. Which is

It's no secret that Tom was a pain in the a*rse as his tenure went on. But he is the first to admit it and he seems genuinely sorry for it now. But as someone who works in TV, I daresay he was no worse than some actors I've worked with!

Tom Baker used to terrify me when I watched Dr. Who as a kid. I remember my parents thought it was the monsters I was scared of but in fact it was Tom Baker. I got Tom Baker's autograph 15 years ago (which was a nervous experience) while he was promoting his book The Boy Who Kicked Pigs.

Here is some videos of the studio highlights of Shada, It is quite amusing seeing Tom Baker go into tantrums.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foPQrT1DW-A

Well according to http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Tom_Baker, it says this, and I quote:

"When John Nathan-Turner became producer of Doctor Who in 1980, Baker, Lalla Ward and Christopher H. Bidmead all angrily protested Nathan-Turner's decisions to take Doctor Who in a different direction. Baker never liked Nathan-Turner. Tom Baker also disliked Matthew Waterhouse and Janet Fielding, although the three became friends years later."

So, that was the reason Tom left in March 1981. He couldn't get on with JNT, and the changes that Nathan-Turner made happen. Also, I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but Tom doesn't look at Matthew much at all during the Fourth Doctor's last stories.

Tom, by this stage, handed in his resignation every year only to be asked to stay. I think like many charismatic actors he was a strange mix between egotist and insecure. When he offered his resignation to JNT he got a yes straight away.

Now, there are many factors involved here. I read not so long ago that Tom was still involved in trying to get a movie made as late as 1979. Also, he and Graham Williams had an argument and Tom threatened to quit (or perhaps actually quit) and Williams's boss told him to sort it and it was Tom's name people recognised and cared about, not Williams's. Had S18 been getting the same kind of ratings as previous years then JNT might have been persuaded to try to keep Tom but ratings were pretty poor in comparison to previous years so a change was inevitable.

Its true that Baker didnt get on with JNT while working on the show, but they became good friends a few years after Baker left. JNT wanted to cast his own Doctor anyway so I think the writing was on wall for Baker as soon as JNT was appointed producer.

One other thing that I don't think people have properly cast light on is the stress and strain of physically exhausting production schedules of a TV show 9 months of the year (and attending conventions, signings, having the press and general public watching his every move when going about his business on top).
Some people naturally would cope better with this than others, but by 1978, Tom had been doing it for as long as the three previous actors, but unlike those three, had no intention of leaving at that point (even though he consistently threatened to). So it is possible that the workload of Doctor Who was rubbing off on Tom and Tom took this out on everyone else involved by snapping at them and acting like an arsehole on top of developing egotistical problems as a result of being a national TV star.

Not by all accounts: Peter Purves and Carole Ann Ford (for instance) tell a different story.

Well, from what we see in An Adventure In Space and Time, Hartnell could be grumpy and irritable behind the scenes.

Mark Gatiss's DW drama seems to depict William Hartnell as being okay-ish on set, but grumpy and difficult behind the scenes. For example, when he meets Verity Lambert and Waris Hussein for the first time, for a read-through of the AUC script, he says that he doesn't like it and gets irritable.