3 questions on this thread that I'm hoping you lovely lot might discuss...

1. Who read this 'last interview' of Tom Baker in 'Who Magazine' ( link below ) and why might he say 'I'll be dead quite soon' - I hope that's just Tom being glib I really do

http://www.doctorwho.tv/whats-new/ar...-who-magazine/

2. Who on here bought the original copy issue number 1 - Doctor Who Weekly? .. I did and wish I'd have kept it now. Think I had the first 30 magazines.

3. - unrealated, but in Tom last story Logopolis - Has the Watcher ever been explained. It seems so out of kilter with other Regenerations and I'd love to know if it has a back story - even if just in comic form... ?

I think there are parallels with K'anpo Rimpoche/Cho Je from Planet of the Spiders. Both characters appear in the early episodes of this story but by the end of the story, K'anpo has regenerated into Cho Je. Its then revealed that the "Cho Je" seen earlier in the story was a future projection of K'anpo's next incarnation.

Or something.

Anyway, I think that's basically what The Watcher was - a future projection of the 5th Doctor although he's all blurry and white.

Hope he's jesting but at his age you never know.

He is 82, Logic would say he will die quite soon, He has been around 82 years so when you take that into account 5 years is "quite soon".

Tom has always had a thing about death etc so at his current age its not really a shock he is talking about death

1. I think that, yes, that was probably Tom being glib. At least, I hope so too! He seems to have a humorous obsession with his own - and other people's - mortality. He often makes comments on DVD commentaries along the lines of how most people who work with him die soon afterwards! And didn't he have a little part-time job at one point tending his local churchyard? I'm sure I read that somewhere. Anyway, what Tom said in the interview was a very "Tom" thing to say.

2. I bought the first copy of Doctor Who Weekly - "Fantastic First Issue!" or something - and continued to buy it for years, long after it had become Doctor Who Monthly. I had quite a collection and, for the life of me, can't remember what happened to it. I wish I still had them, though, for sentimental reasons as much as anything else. I'm a hoarder by nature but have the occasional clearout, some of which I go on to regret.

(I wish I still had the first issue of 2000 AD too, although less for sentimental reasons than monetary ones if I'm being honest!)

3. I always thought that The Watcher was some kind of premonition giving The Doctor forewarning of his impending doom, some kind of entity between his fourth and fifth incarnations. Not sure how the companions worked out that "so he was The Doctor all the time" but the script needed somebody to "explain" it to the viewer, I suppose.

Yeah i remember reading years ago he has his coffin stored in his shed in readiness. He is quite odd in this respect

Thought it was a headstone?

May well be to be fair. At least 12 year since i read it

Sounds like the moment has been prepared for.

Pure gold

I think he said that in his autobiography .


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1. No, haven't read it.

2. Yes, still got it with transfers still attached.

3. Always thought it was the projected ethereal image of the Fifth Doctor

I have every issue of DWM. I stopped buying it for a few years in the mid 80's but then started again and picked up my missing issues from a proper collectibles trader in Reading long before the days of eBay. Unfortunately I made use of the transfers with the first few issues but then, I was 10 years old

I have all issues of Doctor Who Weekly.

Gave up on Monthly after a couple of years.

It does seem a little morbid of him to call it is his final interview, and remark that he thinks he won't be around too long.

[quote=doctor blue box; It does seem a little morbid of him to call it is his final interview, and remark that he thinks he won't be around too long.[/QUOTE]

Not really.

How many interviews does he actually do? Not that many I would have thought.

Mainly he would do them to publicize something while he is doing some Star Wars work its not going to need much publicity so what with that and due to his age he prob not doing that much travelling its perfectly logical.

I was just trying to say that I feel a bit sorry for anyone who is in a mindset where they feel they are almost staring death in the face.

At 82 I not sure its a mindset its more of acceptance of you have more behind you then in front of you more so when you have had an obsession (maybe a better word would be fascination) with death.

I never knew that about his fascination on the subject until reading this thread.

Learn something new every day.

It's supposed to be quite a peaceful feeling, I hear. No more worrying about the future or fearing death, just embracing acceptance and living in the moment.

Nice that he and Lalla Ward are working together again at Big Finish (at least, I assume they record their lines on the same day). I remember Tom wrote the most lovely tribute to Elisabeth Sladen when she passed away. They were also lined up to do some 4th Doctor/Sarah Jane Big Finish adventures. That would have been amazing.

I loved that interview! There's a real feeling of poignancy to some of it, and Tom seems genuinely moved by the love he receives from his fans. People get more sentimental as they get older, I spose. I bumped into him last summer outside Charing Cross Station, when I was walking along The Strand. I rushed up to speak to him and felt quite choked as I spoke to Doctor Who. He shook my hand, and muttered "oh my dear chap" . As our eyes met, there was a strange of emotion. It was quite a moving moment for me, and I felt it was for him too. (That might just be a load of old cobblers, sorry). As Tom gets older, so his interviews become less clouded with anecdotes and more genuine. We're so lucky to have him, and that last interview was a beaut.

Oh chuffnobbler, that last post nearly had me in tears too! What a lovely thing to have happened.

I to this day still have the first issue. In fact I have the first 400 issues.

I think I gave up around into Matt Smith's final year as the Doctor.

Cant remember the issue but the one that was a double page with Daleks on the front was the first one I didnt get.

I missed a chance to meet Tom once when he went past me as he was working in theatre in the town near to where I live. I was gutted I didn't meet him.