What do you think is the most memorable story/episode of Doctor Who with Tom Baker?

Question

What do you think is the most memorable story/episode of Doctor Who with Tom Baker?

Answer 1

Certainly the whole Key to Time arc was of near-epic proportions in places, but I think the most memorable single episode to me is The Sun Makers - anyone who pays taxes can certainly resonate with the oppressed citizens of Pluto. It also didn't hurt that I consider it one of the funniest episodes of the Doctor ever made ("Praise the Company!")...

Answer 2

There are a lot of great 4th Doctor stories, particularly in the early days of the Tom Baker era when the great Phillip Hinchcliffe (producer) and Robert Holmes (Script Editor and chief writer) were in charge.

I think I've mentioned before that seres 13 of Doctor Who didn't have a single below-par story and every one was a classic. The very best 4th Doctor story (and a definite contender for the best ever), however, came in Tom Baker's very first series as the Doctor - series 12. The all-time classic "Genesis of the Daleks".

"Genesis of the Daleks" is third on my list of all-time favourites behind "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" and "The Web of Fear", but I must admit that is probably due to personal nostalgia for those two stories. "Genesis of the Daleks" was quite possibly the best Doctor Who story ever written. The acting was superb from all concerned, and it certainly had higher production values than any other story right up until Doctor Who ended it's original run in 1989. It also has been consistantly voted the best ever Doctor Who story in fan circles (in fanzines, on-line, e.t.c) ever since it was first shown on BBC1 in 1975.

The story of "Genesis of the Daleks" followed on directly from "The Sontaran Experiment", at the end of which the Doctor, Sarah Jane and Harry attempted to return to Space Station Nerva (where they had left the Tardis) by transmat beam.

The Time Lords, however, intercepted the transmat beam and transported the Doctor and his companions to Skaro instead, where they asked the Doctor to undertake a mission for them. I.e. to prevent the Daleks from ever being created. Russel. T Davies, in fact, cites this mission as the root cause of the later Time War between the Time Lords and the Daleks.

The Doctor is at first reluctant to do the Time Lords dirty work for them, but agrees when he finds out what the mission is. The Time Lord who met the Doctor on Skaro gave him a time ring, which would take him and his companions back to space station Nerva to find the Tardis when the mission was complete.

The Doctor and his companions, find themselves in the ruined and war-torn landscape of the planet Skaro, where the Kaleds and the Thals have been at war for thousands of years. At this point, their situation has become so desperate that they have reverted to using primitive projectile weapons, explosives, gas, e.t.c, rather than more high tech weapons. It turns out, however, that both the Kaleds and the Thals are involved in construction "ultimate weapons" which they think will wipe the other side out. The Thals are building a gigantic rocket which they believe can penetrate the Thal dome. Meanwhile, the Kaled scientific corps, under the guidance of their deformed chief scientist Davros, are developing something much more terrifying.

Davros, realised that contamination from the nuclear and biological weapons used in the war was mutating the Kaled race, and artificially accelerated the process to create the ultimate evolutionary end product and ensure the Kaleds survival. In the process, however, unknown to the rest of the corps, he removed what he thought of as "negative emotions" from the mutants (compassion, mercy, kindness, e.t.c), as part of his secret plan to create a life form capable of wiping out all other forms of life. A life form, which he would later name Daleks.

From there, the story involves the Doctor and Harry trying to convince various members of the Kaled scientific elite to assist them against Davros, and Sarah Jane's attempted escape and recapture from the Thal dome with fellow prisoners, but she is eventually rescued by the Doctor and Harry, after they are helped to escape from the Kaled dome by members of the scientific corps that they have convinced to help them.

In the meantime it becomes clear that there is increasing dissent among the scientific corps against Davros, and only his ruthless security officer Nyder, remains loyal. When the Kaled government then calls a halt to Davros's experiments, he decides to take action against both the Thals and his own people. He decides that his Daleks are now ready to take over, and plans to wipe out the entire Kaled and Thal population of Skaro.

In the Thal dome, the Doctor overhears Davros and Nyder having a meeting with the Thal leaders, in which Davros gives them the formula required for their rocket to penetrate the reinforced Kaled dome. The Doctor fails to prevent the rocket from being fired, and the Kaled dome is destroyed, while the scientific corps are safe in their underground bunker. The Thals begin to celebrate, but then Davros orders the Daleks to move in and exterminate them.

The story then involves the Doctor, his companions and a few surviving Kaled and Thal allies, attempting to destroy Davros's Dalek incubator rooms, while avoiding active Dalek patrols.The Doctor and his companions are captured at one point, and Davros forces the Doctor to provide him with details of all the Daleks future defeats. During this interrogation, it becomes clear that Davros is quite prepared to wipe out all life in the Universe. An act which he thinks would "set him above the gods". And he believes that with the Daleks, he will have that power.

The Doctor and his companions, however, escape, and the Doctor sets explosives in the incubator rooms. He has the chance to detroy the Daleks forever, but hesitates due to his ruvulsion at commiting genocide, even againtst the Daleks. He finally decides against it when a member of the scientific corps tell him that they will force Davros to end his experiments.

At a meeting with Davros, they put forward their ultimatum. Meanwhile the Doctor retrieves the time ring and the tape with details of the Dalek defeats (which he destroys with a Dalek gun). Davros summons a Dalek patrol who exterminate everybody at the meeting except Davros and Nyder.

The Doctor sees this on a monitor, and hurries to complete his destruction of the incubators. A patroling Dalek, however, traps the Doctor, but in doing so glides over the detonation wires, and the incubators are destroyed. Meanwhile back in the meeeting room, Davros realises that the Dalek production lines have been started, and asks who gave the order. he believes that only he has the authority to give such an order. The daleks, however, see him as just another inferior being, and exterminate both Davros and Nyder (although Davros survives due to his life support chair keeping him in suspended animation)

In the penultimate scene, a Dalek makes a chilling speech, saying that the will rebuild and consolidate, and when they are ready they will leave their bunker to become the supreme beings of the Universe.

The Doctor, Sarah Jane and Harry grasp the time ring, which transports them through time and space - back to Nerva and the tardis, while the Doctor explains that by destroying the incubator rooms, he has only set the Daleks back by around a thousand years. So the mission is only partially successful.

Answer 3

Off the top of my head, ROBOT comes to mind.  It was his first episode.  The TALONS OF WENG-CHIANG, DEADLY ASSASSIN, LOGOPOLIS, GENESIS OF THE DALEKS, PYRAMIDS OF MARS, and many more.  My personal favorite is HAND OF FEAR.  ELDRAD MUST LIVE!

Answer 4

Although Genesis of the Daleks and Talons of Weng-Chiang are generally regarded as Tom Baker's finest (with good cause), I really think City of Death deserves a mention, the dialogue is fantastic and it's a really great one to introduce people to the old series with as the plot moves along at a great pace.

Also special mention to The Pirate Planet for being the funniest story ever  and to The Invisible Enemy for it's imaginative depiction of the Doctor's mind. And Logopolis, for that really long explanation above....

Answer 5

Whoa!! Too much material there to pick just one.  As the longest serving Doctor so far, the Fourth Doctor has a considerable history of stories to choose from.

I think the story that is generally considered the best from this era is 'Genesis of the Daleks' which is definitely a major story and contains some really important developments in the whole Daleks / Davros story.  

Then there's 'The Deadly Assassin' which sees the Doctor recalled to Gallifrey (and I love any story set on Gallifrey) and he gets caught up in a plot to assassinate the High President of Gallifrey - it's great stuff - and - the Master is back - yay!

And who can forget 'The Robots of Death'?  They are possibly the only aliens/robots in Doctor Who that manage to be insanely creepy and hilariously camp at the same time - not to mention the other humanoids in this story with some really fruity costumes and eye make up!! ; )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHz9NAwfg...

For me though - the most memorable story is Tom Baker's swan song - Logopolis.  In terms of an epic story, Logopolis doesn't really measure up but there are so many elements to it that make it absolutely unforgettable that I think it's definitely one of the most memorable of the Fourth Doctor's stories.

From the opening episode, we're introduced to two pivotal characters - Tegan Jovanka and the Watcher.  Tegan has to be one of the best companions of the classic series.  She is also one of the longest serving companions - staying with the Fifth Doctor almost until the end and she is absolutely unforgettable as a feisty, outspoken air hostess from Brisbane - I think she's quite similar to Donna really - except that from the start Donna really wanted to travel with the Doctor whereas with Tegan she was more reluctant to join the TARDIS crew at first.

I think the Watcher was a great addition to the story.  We're not sure at first if he's a benign character or an adversary - or could he even be the Master???  He appears from time to time as a silent ghostly figure in white who seems to be observing the Fourth Doctor and Adric from afar.  At the end of the story we learn that the Watcher was in fact a vision of the Doctor's future - a warning that his current incarnation was coming to an end.  More about him in a bit ; )

The beginning of Logopolis is concerned with fixing the chameleon circuit on the TARDIS.  The Doctor is tired of the unreliability of the TARDIS and the fact that it is stuck in the shape of a police box.  He decides to materialise the TARDIS around a real police box so that he can obtain its precise measurements in 37 dimensions. With these measurements, he will have the inhabitants of the planet Logopolis produce a mathematical calculation — a block transfer computation — to reset the circuit and fix it. However, the "police box" he materialises around is actually the TARDIS of the Master, who has survived their encounter on the planet Traken and taken the form of Nyssa's father, Tremas (anagram of Master - cute, yes?). When the Doctor materialises around the Master's TARDIS, a recursive loop of TARDISes within TARDISes is formed and the Doctor and Adric are almost lost within it - it's an interesting scene.

Meanwhile the Master has been busy with his handy Tissue Compression Eliminator and has murdered Tegan's aunt and a policeman.

The Doctor eventually arrives in Logopolis with Adric and Tegan and the Logopolitans get to work on fixing the TARDIS with a block transfer computation.  But the Master is already at work on Logopolis and by mucking about with the working of Logopolis by attaching a device to the sonic projectors and setting up a counterwave that brings silence to the Central Registry, preventing the Registers from making their calculations - he causes the entire planet to destroy itself.  The Master is of course - as usual - seeking world domination and manages to destroy part of the universe including Nyssa's home planet Traken.

In the final scene the Master and the Doctor are facing off on a radio telescope and the Doctor succeeds in disconnecting the power cable the Master was using to transmit his message of world domination but in doing so the Doctor falls to his death. This is the scene in which we get the Master's "Peoples of the universe please attend carefully........" speech that John Simm's Master echoed in 'The Sound of Drums' & being the nerd I am, I got really quite excited at this small salute to Logopolis in the new series : )

The regeneration of the Fourth Doctor into the Fifth Doctor is - I think - the best regeneration scene in the entire series (new series included).  It's especially poignant as the Doctor recalls both his enemies and his companions from his fourth incarnation before the mysterious Watcher reappears and Adric, Nyssa and Tegan who are kneeling by the Doctor realise that the Watcher is in fact the Doctor's future incarnation as the Watcher merges with the dying Fourth Doctor to become the lovely Fifth Doctor : )

Have a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf2peBPTU...

Logopolis features the newly "regenerated" Master and is the second story in a trilogy featuring the return of the Master.  Anthony Ainley portrays the character brilliantly and for me, he's the best Master of all.  He is quite sinister and a brilliant villain and he has this truly chilling & macabre laugh as well.  This story also brings together the Fifth Doctor's main group of companions - Tegan, Nyssa and Adric who I think were the best bunch of companions in the classic series - they were all very different and likeable in their own way and they worked really well with the Fifth Doctor.

So for me, since I first watched Logopolis on a borrowed VHS video as a kid, it has been one of my absolute favourites from the classic series, completely unforgettable and just brilliant really ; )