86 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
86 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
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I LIKED DOCTOR WHO
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BECUASE IT WAS
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FUN, FUN, FUN!
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By Tom Baker
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I was terribly out of work when I got the Doctor Who job. I was
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temporarily on a building site when the BBC asked me. A few weeks later
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some of the men went out to buy the racing edition of the Standard
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and there was my picture on the front page. The BBC had told me not to
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tell anyone. Thos men just couldn't believe it, their cement mixer
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becoming Doctor Who.
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Adjusting to the role was not easy to begin with. I had to remember
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that I did not have an existence as Tom Baker. Apart from my close
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friends and colleagues, everybody called my the Doctor. Even children
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in push-chairs pointed at me in the street. I became very aware that
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they were not looking at Tom Baker, but at this image they had of the
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character. It was important to me, therefore, that I never disappoint
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people, especially children. I would never be seen being raucous in
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the streets or smoking cigars.
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One of my surprising things about playing that Doctor was the range of
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the audience. Although I first thought of it as a children's programme,
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not a childish programme I hasten to add, there was also a bug adult
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audience. I was astonished to be invited to places like St. John's and
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Somerville Colleges at Oxford and I spoke to absolutely packed halls. If I
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had accepted all the invitations I received I could have been going to
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universities three or four times a week!
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I went to one of the Doctor Who conventions in Los Angeles. These
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people were coming up with theories about the Doctor I could not
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understand. I asked them what they wanted and they all wanted the same
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thing. Would I take them with me in the TARDIS? It was very strange.
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Another occasion, I remember, I was returning with a colleague from
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Blackpool on a Saturday afternoon and I wanted to see the episode being
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shown that day. So we stopped at a televsion shop and asked if we could
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watch the programme. The assistant said she was just closing, but we
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could go to her house nearby and see it. When we got there we found her
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two children glued to the programme which had just started. I sat down
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quietly. Suddenly one of the children looked across at me. The he looked
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back at the set. The he looked back at me again. He couldn't believe
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his eyes!
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The Doctor isn't really an acting part. It's a matter of being inventive
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enough to project credibility to scenes which aren't credible. The
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programme is like a hovercraft - on a fine line all the time. You don't
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dare touch the ground. I think it must have been the part of the Doctor
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that kept me fresh and young. All that fantasy is good for the mind,
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you know.
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In the end it was not hard to leave the programme. I felt it in my
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finger-tips that the time had come to move over and give someone else
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a chance. There was nothing more I could do with it. I really like Doctor
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Who becuase it was all fun, fun, fun! There's so much nastiness in the
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world, so much violence and horrow, I want to keep away fro ir, bury
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myself in make-believe.
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I think the biggest bores in the hero business are James Bond, Kojak,
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Callan and footballers. They're non-people who do nothing but kick other
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people. One wouldn't want to have them round for tea. the Doctor doesn't
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shoot anybody, drink, beat up women, but somehow he has a heroic appeal
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to children.
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I am very please and proud to have been a little part of history.
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Tom Baker
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January 1983
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