feeling listless

Who? Tom Baker's Doctor Who being menaced by some Daleks. Scary.
Why? I never hid behind the sofa. I couldn’t – it was against the wall. But I still didn’t cower being any kind of lounge furniture. ‘Doctor Who’ never scared me. I always saw through its inherent fakeness, unable to suspend my disbelief. I had seen ‘Blade Runner’ (that frightened me so much I puked) and the realism on display there had killed my capacity for seeing the TARDIS as anything but a few round bits of plastic stuck on some hardboard. But I was born in the early seventies. I only caught the tail end of Tom’s last season. I was being enthralled by Peter Davison, then Colin Baker. I missed the golden age. I missed seeing ‘Genesis of the Daleks’, ‘City of Death’ and ‘The Horns of Nimon’ the first time around. I never saw Tom Baker in his prime, as he appears in this photo, vital and surprising, alien yet familiar. Yet another of life’s tragedies I suppose.  Happily I have been here for the resurgence: since the appearance on ‘Have I Got News For You’ he’s been managing to find steady work outside the convention circuit -- something we should all be grateful for. I know he’ll never be The Doctor again, but could someone please give him a detective series exploring unusual happenings? The old bluffer is still in there, you know …
first appeared November 2001; finally