History Characters / DoctorWhoFourthDoctor

* ArchEnemy: Davros and the Master[[note]]Mainly the decaying incarnation played by Peter Pratt and Geoffrey Beevers, but also did battle with the Anthony Ainley incarnation[[/note]].

* BadassBaritone: He has an unusual, velvety voice about an octave deeper than all of the other Doctors. For the most part this is used to make the Doctor seem more commanding and suggest a gravitas he might otherwise disguise — yeah, he comes in dressed in a ridiculous outfit handing out sweets and smiling at people, but no one with a voice like that could possibly be as weak and undistinguished as he initially likes to appear. A couple of the more interesting exploitations: In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E3TheDeadlyAssassin The Deadly Assassin]]", he speaks in a higher pitched voice while trying to appear beneath the notice of some other characters. In "The Robots of Death", he develops one of his more specific NewPowersAsThePlotDemands when we discover Time Lord larynxes aren't affected by helium, just so he can continue sounding cool in one specific scene. In "The Power of Kroll", he generates a subsonic frequency that shatters a window.
* BadassLongcoat: He ditched his red jacket in favour of a rather lovely purple velvet frock coat in his costume update in "Pyramids of Mars", and continued wearing frock coats almost exclusively from then on as Baker preferred the silhouette (his favourite was the chestnut-coloured velvet one, because it was very full-skirted and swung dramatically as he moved). In his final season, he switched to a heavier greatcoat, designed to billow in a swashbuckler-style manner. He also got an Inverness cape in one story, though one much more colourful and in line with his usual style than the Third Doctor's one.

** He tends to run his hand through his hair when he's about to concentrate on something. (Creator/DavidTennant borrowed this for his Doctor too.) Occasionally fiddles with it if he's in a happy mood - see Creator/PeterDavison's impression of this, despite less hair, in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E1Castrovalva Castrovalva]]" for a really funny moment.

** A lot of his gestures call attention to his unusually big and awkward-looking nose - tapping or pushing on the side for 'on the nose' or 'it's a secret', prodding it, pinching the bridge or the tip in frustration, stroking it in thought.... even the very few times he's being flirty he tends to do so by delicately touching his nose.

** If he's sitting down he tends to put his legs up on anything he can. Note particularly when he props his legs up on the top of Bessie's windscreen in his first story - something the Third Doctor would find unthinkable.

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: This was cleverly used in his first story - thanks to production scheduling, Creator/JonPertwee's producer Creator/BarryLetts was forced to produce it instead of the producer lined up for the new Doctor, Creator/PhilipHinchcliffe. Having the difficult task of establishing the new Doctor as different from Pertwee while having no idea what Hinchcliffe planned on doing with the character, Creator/TerranceDicks wrote the Doctor as a broad clownish comedy character (with some inspiration from [[Creator/TheMarxBrothers Harpo Marx]]) but establishes that he's in a loopy, unsettled post-regenerative state for almost the entire story, only indicated as settling down into his real personality at the very end of the episode where the Doctor [[BrickBreak injures his hand on a brick]] now that his overdriven physical processes have worn off. While a lot of the Fourth Doctor's quirks are established in this episode (such as the natural funniness, the [[ManChild childishness]], the bottomless pockets, his fondness for jelly babies and his resentment of all authority) Hinchcliffe took the character into a more GothicHorror influenced direction, giving the Doctor a brooding and [[ByronicHero Byronic]] side to add an edge to his funniness, and playing his capriciousness and unpredictability [[PlayedForDrama For Drama]] at times as well as for cheap laughs. Even when he became a comedy character again later, he became a playful wit rather than a clown.

* {{Flanderization}}: Ignoring EarlyInstalmentWeirdness, he began as a brooding and distant character, darker than his predecessor due to his capriciousness, foul temper and alien spookiness. He also was childish and kind and loved making his companions laugh - he wore a funny scarf and a silly hairstyle but also had a solemn, sad-eyed face whose smiles were [[TheUnSmile mad and disturbing]]. For various reasons (LighterAndSofter direction and an AttentionWhore actor) he got sillier and sillier and sillier over Seasons 14-17, becoming a total CloudCuckooLander MetaGuy known for ComicalOverreacting frequent wordplay. His [[LoveableRogue rakish recklessness]] developed into AwesomeEgo. Much of the humour involved K-9 or Romana proving him wrong about something and him scrabbling to look smarter than them. A quick discussion with a casual fan of his era will prove he is more memorable as a funny Doctor with a serious side than as a serious one with a funny side, but whether or not this is an improvement will strongly depend on your own stance on {{Camp}}and how funny you think HamAndCheese mode Tom Baker is. It helped that CharacterCheck moments would show up fairly frequently, so he still felt relatively fleshed out even though the focus was changing to his funniness. Season 18 radically {{Retool}}ed his character in a [[OlderAndWiser different]] [[DarkIsNotEvil direction]] entirely and remade him into a science fiction version of WizardClassic.

** AGodIAmNot: He is, after all, a vagabond at heart, with no interest in toys such as the Key to Time, or the Staff of Rassilon. That's not to say he doesn't enjoy trolling people with them, as seen in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E6TheArmageddonFactor The Armageddon Factor]]".

* MessyHair: He has a mop of longish, aggressively curly hair. Messing it up from the Third Doctor's hairstyle with his hand is actually the very first thing he does after regenerating and it's usually tangled, though precisely how messy it is seems to have a lot of variation depending on the story (ranging from relatively smooth and tidy in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E1TerrorOfTheZygons Terror of the Zygons]]" to a complete frizz in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E5ThePowerOfKroll The Power of Kroll]]"). Tom Baker refused to let the makeup team touch it after the start of recording because he felt it would be out of character for the Doctor to comb his hair while he was saving the universe - see Episode 4 of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E3PyramidsOfMars Pyramids of Mars]]", where he starts out with a combed bouffant which you can watch slowly coil up into a springy mess. In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E3TheDeadlyAssassin The Deadly Assassin]]", the Doctor claims his hair curls whenever he's thought up a good idea (or when it's going to rain).

* PerkyGoth: Played with. He's a "goth" in the victorian sense.

* SmartPeoplePlayChess: In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E6TheTalonsOfWengChiang The Talons of Weng-Chiang]]", Magnus Greel and Four casually shuffle around chess pieces while Greel delivers his evil speech. Four wins, of course.

** As noted under DependingOnTheWriter, this Doctor could change dramatically between stories. While he's generally one of the more affable Doctors, he loves tormenting people for fun (occasionally going very much too far), and can be prone to [[MoodSwinger sudden]] intensely dark moods and periods of brooding interspersed with [[AttentionWhore attention-seeking]] and selfish unreliability. On his good days he's lovely to be around, fun and magnanimous and interesting and wise and hopelessly adorable - on his bad days, he's virtually impossible to talk to and no sensible person would consent to being in the same building as him.
** For just three examples - in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E6TheSeedsOfDoom "The Seeds of Doom,"]] he's GoodIsNotNice but firmly heroic; in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E6TheTalonsOfWengChiang "The Talons of Weng Chiang"]], he's a racist and amoral JerkAss; and in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath "City of Death"]] he's a rather sweet NiceGuy under all the eccentricity.

[[Characters/DoctorWhoClassicSeriesCompanions Classic Series Companions]] ([[Characters/DoctorWhoK9 K9]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoRomana Romana]]) | '''Revival Series Companions''' ([[Characters/DoctorWhoRoseTyler Rose Tyler]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoJackHarkness Captain Jack Harkness]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoRiverSong River Song]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoClaraOswald Clara Oswald]]) | [[Characters/DoctorWhoOtherSupportingCast Other Supporting Cast]] ([[Characters/DoctorWhoThePaternosterGang The Paternoster Gang]]) | [[Characters/DoctorWhoUNITStaff UNIT Staff]]\\

[[Characters/DoctorWhoClassicSeriesCompanions Classic Series Companions]] ([[Characters/DoctorWhoK9 K9]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoRomana Romana]]) | [[Characters/DoctorWhoRevivalSeriesCompanions Revival Series Companions]] ([[Characters/DoctorWhoRoseTyler Rose Tyler]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoJackHarkness Captain Jack Harkness]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoRiverSong River Song]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoClaraOswald Clara Oswald]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoTeamTARDIS Team TARDIS]]) | [[Characters/DoctorWhoOtherSupportingCast Other Supporting Cast]] ([[Characters/DoctorWhoThePaternosterGang The Paternoster Gang]]) | [[Characters/DoctorWhoUNITStaff UNIT Staff]]\\

The longest-actively-serving on-screen Doctor to date in real-world time[[note]]Going strictly by time between on-screen regenerations, Paul [=McGann=] was the longest official incumbent Doctor with a tenure of 8 years, 9 months, 27 days[[/note]], both by years and season count (seven each), and probably the best known of all his incarnations. If you don't know who Tom Baker is, close your eyes and think of ''Doctor Who''. That's him. (or possibly Creator/DavidTennant for newer fans -- see [[Characters/DoctorWhoTenthDoctor the Tenth Doctor page]].)

** The fact that Tom Baker also slipped and cracked his collarbone during the location filming for "The Sontaran Experiment" had something to do with it as well; for several weeks afterwards, Baker ''couldn't'' leap into those kinds of action sequences, so they either had find ways to stage those scenes with a stunt double without making it painfully obvious it ''was'' a stunt double, or the writers had to find a way to avoid action-hero scenes.

The longest-serving Doctor to date in real-world time, both by years and season count (seven each), and probably the best known of all his incarnations. If you don't know who Tom Baker is, close your eyes and think of ''Doctor Who''. That's him. (or possibly Creator/DavidTennant for newer fans -- see [[Characters/DoctorWhoTenthDoctor the Tenth Doctor page]].)

Highly eccentric, the Fourth Doctor delighted in keeping both friends and foes alike off-guard with oddball comments (including the occasional StealthInsult) and pranks. But despite his generally goofy and cheeky attitude, he would occasionally have moments of intense brooding and seriousness, and could even be outright callous and intimidating at times (the result of Creator/TomBaker, dealing with then-undiagnosed bipolar disorder, injecting himself into the character) -- frequently emphasizing and affirming his distance from humanity. Nevertheless, he still displayed a strong moral code when the chips were down; firmly believing that the end never justified the means. His most famous quirks were offering people jellybabies and doing tricks with a yo-yo whenever he needed to relax or think.

* TheBigGuy: At 6'3", matching Three's height in a rare case where incarnations don't get taller or shorter after regeneration, he also towers over almost everyone he meets, but is less likely to physically hit someone than he is to offer them a Jelly Baby, whip out a cunning plan, or troll a foe into submission.

* TallDarkAndSnarky: 6'3", influenced by GothicHorror [[Main/ByronicHero and the bohemian subculture of the late Victorian era]], and perceived to being the most sarcastic Doctor.

![[center:'''[[Characters/DoctorWhoDoctors Index]]:''' Incarnations of the Doctor | [[Characters/DoctorWhoFirstDoctor 1]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoSecondDoctor 2]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoThirdDoctor 3]] | '''4''' | [[Characters/DoctorWhoFifthDoctor 5]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoSixthDoctor 6]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoSeventhDoctor 7]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoEighthDoctor 8]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoWarDoctor War]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoNinthDoctor 9]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoTenthDoctor 10]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoEleventhDoctor 11]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoTwelfthDoctor 12]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoThirteenthDoctor 13]]]]

* BadassBaritone: He has an unusual, velvety voice about an octave deeper than all of the other Doctors. For the most part this is used to make the Doctor seem more commanding and suggest a gravitas he might otherwise disguise — yeah, he comes in dressed in a ridiculous outfit handing out sweets and smiling at people, but no one with a voice like that could possibly be as weak and undistinguished as he initially likes to appear. A couple of the more interesting exploitations: In "The Deadly Assassin", he speaks in a higher pitched voice while trying to appear beneath the notice of some other characters. In "The Robots of Death", he develops one of his more specific NewPowersAsThePlotDemands when we discover Time Lord larynxes aren't affected by helium, just so he can continue sounding cool in one specific scene. In "The Power of Kroll", he generates a subsonic frequency that shatters a window.

* EinsteinHair: In "The Deadly Assassin", he claims that his hair curls up whenever he's onto something. Considering his hair is a big, chaotic mop of curls, the presumed implication is that the Fourth Doctor is never not onto something.

* IWorkAlone: He would have preferred this, and he says as much to the White Guardian in "The Ribos Operation" at a point when he's finally without one — but he has Romana forced on him anyway. In his final story, "Logopolis", he grouses that he didn't pick ''any'' of his companions; they were all stowaways, had accidentally boarded the TARDIS, or had otherwise pressed themselves on him. (This fit exactly with the attitude of Tom Baker, who famously argued that the companions be eliminated and that he instead carry a talking cabbage around on his shoulder to handle any necessary exposition.)

* ByronicHero: His Byronic traits are very heavily exploited in the angst-ridden Telos Novella ''Ghost Ship'', a GothicLiterature {{Pastiche}} written from the Doctor's first-person point of view. Not only does he spend a lot of it having beautifully-described and romanticised brooding scenes (like standing at the prow of a ship in a rainstorm staring out at the horizon until the sunrise), struggling with his own regrettable actions from "The Deadly Assassin" and "Genesis of the Daleks", questioning the classism of British society, and experiencing TheDulcineaEffect, he also constantly namedrops writers of 19th Century literature and quotes poetry in times of stress or intense emotion, making it ever clearer that this was the character type he was intended to be commenting on. It's a fairly extreme AlternativeCharacterInterpretation for a character most fondly remembered for smiling at people and offering them jelly babies, but justified as the Doctor admits that he is experiencing depression, and is well aware that his actions aren't how they'd usually be.

* HeroesLoveDogs: He adores K-9, and takes great offence at others for calling him a "machine" (ironically Tom Baker actually hated the character -- not without reason since the prop was notoriously temperamental and always breaking down, though he and John Leeson have always gotten along).

* MurderTropes: Four was more willing than most regenerations to commit murder, and didn't mind turning a blind eye to Leela's killings. At one point, he murders a villain by filling the room with deadly chemicals; later on, he kills a guy by strapping a bomb to his chest and merrily laughing when he blows up (though the man in question was an immoral monster who had it coming). "Genesis of the Daleks" has the Doctor trying to decide whether or not he has the right to commit genocide; he only refuses once he realizes more planets have united hands in peace ''because'' of the Dalek threat. (Also, [[NotSoDifferent spending a few minutes]] with Davros clearly rattled him.)

* NiceGuy: Behind his madly eccentric and sometimes [[Main/BewareTheSillyOnes cold-blooded]] nature, Four is an empathetic, childlike, and kind-hearted [[Main/CloudCuckooLander goofball]] who prefers a peaceful, albeit offbeat, approach to life. He also maintains a close, familial relationship with his companions ranging from being a Main/ParentalSubstitute to [[Characters/DoctorWhoSarahJaneSmith Sarah Jane Smith]], to an Main/EccentricMentor to Leela.

* NiceGuy: Behind his madly eccentric and sometimes [[Main/BewareTheSillyOnes cold-blooded]] nature, Four is an empathetic, childlike, and kind-hearted [[Main/CloudCuckooLander goofball]] who prefers a peaceful, albeit offbeat, approach to life. He also maintains a close, familial relationship with his companions ranging from being a Main/ParentalSubstitute to [[Characters/DoctorWhoSarahJaneSmith Sarah Jane Smith]], to an Main/EccentricMentor to [[Characters/DoctorWhoLeela Leela]].

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: This was cleverly used in his first story - thanks to production scheduling, Creator/JonPertwee's producer Barry Letts was forced to produce it instead of the producer lined up for the new Doctor, Creator/PhilipHinchcliffe. Having the difficult task of establishing the new Doctor as different from Pertwee while having no idea what Hinchcliffe planned on doing with the character, Creator/TerranceDicks wrote the Doctor as a broad clownish comedy character (with some inspiration from [[Creator/TheMarxBrothers Harpo Marx]]) but establishes that he's in a loopy, unsettled post-regenerative state for almost the entire story, only indicated as settling down into his real personality at the very end of the episode where the Doctor [[BrickBreak injures his hand on a brick]] now that his overdriven physical processes have worn off. While a lot of the Fourth Doctor's quirks are established in this episode (such as the natural funniness, the [[ManChild childishness]], the bottomless pockets, his fondness for jelly babies and his resentment of all authority) Hinchcliffe took the character into a more GothicHorror influenced direction, giving the Doctor a brooding and [[ByronicHero Byronic]] side to add an edge to his funniness, and playing his capriciousness and unpredictability [[PlayedForDrama For Drama]] at times as well as for cheap laughs. Even when he became a comedy character again later, he became a playful wit rather than a clown.

In 2011, a good five years later, someone ''somehow'' finally convinced Creator/TomBaker to join the cast of Creator/BigFinish. Baker says that it was Creator/ElisabethSladen and Louise Jameson who eventually wore him down. Tragically, Sladen passed away before a planned series of Four and Sarah Jane stories could be recorded. The Fourth Doctor is by far the loopiest of all regenerations, and freely uses ObfuscatingStupidity and ObfuscatingInsanity to make himself seem even more out-there than he already is. Creator/BigFinish likes to show off his skills as TheChessmaster as well.

* CutenessProximity: With K-9, whom he insisted on treating like a real puppy.

* FamousLastWords
--> "It's the end... but the moment has been prepared for."

* HeroesLoveDogs: He adores K-9, and takes great offense at others for calling him a "machine" (ironically Tom Baker actually hated the character -- not without reason since the prop was notoriously temperamental and always breaking down, though he and John Leeson have always gotten along).

* HypocriticalHumor: He wasn't above the occasional act of hypocrisy, telling Harry Sullivan that it was a waste to throw something away, immediately before disregarding a piece of metal that had saved his life. He also told Harry it was "a mistake to clutter one's pockets", despite he himself keeping a large variety of things in his own pockets. He later berated Romana for assuming the worst, and then stated himself that things usually were at their worst and took a liking to her second incarnation when she mimicked his dress sense, despite previously telling her that "external appearances weren't important". He was also unwilling to admit to any wrongdoing on his part.

* HypocriticalHumor: The Doctor is too modest to talk about how learned he is, and promptly goes on to talk about how great he is in other ways.

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: This was cleverly used in his first story - thanks to production scheduling, Creator/JonPertwee's producer Barry Letts was forced to produce it instead of the producer lined up for the new Doctor, Philip Hinchcliffe. Having the difficult task of establishing the new Doctor as different from Pertwee while having no idea what Hinchcliffe planned on doing with the character, Creator/TerranceDicks wrote the Doctor as a broad clownish comedy character (with some inspiration from [[Creator/TheMarxBrothers Harpo Marx]]) but establishes that he's in a loopy, unsettled post-regenerative state for almost the entire story, only indicated as settling down into his real personality at the very end of the episode where the Doctor [[BrickBreak injures his hand on a brick]] now that his overdriven physical processes have worn off. While a lot of the Fourth Doctor's quirks are established in this episode (such as the natural funniness, the [[ManChild childishness]], the bottomless pockets, his fondness for jelly babies and his resentment of all authority) Hinchcliffe took the character into a more GothicHorror influenced direction, giving the Doctor a brooding and [[ByronicHero Byronic]] side to add an edge to his funniness, and playing his capriciousness and unpredictability [[PlayedForDrama For Drama]] at times as well as for cheap laughs. Even when he became a comedy character again later, he became a playful wit rather than a clown.

* {{Flanderization}}: Ignoring EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, he began as a brooding and distant character, darker than his predecessor due to his capriciousness, foul temper and alien spookiness. He also was childish and kind and loved making his companions laugh - he wore a funny scarf and a silly hairstyle but also had a solemn, sad-eyed face whose smiles were [[TheUnSmile mad and disturbing]]. For various reasons (LighterAndSofter direction and an AttentionWhore actor) he got sillier and sillier and sillier over Seasons 14-17, becoming a total CloudCuckooLander MetaGuy known for ComicalOverreacting frequent wordplay. His [[LoveableRogue rakish recklessness]] developed into AwesomeEgo. Much of the humour involved K-9 or Romana proving him wrong about something and him scrabbling to look smarter than them. A quick discussion with a casual fan of his era will prove he is more memorable as a funny Doctor with a serious side than as a serious one with a funny side, but whether or not this is an improvement will strongly depend on your own stance on {{Camp}}and how funny you think HamAndCheese mode Tom Baker is. It helped that CharacterCheck moments would show up fairly frequently, so he still felt relatively fleshed out even though the focus was changing to his funniness. Season 18 radically {{Retool}}ed his character in a [[OlderAndWiser different]] [[DarkIsNotEvil direction]] entirely and remade him into a science fiction version of WizardClassic.

** One interesting note: his very, very, very, VERY long scarf was originally intended to be of just ordinary length. The costume designer bought huge amounts of wool in a range of colors and hired a friend of his to knit a scarf from it - and she used every last bit. It had to be ''shortened'' after "The Sontaran Experiment" when its length caused Tom Baker to trip and break his collarbone on location, requiring a double to take his place in long shots (!).

* TookALevelInJerkass: He's more emotionally distant and less courteous than his predecessors, and disregards the distress of others in tight situations. He goes through this ''again'' after Sarah Jane left, noticeably more harsh to her successors (Tom Baker felt he didn't need a companion; producer Phillip Hinchcliffe and the production team disagreed. After Hinchcliffe was let go from the program, Tom became much more difficult to work with, something which made it's way on screen).

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Jelly Babies, of course. Ginger beer was his favorite drink, but it didn't come up nearly as often.

** As noted under DependingOnTheWriter, this Doctor could change dramatically between stories. While he's generally one of the more affable Doctors, he loves tormenting people for fun (occasionally going very much too far), and can be prone to [[MoodSwinger sudden]] intensely dark moods and periods of brooding interspersed with [[AttentionWhore attention-seeking]] and selfish unreliability. On his good days he's lovely to be around, fun and magnanimous and interesting and wise and hopelessly [[{{Adorkable}} adorable]] - on his bad days, he's virtually impossible to talk to and no sensible person would consent to being in the same building as him.

->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/TomBaker (1997), Creator/JonCulshaw (2020)

->'''Played by:''' Creator/TomBaker (1974–81, 1993, 1997, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E6Shada 2017]][[note]]Voice-over role with live-action cameo at the end of episode 6[[/note]])
->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/TomBaker (1976, 1979, 1981, 2011-present), Creator/JonCulshaw (2020)

* GoOutWithASmile: Despite being clearly terrified and in pain, he suddenly flashes his trademark CheshireCatGrin in a final moment of [[GrinOfAudacity defiance]] before he quietly says his last words and dies.

->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/TomBaker (1976, 1979, 2011-present), Creator/JonCulshaw (2020)