During a Q&A between five former Doctors at last weekend’s Collectormania convention in Milton Keynes, Tom Baker revealed why Doctor Who, in his own words, killed his career stone dead:
“I was never really happy until I became Doctor Who. At the same time, although it’s the loveliest job I ever had, it essentially killed my career stone dead because I suddenly realised I liked playing Doctor Who more than anything that had ever happened to me before. So when I went to play Macbeth, the audience wanted me to play Macbeth in the style of Doctor Who and naturally I did. Afterwards a critic said ‘I had no idea how nice Macbeth was’. So I realised then that the people coming to see me – people like you – didn’t want to see me playing Jack the Ripper of whatever it was.”
When asked whether he would return for Who’s upcoming fiftieth anniversary Baker answered, “…if they ask me nicely or I could see what they wanted me to do I would consider it because I think the fans have been so good to me, they expect me at least to make an appearance so of course I would consider that. If it was something witty […] I just don’t want to be paraded through as some shagged out old icon of the last century. It’s too much of a source of happiness.”
Also speaking at the event, Sylvester McCoy confirmed that he would also be interested in popping back for the show’s golden jubilee, though Colin Baker answered an initial “No”, before agreeing with Tom Baker’s qualification that “I would want to know what they would want me to do.”
You can read more from the Q&A over at The Independent, here.
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