48. Tom Baker

[The Great Cornholio 902]

1 hour ago, Genfærd said:

Is this the Tom Baker who did the narrating on Little Britain? Sorry, I'm not familiar with too many British celebs. 

Yep. Was in Blackadder too.

[The Watcher 314]

1 hour ago, Deathrace said:

Isn't Ecclestone notoriously reluctant to engage with the Dr Who fans and has spoken of not particularly enjoying playing the role? He strikes me as a bit like Davison in that regard. 

All very strange as Christopher Ecclestone specifically asked Russell T Davies if he could play the eponymous hero when Dr Who returned in 2005. In the week it returned for 13 weekly episodes, Ecclestone announced that he was leaving. Many have said that he was an "actor's actor" (whatever that means) like the late Pete Postlethwaite. It certainly wasn't as amicable as it first seemed as he refused to appear in the 2013 50th anniversary special when they wanted 3 doctors (as in the1973 10th aniversary special when they had the very frail William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton & Jon Pertwee  - the latter possibly on another thread as like John Thaw both former wives are still with us) so Stephen Moffat invented a new doctor played by the late John Hurt who together with David Tennant & Matt Smith made up the requisite three doctors.

Incidentally, probably everyone knows that Peter Davison's daughter is married to David Tennant - they met after she appeared in the show as his daughter. Dr Who's grand daughter Carole Ford is still with us as is one other of the original companions - the 95 year old William Russell.

[Lord Fellatio Nelson 6,218]

24 minutes ago, The Watcher said:

All very strange as Christopher Ecclestone specifically asked Russell T Davies if he could play the eponymous hero when Dr Who returned in 2005. In the week it returned for 13 weekly episodes, Ecclestone announced that he was leaving. Many have said that he was an "actor's actor" (whatever that means) like the late Pete Postlethwaite. It certainly wasn't as amicable as it first seemed as he refused to appear in the 2013 50th anniversary special when they wanted 3 doctors (as in the1973 10th aniversary special when they had the very frail William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton & Jon Pertwee  - the latter possibly on another thread as like John Thaw both former wives are still with us) so Stephen Moffat invented a new doctor played by the late John Hurt who together with David Tennant & Matt Smith made up the requisite three doctors.

Incidentally, probably everyone knows that Peter Davison's daughter is married to David Tennant - they met after she appeared in the show as his daughter. Dr Who's grand daughter Carole Ford is still with us as is one other of the original companions - the 95 year old William Russell.

Ecclestone is a jobbing actor.

He is not the type of actor that would be inclined to sign up to any long term acting roles.

He may well have requested the part and, to be fair to him, he did brilliantly to relaunch the whole franchise, which is what it is, really.

I'm not surprised that he did not want to reappear and even less surprised that he doesn't want to engage with Who fans, why should he? It was just a role for him to play.

Just because Who is enshrined in British television history does not make it good or great.

Ecclestone may well have considered his role as being not his finest hour.

People overthink it all and over enthuse about a distinctly average sci fi series.

[msc 18,437]

16 minutes ago, Lord Fellatio Nelson said:

Ecclestone is a jobbing actor.

He is not the type of actor that would be inclined to sign up to any long term acting roles.

He may well have requested the part and, to be fair to him, he did brilliantly to relaunch the whole franchise, which is what it is, really.

I'm not surprised that he did not want to reappear and even less surprised that he doesn't want to engage with Who fans, why should he? It was just a role for him to play.

Just because Who is enshrined in British television history does not make it good or great.

Ecclestone may well have considered his role as being not his finest hour.

People overthink it all and over enthuse about a distinctly average sci fi series.

 

I wont bore you on the details of the show itself (I think our respective view points are known!). Just to use this to correct the post you replied to:

 

Ecclestone DID offer his services because he thought it'd be a good role (which it is for actors - big role on BBC1 and it gets you other work) - but he fell out with the producer who went to Corrie and fucked off everyone there too. This happens ALL THE TIME behind the scenes on TV, but it was a bigger deal here because Dr Who fans. And a bigger deal for Ecclestone because it ended his long friendship with Russell T Davies.

 

The "he doesn't want to talk to fans" thing is a load of bollocks. He's done a whole lot of fan appearances, is known to be good with child fans, done the whole convention and interview thing (more so in recent years). Hes made it clear its a professional/personal thing and he doesn't blame random no name fans. Just people take things personally.

 

He was asked about the 50th anniversary show but he wanted to see a script which didn't exist so he said he wasn't interested. Which isn't a knock on Steven Moffat as with Sherlock too he had about 9 scripts to knock off in 6 months so was waiting till he knew who was on board rather than need to rewrite the entire thing. Just two different ways to doing TV things that didn't work out together, no conspiracy.

 

Anyhow, he's always struck me on TV as an actor who doesn't like to dwell on past roles, and is somewhat surprised when people enthuse about decades old things! Our Friends in the North, that was a good one.

 

Right, as you were, then.

[JR976evil 906]

12 minutes ago, msc said:

 

I wont bore you on the details of the show itself (I think our respective view points are known!). Just to use this to correct the post you replied to:

 

Ecclestone DID offer his services because he thought it'd be a good role (which it is for actors - big role on BBC1 and it gets you other work) - but he fell out with the producer who went to Corrie and fucked off everyone there too. This happens ALL THE TIME behind the scenes on TV, but it was a bigger deal here because Dr Who fans. And a bigger deal for Ecclestone because it ended his long friendship with Russell T Davies.

 

The "he doesn't want to talk to fans" thing is a load of bollocks. He's done a whole lot of fan appearances, is known to be good with child fans, done the whole convention and interview thing (more so in recent years). Hes made it clear its a professional/personal thing and he doesn't blame random no name fans. Just people take things personally.

 

He was asked about the 50th anniversary show but he wanted to see a script which didn't exist so he said he wasn't interested. Which isn't a knock on Steven Moffat as with Sherlock too he had about 9 scripts to knock off in 6 months so was waiting till he knew who was on board rather than need to rewrite the entire thing. Just two different ways to doing TV things that didn't work out together, no conspiracy.

 

Anyhow, he's always struck me on TV as an actor who doesn't like to dwell on past roles, and is somewhat surprised when people enthuse about decades old things! Our Friends in the North, that was a good one.

 

Right, as you were, then.

I always just figured he was wary of being typecast 

[Lord Fellatio Nelson 6,218]

16 minutes ago, msc said:

 

I wont bore you on the details of the show itself (I think our respective view points are known!). Just to use this to correct the post you replied to:

 

Ecclestone DID offer his services because he thought it'd be a good role (which it is for actors - big role on BBC1 and it gets you other work) - but he fell out with the producer who went to Corrie and fucked off everyone there too. This happens ALL THE TIME behind the scenes on TV, but it was a bigger deal here because Dr Who fans. And a bigger deal for Ecclestone because it ended his long friendship with Russell T Davies.

 

The "he doesn't want to talk to fans" thing is a load of bollocks. He's done a whole lot of fan appearances, is known to be good with child fans, done the whole convention and interview thing (more so in recent years). Hes made it clear its a professional/personal thing and he doesn't blame random no name fans. Just people take things personally.

 

He was asked about the 50th anniversary show but he wanted to see a script which didn't exist so he said he wasn't interested. Which isn't a knock on Steven Moffat as with Sherlock too he had about 9 scripts to knock off in 6 months so was waiting till he knew who was on board rather than need to rewrite the entire thing. Just two different ways to doing TV things that didn't work out together, no conspiracy.

 

Anyhow, he's always struck me on TV as an actor who doesn't like to dwell on past roles, and is somewhat surprised when people enthuse about decades old things! Our Friends in the North, that was a good one.

 

Right, as you were, then.

Fucking anorak... 

[Deathrace 1,170]

2 hours ago, JR976evil said:

I always just figured he was wary of being typecast 

Ecclestone is in my opinion one of the better actors to play the role. Probably the best actors to play the role have been Troughton, Capaldi and Ecclestone (I don't really count John Hurt but he's the best of the lot). Davison relied on his good looks but is one of the better Who actors but probably not quite top tier. Get the feeling those four have felt the least affinity to the role as they have a much bigger catalogue of work outside the show.

 

McCoy is without doubt the worst actor to play the role. He's more of a circus clown than an actor. His casting was frankly an insult. They might have well cast Jimmy Krankie. 

[Man About The Forum 78]

58 minutes ago, Deathrace said:

Ecclestone is in my opinion one of the better actors to play the role. Probably the best actors to play the role have been Troughton, Capaldi and Ecclestone (I don't really count John Hurt but he's the best of the lot). Davison relied on his good looks but is one of the better Who actors but probably not quite top tier. Get the feeling those four have felt the least affinity to the role as they have a much bigger catalogue of work outside the show.

 

McCoy is without doubt the worst actor to play the role. He's more of a circus clown than an actor. His casting was frankly an insult. They might have well cast Jimmy Krankie. 

 

Sorry, but when one of the alternatives is Colin Baker I can't see how anyone else can be described as the worst. He was given the role because he told some funny stories at a wedding. Don't get me wrong, he seems a nice chap and all. But not an actor.

[Slackhurst Broadcasting 374]

Tom Baker's gone to look like Quentin Crisp.

[The Watcher 314]

1 hour ago, Deathrace said:

Ecclestone is in my opinion one of the better actors to play the role. Probably the best actors to play the role have been Troughton, Capaldi and Ecclestone (I don't really count John Hurt but he's the best of the lot). Davison relied on his good looks but is one of the better Who actors but probably not quite top tier. Get the feeling those four have felt the least affinity to the role as they have a much bigger catalogue of work outside the show.

 

McCoy is without doubt the worst actor to play the role. He's more of a circus clown than an actor. His casting was frankly an insult. They might have well cast Jimmy Krankie. 

The sci-fi yarn is that there was a Dr McCoy in Star Trek (Leonard aka 'Bones') & a BBC executive thought that as Dr Who was waning & not at all popular with Michael Grade, that another Dr McCoy but this time in Dr Who would improve the show's fortunes. 

[Bibliogryphon 9,570]

1 hour ago, Man About The Forum said:

 

Sorry, but when one of the alternatives is Colin Baker I can't see how anyone else can be described as the worst. He was given the role because he told some funny stories at a wedding. Don't get me wrong, he seems a nice chap and all. But not an actor.

Colin Baker was not well served by his scripts a during his TV tenure but his commitment to the show is second to none and his audio work is so much better he probably has the biggest voice presence of the Doctors who have recorded audio adventures.

 

My wife likes him because he smiled kindly at her when we got autographs after the Ultimate Adventure

[Bibliogryphon 9,570]

16 hours ago, Deathrace said:

Ecclestone is in my opinion one of the better actors to play the role. Probably the best actors to play the role have been Troughton, Capaldi and Ecclestone (I don't really count John Hurt but he's the best of the lot). Davison relied on his good looks but is one of the better Who actors but probably not quite top tier. Get the feeling those four have felt the least affinity to the role as they have a much bigger catalogue of work outside the show.

 

McCoy is without doubt the worst actor to play the role. He's more of a circus clown than an actor. His casting was frankly an insult. They might have well cast Jimmy Krankie. 

Do remember that McCoy played the fool to Sir Ian McKellen's King Lear at the RSC in recent years and also appeared in The Hobbit movie.

[Youth in Asia 1,086]

21 hours ago, The Watcher said:

 

Incidentally, probably everyone knows that Peter Davison's daughter is married to David Tennant - they met after she appeared in the show as his daughter. Dr Who's grand daughter Carole Ford is still with us as is one other of the original companions - the 95 year old William Russell.

 

So you're saying that David Tennant is literally married to his own daughter? Is that even legal?

[ladyfiona 2,577]

8 minutes ago, Youth in Asia said:

 

So you're saying that David Tennant is literally married to his own daughter? Is that even legal?

 

What I always like to say:

 

He played 10th Doctor and now his father in law is 5th Doctor because David married the actress who played his daughter in one episode.

 

You may also want to keep an eye out for Peter's grandson Ty Tennant (adopted by David) because he's an up and coming actor who I have a feeling will appear in Doctor Who knowing the family tradition.

[Lard Bazaar 3,799]

There’s a lot of talk here by adults about what is essentially children’s television - because no actual grown up watches this bunch of ass, do they?

[Imelda 621]

On 24/04/2020 at 16:05, Lord Fellatio Nelson said:

Ecclestone is a jobbing actor.

He is not the type of actor that would be inclined to sign up to any long term acting roles.

He may well have requested the part and, to be fair to him, he did brilliantly to relaunch the whole franchise, which is what it is, really.

I'm not surprised that he did not want to reappear and even less surprised that he doesn't want to engage with Who fans, why should he? It was just a role for him to play.

Just because Who is enshrined in British television history does not make it good or great.

Ecclestone may well have considered his role as being not his finest hour.

People overthink it all and over enthuse about a distinctly average sci fi series.

 

A jobbing actor who is never short of work, that's for sure. When you look at Ecclestone has starred in over the years, it's an impressive roll-call of diverese parts. In terms of 'series' Dr's he has the most impressive roster with (probably) another 25+ years of career to go.

 

He had one job as the Dr - to get it back off the ground and completely sever the link to the terrible McCoy/C.Baker years. Job done, off to the next gig...

[msc 18,437]

Typecasting in the UK tends to be overblown anyhow. Folk who have a huge role and then struggle tend to be due to ill health, having an ego the size of a planet and burning all your bridges for a decade+, or being over-promoted in the first place.

 

And of all the actors to play Doctor Who, the 3 who didn't go onto bigger things afterwards - Hartnell, Tom Baker, Colin Baker - each fit those three things, respectively.

 

 

[Bibliogryphon 9,570]

4 minutes ago, msc said:

Typecasting in the UK tends to be overblown anyhow. Folk who have a huge role and then struggle tend to be due to ill health, having an ego the size of a planet and burning all your bridges for a decade+, or being over-promoted in the first place.

 

And of all the actors to play Doctor Who, the 3 who didn't go onto bigger things afterwards - Hartnell, Tom Baker, Colin Baker - each fit those three things, respectively.

 

 

For Hartnell though this was the twilight of his career. He had been in many of the big British movies before DW he just wanted something less abrasive. In fact similar to Eccleston's reason for taking the role. He was dead less than 10 years after giving up the role

[msc 18,437]

1 minute ago, Bibliogryphon said:

For Hartnell though this was the twilight of his career. He had been in many of the big British movies before DW he just wanted something less abrasive. In fact similar to Eccleston's reason for taking the role. He was dead less than 10 years after giving up the role

 

Aye. That's what I said!

 

Well, clearly me and succinct replies don't work.

[Miracle Aligner 249]

Looked like a bag of manure on big night in. What a pile of old manure that was though. 

 

Covid might not get him but he's not long for this world. 

[Bibliogryphon 9,570]

16 hours ago, msc said:

 

Aye. That's what I said!

 

Well, clearly me and succinct replies don't work.

I skim read your entry and missed the I'll health and respectively which rather altered my perception of what you were saying. 

When Colin Baker got the job there were rumours they wanted Brian Blessed. Is Colin a cut price Brian. However he is a massive advocate for the show.

[Deathrace 1,170]

56 minutes ago, Bibliogryphon said:

I skim read your entry and missed the I'll health and respectively which rather altered my perception of what you were saying. 

When Colin Baker got the job there were rumours they wanted Brian Blessed. Is Colin a cut price Brian. However he is a massive advocate for the show.

Brian Blessed was in the Colin Baker "Trial of a Timelord" series. 

[msc 18,437]

 

Recent-ish (ie since lockdowns) photo of Tom Baker doing some voice acting work from his house.

[Deathrace 1,170]

21 minutes ago, msc said:

 

Recent-ish (ie since lockdowns) photo of Tom Baker doing some voice acting work from his house.

He doesn't look great here, very gaunt and not really anything like Tom Baker. He reminds me of Bamber Gascoigne. I do like his Persian rugs however. 

[Ulitzer95 12,577]

Not really. I mean I remember my grandparents and great grandparents. In their 80s the overweight ones considerably slimmed down. Just comes with the territory. One of them lived to be 104, so wasn’t anything wrong with him. Hard to retain weight at that age. Looks quite active to be honest. I would say a few years left in him yet.