Reviews
Baker the Myth Maker by Carl West 6/3/98
Any Doctor Who fan who has not yet seen the two Myth Makers video specials on Tom Baker has been missing out on an extremely enjoyable portion of the Doctor Who video canon. Following the great success of Myth Makers, vol. 8: Tom Baker (which I may review at another time), Baker agreed to make a second video for Reeltime. The result was the exceedingly enjoyable Just Who on Earth is Tom Baker? (not to be confused with Baker's new autobiography). It starts off with a classic anecdote from Baker concerning the time that a taxicab driver mistook Baker for Jon Pertwee, a mistake which Baker played along with completely! The tape also features two different interviews in which Tom Baker dressed as a journalist converses with Tom Baker dressed as himself (clever filming and editing here). The most enjoyable stories on this tape deal with young Baker's religious struggles, leading up to his joining a monastery. He tells of how he was caught up in the "extravagant fantasies" and "divine paradoxes" of religion, and that he used to dream of living in the desert and "dying of thirst" or "wearing a hair shirt" (he forgot to mention that bit about eating locusts, though). Other topics of interest on this video include his childhood in working-class Liverpool, his devoutly Catholic mother, and his memories of the Germans bombing England (which the young Baker apparently found very exciting). All in all, Just Who On Earth is Tom Baker? is a revelation of the complexity (and the hilarity) of a man that many of us have admired as a hero.
For those of us who enjoy Doctor Who for more than just the sci-fi element, I highly recommend this video.
A Review by Stuart Gutteridge 5/12/98
Not to be confused with his autobiography, this Reeltime Pictures video production (renamed from Just Who On Earth Is... Tom Baker?) can be seen as exactly that (if nowhere near as long, or as detailed.) Instead this video sees Tom Baker talking to Tom Baker about Tom Baker And in this it largely suceeds, drawing a wealth of information from him.
There are plenty of anecdotes here (being mistaken for Jon Pertwee springs to mind), but the tape tends to concentrate more on his childhood: the excitement of being bombed by the Germans, his religious schooling, and the way he was brought up Acting does get a mention, however. His love of playing grand, extravagant characters, which is why he seemed to enjoy the part of the Doctor so much.
Thanks to some clever filming and editing, a sparse amount of location work and Tom Baker himself, this proves to be a fascinating and at times humourous look at Tom Baker, the man, through the eyes of Baker himself.