Tom Baker, the actor who played the 4th Doctor, was just named MBE (Member of the Order of British Empire), by the King of England.

Tom Baker is regarded by many as the quintessential Doctor, since he played the role continuously for seven seasons. He's currently 90 years old.

Interesting fact: before becoming an actor, he lived as a monk in a monastery for six years.

"Loved Tom Baker as the Doctor for all 7 years he starred in the role."

Tom was great in all of them, but the general consensus is that his later seasons weren't as good as his earlier ones. This is largely because after the producers changed, they tried to force more comedy into the scripts. They also relied too much on CSO and other special effects they clearly didn't have the budget for. Nightmare of Eden was basically the Web Planet of the 1970s.

"Better to be a toxic whovian"

What exactly is a "toxic whovian"? Would you put the people who complained about the 6th Doctor strangling Peri at the time into that category?

"than try to save the swastika I guess."

You know, I could also do regular threads about that religious symbol in addition to Doctor Who threads. Is this a request?

55 years ago today, Jon Pertwee debuted as the first Doctor of Colour (or DOC, if you will).

Speaking of swastikas, there were a number of classic Doctor Who episodes that drew explicitly on Buddhist ideas. The concept of regeneration was officially introduced in Planet of the Spiders, when Jon Pertwee changed into Tom Baker. That story also uses the concept of a "tulpa", which David Lynch also used in Twin Peaks: The Return.

Anybody who describes Doctor Who as just a "kids show" has obviously never watched it, or is trying to give the impression they haven't, for whatever reason.

I have theory that LegallyMyDead is a tulpa.

Do try to stay on topic, or at least put some more humor into your trolling, otherwise your tulpa might die.

For a show that's been around for so long, it's not surprising it's had variable quality with good eras and bad ones. But even the badly produced eras had some good stuff in them and the good ones had some dodgy stuff.

I'd say the strongest seasons were the first two seasons when Verity Lambert was producer (1963-65), seasons 13 & 14 with Philip Hinchcliffe (1975-77), the latter half of Rustle Davies' first run (2007-2008), and a couple of Moffat's (2010 & 2014).

The show has always been political, although it was usually done with allegory (Daleks=Nazis, Cybermen=Communists). Sarah Jane started out as a stereotypical feminist, but they moved away from that and toned it down to make her a character most people could relate to. For the most part, they avoided commenting directly on "present day" politics.

Which brings us back to the most recent Suicide Christmas special. Moffat tried to use a scene to criticise Boris Johnson and other politicians for the "Partygate" scandal, but the execution was muddled and comes across as a criticism of the COVID restrictions, even encouraging people to break the rules.

"What exactly is a "toxic whovian"? Would you put the people who complained about the 6th Doctor strangling Peri at the time into that category?'

I knew he wouldn't answer.