Four Fantastic Fourth Doctor Fictions

Fourth Doctor
Portrayed by: Tom Baker
Tenure: 1974 - 1981

The Fourth Doctor was something new to his predecessors, full of energy and eyeballs that could hypnotise Derren Brown, his stories were some of the darkest in Who history, and more as a consequence of his long reign (7 years!) he also had some of the best stories, seeing three producers during his time on the show.

Genesis of the Daleks: March 8th - April 12th 1975
Genesis is one of those stories that always makes it into the top 10, and with over 200 stories in the catalogue, that's an achievement. What makes this story it's best is we finally get to see how the Daleks came about. It has it's typical who groundings too, corridors aplenty and bulbous bubble wrap monsters. This episode also seems the most likely place where Russell T. Davies got his inspiration for the Time War arc, a warning coming from the Timelord's that the Daleks would one day rule the cosmos. An interesting moral dilemma comes about too, does The Doctor have the right to perform genocide? A decision his Ninth incarnation would have no problem in justifying, but innocent ol' four spares them, much I'm sure to his later regret.

Pyramids of Mars: October 25th - November 15th 1975
Another high hitter, and it's not clear why, but there's always been something of mystery in the Eqyptians, and you'd have to have been recently lobotomised not to see where this episode draws it's inspiration from. All the same what makes this episode a winner is the fast pace of the narrative and the beautifully executed scenes such as the standoff between The Doctor and Sutekh. The thing that makes this episode stand out most though is the pronounced horror aspect - a regular of the Hinchcliffe stories, this story is actually quite frightening.

Talons of Weng Chiang: 26th February - 2nd April 1977
One thing that sets this story apart is the atmosphere that's created of the streets of Victorian London - okay, they forgot to cover up a light switch in the morgue but other than that the look and feel of the episode is beautiful. Victorian London is also, despite what anyone might think, the perfect place to bring Leela on her first outing. Indeed the Victorians were keen to make their guests feel at home, as is apparent when Leela's eating habits are emulated rather than scorned. What I love too about this episode is a bit of background info. In order to make the streets as realistic as possible a basic instruction was given to clear all cars on the road. Unfortunately some twit ignored this and presented the BBC with a problem. The way they solved it was by dumping a massive pile of hay onto of the car! This was a common feature of Victorian streets too as it was used for the horses.

The Leisure Hive: August 30th - September 20th 1980
New series. New producer. New TARDIS. New ethos. New theme tune. New costume. Kill the tin dog. Yes we're in the era of Mr. Insist on question marks Nathan-Turner. This episode marks a turnaround in Who as more of an emphasis is again put on science, and indeed this is where tachyonics comes in. Whilst it sounds like the biggest pile of gibberish, it's based in real science. The episode is a high of more adult watching, with bankruptcy, deception and decay all being themes of the episode. It's only let down by the decidedly naff Foamasi costumes.