Tom Baker and David Tennant may be the most popular Doctors, but another actor has far more in common with Baker's post-Doctor Who career.
David Tennant is often referred to as the modern equivalent of the iconic Fourth Doctor, but Doctor Who's true Tom Baker successor is someone else entirely. Tom Baker and David Tennant both hold a special place in the hearts of two generations of Doctor Who fans. Their episodes are regularly cited as some of the very best that the show has to offer, and both actors immediately spring to the public's mind when asked who played Doctor Who.
David Tennant is returning to the role of the Doctor for Doctor Who's 60th-anniversary specials in a story that may share some similarities with Tom Baker's abandoned Lost in the Dark Dimension project. The infamous 30th-anniversary feature film starred Tom Baker as an older, alternate Fourth Doctor, who gave his life to put history back on course. It's possible that David Tennant's 14th Doctor could do something similar for Ncuti Gatwa's incoming incarnation in the 60th. There are many more similarities between Tom Baker and David Tennant, but both actors have their equivalents elsewhere in the roll-call of Doctor actors.
Why David Tennant Is Called The Modern Tom Baker
Tom Baker and David Tennant were both the Doctor when Doctor Who was at its cultural zenith in both the 1970s and early to mid-2000s. Fans of a certain vintage still cite the Tom Baker era of Doctor Who as an undisputable golden age, which the show has since struggled to replicate. Similarly, many casual viewers who grew up with David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor struggled to get on board with Matt Smith or Peter Capaldi. It's no reflection of the actors or the quality of their scripts, but there was something that David Tennant brought to the role that allowed Doctor Who to have a brief spell of mass crossover appeal.
As a result of both Tom Baker and David Tennant's popularity in the role, they've often been asked to return. The BBC wanted Tom Baker to return to Doctor Who at various points during the so-called "wilderness years" of the 1990s, in an attempt to resurrect the show. Similarly, David Tennant's popularity was so huge that the BBC considered canceling the show when he stepped down. Fast-forward 14 years and Tennant's return to the role is being hailed as the thing that will "save" Doctor Who. However, there's a key difference between Baker and Tennant here, in that Tennant is usually very willing to come back.
David Tennant Isn't Tom Baker, He's The Modern Patrick Troughton
When Tom Baker left Doctor Who in 1981, he maintained a connection to the show, but from a considerable distance. The same can't be said of David Tennant who always had a fondness for Doctor Who, and continued to be part of that world. Just four years after he'd finished filming Doctor Who, Tennant was back in the brown pinstripe suit and Converse to play the Tenth Doctor opposite Matt Smith in "The Day of the Doctor". That's a similar amount of time between Patrick Troughton's last performance as the Second Doctor in 1969, and his return in 1972-73's serial "The Three Doctors".
David Tennant's relationship with Doctor Who bears far more similarities to Patrick Troughton's than Tom Baker's. Both Troughton and Tennant sold Doctor Who's regeneration concept to a new audience, and helped to establish the show's longevity. Both Tennant and Troughton were always keen to return to the show, with David Tennant returning for the 50th and 60th anniversaries and Troughton returning for the 10th and 20th. In 2023, David Tennant is playing a mysterious new incarnation of the Doctor, who is appearing in spinoff media before their proper TV debut. It's therefore possible to draw a link between the Fourteenth Doctor's adventures and the Second Doctor's "missing" Season 6B adventures in spinoff media.
Christopher Eccleston Is Modern Doctor Who's Tom Baker
Ninth Doctor Christopher Eccleston is Tom Baker's true Doctor Who successor in the 21st century. Both actors came from working-class backgrounds, Christopher Eccleston from Salford and Tom Baker from Liverpool. Indeed, out-of-work actor Tom Baker was working on a building site to pay his bills when he landed the role of the Doctor. As popular as Doctor Who was with Jon Pertwee, the arrival of Tom Baker, and his easy chemistry with Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith took the program to even greater heights. Christopher Eccleston, meanwhile, took a show that had become a joke, legitimized it for a 21st-century audience then walked away from it just as it became a huge success.
Due to various behind-the-scenes dramas that have never fully been disclosed, Eccleston decided not to stay for a second season. Similar enmity between Tom Baker and the production staff on his final season also drove him to quit the role of the Fourth Doctor. Since leaving Doctor Who, both Eccleston and Baker very much did their own thing. Baker would rarely do big conventions and preferred instead to be the star attraction. Meanwhile, Christopher Eccleston carried on carving out an incredible career as a character actor in everything from theological thriller The Leftovers to domestic comedy-drama The A Word.
In later years, both Christopher Eccleston and Tom Baker embraced the role, but still in their own idiosyncratic ways. Eccleston once described his Doctor as a "one-man band" and the same could be said for Tom Baker's incarnation. Both actors signed up with Big Finish, recording more adventures for their respective Doctors, while generally staying away from the "cash grab" Multi-Doctor stories that Eccleston has so far avoided. As two men who made a huge mark on Doctor Who and continue to follow their own path when it comes to their post-regeneration careers, Eccleston and Baker have a great deal in common with each other.