Most Excellent

Lately I've been seeing photos of Tom Baker on my Facebook recently being awarded the title of MBE (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire). So I watched one of his Doctor Who stories I hadn't seen in a while last night, "The Sontaran Experiment", the third episode from his first season in 1975.

He had such a great hat in his first season, it's a shame he always wanted to take it off. Indiana Jones fans who may note a similarity to the one worn by Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark may like to know that both hats were made by Herbert Johnson of London, both "Poet" models. Since both Raiders' costume designer and Harrison Ford himself made numerous tweaks to the hat, I've long suspected the hat as it was originally purchased looked quite a bit like, if not identical to, Baker's first season hat. It is "crushable" so Baker could fold it up and put it in his pocket, as he often did. I have a Herbert Johnson hat myself and I've not yet dared to do this yet but the felt is remarkably flexible.

It's strange that both of the actors playing the Doctor's younger companions have died but Baker's still with us. Long may he live yet and record Big Finish audio dramas.

"The Sontaran Experiment" is the shortest story of Baker's entire run as the Doctor, being only two episodes. It's also unique in having no interior shots, having been filmed entirely on Dartmoor in Devon. It certainly looks desolate though I imagine residents of England find it as familiar as all those shots of desert on Star Trek look to those of us from southern California. At least the location in "The Sontaran Experiment" is actually meant to be England, albeit 10,000 years in the future. The Sontarans still look as creepy as they do silly. They're pretty impressive aliens given it was a low budget series in the '70s.

Classic Doctor Who is available on the BBC iPlayer in the UK and on BritBox in other countries.