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{{article
| publication = The Sunday Star-Times
| file =
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| date = 1998-04-12
| author = Robert Bennett
| pages = F7
| language = English
| type =
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| categories = books
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| text =
WHO ON EARTH IS TOM BAKER?

By Tom Baker, HarperCollins, $49.95.

Reviewed by ROBERT BENNETT

FOR enthusiasts there is no problem identifying Tom Baker. He was the fourth actor -- and the longest-serving (1974-1981) -- to take the lead role in the cult science fiction series.

His zany style fitted the long-scarfed, eccentric doctor to a tee and his melodious voice caused intergalactic hearts to throb.

Baker's autobiography does not disappoint. In real life the actor seems not so different from his screen alter-ego. But it's his writing about personal experiences that rivets the reader, not the endless listing of minor TV actors and West End personalities with whom he has rubbed shoulders.

His account of the impact religion had on his childhood and his move into a monastery is particularly spellbinding. "After nearly six years of prayer, modesty and self-denial and especially after all that chastity," he writes, "I was slightly disabled."

I met Baker in England in the '60s at the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama. "Style is everything," he told me.

He has style in his writing, just as he did in his acting. His description of his chaotic family life as a member of a Wheatcroft rose-growing clan is sometimes tragic, but his gentle humour surfaces again when he discusses his success as Doctor Who. His failures at other roles on stage and film are not so revealing.

Everyone knows who Dr Who was. Now they have the chance to know who Tom Baker is -- and fascinating reading it is too.

CAPTION: STYLE OF HIS OWN . . . Tom Baker as the long-scarfed eccentric Tardis-travelling Dr Who

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Revelations from beyond the Tardis - Revision history

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