If Tom Had Carried On

[Graceful Leonard]

I wonder how things would have panned out if Tom had stayed with the show up to the present day.

- would the quality have still dipped so badly -- i.e. was it beyond even the best doctor to save it?

- would the show still have been cancelled (maybe goes hand in hand with the above)?

- Would the modern-day version of the show still have been the same as the new series?

[tch]

While it would have been interesting see Tom interacting with Doctor 5's companions and being the hero of some other Doctor's stories, Like King's Demons, Dragonfire or the Five (though it would only be four) Doctors, but I can't see even him saving things during the rough years, when the BBC was slashing the budget and really messing with the show.

I think, by the time he'd left, Tom had given his all to the show and wouldn't have had the energy and excitement that was needed.

Though, wouldn't it have been cool if the 'Two Doctors' story had featured Troughton and Tom Baker?

[Prydonian]

That's what I tend to think too! Tom could have come back for a Two Doctors-style of story and that surely would have been a major ratings booster for the ratings by that point in time.
I also feel he was almost burned out by the end of his run, and he had wanted to go for some time apparently if one believes what one reads online.
But no, in no manner should he have had anything to do with the late 80s series as generally it was bad. There I said it. Well, maybe bad is too strong a word, but you know what I mean.

[Toothy Grin]

I wouldn't have wanted to see Tom carry on through the 80's. I feel he was very much suited to his period (the mid-late 70's) and I don't think he would have looked "right" in the 80's (the hair would have got shorter and gone grey, and also Tom looked extremely thin in the 80's). He was clearly tired of the role by 1980 and I certainly wouldn't have wanted to see a bored and jaded performance where he just goes through the motions and there were signs of that in his final season. I also don't think his Doctor would have suited the types of stories that were made in the 80's either. No, 7 years was just right for Tom and he left at just the right time.

[Prydonian]

Well, he did not seem very happy in his final season, or at least that is how it came across to me. So maybe he should have left before JN-T took the reigns and started to 'modify' certain things for the series' future.

[metalheadjay]

I wouldn't have minded Tom staying on for two or three more seasons(up 'til 1984). However, Turner and his production team were already at work ruining the series, so Tom probably made the right choice in stepping down. I have no doubt that he could have easily held the role into the mid 80's though. I recently saw some convention footage of Tom from 1984 in Philadelphia and he looks exactly as he did through his tenure as the Doctor. Just as vibrant and energetic as ever.

[Prydonian]

I do not believe he should have remained with the series beyond what became his final season. The quality of the series plummented in some respects after he left, and the 80s were and still are a point for debate on how bad things were during the final decade of the classic series. Tom left when he should have. Maybe he should have gone sooner, but definitely not have stayed on beyond 1981, when things were already being changed by JN-T that would jeopardise the series' future. It is not without reason that the last three 'classic' Doctors are not generally considered as great as the preceeding four, espeically when compared to Tom's own tenure.