The Tom Baker era of Doctor Who is not best served by the Radio Times. Something seemed to have happened behind the scenes because the attention given to the Jon Pertwee years was not to be replicated after 1974. There were no covers, no listing illustrations, very few articles, and virtually no published photographs. It is strange, considering art director David Driver’s previous passion for the show, but as he said in an interview, Dr Who was receiving enough attention as it was, and didn’t need any more when there were so many other shows in need. There is some truth to this, Dr Who under Tom Baker went to new heights, with ratings up in the 13 millions, with a star who was very happy to do the publicity rounds to an adoring public, but it doesn’t make up for the fact that in seven years, Tom Baker never had a cover. There were, of course some stand out moments - the regeneration spread from Robot, the return of Frank Bellamy who gave us the fabulous illustration for Terror of the Zygons, as well as those for the repeats of The Ark in Space and The Planet of Evil, but beyond that, there was virtually nothing, despite the many photographs taken by RT staff photographer Don Smith.

When I started these pages, I thought it would be a relatively short project, just an appendix to the previous glory days of Dr Who in the RT, but such was the power of TV in the 1970s, still only three channels strong, the wider listings became far more interesting and pertinent as a cultural phenomenon. For anyone growing up in the 1970s, television was a family affair, central to the structures of a working day, and the plethora of television shows and talent that came out of this time are quite astonishing, by both the BBC and the ITV networks, not to mention the glut of American imports that were altogether raising the bar of what could be achieved in television drama. This was also the time of Jaws, Star Wars, Close Encounters, Superman and Alien. it saw the rise of the home video market with all the horror films I could soak up - Halloween, The Exorcist, The Omen, Phantasm, and to be honest, it’s a wonder how Dr Who survived. I’ll make an admission now - beyond The Brain of Morbius (prior to which I had been DW bonkers), I don’t think I watched Dr Who again until the BBC screened The Five Faces of Dr Who in 1981, which is when I fell properly down the rabbit hole. There were too many other distractions in between times, and I was far more inclined to watch The Man from Atlantis or The Incredible Hulk than watch Tom Baker, which whenever I tuned in, seemed to be verging on the fringes of pantomime.

Quite a lot of liberties have had to be taken in these pages as they can be desperately dull otherwise. Apologies to the purists, but I hope I’ve been able to blend a mixture of authenticity and what-could-have-been by keeping the boundaries clear between the two. Enjoy. These are the glory days of British television, I only wish I could I could have included more.