Tom Baker's Doctor to return for DOCTOR WHO audio dramas

In a rather surprising development, original Doctor Who star Tom Baker is set to return as the Doctor for The Hornets' Nest, a series of five linked audio dramas produced by the BBC.

Baker was the fourth actor to play the Doctor, and he has always been by far the most popular of the original series' Doctors. Since leaving the series in 1981, Baker has worked to distance himself from his most famous role. He did not participate in the 1983 special The Five Doctors (his incarnation of the Doctor was briefly represented by an old clip from the un-aired story Shada) and he's turned down other offers to reprise the character.

Also surprising is the BBC's choice for the Doctor's companion in the audio series. Instead of using any of the many popular companions from the Baker era - such as Sarah Jane Smith, Leela, K9, or either of the Romanas - the audio plays will feature Mike Yates (Richard Franklin.) Yates was a UNIT captain who had a recurring role during the Jon Pertwee days. He was last seen on the show in the 1974 episode Planet of the Spiders, and as far as I can tell he never had a single scene with Baker's version of the Doctor.

While the original series never dealt with Yates' sexual orientation, several Doctor Who spin-off novels have since depicted him as gay. It will be interesting to see if the audio stories follow-up on this depiction of the character.

The stories will reportedly be set on Earth in 2009, during a period where the fourth Doctor briefly settles down in a cottage in Sussex. The first episode will be released September 3rd, with the following episodes released on a monthly schedule.

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