Casting
When producing season twelve, it was known that Jon Pertwee would be leaving his role as the Third Doctor and that a new Fourth Doctor would need to be cast for the part. Tom Baker was an out-of-work actor that had been working in construction at the time. Baker had been a television and film actor, having major parts in several films including The Vault of Horror (1973). He had written to Bill Slater, the Head of Serials at the BBC, asking for work. Slater suggested Baker to Doctor Who producer Barry Letts who had been looking to fill the part. Letts had been the producer of the series since the early Pertwee serials in 1970. He had seen Baker's work in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and hired him for the part. Baker would continue in his role as the Doctor for seven seasons, longer than any other actor to play the part.
Elisabeth Sladen had renewed her contract to play Sarah Jane Smith during the previous season. Ian Marter joined the cast as Harry Sullivan. The character was created before Baker was cast; there had been discussion of casting an older actor as the Doctor, and so Harry was created as a younger character to handle the action scenes.
Nicholas Courtney and John Levene reprised their roles as the Brigadier and Sergeant Benton respectively in the first serial, Robot. Both Courtney and Levene had started their roles with the Second Doctor story The Invasion (1968) as members of the military organization United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT). They, along with Sladen, would be the transition cast to carry through from the Third Doctor to the Fourth Doctor, though Robot is only UNIT story for the twelfth season.
Read more about this topic: Doctor Who (season 12)
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