There is a lot to recommend about Demon Records’ Doctor Who: The Tom Baker Record Collection four-LP box set. It comes with an autographed Tom Baker photo, which reproduces the absolutely ace artwork from the collection’s O-card, for one. Each LP is a different colour – orange, green, blue, and red – with matching printed inner sleeves which look like they stepped right out of the graphic design department of a ’70s library music label. The cover of the ‘Dalek-fronted quadpack design’ features a different image than the O-card, and the book-like design of the quadpack is quite conducive to digging into this collection again and again.
Those are just the design elements, too. The actual recordings make for a delightful cross-section of Baker’s work as the Fourth Doctor. Genesis of the Daleks has been reissued quite a few times, including a version from Demon Records themselves as a Record Store Day exclusive in 2016, but the 1979 album version of the TV serial is one of the finest audio edits of the series and well worth revisiting.
Doctor Who and the Pescatons is a made-for-vinyl audio drama first released in 1976, and by dint of the fact that it’s an original tale produced as an audio drama rather than an edited version of the television program with added narration, it stands head and shoulders above most Doctor Who records. It makes marvellous use of the audio format, and the story itself is top-notch. It’s really the gem of this collection, and as it’s making its first vinyl appearance since the ’70s, a wonderfully rare inclusion.
Exploration Earth: The Time Machine, the first side of the third LP, is an adventure produced by BBC Schools Radio in 1976, and while it’s made an appearance on compact disc, this is its vinyl debut. It’s rather charming in a very dated way, and while the audio is a bit murky, said dated charm manages to carry it through. The second side of the same LP, Tom Baker In His Own Words, features a selection of BBC radio interviews with Tom Baker made in the ’70s and ’80s, along with an appearance on Dead Ringers from 2001. They’re utterly wonderful, and hearing contemporaneous explanations of that legendary scarf and how it came to be will fill the heart of any longtime fan with joy.
The State of Decay is an audiobook from 1982 and is basically just Baker reading a story with a few bits of music and sound effects. The story’s all right, and Baker’s voice is never a tiresome listen, but it’s pretty bog standard audiobook fare, and after the excitement of Baker and Elisabeth Sladen declaiming lines with enthusiasm, having someone read you a story is a bit of a letdown.
That said, these four LPs are the perfect primer for anyone interested in vintage Doctor Who adventures in a variety of flavours. Even those out there who might only be familiar with Matt Smith or David Tennant’s more recent interpretations will be able to hear just why the Whovians kept interest and fandom alive around this series for well over half a century.
DOCTOR WHO: THE TOM BAKER RECORD COLLECTION is out now from Demon Records.
