Bob Baker (scriptwriter)

For other uses, see Robert Baker (disambiguation).

Bob Baker
Born	Robert John Baker (1939-07-26) 26 July 1939 Bristol, England
Occupation	TV & Film writer
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)

Bob Baker (born in Bristol, England on 26 July 1939) is a British television and film writer. His most famous contributions have been as the author of four scripts for the Wallace and Gromit films The Wrong Trousers, A Close Shave and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and A Matter of Loaf and Death (in which a character (Baker Bob) is named after him).

Career

Baker is also known for numerous scripts for Doctor Who between 1971 and 1979, including:

• The Claws of Axos (1971)
• The Mutants (1972)
• The Three Doctors (1973)
• The Sontaran Experiment (1975)
• The Hand of Fear (1976)
• The Invisible Enemy (1977)
• Underworld (1978)
• The Armageddon Factor (1979)
• Nightmare of Eden (1979)

For all but the last of these, Baker collaborated with Dave Martin. Together, they were nicknamed "The Bristol Boys" by the Doctor Who production teams with whom they worked.

Baker and Martin's most notable contributions to the Doctor Who mythos were probably the robot computer K-9 (created for The Invisible Enemy), the renegade Time Lord Omega (created for The Three Doctors, Doctor Who's 10th anniversary story) and the Axons. Several of Baker's stories had elements of hard science not often found in Doctor Who, even though they've also been criticised for scientific inaccuracy. Together with Martin, they also created fantasy television serials for children including the 1975 Sky.

Baker's other contributions to British television include Vision On animation with Laurie Booth, scripts for episodes of Shoestring and Bergerac. On 16 March 2006, it was reported in the free newspaper Metro that he was working on a new series featuring K-9, K-9. This series, created in Australia, aired in the UK and worldwide in 2009 and 2010.

Baker currently resides in Stroud, Gloucestershire.

Baker revealed on the DVD commentary for Nightmare of Eden that he contacted Russell T Davies about the possibility of writing for the 2005 revival of Doctor Who but was told in no uncertain terms that writers from the original series were not wanted. As of 2012, Baker along with Terrance Dicks and actor/writer Trevor Ray are the only surviving Doctor Who scriptwriters from the Third Doctor era.

Bibliography

• "Glam Gloucester Gromit writer". Metro. 2006-03-16. Retrieved 2006-03-18.

External links

• Bob Baker's official website
• Bob Baker at IMDb