Bob Baker (scriptwriter)

Robert John "Bob" Baker (born 26 July 1939) is a British television and film writer. He is best known as the co-author (with Nick Park) of 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 wrote for Doctor Who between 1971 and 1979. For all but the last of his contributions to this series (Nightmare of Eden), Baker collaborated with Dave Martin on numerous scripts including:

• The Claws of Axos (1971)^[1]
• The Mutants (1972)^[2]
• The Three Doctors (1972-1973)^[1]
• The Sontaran Experiment (1975)^[3]
• The Hand of Fear (1976)^[1]
• The Invisible Enemy (1977)^[4]
• Underworld (1978)
• The Armageddon Factor (1979)

Together, they were nicknamed "The Bristol Boys" by the Doctor Who production teams with whom they worked.^[5]

Baker and Martin devised for Doctor Who the robotic dog 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. K-9 was originally intended to appear in one story only, but the BBC decided to make it a recurring character.^[4] 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 Sky (1975).

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 Doctor Who's mobile robot, K-9. This series, created in Australia, aired in the UK and worldwide in 2009 and 2010.

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.

In 2013 Baker wrote his autobiography entitled K9 Stole My Trousers' 'with help from Laurie Booth.^[1]

Baker currently resides in , 2 Witcombe Cottages Uplands Rd Stroud Gloucestershire.

Writing credits

Awards and nominations

References

Bibliography

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

External links

• Official website
• Bob Baker at the Internet Movie Database