Former Doctor Who star Tom Baker has been enjoying a well-deserved victory lap over the past few years, reprising his role as the Fourth Doctor in 2013’s 50th-anniversary episode, last year’s release of the unfinished “Shada,” adventure, and in audio tales from Big Finish. Now, Penguin has announced that it will publish Baker’s first-ever Doctor Who novel, titled Scratchman, on Jan. 24. The book is a novelization of a planned, but never made, Doctor Who film.
In the book, The Doctor, and his two companions, Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan, arrive at a remote Scottish island, where they discover that hideous scarecrows are preying on the local population. The islanders are living in fear, and the Doctor vows to save them all. But it doesn’t go to plan — the time travelers have fallen into a trap, and Scratchman is coming for them.
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“I love the improbability of Doctor Who,” Baker said in a statement, according to the Radio Times. “Reason plays no part at all. As in religion, the overriding thing is faith. It may be improbable, but just believe in it and it’ll all come right. When I was approached about the book, I thought, ‘Why not?’”
Baker played the Time Lord, 1974-81. He has co-written Scratchman with author James Goss.
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