No one would ever be confused with thinking that the classic series of Doctor Who was “glamorous.” The persistence of presence that series imbued upon the viewing public seldom involved cheesecake in even the most peripheral way, save for a foray by Katy Manning or the leather-clad kink-with-a-wink stylings of Louise Jameson in character.
For a series entering its sixteenth year, to cast a new companion was guaranteed to be fraught with problems because it would seem that many of the character corners would have been somewhat worked out. The gem of an idea, even withstanding the hook of the ‘Key to Time’ construct, of pairing the Tom Baker Doctor with ‘an equal’ to spark off of was a wonderful conceit. To then add a soupcon of glamour in the form of Mary Tamm was a delicious topper which made it all come together.
Just listening to Tamm and Baker bounce off each other in The Ribos Operation leavened as always by Robert Holmes’ dialogue takes this fan immediately back. So it’s with sad finality that the Tour learned today of another death in the family. Mary Tamm died today after a battle against cancer. These posts honoring the recently passed are happening with depressing regularity.
Still the Tour can only honor Tamm in the way we know best. We’ve burrowed through the Tom Baker wing of the site and have separated out the ‘Who Not Who’ pictures of Tamm into it’s own page. We were quite surprised to find just how many of them there were. We think you will be too. The shame of it, of course, is that it shouldn’t take a person passing to make even this kind of honor happen.
And as a reminder, all of the stories that Tamm appeared in from The Ribos Operation through The Armageddon Factor are available through the Tom Baker portion of the site.