Born: 26th July 1939 (as Robert John Baker)
Died: 3rd November 2021 (aged 82 years)
Episodes Broadcast: 1971-1973, 1975-1979

Bob Baker was born in Bristol, and originally trained in masonry, earning a living by carving inscriptions on tombstones. A bandmate in a jazz quartet encouraged his interest in filmmaking, and his first experience in television was providing animated shorts for the children's show Vision On during the Sixties. In 1968, Baker met an advertising copywriter named Dave Martin. The two men decided to form a screenwriting partnership, and one of their early projects was a sitcom pilot about an army recruit entitled A Man's Life. When it wound up on the desk of Doctor Who script editor Terrance Dicks, Baker and Martin were invited to submit ideas for the show.

Baker and Martin began working on a Second Doctor story called “The Gift”, which evolved into the Third Doctor adventure The Claws Of Axos, broadcast in 1971. They would write two further serials for Jon Pertwee's Doctor, including The Three Doctors, which marked the first time that multiple incarnations of the Doctor were brought together. By this time, Dicks had coined the pair “the Bristol Boys”. Their work on Doctor Who became even more prolific once Tom Baker took over as the Fourth Doctor. Baker and Martin collaborated on five further serials, the last of which was 1979's The Armageddon Factor, the conclusion of the season-long Key to Time saga. In between, they wrote out popular companion Sarah Jane Smith in 1976's The Hand Of Fear, and introduced the robot dog K·9 in the following year's The Invisible Enemy.

Baker wrote one Doctor Who serial on his own: Nightmare Of Eden

Away from Doctor Who, Baker and Martin wrote for programmes such as Sky, King Of The Castle, Target and Murder At The Wedding. They also served jointly as story editors on Pretenders. As the Seventies drew to a close, Baker and Martin decided to dissolve their partnership; Baker was hoping to move into the production side of television. He wrote one further Doctor Who serial on his own: Nightmare Of Eden, broadcast at the end of 1979. Baker then became the script editor for Shoestring and subsequently for his own creation, Into The Labyrinth. In the mid-Eighties, he was a producer for HTV on Function Room.

In the Nineties, Baker began scripting the Wallace And Gromit short films for animator Nick Park, starting with the second entry in the series, The Wrong Trousers. This association would lead Baker to win two BAFTAs, for the 2005 feature-length movie The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit and the 2008 short A Matter Of Loaf And Death. Baker had long strived to launch a K·9 television series, and finally achieved his ambition with an Australian co-production which aired a single season between 2009 and 2010. Prior to this, Baker had approached executive producer Russell T Davies about writing for the revived Doctor Who series, but nothing came of it.

Baker was first married to Vicki Hollis, with whom he had a daughter, Cathy, and sons Martin and Paul. His second wife was Angela Wynne; they had a son, Andy, and a step-daughter, Laura. Finally, in 1991, Baker wedded Marie Hum. They would have four daughters: Jo, Clare, Rachael and Sarah Jane. Baker's autobiography, K·9 Stole My Trousers, was issued by Fantom Publishing in 2013. He was working on new projects involving K·9 when he died on November 3rd, 2021.