One of the biggest pieces of sci-fi news hitting yesterday did not come from Comic-Con International.

Tom Baker, The Fourth (and, to many fans, the best) Doctor, will return to the role after almost 30 years in a series of Doctor Who audio productions. The U.K.'s Doctor Who Magazine reports that Baker has decided to step in from the Who-less wilderness in five stories recorded specially for BBC Audio.

While David Tennant is the most popular Doctor for the show's new generation of fans, Baker was the man when the show was in its original prime in the mid and late-1970s. He's also the actor featured in the first imported episodes seen by most American fans on PBS in the 1980s.

He became so closely associated in the role and so entrenched in being The Doctor, moving on from the part proved tough for Baker. But, in recent years, while participating in BBC DVD commentaries of his old episodes, Baker revealed that he looks back on those years as the best of his life. At the age of 75, the time was right for Baker to revisit the part that made him an icon.

Image courtesy BBC

See also: