The Unexpected Who Autograph: how a cheap used book lead to a bonus Tom Baker autograph

BLOT: (21 Dec 2010 - 10:05:40 AM)

The Unexpected Who Autograph: how a cheap used book lead to a bonus Tom Baker autograph

Tom Baker best known in the United States (and elsewhere) as playing the Fourth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, and for having a rather excellent voice, including doing voice overs in shows like Little Britain (LGT: Youtube, skip the first minute to get the actual Baker bits). He has also written at least one book: The Boy Who Kicked Pigs. Per its description on Amazon:

After hearing about in November (the book is a decade-plus-old), I ordered a used copy through AmazonMarketplace. And waited. Waited and waited. Finally, the deadline for the book to show up went by, and still no book. This happens from time to time, and often means that the book is not going to show up. Mailing labels have fallen off. Wrong addresses have been used (my brother Danny recently got a package addressed to him but clearly meant for someone else, including the shipping label). Something has gone awry. However, in this case, the book did show up, just late. I opened it up and one of the first things I noticed was this front page:

Not only is the book signed, though not to me, alas, but the bookmark in it was a postcard art print of Baker in the Fourth Doctor outfit* and it is also autographed!

The second signature you see towards the bottom is from June Hudson, who designed the outfit, and is printed on the card itself.

I was curious as to why a double autographed item would not have been marked as such—short answer: looks like bookseller didn't even really open the item just eyeballed it on the shelf—and I wanted to confirm the signature, just in case. I found these two other copies of roughly the same postcard print that have also been autographed. Curious that mine clearly has a thin-line border around the picture, separating it from the text at the bottom, while neither of the other two have that.

There you go, though, the story of how I ordered a cheap used book online and got not one but two bonus autographs from one of my favorite actors to have played my favorite TV show character. Merry Christmas to me.

* The "mark I" version of the outfit, which had a brownish coat and multi-color but mostly green, red, yellow, and brown scarf (as well as a shifting series of other bits, boots, and waistcoats) is the most famous. Later on, a second version of the scarf was used that was longer. In the last season or so, John Nathan-Turner switched out the outfit for a red and maroon themed one, which had much less variation. The original scarf was replaced by a red-hued one with purple stripes. This "mark II" style outfit is the one pictured in the postcard.

LABEL(s): Doctor Who

BY WEEK: 2010, Week 51
BY MONTH: December 2010