Baker appeared as Moore, an artist whose paintings are imbued with voodoo power, in The Vault of Horror (1973), and as Koura, the villainous sorcerer, in Ray Harryhausen's The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973).

Baker also appeared in Pier Paolo Pasolini's 1972 film version of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales,[8] as the younger husband of the Wife of Bath.

When he first took on the role, the media dubbed him "Boiler Suit Tom" because he had been supplied for a press conference with some old studio-set clothes to replace his modest garments.

[13] Baker quickly made the part his own, and audience-viewing figures for his first few years returned to a level not seen since the height of 'Dalekmania' a decade earlier.

[14] His eccentric style of dress and quirky personality, in particular his trademark look of wearing a long scarf and his fondness for jelly babies, as well as his voice, made him an immediately recognisable figure, and he quickly caught the viewing public's imagination.

[19] Many of the stories from his early period in the role are considered to be classics of the series, including The Ark in Space (1975), Genesis of the Daleks (1975), The Brain of Morbius (1976), The Deadly Assassin (1976) and The Robots of Death (1977).

[20] However, the violent tone of the stories produced by Philip Hinchcliffe saw the series come under heavy criticism from morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse.

[14] Concerns over violence during this early period led to a lightening of the tone and an "erratic decline" in both the popularity and quality of the series.

[22] He acknowledged that his final producer on the series, John Nathan-Turner, had made changes he did not agree with and that they "did not see eye-to-eye really about very much"; according to Baker, the two became good friends afterwards and forgot their disagreements.

Baker was also involved in the reading of old Target novelisations in the BBC Audio range of talking books, "Doctor Who (Classic Novels)".

In October 2009, Baker was interviewed for BBC Radio 4's Last Word to pay tribute to the deceased former Doctor Who producer Barry Letts.

In July 2009, the BBC announced that Baker would return to the role for a series of five audio dramas, co-starring Richard Franklin as Captain Mike Yates, which would begin release in September.

The five audios comprise a single linked story under the banner title Hornets' Nest, written by author Paul Magrs.

[28] In March 2011, it was announced that Baker would be returning as the Fourth Doctor initially for two series of plays for Big Finish Productions, starring alongside former companions Leela (Louise Jameson) and Romana I (Mary Tamm).

[29] Big Finish had also arranged for Baker to record a series of stories reuniting him with Elisabeth Sladen's character Sarah Jane Smith (for which special permission was obtained from the producers of The Sarah Jane Adventures TV series), but Sladen died in April 2011 before any stories could be recorded.

[31] Baker also returned to the role of the Curator for Big Finish, joining the casts of The Eighth Doctor Adventures and UNIT: The New Series.

[4] For the third series of the British game show Cluedo, Baker was cast as Professor Plum, a "man with a degree in suspicion".

Baker played the role of the Captain in the Challenge version of Fort Boyard, and has also hosted the children's literature series, The Book Tower.

After his work on Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World, Baker was cast as a similar narrator of Little Britain on BBC Radio 4 and remained in the role when it transferred to television.

But first let's see what the poor people are up to in the first of two visits this evening to the EastEnders.Baker has appeared in various radio productions, including a role as "Britain's most celebrated criminal barrister", Sir Edward Marshall-Hall in John Mortimer Presents the Trials of Marshall Hall (1996), "Josiah Bounderby" in Charles Dickens' Hard Times (1998) and a part in the 2001 BBC Radio 4 version of The Thirty-Nine Steps as Sir Walter Bullivant.

He guest starred in The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (a pastiche series written by Bert Coules) in the 2002 episode "The Saviour of Cripplegate Square".

There were seven releases in 2013 with Mary Tamm as Romana: (The Auntie Matter, The Sands of Life, War Against the Laan, The Justice of Jalxar, Phantoms of the Deep, The Dalek Contract and The Final Phase).

[40] His voice has also been featured in Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future (2000),[41] Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior (2003), Sudeki (2004), Cold Winter (2005), MediEvil: Resurrection, Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising, and Little Britain: The Video Game (2007).

[41] Baker is a prolific voiceover artist and his voice was voted as the fourth most recognisable in the UK in 2006 after the Queen, Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher.

[48] Co-written with James Goss, the novel is based on a script Tom Baker and Ian Marter wrote for a proposed Doctor Who film in the 1970s.

After playing the horse in The Travails of Sancho Panza (directed by Joan Plowright), Laurence Olivier subsequently cast him as the Prince of Morocco in The Merchant of Venice.

Still under contract at the National, Baker also played a Russian in The Idiot, Sir Frances Acton in A Woman Killed With Kindness, opposite Anthony Hopkins, and Filippo in The Rules of the Game.

[54] In 1998, Baker provided narration on the track "Witness to a Murder (Part 2)" on the album Six by the English alternative rockband Mansun.

[55] On 13 May 2020, Dutch producer and songwriter Arjen Anthony Lucassen announced that Baker would provide spoken vocals for the character of "The Storyteller" on Ayreon's album, Transitus.

Baker lost contact with his sons until a chance meeting with Piers in a New Zealand pub allowed them to renew their relationship.