Tom Baker returns as Fourth Doctor

Tom Baker is to return as the Fourth Doctor in a new audio series titled Doctor Who: Hornets' Nest.

The release will be the first full drama featuring the Fourth Doctor since the Time Lord's regeneration in 1981 episode Logopolis, the BBC reports.

Author Paul Magrs said: "It feels fantastic to write for him. I would say he's a brilliant mixture of everything the Fourth Doctor ever was.

"He's dark and sombre at times; other times he's gleefully macabre and mischievous."

The five-part series is made up of episodes titled 'The Stuff of Nightmares', 'The Dead Shoes', 'The Circus of Doom', 'A Sting in the Tale' and 'Hive of Horror'.

Available as a CD and download from September 2009, it will also feature the voices of co-stars Rula Lenska, Stephen Thorne, Michael Maloney and Richard Franklin as Mike Yates, who featured in 1974's Planet of the Spiders.

That episode saw the Fourth Doctor's first appearance in its closing seconds, as Tom Baker appeared uncredited following Jon Pertwee's regeneration.

Last year, Baker suggested that he could return to the TV series for a guest appearance if he was asked "nicely" by the show producers.