British Science Fiction Series

[themaninblack 2,112]

No doubt she'll be introduced as a bit down-to-earth and ordinary but by the season's end, she'll end up a souped-up Mary Sue as per...

[YoungWillz 19,818]

Obituary for Graeme Eton, New Zealand actor who played Preba in Doctor Who's The Monster Of Peladon, who has died aged 79. https://www.thestage.co.uk/features/obituaries/2016/obituary-graeme-eton/

[YoungWillz 19,818]

Camera Supervisor on Doctor Who Alec Wheal has died aged 81: http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2016/05/alec-wheal-1935-2016.html

 

Also worked on Black Adder, The Tripods, Last Of The Summer Wine, Just Good Friends and Grange Hill.

[YoungWillz 19,818]

The Summer 2016 edition of Equity Magazine is out and available online here: http://www.equity.org.uk/documents/equity-summer-2016-magazine/ In Memoriam section on page 16 as usual. You might want to check it, but I've been through it and found little of interest outside the more noteworthy deaths we already know about.

 

Of note in this topic in respect of Doctor Who are mentions of the deaths of Ian East and Terence Woodfield, both of whom had non-speaking roles in The Dalek's Master Plan as Celation. Terence Woodfield however went on to have a much larger role as Maharis in The Ark (not The Ark In Space).

 

Ian East's only other major role appears to have been Maurice Wrigley in The Nearly Man (1975), with casual appearances in Z Cars, The Bill, EastEnders, Holby City and Crown Court and others.

 

Terence Woodfield for this topic also had roles in The Avengers and The Tomorrow People, with other appearances in Z Cars (was every 60's actor in this?), Robert's Robots, Get Some In! and The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin among others.

 

Sadly, I've been unable to trace specific obituaries for either gentleman.

[YoungWillz 19,818]

Death Notice for Patricia English, American born actress, who has died aged 84. http://announcements.telegraph.co.uk/deaths/205539/cohen

 

Had three separate roles in The Avengers, and other roles in Department S and The Champions.

 

Others include Madam Heloise De Villefort in the 1964 Count Of Monte Cristo and Beatrice Harvey in The Doctors.

 

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0257661/

 

Seems her husband has already passed away.

[YoungWillz 19,818]

Michael Napier Brown, who had a role as Arturo Villar in The War Games for Doctor Who, has died. http://www.northampton-news-hp.co.uk/giant-of-northampton-theatre-scene-dies-in-hospital/story-29637326-detail/story.html

 

He was 79.

 

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0114287/

[YoungWillz 19,818]

Equity Magazine of Autumn 2016 now available online, and the In Memoriam section brings news of the death of Christopher Farries (born Christopher Wood) who played the lead Sea Devil Sauvix in Warriors Of The Deep for Doctor Who. http://www.equity.org.uk/documents/equity-autumn-magazine-2016/

 

Again, I cannot find a specific obituary for him.

 

Edit: Looks like it was around May/June 2016, according to this sole tweet. https://twitter.com/Zombula/status/738571311874723841

[drol 10,457]

Equity Magazine of Autumn 2016 now available online, and the In Memoriam section brings news of the death of Christopher Farries (born Christopher Wood) who played the lead Sea Devil Sauvix in Warriors Of The Deep for Doctor Who. http://www.equity.org.uk/documents/equity-autumn-magazine-2016/

 

Again, I cannot find a specific obituary for him.

 

Edit: Looks like it was around May/June 2016, according to this sole tweet. https://twitter.com/Zombula/status/738571311874723841

Here it says 18th May.

http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Christopher_Farries

[YoungWillz 19,818]

 

Equity Magazine of Autumn 2016 now available online, and the In Memoriam section brings news of the death of Christopher Farries (born Christopher Wood) who played the lead Sea Devil Sauvix in Warriors Of The Deep for Doctor Who. http://www.equity.org.uk/documents/equity-autumn-magazine-2016/

 

Again, I cannot find a specific obituary for him.

 

Edit: Looks like it was around May/June 2016, according to this sole tweet. https://twitter.com/Zombula/status/738571311874723841

Here it says 18th May.

http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Christopher_Farries

 

 

Thank you kind sir!

[YoungWillz 19,818]

Report here of the death of Michael Bangerter, who played Curt in the first episode of Planet Of Fire for Doctor Who. https://twitter.com/tv_heaven/status/770220267155095552

 

Film roles included O Lucky Man!, A Bridge Too Far and The Naked Civil Servant. On TV he was in Colditz and The Onedin Line and played Lord Alfred Douglas in a 1960 episode of On Trial.

 

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0051952/?ref_=nmbio_bio_nm

[CoffinLodger 1,247]

Don't know if anyone has reported this but apparantely the actor Michael Percival died a few months back. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0672888/.I only know because I was listening to a new commentary track for the Dr Who story Remebrance of the Daleks with his friend the actor Simon Williams.He was in the 2010 story Vampires of Venice

[YoungWillz 19,818]

Don't know if anyone has reported this but apparantely the actor Michael Percival died a few months back. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0672888/.I only know because I was listening to a new commentary track for the Dr Who story Remebrance of the Daleks with his friend the actor Simon Williams.He was in the 2010 story Vampires of Venice

 

Here: https://forums.deathlist.net/topic/8591-grange-hill/?p=248109

[Davey Jones' Locker 1,324]

There is a very lengthy, no-holds-barred interview with Peter Davison in the latest issue of Dr Who magazine.

 

Davison says that Janet Fielding has had a lot of scares with her cancer but she is appprently doing well at the moment.

 

Some other tidbits:

 

1. According to Davison, Michael Grade was really targeting the "gay mafia" in the BBC, not Dr Who. He gave Nathan-Turner the ultimatum to get rid of the Doctor he picked (Colin Baker), expecting JN-T to resign in protest. Instead, to save his own skin, JN-T sacked Colin.

 

2. Colin Baker is still bitter about it all to this day.

 

3. Davison doesn't like Matthew Waterhouse.

 

4. Davison really doesn't like Tom Baker. Baker really is very... odd... to put it politely if Davison's anecdotes about him are anything to go by.

 

5. Davison agrees most of his episodes weren't very good and that modern Who is generally much better because the showrunner is actually a proper writer unlike JN-T and Saward.

 

Link: http://blogtorwho.com/dwm-503-includes-huge-interview-with-peter-davidson/

[msc 18,016]

JN-T was probably underrated at the whole producing bit - ie his job. Budgets and casting (let's ignore Bonnie Langford here for a moment) and that kind of thing. Fans bemoan how he kept adding random trips abroad to the show, but then, he managed to budget them in. Even at the end of the McCoy era, there was still, for example, enough of the budget left over to have filmed a 5th episode of The Curse of Fenric if need be. (But apparently attempts to show the show wasn't a drain of money just led to the Grade types cutting the budget further...) Also he did some of the direction on Fenric and it's pretty seamless.

 

Where he wasn't that good - ignoring his people person skills - was the creative side. This wouldn't have mattered if he had a good script-editor on board. Alas, he had Eric Saward, who was bloody awful. A case in point being during Trial of a Time Lord when some of the scenes didn't make sense to the cast. A shock, I know. Colin Baker asked what they meant to the director, who told him to speak to Saward. Saward brushed them off with an "oh, ask the writer". So Baker did ask the writer, who was Philip Martin - fairly acclaimed for Gangsters, etc - who told him these scenes weren't in the script he wrote! Also, he's on record, many times, as not understanding why a "pacifist" hero would be interesting to kids. Idiot.

 

Also, Tom is Tom is Tom. "Tom Baker is the only man I know who, as he gets older, is slowly going sane", as Barry Letts once put it.

[themaninblack 2,112]

Yes, he was a whizz production unit manager during Williams' time. It was J N-T who worked out a workable way to film in Paris for 'City of Death', just adding that extra bit of gloss to one of the jewels of the classic-era Doctor Who crown, so kudos to him for that contribution also.

[Davey Jones' Locker 1,324]

JN-T was probably underrated at the whole producing bit - ie his job. Budgets and casting (let's ignore Bonnie Langford here for a moment) and that kind of thing. Fans bemoan how he kept adding random trips abroad to the show, but then, he managed to budget them in. Even at the end of the McCoy era, there was still, for example, enough of the budget left over to have filmed a 5th episode of The Curse of Fenric if need be. (But apparently attempts to show the show wasn't a drain of money just led to the Grade types cutting the budget further...) Also he did some of the direction on Fenric and it's pretty seamless.

 

Where he wasn't that good - ignoring his people person skills - was the creative side. This wouldn't have mattered if he had a good script-editor on board. Alas, he had Eric Saward, who was bloody awful. A case in point being during Trial of a Time Lord when some of the scenes didn't make sense to the cast. A shock, I know. Colin Baker asked what they meant to the director, who told him to speak to Saward. Saward brushed them off with an "oh, ask the writer". So Baker did ask the writer, who was Philip Martin - fairly acclaimed for Gangsters, etc - who told him these scenes weren't in the script he wrote! Also, he's on record, many times, as not understanding why a "pacifist" hero would be interesting to kids. Idiot.

 

Also, Tom is Tom is Tom. "Tom Baker is the only man I know who, as he gets older, is slowly going sane", as Barry Letts once put it.

In the interview, Davison credits JN-T for his pizzazz - being a great publicist and media spokesman for the show. I am not so sure about his casting abollity though - I don't think Colin was a great actor. A few years ago I saw his BBC version of Cousin Bette, which predates Who, and he was bloody awful as the leading man in that, IMHO.

 

Totally agree with everything you say about Saward being the real problem though as a hack writer and his inability to grasp the idea of a pacifist hero being interesting to kids.

 

On that note, I am always baffled why some people perceive

Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor to be more pacifist than his predecessors. Apart from Warriors of the Deep, he strikes me as one of the most violent Doctors, thanks to Saward's influence: he guns down Cybermen in Earthshock, pushes a Dalek out a window, seriously contemplates shootimg Davros, euthanazes Omega, etc. For that matter, even before Saward came onboard, he kills Monarch in Four to Doomsday. I think Dr Who only becomes really pacifist from the Eighth Docotor onwards and especially from the latter part of the Tenth Doctor's run onwards, althouh there are hints of it as early as the Third Docotr (his disdain for the military (especially in The Silurians), his "Peace Party" reference in Frontier in Space, etc.)

 

Finally, I love your quote about Tom in the last para!

 

In the Peter Davison interview, one anecdote is that Tom started telling Peter some jokes at a convention somewhwere, which was fine but then, an hour later, he started to tell him all of exactly the same jokes again for some reason.

[themaninblack 2,112]

Wasn't there more deaths in 'Resurrection of the Daleks' than in 'Rambo III' or something? Something ridiculous like that anyway...

[Davey Jones' Locker 1,324]

Wasn't there more deaths in 'Resurrection of the Daleks' than in 'Rambo III' or something? Something ridiculous like that anyway...

Yes, I have heard that too. I just wonder where this perception that the Fifth Doctor is a pacifist comes from since he is one of the least pacifist based on onscreen evidence, thanks to Saward. Eric sure made Mary Whitehouse's job easy.

 

It is a shame, though, as I like the idea of the Fifth Doctor on paper - a genial, unassertive, more "human" Doctor going on a bunch of "Boy's Own"-style adventures with his companions sounds really appealing in theory. Then you see the execution... :(

[msc 18,016]

Colin is the weakest of the classic Doctors, but Davison and McCoy are good. I was thinking more of the stunt casting like Beryl Reid and Nicholas Parsons, who actually fit into their respective shows really well.

 

The Third Doctor is full of violence, but awesome. Tom Baker's Doctor was more of the "other way" type, but then he had the wonderful moment in Seeds of Doom where he jumps through a skylight, punches a henchman, saves Sarah Jane and pulls a gun on the main villain. "Just what do you do for an encore, Doctor?" "I win!"

 

I think its more on screen deaths than Terminator, for Resurrection: I once tried to count the number of on-screen deaths, and lost track around 40. In a kids show.

[Davey Jones' Locker 1,324]

The Third Doctor is full of violence in terms of the Venusian martial arts but how often does he actually kill? I know he guns down one Ogron but is that the only instance? I actually haven't seen that many Third Doctor stories... I know he sometimes uses nonviolence like the lullaby to subdue the monster in Peladon.

 

Personally, I think the Third Doctor's era would have been more interesting if he had fully turned on UNIT after the events of the Silurians and spent his exile on Earth blatantly opposing them and trying to stop them. It would have made for a darker and more interesting story run.

[msc 18,016]

Well, he does sort of kill all the Sea Devils. And several Ogrons, and a few Ice Warriors in Monster of Peladon from memory.

 

The Doctor/Brigadier relationship ending after The Silurians might have been more realistic, but them sticking together made the series more fun, imho. Mind you, the Brigadier is synonymous for a lot of fans with Nick Courtney himself. Mum met him, he was apparently lovely.

[Davey Jones' Locker 1,324]

BTW, Tom Baker claims he killed Jon Pertwee: http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/tom-baker-brands-fellow-doctor-103619

 

Anymore bad taste jokes like that and we'd have to invite Tom to join this site.

[Bibliogryphon 9,048]

Eric Sawards true crime is his ongoing feud with the estate of Terry Nation about the novelisation of Resurrection & Revelation. Is it going to down to obsessive DW book collectors posting pictures of Kathy Bates through his front door?

[msc 18,016]

The fact Douglas Adams died before writing the City of Death book is far worse, to my mind. Or for the new series, in fact. Just think, if Russell T Davies had commissioned Adams back in 2003, we might be getting near to seeing the episode any decade now...

[Bibliogryphon 9,048]

The fact Douglas Adams died before writing the City of Death book is far worse, to my mind. Or for the new series, in fact. Just think, if Russell T Davies had commissioned Adams back in 2003, we might be getting near to seeing the episode any decade now...

Douglas Adams was never going to do City of Death it was just not worth it for him but his estate have allowed other writers to do CoD, Shada & The Pirate Planet. I do not insist Saward writes the books but allows them to be written. James Goss who adapted CoD got closer in tone to Adams than Eoin Coifer in the official Sixth Hitch-hiker book.