In 1964, the production team suffered a Crisis, and lost the Urge to Live... Planet of Giants was supposed to be a four part story, but Donald Wilson thought it lacked enough incident to sustain this length. The decision was made to reduce the episode count to three, so Parts Three (Crisis) and Four (The Urge to Live) were edited together to form a single instalment, retaining the title for Part Three, and that is what was first broadcast on this day.
The first three episodes were directed by associate producer Mervyn Pinfield, whilst the final part was given to Douglas Camfield, who had worked on the show since the beginning as an assistant to the director. Pinfield allowed the composite episode to go out with Camfield's name attached.
In 2013, the build-up to the 50th Anniversary enjoyed a great leap forward with the release on the red button service of The Night of the Doctor. This saw Paul McGann return to the role of the Doctor for the first time since his debut in the 1996 movie - on screen at least. The Sisterhood of Karn also put in an appearance, for the first time since 1976.
In 2015 Sleep No More was shown for the first time on this day. The Doctor Who Festival was in progress at the Excel Arena in London this particular weekend. I attended on the 13th.
Today we should also remember Peter Brachacki, who died on this date in 1980, at the age of 54. Brachacki was Doctor Who's first designer, and is the person responsible for the iconic look of the TARDIS console room, with the circular roundels on the walls and the six sided control console.
The Brachacki design has been referenced as recently as Revolution of the Daleks, with the TARDIS which the companions used to escape from Gallifrey. Famously, Brachacki did not get on with Verity Lambert, and was not happy at being given Doctor Who to work on. He actually designed a lot more features for the TARDIS interior which weren't used, due to budgetary constraints. After working on the Pilot of An Unearthly Child, Brachacki fell ill and ended up in hospital - meaning he wasn't available for the remount. As it was, Lambert and he would have parted company by mutual consent anyway, given the chance. Barry Newbery stepped in to work on the remount, but stuck to Brachacki's designs.
On this day in 1959 Paul McCann who played the Eighth Doctor was Born.
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