Tuesday 25 January 2022

On This Day... 25th January


The Tom Baker era proper got underway on this day in 1975. Robot had been a bit of a throwback to the Pertwee / UNIT era, produced as it was by Barry Letts, and written by Terrance Dicks.
The first episode of The Ark in Space, which debuted today, saw the arrival of Philip Hinchcliffe as Producer, Robert Holmes as Script Editor (and writer on this occasion), and Tom Baker showing us just what his Doctor was going to be like. This was the first episode since The Dead Planet to feature only the TARDIS regulars.
Back in 1964, The Daleks had reached its sixth episode. It was called The Ordeal - and it was. Terry Nation's six part story had been extended to seven episodes, and you can see where the padding was added.
The final "monster" story of the monochrome era began today with Part One of The Seeds of Death, in 1969. The last 16 episodes of the 1960's would feature only humanoid villains.
Also shown today for the first time were a couple of Peter Davison Part Three's - Four to Doomsday, in 1982, and Snakedance, in 1983.


It was only three days ago that we were mentioning War Doctor John Hurt's birthday, but today marks the fifth anniversary of his passing. He died in 2017 at the age of 77.
On a happier note, today is the 72nd birthday of actor Christopher Ryan. He first played Sil's boss Kiv in the Mindwarp section of Trial of a Time Lord, and returned in 2008 to play the Sontaran commander Staal in The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky. He was back as another Sontaran commander, Stark, in The Pandorica Opens.

No comments:

Post a Comment