On This Day... 13th April

 

Fury From The Deep arrived at its penultimate episode today in 1968. 

This story title could equally refer to events in Cold War, which took place in a Soviet submarine. This 2013 story brought the Ice Warriors back after an absence of 39 years. 

That last appearance had been in The Monster of Peladon, whose fourth episode was broadcast today in 1974.

Today we wish David Tennant's father-in-law a very happy 71st birthday - Fifth Doctor, Peter Davison.

In 1981 he had the unenviable task of taking over from Tom Baker. His Doctor was so different, and he had the benefit of being already well known for All Creatures Great and Small, that he effortlessly achieved this. He remained in the role for three seasons, taking Patrick Troughton's advice to only do three years. He had been unhappy with his second season, but the third made him regret having given in his notice when he did. His daughter featured in the new series in a story titled, appropriately enough, The Doctor's Daughter. Georgia Moffett (Moffett being Davison's real name) later married Tenth Doctor David Tennant - making her both the Doctor's Daughter and the Doctor's Wife.

In 1983 Davison starred opposite Richard Hurndall as the First Doctor in The Five Doctors, and we remember that actor on the anniversary of his death, aged 73 in 1984. This was just a few months after his Doctor Who appearance. Producer JNT had seen Hurndall in an episode of Blake's 7, in which he had sported long white hair, and thought he could portray the first incarnation of the Doctor.

The writer Eric Pringle (The Awakening) also passed away on this date, in 2017 aged 82, as did Blake's 7 star Gareth Thomas who never featured in Doctor Who but did appear in the first series of Torchwood, in the episode Ghost Machine. He died in 2016 at the age of 71.