On This Day... 21st April

 

Just two Dalek stories debuted today - one in the classic era and another in the revival.

1973 saw the third episode of Planet of the Daleks. This is the one that is missing from the archives in its original colour form, but has since been colourised for its DVD outing (and improved upon for its inclusion on the Blu-ray box set of Season 10).

In 2008 the emergency temporal shift by Cult of Skaro at the conclusion of Doomsday was seen to have taken them back in time to 1931 New York City - to Manhattan's Empire State Building to be exact. Daleks in Manhattan introduced a new servant race for the Daleks - half human pig slaves.

Today we remember actor and stuntman Terry Walsh, who died on this date in 2002, aged 62. 

Walsh joined Derek Ware's HAVOC stunt team and was first seen in Doctor Who in the big fight sequence between UNIT and General Carrington's heavies in The Ambassadors of Death.

He remained with the show right through the 1970's, doubling for both Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker (sometimes noticeably). A TV pantomime in 1974 actually saw him play the Doctor, with dance troupe Pan's People as his companions. 

In Season 9, HAVOC were stood down and Walsh took over with his short-lived PROFILE team. It gets its only credit on The Curse of Peladon. Thereafter, the series used individual fight arrangers for each story - and this was often Walsh. He occasionally got a speaking role - especially if the character was expected to fall over at some point. Indeed, you could tell that something nasty was going to happen to someone if he was played by Terry.

Some notable appearances include the security guard in The Green Death (above), Zake in The Sontaran Experiment and Mensch in The Power of Kroll.

His last appearance was in a credited role, that of engineer Doran in The Creature from the Pit - where he gets thrown down the titular pit...

We also remember designer David Myerscough-Jones, who worked on three Doctor Who stories - The Web of Fear, The Ambassadors of Death, and Day of the Daleks. He was the person responsible for the remarkable London Underground tunnel and station sets - so realistic that LU thought that the BBC had sneaked in and filmed without permission. He passed away on this date in 2010, aged 75.