On This Day... 27th May

 

After being seen in Canada first, and then in the US, Doctor Who - The Movie finally made its debut on the BBC today in 1996. The film had already been released on VHS prior to this.

Back in the classic era, The Evil of the Daleks moved on to its second episode in 1967 - the only one remaining from this story.

In 1972 The Time Monster had also reached its second instalment.

More recently, Series 2 gave us The Idiot's Lantern in 2006, and Series 10 The Pyramid at the End of the World in 2017.

Today we remember Dr Kit Pedler, the co-creator of the Cybermen. He died on this day in 1981, aged 53. Christopher Magnus Howard Pedler was brought onto Doctor Who by story editor Gerry Davis, who was looking for someone to act as a sort of scientific adviser on the show. Pedler was an eye specialist. Their first collaboration led to The War Machines, when they thought about the Post Office Tower being taken over by a malign force. Pedler suggested a computer for a villain, attacking people through the telephone lines. The next idea they came up with was the Cybermen, who first appeared in The Tenth Planet. Pedler had been inspired to create them after discussing spare part surgery with his wife one day - what would happen if too much was replaced? Pedler co-wrote the first three episodes but then ended up in hospital, so Davis wrote the final chapter by himself. They next worked together to bring us The Moonbase and then Tomb of the Cybermen. Pedler was the ideas man, and Davis the writer. 

By the time Tomb was made Davis had left the series, however, and Pedler's final two contributions were story ideas only, realised by David Whitaker (The Wheel in Space) and Derrick Sherwin (The Invasion). Davis and Pedler went on to work together again when they created Doomwatch.

Ecological issues were of great concern to him and he wrote books on the subject.

We also remember one of the stars of a story mentioned above. George Cormack featured in the latter episodes of The Time Monster as King Dalios, and later portrayed the Time Lord K'anpo in Planet of the Spiders. He passed away on this day in 1983, aged 75.