On This Day... 6th July

Luckily I don't have to dig out another image of Totally Doctor Who today, because Torchwood: Children of Earth got underway on this date in 2009. This third season comprised a single storyline told over five consecutive nights on BBC1 - starting with Day One. Things are slightly complicated by the fact that the second episode of Series 1 carried the same title.

The final instalment of Totally's first run was also broadcast today in 2006. The guests included Lis Sladen, soon to get her own spin-off series, and Raji James, who had featured in Army of Ghosts / Doomsday.

Today we remember one of the greatest writers of the classic - Malcolm Hulke. He passed away on this date in 1979, aged only 54.

Hulke had been earmarked to work on the series before it even started broadcast in 1963. His storyline about a planet on the far side of the Sun which looked like Earth but was its mirror image (generally known as "The Hidden Planet") failed to make it into the first season, and no amount of rewrites could make it work. It was eventually written off. 

Hulke tried again in the Troughton era when he came up with a story about aliens infiltrating Earth via a department store. He wrote this in collaboration with colleague David Ellis. It was finally accepted in rejigged form as The Faceless Ones, with the action transferred to an airport.

Hulke was approached by Terrance Dicks when he needed help to hurriedly write a 10 part finale to the Troughton era. Dicks knew him as he had rented his flat from Hulke.

After The War Games, with Dicks now Script Editor, he was able to commission his old landlord, resulting in The Silurians, Colony In Space, The Sea Devils, Frontier in Space and Invasion of the Dinosaurs. He also wrote, uncredited, The Ambassadors of Death.

Additionally, Hulke wrote the Target novelisations of all his stories, plus that for The Green Death.

It was an argument over the retitling of the dinosaur story's first episode which caused Hulke to fall out with the production team and decide not to work on the series again.

As the creator of the Silurians and the Sea Devils, Hulke continues to receive on screen credits - as recently as Easter 2022. On that occasion, the imbeciles who currently write the credits spelled his name wrong.