Torchwood: Miracle Day delivered a rather shocking episode today in 2011, with The Categories of Life. We thought that Dr Juarez was going to be a new regular, but she was bumped off in nasty fashion this week.
Today we remember the cinema Dr. Who Peter Cushing, who passed away on this date in 1994, aged 81.
He portrayed a human scientist version of the Doctor in two movies for Aaru / Amicus, both based on the first two Dalek TV stories. Early screen roles saw him work with everyone from Laurel & Hardy to Olivier, but it will be his association with Hammer, and subsequent involvement in the horror genre in general, for which he will be best remembered.
As well as portraying Van Helsing on two occasions - and his contemporary descendant on another two - his most famous horror role was that of Baron Frankenstein. Whilst the Universal cycle had chosen to follow the monster, Hammer opted to follow its creator. He played the part half a dozen times.
He didn't do a lot of sci-fi, but a late role was as Grand Moff Tarkin, commander of the Death Star, in the first Star Wars film. He and the character were brought back to life via CGI in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Off screen, he was an avid collector of models and toy soldiers. A young Ian Scoones - one of Doctor Who's greatest model-makers - took himself off to Whitstable one day to seek Cushing's advice, armed with models and sketches. He was directed to the beach where he found Cushing running a model boat, watched by lots of children. Cushing invited him home and did indeed give him some tips about getting into the VFX industry, and Scoones was soon working with Hammer, before joining first Gerry Anderson and then the BBC. In a roundabout way we've got Peter Cushing to thank for Jagaroth spaceships and Titan shuttles.
Someone Cushing knew well was stunt man Eddie Powell. He was Christopher Lee's body double, and appeared in Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150AD. He's the guy who attempts to escape from the Daleks and gets shot as he runs across a rooftop - a stunt which resulted in him damaging his ankle. Powell also doubled for Bernard Horsfall in the climatic fight which concludes Part Three of The Deadly Assassin.
Powell died in 2000, aged 73.
We also remember the actor Derek Newark, one of the series very first guest artists as he played Za in An Unearthly Child. He returned to the series in 1970 to play Greg Sutton in Inferno.
Newark died in 1998, aged 65.
Today's birthdays include Gray O'Brien (Rickston Slade in Voyage of the Damned), who is 54.
Figures from the series' earliest years who share the date are:
Clive Doig, vision mixer on the programme who later became a children's TV producer and who suggested Sylvester McCoy for the part of the Seventh Doctor, turns 82;
John Gorrie (director of The Keys of Marinus and one episode of The Reign of Terror) is 90;
And actor Ian Thompson (Menoptra Hetra in The Web Planet, and Aridian Malsan in The Chase) is 83.
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