On This Day... 5th August

 

Today in 1966 Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150AD went on general release around UK cinemas. The second Aaru movie starring Peter Cushing as Dr. Who, it had more money spent on it yet didn't do as well as the first film at the box office. This was mainly down to 'Dalekmania' being very much on the wane.

Coincidentally, the 1995 documentary entitled Dalekmania, which was released as part of a DVD double pack of the two movies, as well as having a release on video on its own, just happens to be getting a TV screening this very weekend.

If you have access to the Talking Pictures channel (Freeview 82) then you can see it at Noon on Saturday (6th August).

I wonder if Wanda Ventham went to see the Dalek movie as a birthday treat in 1966? She is 87 today. Probably more famous nowadays as the mother of that Sherlock / Dr Strange actor, she featured in three Doctor Who stories. The first was The Faceless Ones, where she played Jean Rock, secretary to the airport commandant. She then played Thea Ransome / Fendahl Core in Image of the Fendahl. Her last appearance was as Faroon in Time and the Rani, where she was reunited with her The Faceless Ones co-star Donald Pickering.

She shares her birthday with Tim Preece, who played Codal in Planet of the Daleks. The Reginald Perrin actor turns 84.

Turning 54 is writer Matt Jones, who gave us The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit as well as Torchwood episode Dead Man Walking.

Torchwood script editor Brian Minchin is 44. He also worked on a number of Series 4 Doctor Who stories, as well as spin-offs such as Time Crash.

Last - but by no means least - principal monster performer Paul Kasey is 49 today. 

After playing most of the key aliens in the series from 2005 to 2013 he stepped back from the programme to concentrate on other projects - such as the third Star Wars trilogy - but has been back recently in a monster movement / co-ordinator role (e.g. on Legend of the Sea Devils). He had a non-masked role in Series 12, when he played Harold Green in Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror.