Author: matthewseespocksocvp

Christopher Benjamin’s medical shoe on the other foot

Saw the antepenultimate episode of Thriller (1973), In the Steps of a Dead Man and it featured Christopher Benjamin as Medical Officer.
This came on in June 1974 almost three years before Benjamin played Henry Gordon Jago in The Talons of Weng-Chiang but Jago did not have any medical knowledge however the other half of the duo introduced here, Professor George Litefoot (Trevor Baxter) does have.


Matthew See
Spocksoc Vice President

Wally K Daly has passed away

Wally K Daly has passed away.
Born on November 13 1940, Daly wrote The Ultimate Evil for Doctor Who’s original season 23 but neither his story nor the original season 23 ever made it on screen due to the 18 month hiatus.
The Ultimate Evil eventually got a Big Finish audio adaptation and Daly himself was in it playing the Bird.
He died on April 30 2020 at the age of 79.

Matthew See

Spocksoc Vice President

Doctor Who: Original

static1.squarespace.com/static/5fa00eae3c864b451a02f146/t/5fb0148b54d01722c1c19f78/1605375115648/ORIGINAL+by+Matthew+Holmes.pdf

Written by Matthew Holmes.
This is the second of twelve prose stories written to tie-in with the Turn Left rewatch.
This is a prequel to Turn Left and builds on from Dimension Cannon from Big Finish as this presents moments before Rose travelled to Donna’s World.
Very surprised to read that this links to Dimension Cannon as I have not been able to listen to Dimension Cannon prior to reading Original, something which I intend to rectify as soon as it is possible for me.
Not bad presenting these moments for Rose prior to Turn Left especially with it being daunting for her on what she had to do.

Matthew See
Spocksoc Vice President

Ralf Little in 10.2s

Rewatched Doctor Who: Smile and then Death In Paradise 10.2 and Smile is the second episode of NuWho’s own tenth season.
Not only that but both featured Ralf Little as he played Steadfast in the Doctor Who episode and in the Death In Paradise episode he is lead detective DI Neville Parker.
So Little got to be in two 10.2s.


Matthew See
Spocksoc Vice President

Pip Baker has passed away

Pip Baker has passed away.
Born on July 1 1928, Baker along with his wife Jane (who died in 2014) wrote for Doctor Who starting with their debut story The Mark of the Rani for Colin Baker’s (no relation) full season as the Doctor in 1985.
With The Mark of the Rani they introduced the Time Lord villain The Rani played by the late Kate O’Mara.
The Bakers then returned to write the next year’s Terror of the Vervoids which made up episodes 9 to 12 of The Trial of a Time Lord.
This could have been their only contribution to the Trial if not for the death of former script editor Robert Holmes who had been assigned to write episodes 13 and 14 The Ultimate Foe which concluded the Trial.
Holmes had completed episode 13 but when only wrote an outline for episode 14 when he died.
Another former script editor Eric Saward, who in fact had resigned in the midst of making the Trial due to disagreements with producer John Nathan-Turner, then stepped in to work on Holmes’ episode 14.
However Saward’s ending on Episode 14 was not suitable to Nathan-Turner and asked Saward to change it.
Saward refused withdrew permission to use his script very late in the day, by which point the production team had been assembled and the segment was entering rehearsals.
Nathan-Turner then commissioned the Bakers to write the replacement final episode and in the presence of a lawyer. This was to ensure that if the Bakers had written any similarities to the withdrawn Saward script it would have been deemed coincidental.
The Bakers therefore concluded the Trial. which although not known at the time, proved to be Colin Baker’s swansong as the Doctor.
The Bakers wrote for Doctor Who one more time by bringing back The Rani for Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy’s debut story The Time of the Rani in 1987.
The Bakers’ work prior to Doctor Who included the Space:1999 episode A Matter of Balance.
Pip Baker died on April 14 2020, less than three months before his 92nd birthday.


Matthew See
Spocksoc Vice President