Doctor Who Vs. Marple: Towards Zero

Agatha Christie's thirty-fourth crime novel
(which did not actually feature the character

 of Miss Marple, again portrayed here by 

Geraldine McEwan) was published in 1944,

and was the fifth and final Superintendent 

Battle mystery. 

The Scotland Yard detective (replaced here 

by Mallard, played by Alan Davies) first 

appeared in The Secret of Chimneys (1925).

Towards Zero was dramatised for the stage 

by Christie in 1956, whilst a planned film

version was rejected by the author's estate

 in 1995 and became a loose adaptation

called Innocent Lies. A four-part treatment

for Radio 4 (which also replaced Battle with

another detective) first aired in 2010.

This ITV Studios serial (first shown in 2008)

was repeated on ITV3 today - it featured

Tom Baker, and eight Doctor Who cast and crew connections:

• Zoe Tapper (Kay) voiced Collis for Big Finish's Legion of the Lost (2016)
• Julie Graham (Mary) was Ruby White in The Sarah Jane Adventures: Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith, and Ravio in Ascension of the Cybermen and The Timeless Children - she also voiced Prime Minister 470 for Planet X (2016), Carolyn for The Blood Furnace (2017), and Miss Beecham/Sovari for The Year of Martha Jones (2021)
• Amelda Brown (Barrett) voiced Margaret for The Gunpowder Plot
• Peter Symonds (Hurstall here; Whalley in The Big Four) was a Soldier in Terror of the Zygons
• Jo Woodcock (Alice; Jennifer in Cat Among the Pigeons) voiced Ziv for Starlight Robbery (2013), Susannah Nash for Static (2017), Marie for The Iron Maid (2018), and Kayla Worthington for The Day Before They Came (2021)
• Paul Kennington was also a stuntman on Rise of the Cybermen, The Age of Steel, Army of Ghosts, Doomsday and The Doctor's Daughter
• for Michael Pickwoad and Jason Gill see At Bertram's Hotel