Doctor Who Vs. 1984

George Orwell's seminal novel Nineteen Eighty-Four has been drama-

tised many times for the cinema, radio, television, comics, theatre,

opera, and even ballet since publication in 1949.

The first British treatment of the dystopian text was from Nigel Kneale

 and was broadcast live on BBC TV in December 1954. Like the writer's

Quatermass serials, the drama was hugely controversial - it was ranked

seventy-third in the BFI's 100 Greatest British TV Programmes survey

of 2000. Peter Cushing (as Winston Smith) was joined here by

Yvonne Mitchell (Julia), Andre Morell (O'Brien), and Donald Pleasence

(Syme).

The thriller was next shown in 1977, and a proposed repeat for the

Corporation's fiftieth anniversary was cancelled when Virgin's film

version went into production.

BBC2 screened the programme following the death of director Rudolph

Cartier in 1994, then the centenary of Orwell's birth in 2003 was marked

by the next repeat on BBC4. Kneale's script was reworked for BBC2's

Theatre 625 strand in November 1965.

A rare repeat of the seventy-year old 1954 telerecording was shown

on BBC4 last night - both black and white versions featured a total of seventeen Doctor Who cast connections:

Nineteen Eighty-Four

• Morell [born Cecil Mesritz] (O'Brien) and Leonard [Meyer] Sachs (Charrington) both starred in The Massacre, as Marshal Gaspard de Saux Tavannes and Admiral Gaspard de Coligny - Sachs was also Lord President Borusa in Arc of Infinity
• John [Freeman] Baker (Man) was Time Lord in (episode 1 of) Colony in Space, Meditator in Planet of the Spiders (1), and Ralph in The Visitation (1)
• Peter [John] Sallis (Extra) was Elric Penley in The Ice Warriors, and was due to appear in Enlightenment as Striker

The World of George Orwell: 1984

• Cyril [Leonard[ Shaps (Syme) was John Viner in The Tomb of the Cybermen, Dr. Lennox in The Ambassadors of Death, Professor Herbert Clegg in Planet of the Spiders, and the Archimandrite in The Androids of Tara
• Vernon [Alexandre] Dobtcheff (Goldstein) was the [Chief] Scientist in The War Games, then voiced Dadda Desaka for The Cradle of the Snake (2010), Sibelius Crow for The Necropolis Express, Shamur for The Children of Seth (both 2011), Heinrich Schuman for Threshold (2012), and Jorenzo Zorn for The Genesis Chamber (2016)
• Peter Bathurst (Foster) was Hensell in The Power of the Daleks, and Chinn in The Claws of Axos
• Paul Phillips (Martin)
• Eden Fox (Aaronson) was an Extra in The War Games, and Miner in The Monster of Peladon (6)
• John [Edward] Brandon [born Barandon] (General) was Sergeant in The Tenth Planet (1)
• Brian [Parry] Badcoe (General) was Adam in Invasion of the Dinosaurs
• Eric Francis (Blind man) was the First Elder in The Sensorites
• Sydney Arnold [born Arnold Roeg] (Old man) was Cedric Perkins in The Highlanders
• John Moore (Orator) was Trojan in The Myth Makers (2), and Prisoner in Frontier in Space (3)
• [John] David Grey [born Gregory] (Man) was Rinchen in The Abominable Snowmen
• Michael Sheard [born Donald Marriot Perkins] (Man) was Rhos in The Ark (2), Dr. Roland Summers in The Mind of Evil, Laurence Scarman in Pyramids of Mars, Lowe in The Invisible Enemy, Mergrave in Castrovalva, the Headmaster [Harvey Parson] in Remembrance of the Daleks, Chief Baxter in Fury from the Deep (2002), then voiced Duke Orsino for The Stones of Venice (2001)
• John [Frederick] Abineri (Man) was Pieter Van Lutyens in Fury from the Deep, General George Carrington in The Ambassadors of Death, Richard Railton in Death to the Daleks, and Ranquin in The Power of Kroll