Doctor Who Vs. The Odessa File

Based on the 1972 novel by espionage writer 

Frederick Forsyth, this thriller told the story of 

journalist Peter Miller's (played by Jon Voight) 

investigation into Holocaust survivor, Solomon
Tauber and the subsequent search for the top
secret Odessa file.
Towards the end of the Second World War, the Nazi

secret society ODESSA was formed by members of

the SS, among them Eduard Roschmann (portrayed here by Maximillian Schell), the butcher of Riga

concentration camp. In 1963, President Nasser of

Egypt sought to perfect a missile strike to destroy

Israel. His key scientists were mainly recruited

from Hitler's former rocket program and Odessa members still intent on wiping out the Jews.

Released by Columbia in 1974, this Anglo-German

 film was shown on Talking Pictures TV last night -

it featured Yorkshire-born actress Mary Tamm (1950-2012), Derek

Jacobi, and four other Doctor Who cast connections:

• Peter Jeffrey (Porath) and Cyril Shaps (Tauber) both starred opposite Tamm in The Androids of Tara, as Count Grendel and the Archimandrite - Jeffrey was also the Pilot in The Macra Terror, whilst Shaps was also John Viner in The Tomb of the Cybermen, Dr. Lennox in The Ambassadors of Death, and Professor Herbert Clegg in Planet of the Spiders
• Eddie Powell and Joe Powell were stuntmen on Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 AD too