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 TCM tonight - it featured Yorkshire-born actress Mary Tamm

(1950-2012), Derek Jacobi, and two other Doctor Who cast

connections:

• Peter Jeffrey (Porath) and Cyril Shaps (Voice of 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