Doctor Who Vs. James Bond, Part 4: Thunderball

Eon Productions intended to follow 1963's

From Russia With Love with an adaptation of Casino Royale (the first Bond story from

1953), but were again thwarted by legal issues. The alternative project, Thunderball

became the most successful feature in the

run to date. 

Based on Ian Fleming's eighth full length

novel (published in 1961), the film was

planned as the first entry in the franchise,

and was then reworked by Warner Bros as

Never Say Never Again in 1983 - Bond was

 played by Sean Connery in both versions.

Bernard Lee, Desmond Llewellyn, and Lois

Maxwell reprised their respective series

roles as M, Q, and Moneypenny. Released

in late 1965, the film was shown on ITV4 tonight - it featured eighteen Doctor Who cast and crew connections:

• Earl Cameron (Pinder) was Glyn Williams in The Tenth Planet
• Philip [born Roy James] Locke (Vargas) was Bigon and Control Voice in Four to Doomsday
• George [born Jiri] Pravda (Kutze) was Alexander Denes in The Enemy of the World, Professor Jaeger in The Mutants, and Castellan Spandrell in The Deadly Assassin
• Leonard [Meyer] Sachs (Captain) and Clive [Benabu] Cazes (Spectre 9) both appeared in The Massacre - as Admiral Gaspard de Coligny and the Guard Captain - Sachs was also Lord President Borusa in Arc of Infinity
• [Charles] Edward Underdown (Air Vice Marshal) was Zastor in Meglos
• Gabor Baraker (Spectre 13) was Wang-Lo in Marco Polo, and Luigi Ferrigo in (episode 2 of) The Crusade
• Neil Hallett [born John W H Neil] (Pilot) was Maylin Renis in Timelash
• André [Gaston] Maranne [born Maillol] (Spectre 10) was Roger Benoit in The Moonbase
• Peter [John Buckley] Forbes Robertson (Spectre 12) was Guard in The Power of the Daleks, Time Lord in Colony in Space (1), and titular reptile in The Sea Devils
• Jack Silk was a stuntman on The Daemons (4) too
• stuntman Bernard Barnsley was Monoid in The Ark, and UNIT Soldier in The Silurians (2)
• Peter Roy (006) was Greek Soldier in The Myth Makers, Sergeant in The Faceless Ones (1), UNIT Bunker Soldier in The Invasion (1), Guard in The Seeds of Death (1), The Space Pirates (1), The Face of Evil (1), The Invasion of Time (1), The Androids of Tara (1) and The Armageddon Factor (1), Technic Obarl in The Hand of Fear (1), Policeman in Logopolis (1), Ambulance Man in Castrovalva (1), Market Man in Snakedance (1), and Extra in The Highlanders (1), The Silurians (6), The Sun Makers (1) and Resurrection of the Daleks (1)
• for Tim Condren see Goldfinger
• for Robert Rietty, Rick Lester, Arthur Howell, Pat Judge and Cliff Culley see Dr. No