Doctor Who Vs. Quatermass and the Pit (1958)

"WE ARE THE MARTIANS!"

Workmen excavating a site in Knightsbridge discover an unusual

skull and what appears to be an unexploded bomb. Professor

Bernard Quatermass becomes

involved in the investigation when

it becomes apparent that the

object is actually an alien craft.

Known to have influenced John

Carpenter, Stephen King, Mark

Gatiss, and Doctor Who, the

third and final Quatermass serial

featured in the BFI's list of 100

Greatest Television Programmes,

which described it as "completely gripping". Each of the six episodes were broadcast live from Riverside's Studio 1 in Hammersmith - the

venue of a rare screening held today.

The legendary drama was preserved by BBC archives in 1958 for potential

repeat, and was shown again just a year later. BBC2 repeated the third episode, Imps and Demons, in November 1986 as part of their TV50

season. The programme also became available on BBC iPlayer in 2018.

The professor now portrayed by Andre Morell (first offered the lead in

1953) who replaced the original choice of Alec Clunes.

The scripts were informed by Nigel Kneale's concerns about racial tensions

in Britain, the Cold War, and the military's abuse of science and technology.

The writer again collaborated with director Rudolph Cartier, and the new

production was transmitted live from Riverside Studios, whilst filmed

inserts derived from Ealing Studios, and location filming shot in

Kensington. Hammer's version (with Andrew Keir in the title role)

was released in cinemas in 1967
In 1969, the new producer of Doctor Who, Derrick Sherwin acknowledged
that Kneale's works and this serial in particular, influenced the programme's
move towards realist, Earth-bound stories.
Although the BBC planned a fourth Quatermass drama in 1972, the project
was abandoned, and Kneale's scripts were eventually produced by Thames
TV in 1979.
The writer concluded the Professor's saga in The Quatermass Memoirs, first broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in March 1996 - Keir reprised his film role.
The sci-fi epic (described by BBC Online as "the finest thing the [Corporation] ever made") was shown on Monday nights in December 1958 and January 1959 - it featured Cec Linder (as Dr. Roney), Christine Finn (Barbara Judd), Anthony Bushell (Colonel Breen), and thirty-four Doctor Who cast and crew connections:

• John [Wilson] Stratton (Potter) was Shockeye O' the Quawncing Grig in The Two Doctors
• Mark Eden [born Douglas John Malin] (Journalist) was the epony- mous explorer in Marco Polo
• Eric [Bennett] Elliott (Journalist) was Commander of The Ark
• John [Frederick] Flint (Journalist) was William de Preaux in The Crusade, and Captain Urquhart in (part 1 of) Time Flight
• Arthur [Reginald] Hewlett (Baines) was Kalmar in State of Decay, and Kimber in Terror of the Vervoids
• Clifford Cox and Brian Gilmar (Privates) were Sergeant in Spearhead from Space; and Extra in Terror of the Autons and Colony in Space
• Michael Guest (Constable/Journalist/Sightseer) was Mongol Bandit in Marco Polo (5), Saxon in The Time Meddler (1), and Interviewer in The Daleks' Master Plan (1)
• Bill Matthews (Sightseer/Man) was Davis in The Silurians, Prison Officer in The Mind of Evil, an uncredited Draconian in Frontier in Space, and Extra in Planet of the Spiders
• Walter Randall (Sightseer/Man) was Tonila in The Aztecs, El Akir in The Crusade, Hyksos in The Daleks' Master Plan, Patrolman in The Invasion, Harry Slocum in Inferno, and Guard Captain in Planet of the Spiders
• Rex [Alfred] Rashley (Sightseer /Man) was Extra in The Silurians, and an uncredited Coven Member in The Daemons
• Kenneth [Ernest] Seeger (Sightseer/Dr Klein/Man) was a Cyberman in The Tomb of the Cybermen
• Elaine Williams and Nancy [Osborne] Adams (Sightseers/Women) were Customer in City of Death; and Woman in Snakedance
• [Max] Richard Shaw (Sladden) was Lobos in The Daleks' Master Plan, Cross in Frontier in Space, and Lakh in Underworld
• Bernard Spear (Vendor) was Man in Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150AD
• Richard Coe and John Dawson (Men) were TV Announcer in The Chase (1), and Time Lord in The Deadly Assassin
• Patrick Milner and James Duggan (Journalists/Men/Sightseers) were Guard in The Silurians, and UNIT Corporal in The Daemons; both were uncredited Soldiers in The War Games; and the latter was Trojan Guard in The Myth Makers
• Joan [Pamela] Harsant [born Gatcum] and Frank Seton [born Francis Wilfred Poupart] (Crowd) were Technician in The Silurians; and one of the titular The Sea Devils, and Scientist in The Time Warrior
• for John Herrington see Quatermass II
• John Scott Martin (Technician) appeared in seventy-six episodes (mainly as a Dalek operator) from The Web Planet to Remembrance of the Daleks
• [James Henry] Laurence Archer (Man) and Ronald [Warburton] Mayer (Dead Photographer/Journalist) were both seen in The Daemons as Coven Members/Villagers
• George Wilder (Civil Servant) was Kennedy in The War Machines
• Edward [Noel] Burnham (Official) would later play Professors Watkins and Kettlewell in The Invasion and Robot
• for Malcolm Watson, Jack Kine and Bernard Wilkie see The Quatermass Experiment
• Dick Mills (sound FX) of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop later provided special sound for 360 episodes of the classic run (from 100,000 BC to The Curse of Fenric), K9 & Company, Dimensions in Time, then 97 stories of the revived series (from Rose to The Name of the Doctor)
• SFX assistant (and Sladden's Hand) Peter Day later provided visual FX for fifty-one episodes (from The Evil of the Daleks to The Sun Makers) after making uncredited appearances as a Trojan in The Myth Makers (3), Tavern Customer in The Massacre (1), and Worker in The War Machines
• AA Englander was also film cameraman on The Ambassadors of Death and The Claws of Axos

Doctor Who: Sound Effects CD

Following the successful re-issue of the Genesis of the Daleks

soundtrack in March 2011, AudioGo added the Doctor Who

Sound Effects CD to their Vintage Beeb range a year later.

Originally issued by BBC Records in 1978, this compilation album

was another BBC Radiophonic Workshop title: BBC Sound Effects

No. 19. Available on both vinyl LP and cassette formats, this was

 the first commercial release of Doctor Who music.

Running at 38 minutes, the updated CD version features thirty

tracks (five from Brian Hodgson, with all the others by Dick

Mills) covering eighteen serials from Seasons 11 to 15 (1974

to 1978).

Interestingly, the track-listing in the original sleeve notes

referenced some TV adventures by their working titles - The

Exxilons (became Death to the Daleks), The Destructors (The

 Sontaran Experiment), The Zygons, The Curse of Mandragora,

 and The Enemy Within (The Invisible Enemy).

Doctor Who Vs. Moonbase 3

Between seasons ten and eleven of Doctor Who, the core prod-
uction team of producer Barry Letts (1925-2009) and script editor
Terrance Dicks
(1935-2019) created and launched a more adult sci-fi drama.

Commissioned in late 1972 and running to six, fifty-minute episodes,

Moonbase 3 began filming at Ealing Studios in April 1973 (concurrent
with The Green Death) and continued to the end of May (when The Time 
Warrior was recording). 

Here, the moon was first colonised by the five superpowers in 1995. Set
 in 2003, the series followed the lives of the European crew of the titular
settlement - four other lunar bases were crewed by America, Russia,
China and Brazil. The cast was led by Donald Houston, Ralph Bates,
Fiona Gaunt and Barry Lowe.

A co-production from BBC1, Fox and ABC, Moonbase 3 was originally
screened on Sunday nights in September and October 1973 - it garnered
disappointing ratings, and Dicks later considered the show a failure. The
programme featured seventy-three further Doctor Who cast and crew
connections:

• Christopher Barry (1925-2014) was also director of ten adventures (from The Daleks to The Creature from the Pit) and Downtime
• John Lucarotti (1926-1994) also scripted Marco Polo, The Aztecs, The Massacre and the original treatment of The Ark in Space
• Dudley Simpson (born 1922) also composed incidental music for sixty-two stories (from Planet of Giants to The Horns of Nimon)
• Dick Mills (born 1936) of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop also provided special sound for three-hundred and sixty episodes of the classic run (from 100,000 BC to Survival), K9 and Company, Dimensions in Time, then the revived series (from Rose to The Name of the Doctor)
• Dee Robson was also costume designer on The Invasion of Time, Arc of Infinity and Terminus
• Roger Liminton was also production designer on The Three Doctors and Carnival of Monsters
• Michael Wisher (Sanders) was John Wakefield in The Ambassadors of Death, Rex Farrel in Terror of the Autons, Kalik in Carnival of Monsters, Davros in Genesis of the Daleks and The Trial of Davros, Magrik in Revenge of the Cybermen, Morelli in Planet of Evil, Father in Wartime, Robar in Shakedown, and provided Dalek voices for (episode 6 of) Frontier in Space, Planet of the Daleks, Death to the Daleks and 30 Years in the TARDIS
• Peter Bathurst (Director General) was Hensell in The Power of the Daleks, and Chinn in The Claws of Axos
• Garrick Hagon (Ponti) was Ky in The Mutants, Abraham in A Town Called Mercy, and voiced the Jester for Big Finish's The Axis of Insanity (2004)
• John Hallam (Conway) was Light in Ghost Light
• Robert La Bassiere (Jackson) was a titular alien in The Krotons
• Madhav Sharma (Rao) was Patel in Frontier in Space (3)
• Peter Miles (Laubenthal) was Dr. Charles Lawrence in The Silurians, Professor Whitaker in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, then Nyder in Genesis of the Daleks (a role he reprised for The Trial of Davros and I, Davros: Guilt (2006) - he also voiced Tragan for The Paradise of Death, and Curator Gantman for Whispers of Terror (1999)
• Michael Gough (Dyce) played the titular villain in The Celestial Toymaker, and was Councillor Hedin in Arc of Infinity
• John Moreno (Benavente) and Joanna Ross (Jane) both appeared in The Ambassadors of Death, as Dobson (2) and Control Room Assistant
• Edward Brayshaw (Blaney) was Leon Colbert in The Reign of Terror, and the War Chief in The War Games
• George Pravda (Trenkin) was Denes in The Enemy of the World, Professor Jaeger in The Mutants, and Castellan Spandrell in The Deadly Assassin
• Anne Ridler (Weyman) was Dr. Gemma Corwyn in The Wheel in Space
• Edmund Pegge (Macadam) was Meeker in The Invisible Enemy (1)
• Joe Santo (José) was Resistance Man in The War Games (7), and Tharil in Warriors' Gate (1)
• Ken Barker (Foreman) was Mutant in Revelation of the Daleks (1)
• Aubrey Danvers Walker (Hopkirk) was Council Member in The Dominators
• Terrance Denville, Cy Town, Michael Stevens, Monique Bryant, David Waterman, Dennis Marlowe, Ann Plenty, Dennis Plenty, David Billa, Richard King, David Melbourne, Stuart Myers, Maureen Nelson, Steve Peters, Barry Summerford, Paul Barton, Leslie Bates, John Cannon, Geoffrey Brighty, James Griffin, Emmett Hennessy, Clinton Morris, Bill Weston, James Muir, Les Shannon, Ken Tracey, Kelly Varney, Lionel Wheeler, Bob Wilyman and Harry Fielder (Technicians) all appeared on the classic run
• Brian Hiles also provided studio sound on The Crusade, The Chase, The Time Meddler, The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Ambassadors of Death (7), Frontier in Space, Pyramids of Mars and The Hand of Fear
• Andy Hunter and Linton Howell Hughes were grams operators on Planet of the Spiders (1) and Terror of the Autons (1) respectively
• Andy Stacey was also grams operator on Vengeance on Varos, Timelash and Revelation of the Daleks
• Graham Hare also worked on film sound for Inferno, The Invasion of Time and Terminus
• John Holmes also provided studio sound for The Massacre, The Wheel in Space, The Mind Robber, The Krotons, Planet of the Spiders, Robot, The Seeds of Doom, Meglos, Full Circle, The Keeper of Traken and Logopolis
• make-up artist Monica Ludkin began her career on The Time Meddler
• Mat Irvine was also VFX assistant on The Curse of Peladon (1) and Planet of the Spiders (1), then VFX designer on The Face of Evil, The Invisible Enemy (1), The Stones of Blood, The Creature from the Pit, Warriors' Gate, Warriors of the Deep and K9 and Company
• Ron Oates was also VFX designer on The Abominable Snowmen, The Ice Warriors, The Web of Fear, The Dominators and The Green Death
• Colin Mapson was also VFX designer on The Green Death, The Hand of Fear, Image of the Fendahl, The Invasion of Time, The Pirate Planet, Nightmare of Eden and Time and the Rani
• Ron Bristow and Derek Slee also worked on studio lighting for the classic run
• Peter Sargent was also film cameraman on The Power of the Daleks, The Curse of Peladon (1) and The Sea Devils
• Mike Catherwood was vision mixer on Day of the Daleks too
• John Barclay was also vision mixer on The Web of Fear, The Ambassadors of Death and The Time Warrior (4)
• John Cook was assistant floor manager on Planet of the Daleks (6) too
• Trina Cornwell was also AFM on The Seeds of Death and The Three Doctors
• production assistant Caroline Walmsley was AFM on The Daleks' Master Plan and The War Games (10)
• George Gallaccio was also production assistant then manager on 33 episodes (from Planet of the Daleks to The Seeds of Doom) 
• Sue Upton was production assistant on The King's Demons too