A Tribute to Deborah Watling (1948-2017)

The official website of Deborah Watling yesterday reported that the actress had
died after a short battle with lung cancer, aged 69. She was best known for her
portrayal of Victoria Waterfield, a companion to the Second Doctor, from May
1967 to April 1968, described by The Telegraph as a "Sixties screamer."

Deborah Patricia Watling was born in London in 1948, to actors Jack Watling
and Patricia Hicks. Her siblings Dilys, Giles and Nicky also became actors.

Her breakthrough role was Sally Wilson in ITC's The Invisible Man (1958), but
it was the lead part in Dennis Potter's Alice in 1965 that brought her to the
attention of the Doctor Who office. Watling debuted as Victoria (named after
script editor Gerry Davies' daughter) in the second episode of The Evil of the Daleks. The Tomb of the Cybermen and The Enemy of the World are the only two serials in which Watling appeared that still exist in their entirety. She even worked opposite her father in The Web of Fear. She departed the programme
in Fury From the Deep, but returned for Dimension in Time (1993), Downtime (1995) and The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot (2013).

After Doctor Who, Watling starred in BBC soap The Newcomers, the Cliff
Richard film Take Me High (1973) and ITV wartime drama, Danger UXB.

Missing Doctor Who Episodes Revealed

Many months of internet speculation, and newspaper reports last weekend, culminated on Tuesday with official confirmation from the BBC of the existence of an unspecified number of 'lost' Doctor Who episodes.

The Radio Times website even reported that some recovered material would be released this week for sale online.

Finally, at a press conference in London yesterday, the Corporation revealed that nine installments from the Patrick Troughton era had been discovered in Nigeria by Phillip Morris, and restored by BBC Worldwide. The haul comprised of the five missing parts of The Enemy of the World, and four episodes from The Web of Fear. Frazer Hines, Deborah Watling and Mark Gatiss joined other guests and journalists to view two returned episodes.
The two complete adventures are now available to purchase from iTunes, and DVD releases are due next month and in the New Year.

Doctor Who Series 7 News

Production commences next month on the thirty-fourth season of Doctor Who, and rumours concerning the return of 'classic' era monsters have surfaced online again.

After being afforded only a cameo role last year, the Daleks may well feature in the 2012 run, but I hope that Mr Moffat prolongs their 'rest' until the Anniversary.

A more welcome prospect would be the supposed return of the Great Intelligence and it's cohorts, the Yeti. These robots were first linked with NuWho when Peter McKinstry's concept art (for the DVD Files partwork) was released in 2010. Excluding a brief appearance in The Five Doctors, the Yeti were last seen in The Web of Fear way back in 1968, and they are surely due a rematch with the Doctor.

Personally, I'd love to see a Genesis of the Cybermen-type adventure too, showcasing the (non-Cybus) Mondasian variant. I think that Cyber stories work best when injected with body-horror.