Tuesday, January 1, 2019

WHOVIANS OF THE HAT SQUAD 2018





"The Hat Squad" was the name of a short-lived detective series years ago but I have purloined the title for my tributes to those in the TV business who have passed away during the year.  (I publish the list every New Year's Eve here in the blog.)  For me, it's a reference to my tip of the hat to all of the people who contributed to this fictional world of the Toob.

This year, there seemed to be quite a few who had connections to "the Whoniverse."  I don't know if there were more than usual - Time may be wibbly-wobbly, but it still marches on and so there will always be 'Doctor Who' personnel lost as we travel forward to six decades of the show, one second at a time. 


DEREK KELLER
(August 5, 1942 – January 11, 2018)

Kaufman - a soldier who served under Group Captain Ian Gilmore of the Intrusion Countermeasures Group during the Shoreditch Incident in November 1963. He brought several anti-tank rockets to Coal Hill School at the orders of Gilmore. (“Remembrance of the Daleks”)

BELLA EMBERG
(September 16, 1937 – January 12, 2018)

Mrs Croot - an old woman who knew Jackie and Rose Tyler. Elton Pope asked her where Rose lived and she told him.   (“Love & Monsters”)

PETER WYNGARDE
(23 August 1927 – 15 January 2018)

Timanov - the stern and devout religious leader of the planet Sarn whose inhabitants were descended from a colony of exiled Trions who believed in Timanov without question. (“Planet Of Fire”)

NICHOLAS HAWTREY
(August 19, 1932 – February 14, 2018)

Quinn - the deputy governor of the human colony on Vulcan.who became the governor after Hansell’s death. (“The Power of the Daleks”)

SIR KEN DODD

(8 November 1927 – 11 March 2018) 

The Tollmaster - The Tollmaster was the sole employee at toll port G715.  When the Seventh Doctor and Mel arrived at the toll in the TARDIS, the Tollmaster informed them that they were the ten billionth customers and had won a Nostalgia Tours trip to Disneyland, 1959. 


PAMELA ANN DAVY
(September 7, 1933 – June 3, 2018)

Janley - one of Lesterson's assistants on Vulcan and a member of Bragen's rebel group who wanted to use the Daleks overthrow Governor Hensell. (“The Power of the Daleks”)

LESLIE GRANTHAM
[30 April 1947 – 15 June 2018]

Kiston – mechanical engineer in a mercenary company working with the Time Lord’s enemies.  (“Resurrection of the Daleks”)

WILLIAM HUGHES
[1998-July 9, 2018]

The Master as a young boy – stared into the Schism and went mad.  (“The Sound of Drums”)  Also appeared in the ‘Torchwood’ episode “Sleepers”.

HELEN GRIFFIN
[??, 1959 – June 29, 2018)

Angela Price (AKA Mrs. Moore) - a former 9-to-5 employee of Cybus Industries who discovered the truth behind Lumic’s top-secret project.  She joined the rebellion as a member of the “Preachers” and acted as their techie and van driver.  (“Rise of the Cybermen" & “The Age of Steel”)

ALAN BENNION
(18 July 1930 - 23 July 2018

Three Lords of the Ice Warriors - as Slaar in “The Seeds of Death”, Izlyr in “The Curse of Peladon” and Azaxyr in “The Monster of Peladon”.  

JANET HARGREAVES
[May 31 1937 - August 4, 2018]

Mother – One of the audience of three watching the Psychic Circus on Segonax.  The family turned out to be the Gods of Ragnarok.  They imposed deadly consequences on those who do not meet their exacting standards. (“The Greatest Show In The Galaxy”)

RIO FANNING
(November 7, 1931 – August 12, 2018)

Harker – 
the bosun on Lord Palmerdale's luxury steam yacht. He was one of only four people to survive the yacht's crash on Fang Rock. He found Ben's body in the sea while tying up the boat. (“Horror At Fang Rock”)

JOHNNY BARRS
(March 1, 1933 – August 31, 2018)

Fuller – an inmate of Stangmoor Prison.  He recaptured the Third Doctor and Jo Grant after they had escaped from Charlie and Lenny Vosper. He brought them to Harry Mailer and later kept guard over the Doctor and Jo. (“Mind Of Evil”)

JACQUELINE PEARCE
[December 20, 1943 - September 3, 2018]

Chessene – seen in one of the Doctor crossover episodes with the Second and Sixth Incarnations of the Doctor.  (“The Two Doctors”)

PETER BENSON
[13 June 1943 - 6 September 2018]

Bor – one of the Vanir, guardian of a leper colony (“Terminus”)

ZIENIA MERTON
[11 December 1945 – 14 September 2018]  

Ping-Cho – A young Chinese girl in Marco Polo’s retinue who befriended the Doctor.  (“Marco Polo”)

The Marriage Registrar – as seen in ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’ ("The Wedding of Sarah Jane Parts 1 & 2")

RICK JAMES
(?? – September 24, 2018)

Cotton – 
an aide to the Marshal of Solos. Unlike the Marshal, they wanted Solos to be granted independence from the Earth Empire. (“The Mutants”)

ANTHONY COLBY
(?? – October 4th, 2018)

Saracen – a warrior in service to the Saladin (“The Crusade”)

GEORGE A. COOPER
(March 7, 1925 - November 16, 2018)

Cherub - a pirate and Captain Samuel Pike's first mate aboard the Black Albatross. 

ANDREW BURT
(May 23, 1995 – November 16, 2018)

Valgard - one of the Vanir on Terminus.  He challenged the leadership of Eirak, who agreed to step down if Valgard would bring the Fifth Doctor back from the Forbidden Zone, which he eventually did. ("Terminus")

JOHN GREENWOOD
August 8, 1929 – November 17, 2018

D’Artagnan & Sir Lancelot – creations of the Master of the Land of Fiction as opponents against the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe.(“The Mind Robber”)

JUNE WHITFIELD
(November 11, 1925 - December 28, 2018)  

Minnie Hooper – Wilf Mott’s elderly but sassy friend who had her eye on getting Wilf down the aisle.  But she wasn’t averse to getting a bit “cheeky” with the Doctor. AKA Minnie the Menace

DAVID FISHER
[13 April 1929 – 10 January 2018]

[from Wikipedia]
David Fisher was a British professional writer for television.

He wrote the scripts for four serials of 'Doctor Who'. He first contributed "The Stones of Blood" and "The Androids of Tara" during that show's sixteenth season, and "The Creature from the Pit" for the seventeenth season. His final 'Doctor Who' story was season eighteen's "The Leisure Hive".

MICHAEL PICKWOAD
[July 11, 1945 - August 27, 2018]

[From The Guardian]
The work of the production designer Michael Pickwoad, who has died aged 73, gained an enthusiastic following from Doctor Who viewers in the 21st-century reinvention of the cult sci-fi series. He employed creativity and what he described as “cunning” to compensate for the lack of a blockbuster-film budget.

Between 2010 and 2017, during the eras of Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi as the Time Lord, he worked on 71 episodes over five series, including the 50th anniversary and eight Christmas specials.

DERRICK SHERWIN
(April 16, 1936 - October 17, 2018)

[From Digital Spy]
Derrick Sherwin – former producer and story editor on Doctor Who, the last surviving producer of Doctor Who from before the Tom Baker era.   – has died, aged 82.  Between 1968 and 1970, Sherwin served as story editor and scriptwriter and later producer on the BBC sci-fi series.

He was originally offered the role of story editor in 1967, with the following year's 'The Web of Fear' the first story to air under Sherwin.  He also contributed a number of scripts to the series, writing another '68 story, 'The Invasion' – which famously introduced the United Nations Intelligence Task force (UNIT) to Doctor Who. His successor as script editor, Terrance Dicks, has also credited Sherwin with the creation of the Time Lords, who were introduced in Patrick Troughton's final story 'The War Games' (written by Dicks and Malcolm Hulke).

Sherwin served as producer of both 'The War Games' and Jon Pertwee's debut 'Spearhead From Space' – he was not only involved in casting Pertwee as the third Doctor, but also introducing a new era of the show that saw the Doctor exiled to Earth, as well as a transition from black-and-white to colour.

Sherwin – who originally worked as an actor throughout the 1950s and '60s – appeared on screen in 'Doctor Who', playing a UNIT officer in 'Spearhead From Space' in 1970.

BILL SELLARS
(June 5, 1925 - December 19, 2018)

[From the Guardian]
The scripts for the 'Doctor Who' story "The Celestial Toymaker" (1966) needed emergency rewrites very close to production but, despite this, the offbeat and unusual story is fondly remembered. [Bill] Sellars pulled off a casting coup by persuading Michael Gough to play the Toymaker, and the story’s nightmarish subversion of children’s parlour games makes it stand out as an intriguingly atypical entry into the series’ canon.  

FENELLA FIELDING
[17 November 1927 – 11 September 2018]

As for her connection to 'Doctor Who', she used that sultry voice to narrate the 1999 documentary "Carnival Of Monsters".  (Not to be confused with the Third Doctor adventure by the same name.) 

(For me, her high point was as the voice of the Village in 'The Prisoner') 

RUPERT LAIGHT
Rupert Laight was a writer of Doctor Who fiction. He wrote two two-part stories for 'Sarah Jane Adventures' - "The Gift Parts 1 & 2" and "Lost In Time Parts 1 & 2".  He also provided the voice of Solomon in "Excelis Rising."  (I'm not sure that picture above of the young man with the dog is him or not.)

PETER FIRMIN
(11 December 1928 – 1 July 2018) 

[From The Guardian]
Peter Firmin, the creator of popular children’s television programmes including 'Bagpuss' and 'Noggin the Nog', has died at home in Kent surrounded by his family.

The 89-year-old had been working until early this year on a £5m reboot of the 'Clangers', another animation for the BBC that he made with his creative partner of 50 years, Oliver Postgate.

Why have I included him here?

While incarcerated in a terrestrial prison as seen in the 'Doctor Who' story "The Sea Devils", the Master was watching 'The Clangers'.

THE WARDEN: 
What are you watching?
MASTER: 
It seems to be a rather interesting extra-terrestrial life form. 
WARDEN: 
Only puppets, you know? For children. 
MASTER: 
Oh. 

And finally....

CLINT WALKER
[May 30, 1927 – May 21, 2018] 

'Doctor Who'
"The Chase"

In 1966, an Alabama tourist named Morton Dill was visiting the top of the Empire State Building when he met the Gallifreyan Time Lord known only as the Doctor (first incarnation) and his three Companions: Barbara, Ian, and Vicki. Because they had materialized out of thin air, and were all "cramped" into such a small space, Morton assumed that they were movie people from Hollywood.

And so the first thing he wanted to know was if they knew Cheyenne Bodie.

I included this because Clint Walker, who played the lead role in 'Cheyenne', died on May 21 of this past year.  'Cheyenne' ran for over 100 episodes from 1955 to 1962 and Walker reprised the role in several of the other Warner Bros. TV Westerns plus in 'The Gambler IV: Luck of the Draw' and an episode of 'Kung Fu: The Legend Continues'.  Like the Doctor, he is a member of the TV Crossover Hall of Fame.

I thought I had a pretty complete list of the dearly departed.  But a fellow Toby - Toby Hadoke, who definitely knows his 'Doctor Who' - recently posted a video with even more names.

He shared that tribute video on YouTube....



Good night and may God Bless them all.....


 

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