Statistics


On This Day (USA) - 4 March



The Moonbase: Episode 4 premiered on BBC One in 1967 at 5:51pm GMT, watched by 8.10 million viewers.

The moonbase is cut off from Earth and under siege. The Cybermen launch an all-out attack and the Doctor formulates a dangerous plan to repel the invaders.


The Sea Devils: Episode Two premiered on BBC One in 1972 at 5:52pm GMT, watched by 9.70 million viewers.

The Doctor is eager to make peace between the Sea Devils and the humans but has discovered that the Master is up to his old tricks.


The Invasion of Time: Part Five premiered on BBC One in 1978 at 6:26pm GMT, watched by 10.30 million viewers.

Top Gear: 4 Mar 2007 (Billie Piper) premiered on BBC2 in 2007 at 8:00pm GMT

Motoring magazine show with Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond. The team build their own stretch limos out of the most improbable cars and then use them to take some top celebrities to the Brit Awards. Meanwhile, a good ol' boy Ford Mustang whoops around the test track and Billie Piper is the star in a reasonably priced car.


 Birthdays
Sir Patrick Moore (died 2012 aged 89) would have been 101 - 2 credits, including Self in Children in Need (as Patrick Moore)(Related)

Sir Patrick Moore was a famous Earth astronomer.

He was mentioned (jokingly) by Rose Tyler when the Ninth Doctor asked her who she considered to be the ultimate expert in alien lifeforms.

The Doctor apparently met him at some point in the past, referring to him as "a devil" with the ladies. He was one of many experts holding a conference over the Internet when the Atraxi were threatening to boil the Earth. The Eleventh Doctor, after providing proof that he was a genius, showed the assembled experts how to create a computer virus that would alert the Atraxi to the position of Prisoner Zero.

Biography from the TARDIS Data Core article, licensed under CC-BY-SA


Esmond Knight (died 1987 aged 80) would have been 118 - credited as Dom Issigri in The Space Pirates

Esmond Knight was an accomplished actor with a career spanning over half a century. For much of his career he was virtually blind, having been badly injured in 1941 whilst on active service on board HMS Prince of Wales when she fought the Bismarck at the Battle of the Denmark Strait.

He remained totally blind for two years, though later regained some sight in his right eye. During this period, Esmond dictated an early autobiography to his secretary, Annabella Cloudsley, Seeking The Bubble. He went on to play the captain of the his old ship in the 1960 film Sink the Bismarck!

He starred as Professor Ernest Reinhart in the 1961 British science fiction television series, A for Andromeda, alongside Patricia Kneale and Peter Halliday.

Knight died in 1987, having suffered a heart attack.


 Deaths
Eric Flynn (died 2002 aged 62) - credited as Leo Ryan in The Wheel In Space

Eric Flynn was a Chinese born British actor and singer

Born in Hainan, Flynn married his second wife Caroline, a South African, in 1981. Flynn's daughter from his second marriage, Lillie Flynn, finished a three-year acting degree at The Central School of Speech and Drama in 2007 and his son Johnny Flynn is an actor and singer.

Eric Flynn appeared as Alan-A-Dale in A Challenge for Robin Hood in 1967, as Leo Ryan in the Doctor Who story The Wheel in Space in 1968, as Ivanhoe in a 1970 TV mini series and as Major Tom Graham in series five of Freewheelersin 1971. He was also an established musical theatre actor appearing in shows such as "Evita", "Annie Get Your Gun", "The Sound Of Music", "My Fair Lady", "A Little Night Music" and "Copacabana" starring alongside the likes of Lauren Becall and Maria Freidman.

He died of cancer at his home in PembrokeshireWales on aged 62.

Biography from the Wikipedia article, licensed under CC-BY-SA 


Claire Davenport (died 2002 aged 68) - credited as Empress in Marco Polo

Claire Davenport  was an English actress well-known for her "junoesque" form and who was often cast in character roles which highlighted her large physique.

She was born in Sale, Cheshire and began acting in 1961 with a theatre role in Caesar and Cleopatra at the Oxford Playhouse in Oxford.

Her film work includes cameo roles in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (as the Fat Dancer), The Elephant ManBirth of the BeatlesThe Tempest, and Carry On Emmannuelle. On television she appeared in Remington SteeleDoctor WhoGeorge and MildredRobin's NestFawlty Towers and at least three episodes of On The Buses among others.

Her last television appearance was in a 1993 episode of The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer. Her last appearance in the theatre was in the play On the Air (1998).

Biography from the Wikipedia article, licensed under CC-BY-SA