Statistics


On This Day (USA) - 14 September



The Mind Robber: Episode 1 premiered on BBC One in 1968 at 5:17pm BST, watched by 6.60 million viewers.

The Doctor activates an emergency unit on board the TARDIS to escape destruction by a volcanic eruption.

Unfortunately, it moves them out of normal space and time to a deadly world where fantasy rules. The travelers find themselves lured out of the ship into a ghostly white void.


Time and the Rani: Part Two premiered on BBC One in 1987 at 7:34pm BST, watched by 4.20 million viewers.

Blink premiered on SyFy (East Coast Feed) in 2007 at 8:00pm EDT

Mastermind: 2012/2013 Episode 5 premiered on BBC2 (England, Scotland) in 2012 at 8:00pm BST
John Humphrys puts the questions to four more contenders. Tonight's topics include Doctor Who, 1963 - 1989; The story of Moses in the King James Bible; the history and geography of Arkansas; and Terry Venables.

 Birthdays
Jenny T Colgan will be 52 - 7 credits, including Writer for Time Reaver(BF)

James Weber Brown will be 53 - credited as Minister in In The Forest Of The Night

James Weber Brown was born in Cuckfield, West Sussex, England. He is an actor, known for The Oxford Murders (2008), Fast Freddie, the Widow and Me (2011) and Tower Block (2012).




Gary Cady will be 65 - credited as Luke Ward in The Mark of the Rani

Gary Cady is a British actor. 

He played Luke Ward in the 1985 Doctor Who television story The Mark of the Rani.

He has appeared in the television series Brass (1983), Fairly Secret Army (1984) Leaving (1984), as well as a number of TV miniseries.


 Deaths
Zienia Merton (died 2018 aged 72) - 2 credits, including Ping-Cho in Marco Polo

Zienia Merton is a British actress born in Burma

Her mother was Burmese, and her father half-English, half-French. She was raised in SingaporeBorneo,Portugal, and England. She is probably best known for playing Sandra Benes in Space: 1999.

She played Ping-Cho in the 1964 Doctor Who serial Marco Polo and the Registrar in 2009 The Sarah Jane Adventures story The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith. 

Other early television appearances included Strange Report (1968), The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970) and Jason King (1971). She was a lead actress as Christina in the Dennis Potter TV adaptation of Casanova with Frank Finlay, and appeared on The Benny Hill Show in 1972, playing the wife of Hill's Chow Mein character. Zienia Merton also featured as Ting Ling in the film The Chairman (1969) with Gregory Peck.

Probably her most memorable role is that of Sandra Benes in Space: 1999, the science fiction series produced by Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson between 1973 and 1976, with Martin LandauBarbara BainBarry Morse andCatherine Schell. In 1999 Merton reprised this role in the professionally produced short film Message from Moonbase Alpha, written by series writer Johnny Byrne. This short episode surprised everyone on its debut at the closing ceremony of the Breakaway 1999 convention in Los AngelesCalifornia on September 13, 1999 - the date on which the moon is blasted out of Earth orbit in the pilot episode of the original series. Regarded by many fans as the 49th and final episode, and providing a closure to the series, "Message from Moonbase Alpha" is included as a special feature on the "UFO and Space: 1999 Documentaries" DVD, available exclusively from Fanderson.

Following Space: 1999, Merton appeared in many popular television series including Grange HillReturn of the Saint (1979), Bergerac (1983), Angels (1983), Tenko (1984), Dempsey & Makepeace (1985), Lovejoy (1986), Crime Traveller(1997), Doctors (2001), Dinotopia (2002), Casualty (1986 � 2002), EastEnders (1998 � 2003), The Bill (1999 � 2005), Judge John Deed (2006), Coronation Street (2008) and Wire in the Blood (2008). Merton re-joined fellow Space: 1999star Ian McShane for the 1986 Lovejoy episode "The Axeman Cometh".

In December 2008, Zienia Merton filmed a guest role for the eighth episode ("Samaritan") of the ITV drama Law & Order: UK. Although the series premiered on 23 February 2009, some episodes were held over for broadcast as "Series Two". "Samaritan" was first transmitted on ITV1 on 11 January 2010.



Robert Demeger (died 2014 aged 63) - credited as Preacher in The Shakespeare Code

Robert Demeger trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama. In theatre he appeared in several roles for the Kick Theatre under Warner, including King Lear in the 1985 adaptation at the Almeida Theatre and later in Jew of Malta at the same venue, as well as several roles in productions with the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. He also appeared three times in The Woman in Black, and played Neville Chamberlain in Three Days in May.

In television he had roles in a number of crime dramas, including Inspector Morse, Wycliffe, The Bill and even The Thin Blue Line. Other roles included Einstein in Dark Matters, Malcolm Lyon in The Hour, and his appearance in Doctor Who as The Preacher in The Shakespeare Code.
Films he appeared in included Wuthering Heights, Orlando and The Young Poisoner's Handbook.

Diagnosed with brain cancer, Demeger undertook a revolutionary form of immune therapy from the United States, becoming the first European patient to do so; however, treatment was found not to work in his case.


Angus Lennie (died 2014 aged 84) - 2 credits, including Storr in The Ice Warriors

Angus Lennie is a Scottish actor best known for his film appearance as Steve McQueen's friend Archibald Ives in the 1963 film The Great Escape. 

He appeared in the Doctor Who stories The Ice Warriors and Terror of the Zygons.

He was also known for being in the television soap opera Crossroads.

Other TV credits include: The Saint, The Borderers, Z Cars, Rumpole of the Bailey, Lovejoy, The Onedin Line, All Night Long, Keeping Up Appearances and Monarch of the Glen.

His film appearances include: 633 Squadron, Tunes of Glory, Oh! What a Lovely War and a significant role in The Great Escape as the diminutive serial escaper Flying Officer Archibald Ives (nicknamed The Mole).

He has appeared in many stage productions including A Midsummer Night's Dream and pantomimes.


Peter Ling (died 2006 aged 80) - 2 credits, including Writer for The Mind Robber
Peter Ling was a British writer for television and a novelist.

Ling was born in Croydon, Surrey, England, in 1926. He started writing while in the army during World War II, and honed his craft while spending two years in a sanatorium recovering from tuberculosis. Success on radio led to him becoming a script editor and Head of Children's Series for Associated-Rediffusion. Ling later co-created with Hazel Adair the soap opera Compact. He went on to create, again with Hazel Adair, the long running soap opera Crossroads. Ling also wrote scripts for programmes such as Dixon of Dock Green, The Avengers (the episodes Ashes of Roses, Dance with Death, and Box of Tricks), Sexton Blake, and Doctor Who.

Peter Ling published several novels, including the novelisation of The Mind Robber for Target Books. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he wrote stories for the Eagle comic.