Monthly Archives: January 2021

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Whoniversaries 22 January

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i) births and deaths

22 January 1940: birth of Sir John Hurt, who played the War Doctor (The Day of the Doctor, 2013).

22 January 1950: birth of Pamela Salem, who played Toos in The Robots of Death (Fourth Doctor, 1977) and Rachel Jensen in Remembrance of the Daleks (Seventh Doctor, 1988).

22 January 1993: birth of Tommy Knight, who played Sarah Jane Smith's adopted son Luke in the Sarah Jane Adventures.

22 January 2008: death of Kevin Stoney, who played Mavic Chen in the story we now call The Daleks' Master Plan (First Doctor, 1965-66), Tobias Vaughn in The Invasion (Second Doctor, 1968), and Tyrum in Revenge of the Cybermen (Fourth Doctor, 1975).

ii) broadcast anniversaries

22 January 1966: broadcast of "The Abandoned Planet", eleventh episode of the story we now call The Daleks' Master Plan. The Doctor, Sara and Steven arrive on Kembel and release the Daleks' prisoners; but Mavic Chen takes them captive. The episode is lost; this is the front page of Rick Lundeen's glorious comics adaptation.

22 January 1971: broadcast of fourth episode of Day of the Daleks. The Controller lets the Doctor and Jo return to the twentieth century, and Shura blows up Styles' house with the Daleks in it.

22 January 1977: broadcast of fourth episode of The Face of Evil. Xoanon becomes sane and the Tesh and Sevateem agree to live in peace; Leela leaves with the Doctor.

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310 days of plague: the way back

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The numbers today are not a lot better than ten days ago – 1937 (down from 1955) in hospital, 336 (down from 371) in ICU and a daily average fatality rate of 48.6 for 11-17 January (down from 53.4 for 1-7 January). But several things are combining to put me in a better mood. The first is that the numbers are not worse – there was a serious risk of wobble over the last week or so, as people who had travelled over the new year returned (the Belgian press has been full of one particular ill-fated ski trip). But we seem to be back on the downward trend again. Also worth noting that our municipality currently has the ninth lowest incidence rate of any in Belgium (4 in the last 14 days, converting to 36 per 100,000).

The second is just that the weather and daylight are improving. I think it was easier to keep spirits up in the spring and summer, as the nights got shorter and the days got warmer. Getting through winter, without the usual seasonal comforts of good company and group celebration, was pretty tough. Now we’re through the (literally) darkest period, there’s a sense that things are on the mend. (Little comfort to those farther south of course.)

And the third, which really does make a huge difference overall, is the end of the Trump era and the inauguration of President Biden. I was not actually wowed by the ceremony – in particular I thought Biden’s own speech was rather fluffy and cliched – but it’s such a huge improvement on what came before that I am not complaining much. There’s a new normal coming to US politics and also international politics, and not before time.

Feeling in a better mood, I’ve returned to the scene of my first video from last year with an update.

See you next time.

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Whoniversaries 21 January

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i) births and deaths

21 January 1978: death of Geoffrey Orme, who wrote The Underwater Menace (Second Doctor, 1967).

21 January 1980: birth of Sarah Dollard, who wrote Face the Raven (Twelfth Doctor, 2015) and Thin Ice (Twelfth Doctor, 2017).

21 January 1993: death of David Blake Kelly, who played the captain of the Mary Celeste in The Chase (First Doctor, 1965) and innkeeper Jacob Kewper in The Smugglers (First Doctor, 1966).

ii) broadcast anniversaries

21 January 1967: broadcast of second episode of The Underwater Menace. The Doctor causes a power cut and Ara rescues Polly. Zaroff explains that he intends to destroy the Earth.

21 January 1978: broadcast of third episode of Underworld. The Trogs rebel against the Guardians; the Doctor and Leela prepare to infiltrate the Citadel.

(Two particularly duff episodes today, in my opinion.)

iii) date specified in canon

21 January 1941: the Doctor and Rose trace a mauve alert to London and meet Captain Jack Harkness, as seen in The Empty Child (2005). Meanwhile the real Captain Jack Harkness is killed in combat. (Torchwood, Captain Jack Harkness, 2007)

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The Prisoner: A Day in the Life, by Hank Stine

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Second paragraph of third chapter:

He lay quietly for a while and listened to the rain. It was a good sound, clean and substantial: above suspicion. The weather was (save himself) the only thing he could trust.

This was the first book I finished in 2021 (I've already written up two others, because they fitted with other projects). It's one of three original spinoff novels from everyone's favourite enigmatic TV show; I've read one of the others and must look out for the third. (There are a few other later ones as well.)

Perhaps I am easily pleased, but I rather enjoyed this. The Prisoner is made a prisoner even within the confined circumstances of The Village; he flirts with Number 7, plays chess with the Admiral, assassinates a few people in London and life goes back to normal. The level of mind-bending is about average for one of the TV episodes. I would find it difficult to describe anything that actually happened in the story, but I enjoyed reading it. You can get it here.

This was the first book that I finished reading in 2021 (I have already blogged a couple that I finished after I had read this). It was also the shortest unread book that I had acquired in 2014. Next on that list is The Autumn Land, by Clifford D. Simak.

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Whoniversaries 20 January

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i) births and deaths

20 January 1934: They don't come much bigger than this – birth of Tom Baker, who played the Fourth Doctor from 1974 to 1981 and has reprised the role on occasion since. For me he remains the definitive Doctor. Happy birthday, Tom!



20 January 1936: birth of Ralph Watson, who played an unnamed generator scientist in The Underwater Menace (Second Doctor, 1967), Captain Knight in The Web of Fear (Second Doctor, 1968), the miners' leader Ettis in The Monster of Peladon (Third Doctor, 1974) and principal lighthouse keeper Travers in Horror of Fang Rock (Fourth Doctor, 1977).

20 January 1978: birth of Jami Reid-Quarrell, who played Davros' servant Colony Sarff in The Magician's Apprentice (Twelfth Doctor, 2015), the faceless Veil in Heaven Sent (also Twelfth Doctor, 2015), the Cloister Wraiths in Hell Bent (also Twelfth Doctor, 2015) and the Robot Inspector in The Coach with the Dragon Tattoo (Class, 2016).

20 January 1990: death of John Maxim/John Wills, who played the Frankenstein monster in The Chase (1965) and a Cyberman in The Moonbase (1967). I was friendly with his son, the year below me at Clare College.

ii) broadcast anniversaries

20 January 1968: broadcast of fifth episode of The Enemy of the World. Bruce has switched sides and starts to help the opposition to salamander. Meanwhile the scientists trapped underground are getting restive.

20 January 1973: broadcast of fourth episode of The Three Doctors. The Second and Third Doctors persuade Omega to return the others to Earth, and then destroy him with the Second Doctor's recorder. The Three Doctors are restored to their own timestreams.


20 January 1978: broadcast of first episode of The Armageddon Factor

20 January 1984: broadcast of second episode of The Awakening. The Malus attempts to manifest by draining energy from the villagers and the Tardis, but the Doctor defeats it.

20 January 1996: broadcast of first episode of The Ghosts of N-Space on BBC radio. The Brigadier is visiting his Sicilian uncle whose castle is under threat from modern mobsters and ancient ghosts. Er, yeah.

iii) dates specified in canon

20 January 1920: birth of Toshiko Sato's grandfather in Japan. (She mentions at the start of the 2007 Torchwood story, Captain Jack Harkness, that she is on her way to his 88th birthday party.)

20 January 1941: Toshiko Sato and Jack meet the real Captain Jack Harkness (also in the 2007 Torchwood story, Captain Jack Harkness).