10th August 1929: birth of Peter Diamond, who was fight arranger for eight stories between The Dalek Invasion of Earth (1964) and The Dæmons (1971), and played a number of minor parts of which the most important was Delos in The Romans (1965).
10th August 1939: birth of Kate O’Mara, who played the Rani in The Mark of the Rani (1985) and Time and the Rani (1987). Persistent rumours that she (or at least her character) might reappear in New Who have so far proven unfounded.
10th August 1996: death of Rex Tucker, who directed The Gunfighters (1966) but had also been an important force behind the scenes of the creation of Doctor Who in 1963. Following a dispute with Innes Lloyd his credit as producer was excised from episode 4 of The Gunfighters, so the on-screen evidence of his contribution to the show is even slimmer.
10th August 1968: broadcast of episode 1 of The Dominators, the earliest start for any full Doctor Who season. The Doctor, Jamie, and new companion Zoe land on an island on the planet Dulkis; so do two sinister Dominators, Toba and Rago, with their robot servants, the Quarks; so do a group of young Dulkians led by Cully, who sees the Dominators casually kill off his friends and then tries to get help. At the end of the episode, the Quarks ask permission to destroy the Doctor and Jamie…
Seconding the recommendation for the Robin Hobb Assassin’s trilogy – a firm favourite.
I don’t remember if ‘A Blackbird in Silver’ is any good but I love ‘A Taste of Blood Wine’ by Freda Warrington, although the sequel is… odd.