Whoniversaries 31 March

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Three quarters of the way through the year now, and past the January-March hump; April-June will be less intense. Nine of the 26 seasons of Old Who ended in the first quarter of the year – six of them in March, including the two-episode-per week seasons of the 1980s. In celebration, we're doing two photographs per episode today.

i) births and deaths

31 March 1930: birth of Michael Hart, who directed The Space Pirates (Second Doctor, 1969).

ii) broadcast anniversaries

31 March 1973: broadcast of sixth episode of Frontier in Space

31 March 2007: broadcast of Smith and Jones, starting Series Three of New Who; first appearance of Freeman Agyeman as Martha Jones. Martha's hospital is abruptly transported to the Moon, where the Judoon are tracking down a criminal.


iii) date partially specified almost in-universe

The opening scenes of the second Cushing film, Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., take place on 31 March; at least that's what Tom Campbell, played by Bernard Cribbins, thinks the date is when he wakes up after being bashed on the head.