Planet of Fire

A picture to please all persuasions!

Four episodes (Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four)
First broadcast Feb 23 to Mar 2 1984
Average audience for serial: 7.0m

REGULAR CAST

Peter Davison (The Doctor) Born Apr 13 1951 Click here for Peter Davison's entry on Logopolis

Mark Strickson (Turlough) Born Apr 6 1959 Click here for Mark Strickson's entry on Mawdryn Undead

Nicola Bryant (Peri Brown) Born Oct 11 1960
Doctor Who credits
Played: Peri Brown in Planet of Fire, The Caves of Androzani, The Twin Dilemma, Attack of the Cybermen, Vengeance on Varos, The Mark of the Rani, The Two Doctors, Timelash, Revelation of the Daleks, The Trial of a Time Lord (1984-86). Return appearances in Dimensions in Time (1993) and Tales of the TARDIS (2023).
Nicola also played Peri in the BBC Radio story Slipback (1985)
Career highlights
Doctor Who was Nicola's first acting role, after which she was cast in Blackadder's Christmas Carol (1988), The Biz (1995), The 10 Percenters (1996), Animal Ark (1998), Parting Shots (1998), Casualty (2000), Holby City (2007/10), My Family (2009/10), Doctors (2000/10), Scoop (2010), Unlawful Killing (2011), New Blood (2016) and Star Trek Continues (2017). She also appeared in a number of fan spin-off videos between 1992-93, and Big Finish audios as Peri since 1999.
Facts
Nicola was encouraged to audition for the role of Peri by agent Terry Carney, who was First Doctor William Hartnell's son-in-law! Nicola is also a songwriter, and occasionally pops up in television commercials, such as for Nurofen. Here she is, on Twitter!
In 2014 Toby Hadoke released his Who's Round interview with Nicola here.

GUEST CAST

Dallas Adams (Professor Howard Foster) Feb 17 1947 to Aug 29 1991 (AIDS-related illness)
Career highlights
Dallas debuted in a 1967 Wednesday Play called Days in the Trees, then took roles in Strange Report (1969), The Abominable Dr Phibes (1971), Frankenstein: The True Story (1973), From Beyond the Grave (1974), The Fortunes of Nigel (1974), Space: 1999 (1976), The Lost Tribe (1980), Nancy Astor (1982), King's Royal (1983), Robin of Sherwood (1984), Gulag (1985), Pulaski (1987) and King Ralph (1991).
Facts
In the early 1980s, Dallas was the winner of the largest gay palimony lawsuit in English legal history. During the filming of Planet of Fire a tabloid journalist was attempting to get a story on the fact a gay actor was working on a "children's programme". Producer John Nathan-Turner made sure the story never emerged.

Anthony Ainley (The Master) Aug 20 1932 to May 3 2004 (cancer) Click here for Anthony Ainley's entry on The Keeper of Traken

John Alkin (Lomand) Born Jan 17 1947
Career highlights
John debuted in Happy Ever After (1970), then Timeslip (1970), Emma (1972), Yes, Honestly (1976), No Longer Alone (1978), The Lady Vanishes (1979), The Sandbaggers (1980), Grandad (1980), Angels (1982) and Minder (1985). He also played George Hackett in Albert and Victoria (1970-71), Frank Cox in A Family at War (1970-71), Barry Deeley in Crown Court (1972-74), and Detective Sergeant Tom Daniels in The Sweeney (1975-78), and the films Sweeney! (1977) and Sweeney 2 (1978).
Facts
John retired from acting in the 1980s after helping open the Bayswater House of Spirit in 1982. In 2000 he opened the Obsidian College, a spiritual healing centre, with his wife Lee Everett (nee Middleton), the ex-wife of DJ and comedian Kenny Everett. John had been involved with colour healing and meditation since the 1960s.

Max Arthur (Zuko) Feb 25 1939 to May 2 2019 (leukaemia)
Career highlights
Max's only other credits include Grange Hill (1980) and The Complete Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare (1980).
Awards
2013: Officer of the order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to military history
Facts
Max later became an acclaimed author and war historian, writing books on events such as the Manchester United air crash, as well as histories of the RAF and Royal Navy.

Michael Bangerter (Curt) 1936 to Aug 25 2016 (cancer)
Career highlights
Michael's other work includes Young Woodley (1960), Boyd QC (1961), Emerald Soup (1963), The Indian Tales of Rudyard Kipling (1964), Champion House (1967), Colditz (1972), Menace (1973), O Lucky Man! (1973), And Mother Makes Five (1975), Frankie Howerd's Tittertime (1975), The Naked Civil Servant (1975), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Leap in the Dark (1980), Big Deal (1986) and Capital City (1989).
Facts
Michael was also a published poet, playwright, songwriter and reviewer. At the time of filming Planet of Fire, Michael and his family (his wife was Hammer actress Katya Wyeth) were already living on the island: "We were living there at the time restoring an ancient house. We were there on and off for almost five years. We lived in the old capital - a large village really, with five churches. We were the only foreigners in the place apart from a half-Spanish half-Swiss genius; he had been a scientist and an inventor and he spoke seven languages including Latin and Greek. My wife and two children were extras on the production - an added bonus."

James Bate (Amyand) Apr 10 1945 to May 19 1992 (cancer)
Career highlights
James debuted in The Intruder (1972), then The Regiment (1973), The Stars Look Down (1975), When the Boat Comes In (1976), Winterspelt (1979), The Gentle Touch (1982), Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (1986) and Spender (1991). He also regularly played Mark Warrington in The Spoils of War (1980-81).
Facts
James (real name Anthony) died while undergoing surgery.

Jonathan Caplan (Roskal) Born Apr 26 1959
Career highlights
Jonathan's further credits include Home Movies (1979), Coronation Street (1980), Metal Mickey (1981/82), The Young Ones (1984), Thin Air (1988), The Bill (1990), Scrappers (2000) and Blue Light Bandits (2009). He had a regular role as drug-dealing hairdresser Brian Kennedy in the soap Brookside between 1992-93 (he also wrote for the show). Jonathan also wrote sketches for Not the Nine O'Clock News in the 1970s.

Gerald Flood (Voice of Kamelion) Apr 21 1927 to Apr 12 1989 (heart attack)
Doctor Who credits
Played: "King John" in The King's Demons (1983)
Played: Voice of Kamelion in The King's Demons (1983), Planet of Fire (1984), The Caves of Androzani (1984)
Career highlights
After debuting in Do-It-Yourself (1957), Gerald found fame as Conway Henderson in the Pathfinders series (in Space, to Mars and to Venus, 1960-61), followed by even more renown as Mark Bannerman in Plateau of Fear and its sequels City Beneath the Sea and Secret Beneath the Sea (1961-63). Later work includes Out of This World (1962), Smokescreen (1964), Callan (1967), Two in Clover (1969), Strange Report (1969), Patton (1970), Steptoe and Son (1970), Tom Brown's Schooldays (1971), Bachelor Father (1970-71), The Main Chance (1972), Second Time Around (1974), Raffles (1977), The Racing Game (1979), Third Time Lucky (1982), Bleak House (1985) and Mornin' Sarge (1989). He also enjoyed regular roles as Colonel Sharif Mahmoud in Crane (1963-65) and Peregrine Smith in The Rat Catchers (1966-67).
Facts
Gerald's grandson is Newcastle and England rugby union player Toby Flood. In June 1984, Gerald was a passenger aboard a sleeper train from Aberdeen to London which came off the rails at Morpeth and crashed. Gerald suffered a massive heart attack in 1984 while appearing in Blithe Spirit at the Ashcroft Theatre in Croydon, UK. In his later years Gerald reportedly had a problem with alcohol.

Edward Highmore (Malkon) Born Apr 3 1961
Career highlights
Edward made his acting debut in Doctor Who, then Lame Ducks (1984), The Tripods (1985), Heidi (1993), Love Hurts (1994), Willie's War (1994), The Politician's Wife (1995), No Child of Mine (1997), Elizabeth (1998), The 10th Kingdom (2000) and Ali G Indahouse (2002). His most memorable role was as Leo Howard in 78 episodes of Howards' Way (1985-90).
Facts
Edward's son is actor Freddie Highmore, who became a child star in films such as Finding Neverland (2004) and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and in 2013 secured a lead role as the young Norman Bates in the TV series Bates Motel. Edward's wife is talent agent Sue Latimer.

Barbara Shelley (Sorasta) Feb 13 1932 to Jan 3 2021 (coronavirus)
Career highlights
Barbara made her debut (under her birthname, Barbara Kowin) in Man in Hiding (1953), then went on to appear in a number of Italian films until her English language breakthrough in Cat-Girl (1957). She subsequently appeared in many films, specialising in horror and thrillers, including The Camp on Blood Island (1958), Blood of the Vampire (1958), Invisible Man (1959), Village of the Damned (1960), The Shadow of the Cat (1961), Postman's Knock (1962), Stranglehold (1962), The New Phil Silvers Show (1963), Rupert of Hentzau (1964), The Gorgon (1964), Man in the Dark (1965), The Man from UNCLE (1965), Juke Box Jury (1960-65), Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966), Rasputin: The Mad Monk (1966), Five Million Years to Earth (1967), A Cuckoo in the Nest (1970), Dixon of Dock Green (1974), Oil Strike North (1975), People Like Us (1978), Tycoon (1978), Pride and Prejudice (1980), Blake's 7 (1981), The Borgias (1981), Maigret (1988), EastEnders (1988) and Uncle Silas (1989). Her final acting role was in the Doctor Who fan spin-off video More Than a Messiah in 1992, after which she gave up acting to become an interior decorator.
Facts
In 2007, Barbara suffered a stroke and later became associated with The Stroke Association.

Simon Sutton (Lookout)
Doctor Who credits
Played: Crewmember in Nightmare of Eden (1979, uncredited)
Played: Lookout in Planet of Fire (1984)
Career highlights
Further work includes Cowboys (1980), Housewarming (1982), Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense (1984), Tripper's Day (1984) and Theatre Night: The Miser (1988).

Peter Wyngarde (Timanov) Aug 23 1928 to Jan 15 2018
Career highlights
French-born Peter's credited debut came with 1952's The Dybbuk, after which he appeared in Liebelei (1954), Alexander the Great (1956), A Tale of Two Cities (1957), The Adventures of Ben Gunn (1958), The Dark is Light Enough (1958), The Innocents (1961), Night of the Eagle (1962), Rupert of Hentzau (1964), Lucy in London (1966), The Avengers (1966/67), The Revenue Men (1967), The Prisoner (1967), Flash Gordon (1980), Crown Court (1984), Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense (1984), Bulman (1985), Tank Malling (1989), The Lenny Henry Show (1994) and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1994). However, Peter will forever be indelibly linked with the iconic ITC role of Jason King in Department S (1969-70) and its spin-off Jason King (1971-72).
Facts
Peter (whose birthname was the rather less actorly Cyril Goldbert) was for a time married to actress Dorinda Stevens. To cash in on Peter's fame as Jason King, RCA allowed him to record a spoken word album entitled When Sex Leers Its Inquisitive Head in 1970; tracks included Rape, Hippie and the Skinhead and Try to Remember to Forget - it truly is an appallingly distasteful record. Peter's career never quite recovered from his arrest in 1975 for "cottaging" in Gloucester bus station's toilets with a truck driver. He was found guilty of gross indecency and fined £75 (this followed him having been cautioned for a similar offence in Birmingham in 1974). Despite Jason King being a serial womaniser, Peter was known in acting circles to be gay. Indeed, between 1956-66 he had a relationship with fellow actor Alan Bates. During the 1980s, Peter filed for bankruptcy twice: at the first hearing it was stated that Peter's 200-year-old farmhouse in the Cotswolds had been repossessed, that he had no assets, and was living on unemployment benefit. Peter's uncle was French theatre and screen director Louis Jouvet. At the age of eight Peter found himself in Lung Hau concentration camp in Shanghai as a prisoner of the Imperial Japanese Army, alongside future author J G Ballard.

CREW

Peter Grimwade (writer) Jun 8 1942 to May 15 1990 (leukaemia)
Doctor Who credits
Production assistant: Spearhead from Space (1970, uncredited), The Daemons (1971, uncredited), Robot (1974-75), Pyramids of Mars (1975), The Robots of Death (1977), Horror of Fang Rock (1977)
Directed: Full Circle (1980), Logopolis (1981), Kinda (1982), Earthshock (1982)
Wrote: Time-Flight (1982), Mawdryn Undead (1983), Planet of Fire (1984)
Career highlights
Peter also worked as production assistant on Five Red Herrings (1975), Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1979) and All Creatures Great and Small (1978-80). Further directing work was on The Omega Factor (1979) and a Dramarama story in 1986 entitled The Come-Uppance of Captain Katt, a thinly veiled attack on his former producer John Nathan-Turner (he also wrote it).
Facts
Peter was originally going to direct a Dalek story for Season 20 entitled The Return, but when the story was delayed a year due to industrial strikes, he lost the remount to Matthew Robinson. After Doctor Who, Peter mainly produced industrial training videos.

Fiona Cumming (director) Oct 9 1937 to Jan 1 2015
Doctor Who credits
Assistant floor manager: The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve (1966, uncredited)
Production assistant: The Highlanders (1966-67), The Seeds of Death (1969, uncredited), The Mutants (1972, uncredited)
Directed: Castrovalva (1982), Snakedance (1983), Enlightenment (1983), Planet of Fire (1984)
Played: Tourist in Silver Nemesis (1988, uncredited)
Career highlights
Fiona started as an actress and continuity announcer in Scotland, then became an assistant floor manager or production assistant, later graduating to directing. She directed The Master of Ballantrae (1975), Z Cars (1974-77), Angels (1978), The Omega Factor (1979), God's Wonderful Railway (1980), Blake's 7 (1980), The Walls of Jericho (1981), Emmerdale Farm (1984), Take the High Road (1987-90, which she also produced over 40 episodes of), Eldorado (1992) and Machair (1993).
Facts
Fiona's husband was Doctor Who production manager Ian Fraser, who worked on five stories between 1986-89. He was also an uncredited tourist at Windsor Castle, along with his wife, in Silver Nemesis (1988).
In 2013 Toby Hadoke released his Who's Round interview with Fiona here.

John Nathan-Turner (producer) Aug 12 1947 to May 1 2002 (liver failure) Click here for John Nathan-Turner's entry on The Leisure Hive

Eric Saward (script editor) Born Dec 9 1944 Click here for Eric Saward's entry on on Castrovalva