The Visitation

The Terileptils enjoy a "round the
campfire" moment

Four episodes (Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four)
First broadcast Feb 15 to 23 1982
Average audience for serial: 9.60m

REGULAR CAST

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

Matthew Waterhouse (Adric) Born Dec 19 1961 Click here for Matthew Waterhouse's entry on Full Circle

Sarah Sutton (Nyssa) Born Dec 12 1961 Click here for Sarah Sutton's entry on The Keeper of Traken

Janet Fielding (Tegan) Born Sep 9 1953 Click here for Janet Fielding's entry on Logopolis

GUEST CAST

John Baker (Ralph) Aug 8 1917 to Dec 2 2002
Doctor Who credits
Played: Time Lord in Colony in Space (1971)
Played: Audience member/ meditator in Planet of the Spiders (1974, uncredited)
Played: Ralph in The Visitation (1982)
Career highlights
John first appeared in Hotel Reserve (1944), and later had roles in Morning Departure (1946), RUR (1948), Midshipman Barney (1951), Five Children and It (1951), Nineteen Eighty-Four (1954), The End of the Road (1957), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1957), Cover Girl Killer (1959), The Frightened City (1961), Echo Four Two (1961), Contract to Kill (1965), It! (1966), Trog (1970), War and Peace (1972), Are You Being Served? (1974), Blake's 7 (1978), Spy! (1980), Shine on Harvey Moon (1982), Bergerac (1985), The Dark Angel (1987), The Brittas Empire (1992) and Class Act (1994).

Anthony Calf (Charles) Born May 4 1959
Doctor Who credits
Played: Charles in The Visitation (1982)
Played: Godsacre in Empress of Mars (2017)
Career highlights
Doctor Who was Anthony's big break, after which he appeared in Beau Geste (1982), To Catch a King (1984), Drummonds (1985-87), The Monocled Mutineer (1986), Fortunes of War (1987), My Family and Other Animals (1987), Great Expectations (1991), Diana: Her True Story (1993), The Madness of King George (1994), Pride and Prejudice (1995), My Night with Reg (1997, Celeb (2002), Judge John Deed (2003), The Murder Room (2005), The Good Samaritan (2007), Dalziel and Pascoe (2007), Material Girl (2010), Call the Midwife (2013), Dracula (2013), Noel Coward's Private Lives (2014), Home Fires (2015-16), Power Monkeys (2016), Riviera (2017), Poldark (2019), Domina (2021), Anne (2022) and Suspicion (2022). More recently he will be known as playing Michael Beauchamp in Holby City (2005-06) and Robert Strickland in 64 episodes of New Tricks (2005-15).
Facts
Anthony is married to actress Caroline Harker, whose sister is actress Susannah Harker (former wife of actor Iain Glen, who was in The Time of Angels/ Flesh and Stone, and partner of Eighth Doctor Paul McGann).
In 2015 Toby Hadoke released his Who's Round interview with Anthony here.

James Charlton (Miller)
Doctor Who credits
Played: Cafe artist in City of Death (1979, uncredited)
Played: Miller in The Visitation (1982)
Career highlights
James's other work includes Law and Order (1978), Lillie (1978), Butterflies (1979) and Enemy at the Door (1980).

Eric Dodson (Headman) Dec 1 1920 to Jan 13 2000
Career highlights
World War Two bomber pilot Eric's debut was in Sherlock Holmes (1951), after which he secured many roles in productions such as Dial 999 (1959), The Little Ship (1960), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1960), Man from Interpol (1960), The Avengers (1961), Call Oxbridge 2000 (1962), Our Man at St Mark's (1964), The Likely Lads (1965), Sexton Blake (1968), Coronation Street (1968-69), Grady (1970), The Regiment (1972), Poldark (1975), Porridge (1975), Crossroads (1978), It Ain't Half Hot Mum (1981), County Hall (1981), Help! (1988), Joint Account (1990), Press Gang (1992), Grace and Favour (1992-93) and Lovejoy (1994). Eric also had a regular role as Jack Pommeroy in Rumpole of the Bailey (1983-91) and Henry Richardson in the sitcoms Fresh Fields (1984-86) and French Fields (1991).
Facts
Eric was sadly unable to work for the last few years of his life due to illness.

Valerie Fyfer (Elizabeth) Born 1952
Career highlights
Valerie's only other credits are The Haggard Falcon (1974), Doom Castle (1980) and Mackenzie (1980).
Facts
Valerie's surname is actually an anglicisation of her real surname of Pfeiffer. She was among the cast of the 1976 stage play The Mating Season, which came to an abrupt end when its star, Carry On actor Sid James, died during the tour. With thanks to Nicholas Pegg.

Richard Hampton (Villager) Born Jun 22 1937
Career highlights
Richard debuted in Treasure Island (1965), then Out of the Unknown (1966), Judge Dee (1969), Paul Temple (1970), The Challengers (1972), Warship (1973), The Terrorists (1974), Rooms (1974), The Fight Against Slavery (1975), Dickens of London (1976), Force 10 from Navarone (1978), Betzi (1980), Juliet Bravo (1982), One By One (1987), Wish Me Luck (1988), Seaforth (1994), A Touch of Frost (1999) and Feeling Lucky (2001). He also had the regular role of Padre Simon Armstrong in Soldier Soldier (1991-92).
Facts
Along with actor David Weston, Richard co-wrote Shakespeare: His Life and Work, an audiobook released in 2000 and narrated by Dame Judi Dench. Richard's wife is actor Jenny Oulton.

Michael Melia (Terileptil leader) Born 1945
Career highlights
Former teacher Michael's first credit was in Juggernaut (1974), followed by roles in The Sweeney (1978), Coronation Street (1979), Blake's 7 (1980), Maybury (1981), The Hard Word (1983), Rumpole of the Bailey (1983), CATS Eyes (1985), London's Burning (1988), Campion (1990), In Suspicious Circumstances (1992), The Detectives (1993), Dream Team (1998/2000), Daylight Robbery (1999), New Tricks (2009) and Dani's House (2010-12). He is best known for his role as Eddie Royle in soap EastEnders (1990-91), and Frank Dagley in Dangerfield (1996-97).
Facts
Michael's wife is called Celia... (think about it!).

Michael Robbins (Richard Mace) Nov 14 1930 to Dec 11 1992 (cancer)
Career highlights
Former bank clerk Michael got his first acting credit on Final at Furnell (1957), followed by Scotland Yard (1960), A Prize of Arms (1962), The Plane Makers (1963), Redcap (1965), Adam Adamant Lives! (1966), Up the Junction (1968), Till Death Us Do Part (1969), Parkin's Patch (1969), Zeppelin (1971), Cider with Rosie (1971), No Sex Please, We're British (1973), How's Your Father? (1974-75), The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976), The Fuzz (1977), Devenish (1977-78), Brendon Chase (1981), The Great Muppet Caper (1981), Fresh Fields (1985), Fairly Secret Army (1984-86), EastEnders (1989), The New Statesman (1991), One Foot in the Grave (1990/91) and In Sickness and in Health (1992). His most memorable role was as Arthur Rudge in 61 episodes of the sitcom On the Buses (1969-72) and its three big screen spin-offs (1971-73).
Facts
Michael was married to actress Hal Dyer, best known as Rose Perkins in children's series Rentaghost. Michael also provided the voices of a number of the chimps in the 1970s and 80s PG Tips TV commercials. In 1987, Michael received a papal award for his work for the Catholic Stage Guild.

John Savident (Squire) Jan 21 1938 to Feb 21 2024
Career highlights
Guernsey-born John's earliest role was in Redcap (1966), subsequently Mrs Thursday (1967), Inadmissable Evidence (1968), The Avengers (1968), Nearest and Dearest (1969), Manhunt (1970), Doomwatch (1970-71), Budgie (1971), A Clockwork Orange (1971), A Family at War (1970-72), Tightrope (1972), The Lotus Eaters (1973), Quiller (1975), 1990 (1977), Yes Minister (1980), Blake's 7 (1979/81), The Black Adder (1982, pilot), Oliver Twist (1982), Gandhi (1982), The Crystal Cube (1983), David Copperfield (1986), Chelmsford 123 (1990), Hudson Hawk (1991), The Remains of the Day (1993), Middlemarch (1994), Loch Ness (1996), Aladdin (2000), Above Suspicion (2008), Hotel Babylon (2009) and Holby City (2012). However, he will forever be associated with his hugely popular role as Fred Elliott the butcher in more than 700 episodes of soap Coronation Street (1994-2006).
Awards
1999: British Soap Award for Best Comedy Performance (Coronation Street)
Facts
Born in Guernsey, John was still living on the island during the 1940 German occupation of World War 2. He and his family escaped to the mainland in a fishing boat. John created the role of Monsieur Firmin in the first production of The Phantom of the Opera in 1986. In December 2000, John sustained knife wounds to the neck after being attacked in his Manchester flat by a 28-year-old man he'd met in a gay pub. John claimed he invited Michael Smith back to his house to talk about the theatre, which the attacker took as a metaphor for sex. Smith was jailed for seven years.

Peter van Dissel (Android)
Career highlights
Indonesia-born Peter's earliest credit was in Out of the Unknown (1969), followed by Dog Squad (1973), The Diamond Mercenaries (1976), Flashpoint Africa (1980), The Assassination Run (1980), Hideaway (1986), Between the Lines (1992) and Casualty (2001).

Neil West (Poacher)
Career highlights
Neil's other credits include Leaving (1985), Three Up, Two Down (1986), In Sickness and in Health (1987), Late Expectations (1987), Sorry! (1988) and 'Allo! 'Allo! (1989). He also had a regular role as Dave Nowell in medical drama Angels (1982-83).

CREW

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

Peter Moffatt (director) Aug 15 1922 to Oct 21 2007
Doctor Who credits
Directed: State of Decay (1980), The Visitation (1982), Mawdryn Undead (1983), The Five Doctors (1983), The Twin Dilemma (1984), The Two Doctors (1985)
Played: Man outside restaurant in The Two Doctors (1985, uncredited)
Played: Tourist in Silver Nemesis (1988, uncredited)
Career highlights
His training to become an actor was disturbed by the outbreak of World War Two, during which he became a prisoner of war at Stalag Luft 3 in Germany. After the war he went back into acting in programmes such as Emil and the Detectives (1952) and Tales from Soho (1956), but then turned to directing, working on Small Time (1960), Tales of Mystery (1961), It Happened Like This (1963), Crane (1963-64), Seven Deadly Sins (1966-67), Sexton Blake (1968), Hadleigh (1969), Big Brother (1970), Crime of Passion (1971-72), New Scotland Yard (1972), Melissa (1974), Rooms (1974-77), The Camerons (1979), The Gentle Touch (1980), Juliet Bravo (1980/82), EastEnders (1986) and All Creatures Great and Small (1978-88).
Facts
He was married to actress/ director/ producer Joan Kemp-Welch.

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

Antony Root (script editor) Born Apr 16 1954
Doctor Who credits
Script edited: K-9 & Company (1981), Four to Doomsday, The Visitation, Earthshock (all 1982)
Career highlights
After starting as an assistant floor manager on Blake's 7 (1980) and later Private Schulz (1981), Antony became story editor on The Chinese Detective (1982) before his brief liaison with the world of Doctor Who. He moved on to script edit Strangers and Brothers (1984) and then became a producer on The Fear (1988), Lorna Doone (1990), Edward II (1991), Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City (1993), Cold Comfort Farm (1995), Call Red (1996), The Grand (1998), Far from the Madding Crowd (1998), Longitude (2000), Strange Relations (2001), Touching Evil (2004), Sofia's Diary UK (2008-09), Burning Bush (2013), Tarsas Jatek (2013), Without Secrets (2013), Mammon (2015), Terapia (2014-17), The Border (2014-17), Easy Living (2015-18) and Terapie (2013-19). He was also script consultant on Armistead Maupin's More Tales of the City (1998).
Facts
After leaving the BBC in 1984, he worked for Euston Films and then Working Title, and in 1995 became head of drama at Thames TV, later working for Granada TV's American arm. He now works for HBO Central Europe as executive vice-president. During his career he has been nominated for two Emmys, a PGA Golden Laurel Award and a Golden Satellite Award. He also holds a directorship of Sony Pictures TV and, until it folded in 2011, the female dance troupe The Cholmondeleys.