Posted in: BBC, Doctor Who, Movies, TV | Tagged: doctor who, entertainment, HRL, patrick troughton, sonic screwdriver, television, Victor Pemberton

Victor Pemberton, Doctor Who Writer And Actor, Passes Away At 85

Doctor Who actor and writer Victor Pemberton has died at the age of 85. The London native first connected with the BBC's enigmatic Time Lord when he played a non-speaking scientist in the four-episode series, The Moonbase, with the Second Doctor, Patrick Troughton. This may be his only acting credit. But it led to him being hired as a script editor for the filming of The Tomb of the Cybermen.

He would go on to write the 1968 story Fury from the Deep and do the subsequent novelization. It is one of the lost series from the days when the BBC didn't archive the show well.

Fury from the Deep was important for two reasons. It was the last episode for Victoria (Deborah Watling), one of the Second Doctor's companions, and it introduced a major part of the lore…the Sonic Screwdriver. The Doctor's most famous tool would appear a few more times with Troughton (in The Dominators and The War Games), but would become a regular item for both the Third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, and the Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker.

It fell out of favor starting in 1982, but would show up again in the Fox movie with the Eight Doctor, Paul McGann, and be part of the 2005 reboot with the Ninth Doctor, Christopher Eccleston, and going forward.

Pemberton wrote an audio drama, Doctor Who and the Pescatons in 1976 based on idea used from Fury from the Deep. He would also write scripts for Timeslip, Tightrope, The Adventures of Black Beauty and the UK version of Fraggle Rock.

Pemberton is credited for writing this scene, where the Second Doctor is comforting Victoria in Tomb of the Cybermen:

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