In 2021, The Drama and Media Studies dept. at UCLan re-.produced one of Dr Who‘s most intriguing missing episodes, ‘Mission to the Unknown’ which was a teaser episode for the 12 part serial, “The Dalek Masterplan”. It was a superb production, and I was privileged to attend its filming, and to publicise it to the Dr Who fandom via Twitter. In recognition of my involvement and support with the project, UCLan generously awarded me an Honorary Fellowship in December 2022.
I was presented with my award at the campus in Preston, by the Chancellor, Ranvir Singh
I appeared in 46 episodes of the BBC Series between 1965 and 1966, all with the original Doctor, William Hartnell.
After joining the cast for a one-off appearance as Morton Dill, an American Hill-billy on holiday in New York, the producers approached me and asked me to join the series permanently as Space Pilot Steven Taylor, a role which I embraced just three weeks later in the final episode of the six-part serial called, The Chase.
I appeared as the Doctor’s regular companion, Steven, in the following consecutive serials over the next 12 months:
The Time Meddler – 4 episodes
Galaxy 4 – 4 episodes
The Myth Makers – 4 episodes
The Dalek Masterplan – 12 episodes
The Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Eve 4 – episodes
The Ark – 4 episodes
The Celestial Toymaker – 4 episodes
The Gunfighters – 4 episodes
The Savages – 4 episodes
And that really should have been the end of it. But thanks to the resurgence of interest in Doctor Who in 2003, and through the wonderful producers and writers at Big Finish, Steven, Vikki, Sarah, Dodo, and the First Doctor, live on!
BIG FINISH
In all stories, I play Steven Taylor AND The First Doctor.
The Companion Chronicles
Mother Russia (Oct 2007) with Tony Millan
The Suffering (Feb 2010) with Maureen O’Brien
The Perpetual Bond (Feb 2011) }
The Cold Equations (Jun 2011) }Trilogy -all with Tom Allen
The First Wave (Nov 2011) }
Tales from the Vault (July 2011) multi cast
The Anachronauts (Jan 2012) with Jean Marsh
Return of the Rocket Men (Nov 2012) with Tim Treloar
Upstairs (Sep 2013) with Maureen O’Brien
The War to End All Wars (April 2014) with Alice Haig
The Locked Room (2016) with Alice Haig
The Sontarans (Dec 2016)with Jean Marsh
The Founding Fathers (2017)
The Early Adventures
The Bounty of Ceres (Nov 2014) with Maureen O’Brien
An Ordinary Life (Dec 2014) with Jean Marsh
The first Doctor Volume 01 (june 2015) with Maureen O’Brien and
Carole Ann Ford
The First Doctor Volume 02 with Maureen O’Brien and Anneke Wills
The Ravelli Conspiracy (Nov 2016) with Maureen O’Brien
The Secret History (June 2015) with Peter Davison and Maureen O’Brien Across a Dark City (2017 with Nicholas Briggs
The Dalek Occupation of Winter (Sep 2018) with Maureen O’Brien
An Ideal World (Oct 2018) with Maureen O’Brien
Entanglement (Nov 2018) with Maureen O’Brien
The Crash of the UK-201 (Dec 2018) with Maureen O’Brien
Short Trips
The Flywheel Revolution (Jan 2015)
Etheria (Sep 2015)
This Sporting Life (May 2016)
Tannenbaum (Jan 2018)
Full Cast Audio Drama
The Five Companions (2011) with Peter Davison, Jean Marsh, William Russell, Anneke Wills and Sarah Sutton.
The Companion Chronicles The Locked Room and The Founding Fathers are sequels to The War to end all Wars which continue the story of Steven after he left the Doctor.
Prior to Big Finish
Mark Ayres, a BBC Producer asked me to commentate on the original audio tapes of all the missing Episodes of Doctor Who in which Steven appeared. The commentaries explain the visuals which cannot be seen as we only had the original audio Sound-track tapes. These tapes can be found on the BBC Audio Collection, where you can hear the undoctored (forgive the pun) original sound tracks of the nine serials mentioned above.
I have also recorded a number of BBC Audio Books including The Dalek Masterplan (with Jean Marsh), The Time meddler, and The Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Eve. In addition I have also read extracts from the
original Dr Who Annual 1966.
Relevant links:
https://www.bigfinish.com