Presented for your delectation is the somewhat strange case of Aubrey Woods, He has only one Doctor Who credit, and maybe that was enough. His credit list stretches more than half a century, more than enough time to have a more than ‘that guy’ kind of character actor level of recognition. In fact, in 1972 has might have been instantly recognizable from the previous year when he played, and sung, as Bill the Candy Shop Owner in ‘Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.’
But in Day of the Daleks he was the Controller, appearing in all four episodes in the far future as a Dalek collaborator, replete with odd-spray-tanned make-up and stentorian tones. And it is those stentorian tones, as if he were playing to the back of the theatre instead of the much more intimate confines of a BBC TV studio, which mark out this performance. While the rest of the cast were acting in Doctor Who, the Controller was somehow in a different program, to such a degree that the Tour Honchos felt obligated to remark about it … a mere 42 years later.
And that’s a shame really, since Day of the Daleks is one of the very few Doctor Who stories, aside from some from the Steven Moffat era, which actually treats time travel ‘seriously’ in terms of being a plot point crucial to the overall story. And that alone should mark out Day of the Daleks for a re-watch, all of which the Tour did before nu-Who Series 14.
Images and new HD-caps for Day of the Daleks are now online.