Some characters only just make it into the Doctor Who universe, albeit with their dialogue deleted. Following a non-speaking role in The Macra Terror (1967), Luan Peters returned five years later to play Sheila in Frontier in Space Episode Three following parts the Hammer horrors Lust for a Vampire and Twins of Evil (both 1971), six episodes of Coronation Street and the TV pilot Go Girl (1971). Luan can be glimpsed administering a temple massage to the stressed Earth President in Frontier, but at the end of this was due to engage in expositional dialogue concerning the Earth/ Draconia conflict. “It must make things very difficult for you madam – having to work with a man like that,” comments the masseuse, allowing her employer to reminisce about how the actions of General Williams had been unintentionally instrumental in triggering the space war. “So it was all General Williams’ fault?” she observes.
A few months later, Part One of The Time Warrior (1973-74) fleetingly featured Jacqueline Stanbury – star of the 1971 Bavarian series Off We Go – as Mary, a serving wench seen departing silently from the action at 12’ 46” in the finished programme. However, prior to this she should have been seen and heard in Wessex Castle’s kitchens being chatted up by Hal the archer. “If you’re so great a warrior, why didn’t you go to the wars with the other menfolk?” she asks during the flirtation. Concluding the scene by apologising to Lady Eleanor (“Forgive me my lady. Tis all the fault of this saucy archer fellow”), Jacqueline departed for the regular role of WPC Hawkins in Dixon of Dock Green.
Sheila (Luan Peters) massages the President of Earth (Vera Fusek) in Episode Three of Frontier in Space.