10 Doctor Who Actors Who Have Appeared In Blake's 7

4. Sally Knyvette

Sally Knyvette played the deceptively alluring smuggler Jenna Stannis. One of the original Seven, she was the most gifted pilot on the crew of the Liberator. As standoffish and cynical as she was, compared to Avon and Vila she was a more willing accomplice to Blake and a passionate supporter of the resistance movement. In the extended Doctor Who universe, Knyvette features in Mark Platt€™s highly acclaimed Spare Parts Big Finish audio. A Cyberman origins story starring Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor, Spare Parts was a significant influence on Russell T Davies as he scripted the return of the Cybermen in the revived show (Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel). Consequently Mark Platt receives an honorary mention in the credits. Knyvette€™s character, Doctorman Allan, is the Surgeon General on Mondas and is the medical overseer of the Cyberman conversion project. She is one of the first to challenge the direction of the programme when it begins to veer sinisterly away from the original ideals. And yet she cannot quite bring herself to part from it, betraying the Doctor to the ruling Committee. By the end of the story, she rejects the chance to reverse the Cyber conversion process. A substantial role, Kyvette is ideally suited to playing a character who seamlessly blends the assertive with the cynical. As soon as they hear Doctorman Allan€™s first lines, Blake€™s 7 fans will find it hard to shed from their minds an image of the younger Knyvette clad in one of her trademark, figure hugging leather outfits. The voice is forever young.