Happy Birthday To Maureen O'Brien And (Belatedly) To Lalla Ward!

                  You'll probably recognize the face of one of these ladies at least. Directly above is Lalla Ward, and at the top above her is actress Maureen O'Brien. These are photos of how they appear currently. O'Brien portrayed Vicki in 1965 with the first doctor William Hartnell and,of course Lalla Ward famously portrayed the regenerated Romana, as well as Princess Astra from The Armageddon Factor while Mary Tamm played the role she would undertake the following year. Ward was also married to Tom Baker from 1980 to 1982. She is at present married to the famous atheist author Richard Dawkins. Londoner Ward turned 62 yesterday while Liverpudlian O'Brien turned 70.

               These two women both had one thing in common within Doctor Who: they both succeeded a female character who was on the program for a relatively short period of time. In O'Brien's case it was Carole Ann Ford's Susan and with Lalla Ward, she played the same character as Mary Tamm only in a regenerated form as the "time lady" Romana-with Ward's character often referred to by Whovians as Romana II.  Apologies of course to all Whovians for not doing separate tributes to both actresses. But alas the events of the last few days makes me wish I had my own personal TARDIS to take care of everything in life via different time streams. All kidding aside happy birthday,one day apart, to two actresses who portrayed two vital and wonderful companions. Happy birthday to "Vicki" and the lady whom the fourth doctor called "the best Romana of them all".