1957

1957 in

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the DWU • vital statistics

1957 was a year. It was the official start of humanity's space age, (PROSE: Inter-Galactic Cat ^[+]Loading...["Inter-Galactic Cat (short story)"]) with the Sputnik 2 experiment making Laika the first Terran lifeform to ever leave Earth. (PROSE: Alien Bodies ^[+]Loading...["Alien Bodies (novel)"])

Events

Dated

On 1 May, the Soviet Union secretly launched Earth's first artificial satellite, Sputnik, but it was hijacked by the Master to send a signal to the Tzun. The Soviets wiped the embarrassing failure from their history books. (PROSE: First Frontier ^[+]Loading...["First Frontier (novel)"])

On Memorial Day, James Whale drowned himself in his swimming pool, leaving a copy of The Mystery of Edwin Drood by his bedside. Faction Hollywood agent Joseph Meyer replaced The Mystery of Edwin Drood with a copy of Don't Go Near the Water. (PROSE: The Book of the War ^[+]Loading...["The Book of the War (novel)"])

In October, the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Bernice Summerfield visited New Mexico, where they stopped the Master and the Tzun from conquering Earth. (PROSE: First Frontier ^[+]Loading...["First Frontier (novel)"])

On 4 October, the Shadow Proclamation reclassified Earth as a Class 5 civilisation due to the launch of Sputnik. (PROSE: Time Traveller's Diary ^[+]Loading...["Time Traveller's Diary (novel)"])

On 15 October, a BBC News bulletin reported on the recent launch of Sputnik, Earth's first artificial satellite, by the Soviet Union. (AUDIO: Unregenerate! ^[+]Loading...["Unregenerate! (audio story)"])

On 25 December, the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn Smythe met the Cracker family. (PROSE: The Crackers ^[+]Loading...["The Crackers (short story)"])

Undated

Noël Coward met Iris Wildthyme at the Royal Variety Performance at some point this year. They immediately became friends. (PROSE: Mad Dogs and Englishmen ^[+]Loading...["Mad Dogs and Englishmen (novel)"])

The low budget black-and-white science fiction B-movie Swamp of Horrors was released. It starred Adrian Cooper as Professor Derek Spire and Sheena Sown as his beautiful assistant Melody Malone. The Sixth Doctor and Melanie Bush were investigating UFO sightings in the proximity of its filming location in Hammerston, Louisiana and became involved in the production of the film after attacking an actor in a rubber alien suit whom they mistook for a genuine alien. The Doctor, who used his pseudonym "Dr. John Smith", and Mel were assumed to be uncredited actors playing fictional characters by film critics. (PROSE: Swamp of Horrors (1957) - Viewing Notes ^[+]Loading...["Swamp of Horrors (1957) - Viewing Notes (short story)","Swamp of Horrors (1957) - Viewing Notes"])

John rented out 11 Cardinal Road. The tenants disappeared and their possessions were boxed and kept in the basement. (TV: Knock Knock ^[+]Loading...["Knock Knock (TV story)"])

Ealing Studios began production on a sequel to their 1955 film The Ladykillers. Directed by Alexander Mackendrick and with a cast including Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers, the production filmed on location at Wester Drumlins in London. The production was plagued by issues, including location managers disappearing and two crewmembers being severely injured by the collapse of a lighting rig. A softly spoken man approached Mackendrick and Guinness and asked them to either halt production or film elsewhere, citing "killer statues" as the source of the trouble. Both Mackendrick and the insurance companies were spooked enough that the project was scrapped late in the year. (PROSE: The Very Real Mystery of Wester Drumlins ^[+]Loading...["The Very Real Mystery of Wester Drumlins (short story)"])

Other realities

On Germania I, Nazi astronauts landed on the Moon on 7 October. (PROSE: Warlords of Utopia ^[+]Loading...["Warlords of Utopia (novel)"])

Births and deaths

Malcolm was born. (PROSE: Time and Relative ^[+]Loading...["Time and Relative (novel)"])

Douglas Caldwell, a member of Torchwood One, died. (TV: To the Last Man ^[+]Loading...["To the Last Man (TV story)"])

According to the Twelfth Doctor's sonic sunglasses, Don Brabbit was born either in 1957 or in 1958. (TV: The Pyramid at the End of the World ^[+]Loading...["The Pyramid at the End of the World (TV story)"])

Other

The Seventh Doctor owned a map of Paris from this year. (PROSE: The Death of Art ^[+]Loading...["The Death of Art (novel)"])

Due to a broken temporal interferometry machine, a number of objects from 1957 were merged with Nathaniel Chiltern in the 1890s. (PROSE: Camera Obscura ^[+]Loading...["Camera Obscura (novel)"])