Deborah Watling

Deborah Watling (2 January 1948 – 21 July 2017) was an English actress best known for her role as Victoria Waterfield, a companion of the Second Doctor in the BBC television series Doctor Who.

Watling was born at Fulmer, Buckinghamshire, the daughter of actors Jack Watling and Patricia Hicks. Her sister Dilysand her brother Giles are also actors. Beginning as a child actress, she had a regular role as the niece of Peter Brady in The Invisible Man (1958) television series. She was later cast for the lead role in Alice (1965), Dennis Potter's version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, for the BBC's The Wednesday Play, a small role in That'll Be the Day(1973) and as Norma Baker in the ITV series Danger UXB (1979). She also co-starred with Cliff Richard in the 1973 film Take Me High.

Watling played Victoria in Doctor Who from 1967 to 1968, though owing to the BBC's wiping policy of the time, The Tomb of the Cybermen (1967) and The Enemy of the World (1967-1968) are the only serials in which she appeared that still exist in their entirety. She also appeared in Dimensions in Time (1993) and Downtime (1995).

Watling also appeared in the Doctor Who audio drama Three's a Crowd and regularly attended Doctor Whoconventions and events. In November 2013, she appeared in the one-off 50th anniversary comedy homage The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot.

She died In July 2017, after a short battle with lung cancer.