Doctor Who Collection 6: The TV Episodes

Peter R. Newman was a playwright whose most famous work was Yesterday’s Enemies, a Second World War story set in the Burmese jungle. It was was inspired by his experiences in the RAF and intelligence corps in the war, and was screened by BBC TV in October 1958 and subsequently remade by Hammer Films. Newman only wrote one serial for Doctor Who, The Sensorites, which was also his last television credit. Suffering from writer’s block, he became a porter at the Tate Gallery, where he worked until his death in 1975.

Dennis Spooner was script editor of Doctor Who during the William Hartnell era, and wrote several stories for the show, including The Reign of Terror and The Romans. He also wrote for the Gerry Anderson series' Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray and Thunderbirds, and co-created five espionage series' including Man in a Suitcase, Department S and The Adventurer. Spooner also created the cult detective series Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). He died in September 1986.

Glyn Jones was an actor, playwright and author who was born in Durban, South Africa. He moved to England after leaving university, took a job with the Sunday Times and started writing plays. In 1964, he was commissioned by Doctor Who story editor David Whitaker to develop a four-part serial. This would become The Space Museum, Jones’ only story for Doctor Who (though he later appeared in the 1975 Doctor Who serial The Sontaran Experiment). Among his other TV credits are the children’s series The Magnificent Six and ½ and Here Come the Double Deckers! He also wrote over twenty plays, six novels featuring private eye Thornton King and an autobiography, No Official Umbrella. He died in Crete in April 2014.

Paul Erickson wrote only one script for Doctor Who – The Ark. He was then married to Lesley Scott, and asked that she be given a writing credit for the script, despite not having written any of it. Erickson wrote scripts for many other TV programmes, including The Saint and Paul Temple, and several films including Find the Lady and Kill Her Gently. He also wrote the Target novelisation of The Ark. He died in 1991.

Donald Cotton contributed two scripts to Doctor Who: The Myth Makers and The Gunfighters. After helping to develop the BBC series Adam Adamant Lives!, he decided to concentrate on theatre, and was a successful playwright and actor throughout the Sixties and Seventies. He retired from acting in 1981, but continued his writing career into the Eighties. He novelised his Doctor Who scripts for Target books, as well as Dennis Spooner’s The Romans. Donald Cotton died in January 2000.

Ian Stuart Black was an author and screenwriter, best known for his creation of the TV series Danger Man, starring Patrick McGoohan. Black wrote three serials for Doctor Who – The Savages, The War Machines (from an idea by Kit Pedler) and The Macra Terror – and novelised the stories for Target Books. He also wrote several non-genre novels, one of which, The High Bright Sun, was made into a film starring Dirk Bogarde. Ian Stuart Black died in 1997.