Doctor Who: The History Collection

John Lucarotti was born in England and spent nine years in the Royal Navy during and after the Second World War. He then went to North America to work for Imperial Oil. It was here that he began writing. Later, he scripted an eighteen-part radio series about the life of Marco Polo for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, but at one point found himself earning more money as an encyclopedia salesman than as a writer. Consequently he decided to focus on the US market. By the late Fifties he had taken Canadian citizenship, and then returned to England, where he became involved in TV work.

He had recently moved to Majorca when, at Syndey Newman's suggestion, David Whitaker approached him to write for Doctor Who. Remembering his CBC series, he chose Marco Polo as his subject. Throughout the Sixties and Seventies, Lucarotti continued a successful TV career, creating the shows Operation Patch and The Ravelled Thread, among others, and contributing scripts to The Avengers, Doctor Who, Ghost Squad, Joe 90, The Man in Room 17, Murder Bag, New Scotland Yard, The Protectors, Moonbase 3, The Onedin Line, Star Maidens and Into the Labyrinth, his last credited screen work in 1981. He novelised his 1976 serial Operation Patch (Target, 1976) and the 1979/1980 series The Ravelled Thread (Puffin Books, 1979). He contributed the first Brief Encounter short story for Doctor Who Magazine in 1990, in which the author met the First Doctor in a French bar. The story was reprinted in the 1992 Doctor Who Yearbook (Marvel, 1991). John Lucarotti died in Paris, France, on 20 November 1994 aged 68.

David Whitaker was the first Story Editor for Doctor Who, and was responsible for finding and commissioning writers, and it was Whitaker as much as anyone who defined the narrative shape of Doctor Who. He wrote for the Doctor Who annuals, novelised the first Dalek story and worked with Terry Nation on various Dalek-related material including the hugely successful comic strip The Daleks. David Whitaker died in 1980.

Terry Nation started as a comedy writer and performer, and was approached with an offer to work on Doctor Who, providing the seven episodes of the first ever Dalek story. After inventing the Daleks, Nation moved on to work on The Saint, The Champions and The Avengers. In the 1970s he scripted four more Dalek series - including Genesis of the Daleks which has been voted the best ever story in the series. Nation later devised the hugely popular BBC science fiction series Blake's 7. Terry Nation died in Los Angeles in 1996.

Donald Cotton became interested in writing and acting after he joined the drama society at Nottingham University, where he had studied zoology before transferring to English and philosophy. During the Fifties he wrote for and appeared in numerous stage revues. His first television work – a musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol – came in 1955 for ITV. His BBC debut was in 1958, as a contributor to a late-night revue show, Better Late! This was followed by a period of radio work as a writer for the BBC’s Third Programme. It was story editor Donald Tosh who contacted Cotton about writing for Doctor Who and this resulted in his penning two scripts for the show: The Myth Makers (1965) and The Gunfighters (1966). At this point Tosh left the show, and the new production team wished to steer away from adventures in history, so Cotton’s association with the programme ended. Having helped to develop the BBC series Adam Adamant Lives!, he grew disillusioned with television and concentrated instead on the theatre, where he had continued success as a 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 two Doctor Who scripts for the Target range, and also novelised Dennis Spooner’s similarly themed The Romans. Target Books also produced an original novel called The Bodkin Papers: Being the Memoirs of Josiah Bodkin, Bird about Town and Parrot of the World (1986), the bird in question being the 150-year-old parrot companion to Charles Darwin. Cotton died in January 2000. Author biography by David J. Howe, author of The Target Book, the complete illustrated guide to the Target Doctor Who novelisations.

Eric Saward has written for both radio and television, script edited Doctor Who for five years and also written four original stories for the show. During this time he also novelised four scripts and wrote the first ever Doctor Who radio serial. Recently he has completed a graphic novel based around the adventures of Lytton.