List of Doctor Who writers
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This is a list of those who have received a writer credit on the long-running British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. The writers are listed in order of those who wrote the most stories to those who wrote the least. The number of stories each writer has written shall be indicated next to each writer's name. With exception of the unaired Season 17 story Shada (1980) and the writers of the yet-to-air 2008 series episodes, writers who wrote stories that were not aired on television are not included on this list.
Contents |
[edit] The Stories
[edit] Five or more time writers
| Writer | Number of Stories | First Story | Last/Latest Story | Number of Episodes | Notes |
| Robert Holmes | 18 | The Krotons | The Ultimate Foe | 73 | He co-wrote The Ark in Space with John Lucarotti. He also co-wrote The Talons of Weng Chiang with Robert Stewart Banks. He also wrote the first story to feature the Third Doctor and the last stories to feature the Fifth Doctor and the Sixth Doctor (the latter story was left unfinished by Holmes when he died in 1986 and it had to be completed by Pip and Jane Baker). |
| Russell T. Davies | 17 | "Rose" | "Partners in Crime" | 21 | He wrote the first Doctor Who story of the new series in 2005. Davies is the only writer to have written two Doctor Who Christmas specials. He wrote the seven minute 2005 Children in Need special, which serves as a prelude to "The Christmas Invasion" in lieu of a separate story. He also wrote the first and last stories to feature the Ninth Doctor as well as the first story to feature the Tenth Doctor. |
| Terry Nation | 11 | The Daleks | Destiny of the Daleks | 62 | He only wrote two stories (The Keys of Marinus and The Android Invasion) which did not feature the Daleks. |
| Bob Baker | 9 | The Claws of Axos | Nightmare of Eden | 36 | He co-wrote all but one story (Nightmare of Eden) with Dave Martin, including The Three Doctors which marked Doctor Who's Tenth Anniversary. |
| David Whitaker | 8 | The Edge of Destruction | Ambassadors of Death | 40 | He wrote first story to feature the Second Doctor as played by Patrick Troughton. |
| Malcolm Hulke | 8 | The Faceless Ones | Invasion of the Dinosaurs | 54 | He co-wrote the The Faceless Ones with David Ellis. He also co-wrote The War Games with Terrance Dicks, which was the last story to feature the Second Doctor. |
| Dave Martin | 8 | The Claws of Axos | The Armageddon Factor | 32 | |
| Terrance Dicks | 7 | The Seeds of Death | The Five Doctors | 36 | He co-wrote The War Games with Malcolm Hulke, which was the last story to feature the Second Doctor. He also wrote the first story to feature the Fourth Doctor as played by Tom Baker. He also wrote the Five Doctors which marked Doctor Who's Twentieth Anniversary. |
| Kit Pedler | 6 | The War Machines | The Invasion | 30 | He co-wrote last story to feature the First Doctor as well as the first story to feature the Cybermen. |
| Brian Hayles | 6 | The Celestial Toymaker | The Monster of Peladon | 30 | Wrote every story featuring the Ice Warriors. He co-wrote The Celestial Toymaker with Donald Tosh. |
| Dennis Spooner | 5 | The Reign of Terror | Power of the Daleks | 30 | |
| David Fisher | 5 | The Stones of Blood | The Leisure Hive | 20 | He co-wrote City of Death with Douglas Adams and Graham Williams under the name David Agnew. |
| Eric Saward | 5 | The Visitation | Revelation of the Daleks | 18 | He co-wrote Attack of the Cybermen with Paula Woolsey and Ian Levine as Paula Moore. |
[edit] Four time writers
| Writer | Number of Stories | First Story | Last/Latest Story | Number of Episodes | Notes |
| John Lucarotti | 4 | Marco Polo | The Ark in Space | 19 | He co-wrote The Ark in Space with Robert Holmes. |
| Louis Marks | 4 | Planet of Giants | The Masque of Mandragora | 15 | |
| Gerry Davis | 4 | The Tenth Planet | Revenge of the Cybermen | 12 | He co-wrote last story to feature the First Doctor as well as the first story to feature the Cybermen with Kit Pedler. |
| Barry Letts | 4 | The Dæmons | Planet of the Spiders | 23 | He co-wrote all of his stories with Robert Sloman. As producer of Doctor Who, Letts was not allowed to receive any onscreen credit as a writer. However, the The Dæmons is the only story where Sloman and Letts are credited as Guy Leopold. They also co-wrote Planet of the Spiders, which is the last story to feature the Third Doctor. |
| Robert Sloman | 4 | The Dæmons | Planet of the Spiders | 23 | He co-wrote all of his stories with Barry Letts. The The Dæmons is the only story where Sloman and Letts are credited as Guy Leopold. They also co-wrote Planet of the Spiders, which is the last story to feature the Third Doctor. |
| Pip and Jane Baker | 4 | Mark of the Rani | Time and the Rani | 12 | They created and co-own (along with the BBC) the character of The Rani. They also completed the last story to feature the Sixth Doctor (which was left unfinished by Holmes when he died in 1986) and they wrote the first story to feature the Seventh Doctor. |
| Steven Moffat | 4 | "The Empty Child" / "The Doctor Dances" | "Silence in the Library" / "Forest of the Dead" | 4 | "Blink" was adapted from Moffat's own Ninth Doctor short story from the Doctor Who Annual 2006 called "What I Did on My Christmas Holidays by Sally Sparrow". He also scripted the 2007 Children in Need special "Time Crash". Moffat is scheduled to write a new story for Series 4 in 2008. |
[edit] Three time writers
| Writer | Number of Stories | First Story | Last/Latest Story | Number of Episodes | Notes |
| Ian Stuart Black | 3 | The Savages | The Macra Terror | 12 | |
| Mervyn Haisman | 3 | The Abominable Snowmen | The Dominators | 17 | He co-wrote all of his stories with Henry Lincoln, including The Dominators which they were both credited as Norman Asbhy. |
| Henry Lincoln | 3 | The Abominable Snowmen | The Dominators | 17 | He co-wrote all of his stories with Mervyn Haisman, including The Dominators which they were both credited as Norman Asbhy. |
| Robert Banks Stewart | 3 | Terror of the Zygons | The Talons of Weng Chiang | 16 | He co-wrote The Talons of Weng Chiang with Robert Holmes. |
| Chris Boucher | 3 | The Face of Evil | Image of the Fendahl | 12 | |
| Douglas Adams | 3 | The Pirate Planet | Shada | 14 | He co-wrote City of Death with David Fisher and Graham Williams under the name David Agnew. |
| Johnny Byrne | 3 | The Keeper of Traken | Warriors of the Deep | 12 | He received royalties from Season 18 to Season 21 for the use of his character Nyssa of Traken in in most of the stories of those seasons. |
| Christopher H. Bidmead | 3 | Logopolis | Frontios | 12 | He wrote the last story to feature the Fourth Doctor as played by Tom Baker and the first story to feature Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor. |
| Terence Dudley | 3 | Four to Doomsday | The King's Demons | 8 | |
| Peter Grimwade | 3 | Time-Flight | Planet of Fire | 12 |
[edit] Two time writers
| Writer | Number of Stories | First Story | Last/Latest Story | Number of Episodes | Notes |
| Donald Cotton | 2 | The Myth Makers | The Gunfighters | 8 | |
| Donald Tosh | 2 | The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve | The Celestial Toymaker | 8 | He co-wrote The Celestial Toymaker with Brian Hayles. |
| Derrick Sherwin | 2 | The Mind Robber | The Invasion | 13 | He co-wrote The Mind Robber with Peter Ling and he co-wrote The Invasion with Kit Pedler. He is one of only two writers (Mark Gatiss being the other) to appear as a character in a Doctor Who story. |
| Don Houghton | 2 | Inferno | The Mind of Evil | 13 | |
| Graham Williams | 2 | Invasion of Time | Shada | 10 | He co-wrote Invasion of Time with Anthony Read under the name David Agnew. Williams also used the name "David Agnew" to write City of Death with David Fischer and Douglas Adams. |
| Anthony Read | 2 | Invasion of Time | Horns of Nimon | 10 | He co-wrote Invasion of Time with Graham Williams under the name David Agnew. |
| Stephen Gallagher | 2 | Warriors' Gate | Terminus | 8 | |
| Christopher Bailey | 2 | Kinda | Snakedance | 8 | He wrote an outline for a story called Manwatch. This story would have been the third installment in the Mara trilogy, however it was never produced. |
| Philip Martin | 2 | Vengeance on Varos | Mindwarp | 6 | He introduced the character of Sil. |
| Stephen Wyatt | 2 | Paradise Towers | The Greatest Show in the Galaxy | 8 | |
| Ian Briggs | 2 | Dragonfire | The Curse of Fenric | 7 | |
| Ben Aaronovitch | 2 | Remembrance of the Daleks | Battlefield | 8 | |
| Mark Gatiss | 2 | "The Unquiet Dead" | "The Idiot's Lantern" | 2 | He is one of only a select few writers (Derrick Sherwin and Victor Pemberton being among the others) to appear as a character in a Doctor Who story. |
| Paul Cornell | 2 | "Father's Day" | "Human Nature" "The Family of Blood" |
3 | "Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood" was adapted from his 1995 Doctor Who novel Human Nature (co-plotted with Kate Orman). |
| Helen Raynor | 2 | "Daleks in Manhattan" "Evolution of the Daleks" |
"The Sontaran Stratagem" "The Poison Sky" |
4 | |
| Stephen Greenhorn | 2 | "The Lazarus Experiment" | "The Doctor's Daughter" | 2 |
[edit] One time writers
| Writer | Number of Stories | First Story | Last/Latest Story | Number of Episodes | Notes |
| Anthony Coburn | 1 | An Unearthly Child | 4 | ||
| Peter R. Newman | 1 | The Sensorites | 6 | ||
| Bill Strutton | 1 | The Web Planet | 6 | ||
| Glyn Jones | 1 | The Space Museum | 4 | ||
| Elwyn Jones | 1 | Galaxy 4 | 4 | ||
| Paul Erickson | 1 | The Ark | 4 | Shares writing credit on this story with Lesley Scott. | |
| Lesley Scott | 1 | The Ark | 4 | Shares writing credit on this story with Paul Erickson. She was the first woman to be credited as a writer on a Doctor Who story. | |
| William Emms | 1 | The Highlanders | 4 | He co-wrote this story with Gerry Davis | |
| Geoffrey Orme | 1 | The Underwater Menace | 4 | ||
| David Ellis | 1 | The Faceless Ones | 6 | He co-wrote this story with Malcolm Hulke. | |
| Victor Pemberton | 1 | Fury from the Deep | 6 | ||
| Peter Ling | 1 | The Mind Robber | 5 | Derrick Sherwin wrote episode 1 of this story and Ling wrote episodes 2-5. Only Ling is credited for all five episodes. Sherwin received no onscreen credit episode 1. | |
| Trevor Ray | 1 | Ambassadors of Death | 7 | He co-wrote this story with Malcolm Hulke and David Whitaker. | |
| Lewis Greifer | 1 | Pyramids of Mars | 4 | He co-wrote this story with Robert Holmes. | |
| John Flanagan | 1 | Meglos | 4 | He co-wrote Meglos with Andrew McCulloch. | |
| Andrew McCulloch | 1 | Meglos | 4 | He co-wrote Meglos with John Flanagan. | |
| Andrew Smith | 1 | Full Circle | 4 | ||
| Barbara Clegg | 1 | Enlightment | 4 | Although Lesley Scott is the first woman to be credited as a writer on a Doctor Who story, Clegg is the first woman to actually write a story for the program. | |
| Eric Pringle | 1 | The Awakening | 2 | ||
| Anthony Steven | 1 | The Twin Dilemma | 4 | He wrote the first story to feature the Sixth Doctor as played by Colin Baker. | |
| Paula Woolsey | 1 | Attack of the Cybermen | 2 | She was credited for writing Attack of the Cybermen as Paula Moore. It is claimed that Eric Saward and Ian Levine were co-writers on the story. | |
| Ian Levine | 1 | Attack of the Cybermen | 2 | Claims to have co-written Attack of the Cybermen with Paula Woolsey and Eric Saward as Paula Moore. | |
| Glen McCoy | 1 | Timelash | 2 | ||
| Malcolm Kohll | 1 | Delta and the Bannermen | 3 | ||
| Graeme Curry | 1 | The Happiness Patrol | 3 | ||
| Kevin Clarke | 1 | Silver Nemesis | 3 | This story marked Doctor Who's Twenty-fifth Anniversary | |
| Marc Platt | 1 | Ghostlight | 3 | Marc Platt's audio drama, Spare Parts, was credited as the source of inspiration for Tom MacRae's Cybermen adventure, Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel. | |
| Rona Munro | 1 | Survival | 3 | She wrote the last story of the original Doctor Who series. | |
| Matthew Jacobs | 1 | Doctor Who | None (T.V. Movie) | He wrote the first Doctor Who story since the end of the original series in 1989. He also wrote the last story to feature the Seventh Doctor and the first (and as of June 2007, the only) story to feature the Eighth Doctor. | |
| Robert Shearman | 1 | "Dalek" | 1 | The basic premise as well as some scenes and dialogue from this story was adapted by Shearman from his audio drama Jubilee. | |
| Toby Whithouse | 1 | "School Reunion" | 1 | ||
| Tom MacRae | 1 | "Rise of the Cybermen" "The Age of Steel" |
2 | Marc Platt's audio drama, Spare Parts, was credited as the source of inspiration for MacRae's Cybermen story. MacRae was scheduled to write a new story for Series 4 in 2008 but it has since been replaced. | |
| Matt Jones | 1 | "The Impossible Planet" "The Satan Pit" |
2 | ||
| Matthew Graham | 1 | "Fear Her" | 1 | ||
| Gareth Roberts | 1 | "The Shakespeare Code" | 1 | He is scheduled to write a new story for Series 4 in 2008. | |
| Chris Chibnall | 1 | "42" | 1 | First Doctor Who story written to reflect real time. | |
| Keith Temple | 1 | "Planet of the Ood" | 1 | ||
| James Moran | 1 | The Fires of Pompeii | 1 | ||
