List of Doctor Who writers


This is a list of screenwriters for the science fiction television series, Doctor Who. It is sortable by a number of different criteria. The list defaults to ascending alphabetical order by writer's last name.
A "writer of Doctor Who" is defined as a person who received onscreen credit for a live action, non-parodic story. E.g. Terrance Dicks wrote four of the six episodes of The Seeds of Death in reality, but since Brian Hayles is the only name to appear on screen he receives the credit. The notes shed light on the work writers actually did on particular stories.
Further details about the way in which this list was compiled can be found by clicking the footnote marker at the top of each column. Information on this list is current through to Series 11.
WriterNumber of StoriesFirst StoryLast/Latest StoryNumber of episodesRun TimeNotesSince first episode's broadcast date
28200
14100Though only one story was ever broadcast offering Adams a writing credit, his influence was much greater. Had there not been a strike, he would have received another serial, Shada, to his name. Also, he had significant behind-the-scenes impact on a number of scripts. He co-wrote City of Death with David Fisher and Graham Williams under the name David Agnew. Additionally, Ken Grieve, director of Destiny of the Daleks, has claimed on the DVD commentary that Adams wrote "98% of" that script.
210250"David Agnew" was a pseudonym used on several BBC programmes in the 1970s. On Doctor Who it was used exclusively by Graham Williams and his script editors, apparently under the direct orders of the then-BBC Head of Serials. On The Invasion of Time, it concealed the identities of Williams and Anthony Read, while on City of Death, it masked the involvement of Williams, Douglas Adams and David Fisher.
1150
15125"Norman Ashby" was the pseudonym for the writing team of Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln. It was used in protest both of the changes Derrick Sherwin and Terrance Dicks made to their scripts, and to ways in which the duo felt the BBC had begun to violate their copyright on the Quarks before the episodes had even been broadcast.
28200He wrote an outline for a story called Manwatch. This story would have been the third instalment in the Mara trilogy, but it was never produced.
936950He co-wrote all but one story with Dave Martin, including The Three Doctors, which marked Doctor Who's Tenth Anniversary.
3.511315They created and co-own the character of the Rani. They received credit for episode 14 of The Trial of a Time Lord, while episode 13 went to Robert Holmes. This meant that they "split" a writing credit for the story segment known as "The Ultimate Foe".
1145
312300Bidmead was the original script editor for producer John Nathan-Turner, and the last for actor Tom Baker.
312300
1150
14100"Robin Bland" is the pseudonym created by Robert Holmes when Terrance Dicks decided to take his name off this serial. Holmes had rewritten the scripts severely, turning the story into something which strongly displeased Dicks. The name thus represents both Dicks and Holmes.
312300Boucher wrote a full third of the scripts involving Leela, including her introduction. Despite writing three stories, he never wrote for any other team-up but the Fourth Doctor and Leela.
27175
312300He received royalties from Season 18 to Season 21 for the use of his character Nyssa in most of the stories of those seasons.
1619990Chibnall was the head writer for the first two series of Torchwood. His script for 42 was the first Doctor Who story written to reflect real time. He also replaced Steven Moffat as the head writer of Doctor Who in 2017 after the television story Twice Upon a Time
1375
14100Although 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.
14100Although contemporary BBC internal documents reveal that C. E. Webber was really his co-author for the first episode, only Coburn's name made it to the screen. Coburn, however, is more or less completely responsible for the 2nd-4th episodes that comprise the bulk of the story, as his original brief was to write one of the middle serials of the first season. When his script was suddenly moved to the start of the season, his original first part was mostly replaced by C. E. Webber's script for the pilot episode. Coburn quickly provided the production staff with another set of scripts called The Masters of Luxor, which would have originally followed An Unearthly Child. Due to a poor working relationship with producer Verity Lambert and script editor David Whitaker, however, Luxor was ultimately not accepted, and Coburn never again wrote for Doctor Who.
23135"Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood" was adapted from his 1995 Doctor Who novel Human Nature.
28200
2290
2290
1375
1145Previously, the executive producer of Comic Relief parody, The Curse of Fatal Death
25321593Davies is the original head writer and showrunner of the BBC Wales version of Doctor Who. Davies has the distinction of receiving onscreen credit for writing the first episodes of Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. "Planet of the Dead" was co-written with Gareth Roberts, the first occasion on which two writers have been credited for a single script since the programme returned in 2005.
412300Davis was the only script editor of the 1963 series to receive credit on the last episode of one Doctor and the first episode of another. He and Kit Pedler also introduced and held copyright to the Cybermen.
523750He received onscreen credit for co-wiring The War Games with Malcolm Hulke. However, as the longest-serving script editor, Dicks had many uncredited contributions to scripts. One of the most glaring examples of this was The Seeds of Death, whose final four episodes are mostly Dicks' own work, but for which only Hayles retains credit. Though he does have a writing credit in the Troughton era, and he is indelibly linked to the Pertwee era, the bulk of his writing credits are actually for the Fourth Doctor. Ironically, while writing for script editor Robert Holmes, he got a taste of what it was like to be on the other end of a script editor's rewrites, and chose to take his name off of The Brain of Morbius"'.
2290
38200
16150He co-wrote this story with Malcolm Hulke.
14100
14100Shares writing credit on this story with Lesley Scott.
416400David Fisher was brought into Doctor Who by longtime pal, Anthony Read. He wrote a third of the Key to Time story arc and then delivered three sets of scripts the following year. Of these, the only ones that gave the production staff major problems were those for what would become City of Death. Though some elements of his scripts for City survived, they were mostly abandoned when Douglas Adams and Graham Williams performed an "emergency rewrite" under the name David Agnew.
14100He co-wrote Meglos with Andrew McCulloch.
22105Phil Ford was the head writer of series 2 of The Sarah Jane Adventures
2290This episode was originally intended as part of Series 5, but was put back due to budget issues.
28200
99405He is one of only a select few writers to also have an acting credit in a Doctor Who story. He is one of only two writers to have written for the first four Doctors of the revived series.
23135Graham was a co-creator and show runner of Life on Mars, another major BBC Wales show being produced simultaneously with Doctor Who.
2290
312300
212300He co-wrote all of his stories with Henry Lincoln, including The Dominators, for which they were both credited as "Norman Asbhy".
34185
14100After Robert Holmes' rewrites, Lewis Greifer requested his name be removed from this serial. "Stephen Harris" is thus a fiction which indicates both Greifer and Holmes.
630750Hayles wrote every story featuring the Ice Warriors. He co-wrote The Celestial Toymaker with Donald Tosh and The Seeds of Death with Terrance Dicks, but neither script editor got a co-writing credit.
22100
15.5641660Bob Holmes was the most prolific writer of the classic era. Holmes co-wrote The Ark in Space with John Lucarotti. He also co-wrote The Talons of Weng-Chiang with Robert Banks Stewart. Neither, however, received on screen credit for their efforts.
213325
7471350He co-wrote The Faceless Ones with David Ellis and The War Games with Terrance Dicks. He also co-wrote, but was not credited for, The Ambassadors of Death. His somewhat surprisingly large run time derives from the fact his stories averaged 6.71 episodes.
1189Contrary to popular belief, the "American" version of Doctor Who was in fact written by a British screenwriter. Jacobs' script was the last to feature the Seventh Doctor and the first story to feature the Eighth Doctor. He is the only Doctor Who writer to also write for the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises.
1150
14100
1290
1375
15125"Guy Leopold" was the pseudonym of Barry Letts and Robert Sloman. "Guy" was the name of Sloman's son and "Leopold" was Letts' middle name. Their names were not used because each writer was hiding from something. Letts could not be both a writer and a producer and Sloman didn't want to advertise the fact that he'd written something without his then-writing partner.
212300He co-wrote all of his stories with Mervyn Haisman, including The Dominators, for which they were both credited as "Norman Asbhy".
14100Derrick Sherwin wrote episode 1 of this story and Ling wrote episodes 2-5. In episode 1, no writer is given on-screen credit.
315375Although Lucarotti was paid in full for writing The Ark in Space, his scripts bore only a passing resemblance to what eventual writer Robert Holmes delivered. Thus only Holmes got credit for Ark in Space. Lucarotti shared screen credit on "Bell of Doom", the final instalment of The Massacre, with Donald Tosh.
23135MacRae was scheduled to write a new story for Series 4 in 2008 but it was replaced.
415375Aside from Terry Nation, Marks is the only writer to be credited for writing for the First, Third, and Fourth Doctors, and to be credited alongside producers Verity Lambert, Barry Letts and Philip Hinchcliffe.
832850
26190He introduced the character of Sil.
44185
1290
14100He co-wrote Meglos with John Flanagan.
22100
1150
40482255Moffat succeeded Russell T Davies as head writer/showrunner of the BBC Wales version of Doctor Who, starting with the fifth series. He has also written far more stories than anyone else in Doctor Who history, although Robert Holmes holds a comfortable lead in terms of number of episodes. "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".
1290
1150Moran has also written for Torchwood. To date, Moran is the only "new Who" writer other than Russell T Davies whose episode ran longer than the time slot originally agreed with the BBC.
24120Munro wrote the final story broadcast in the original Doctor Who series. She is the only writer to have written for both the original and revived series.
10.5561400On the Destiny of the Daleks DVD, Terrance Dicks describes Terry Nation as "the only writer who got rich off of Doctor Who". This is because he invented and retained copyright to the Daleks, the Doctor's most frequent enemy. Nation only wrote two stories which did not feature the Daleks, and only received credit for half the episodes of The Daleks' Master Plan.
16150
1145Best known for creating the hit sitcom Men Behaving Badly.
#14100
22100
312100Kit Pedler is something of an exception amongst original series writers. He was only given formal scriptwriting credit for three stories. However he does receive formal story credit for three more stories. Uncounted in his totals to the left are: The War Machines, The Wheel in Space, and The Invasion. Virtually no one else in the history of Doctor Who has received a "story by" credit.
16150
1375Platt wrote the final story produced in the original Doctor Who series. His 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".
1250
24180
14100He also co-wrote Invasion of Time with Graham Williams under the name David Agnew.
66285"Planet of the Dead" was co-written with Russell T Davies. Roberts has written several episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures. His first writer's credit for the BBC Wales franchise was actually Attack of the Graske, but Graske is not counted in this list here because it is more game than narrative.
412380Saward's name appears on the credits of only four stories. Two of these stories, Revelation and Resurrection of the Daleks were originally broadcast as two, 45-minute episodes. This means he received on-screenwriter's credit on twelve episodes. Nevertheless, strong evidence exists that he wrote, but did not receive credit for, Attack of the Cybermen. Most recently on the DVD release of Trial of a Time Lord, he also claims to have mostly written part 13 of that story, as well as several courtroom scenes for all four serials in the arc.
14100Shares writing credit on this story with Paul Erickson. She was the first woman to be credited as a writer on a Doctor Who story, although she did not actually write any portion of the script.
1145The basic premise as well as some scenes and dialogue from this story was adapted by Shearman from his audio drama Jubilee.
18200Out of necessity to stretch a four-part story into five, he wrote the first episode of The Mind Robber, although no credit is given on-screen. He then co-wrote The Invasion with Kit Pedler. He is one of a select few writers to also receive an acting credit on the programme.
318450He co-wrote all of his stories with Barry Letts, whose main job as producer prevented him from receiving any on-screen writing credit. The two also collaborated on The Dæmons, where their efforts were credited to "Guy Leopold".
14100Smith remains the youngest writer ever for Doctor Who. He was 18 when Full Circle was produced.
3.520500Spooner was the programme's second script editor. He was solely credited on half the episodes of The Daleks' Master Plan, which is why he gets credit for half a story. Spooner's work on Power of the Daleks went uncredited, although he is often cited as a co-writer.
14100
210250Stewart's work on The Talons of Weng-Chiang went uncredited, because he didn't get much beyond an outline before he resigned the commission.
16150
1145
33135
1125Script editor Donald Tosh only received credit for "Bell of Doom", the last episode of The Massacre. With Brian Hayles, he co-wrote, but did not receive credit for, The Celestial Toymaker. He therefore holds the record for the shortest run time credited to a writer.
1145
8401000Whitaker was the programme's first script/story editor. Aside from the authors of The Three Doctors and The Five Doctors, he and Brian Hayles are the only people to be credited with writing at least one story featuring each of the first three Doctors. The writing of his final adventure, The Ambassadors of Death'', was particularly precarious. Both Malcolm Hulke and Trevor Ray were required, uncredited, to get a final set of scripts completed.
67325
1150
28200