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Best known for his "double acts", characters seeded in any given story to channel the writer's ease with banter, Holmes is one of Who's wittier writers. With some 18 credits to his name, as well as a major influence on the Hinchcliffe era's entire canon, Holmes is certainly one of the most important contributors to Who. Let's not forget there's The Space Pirates and The Two Doctors in there. Overrated? Only if you say all his stories are brilliant. When people discuss classic Who writers, Bob Holmes invariably comes up on top. The audience still gets to decide who they think is right, if anyone. Each of his 8 stories has some element of this, and in general, his extreme left wing politics don't get in the way of the story. The fall of Mike Yates is proof that even a good man and friend can find himself on the wrong side of an issue (the same could be said of the Brigadier in Silurians). Even in stories that clearly don't work, like Invasion of the Dinosaurs, it's the effects that disappoint, not the characterization. Hulke often made the threat come from humans as the Doctor tried desperately to prevent a war. They were societies, with both good and bad elements, peacemongers and warmongers in each. Best known for creating relatively minor but well-remembered monsters like the Silurians, Sea Devils and Draconians, it is important to note that none of these were ever shown to be "evil" (as the Daleks, Cybermen and Sontarans always were). In Malcolm Hulke, we have a Doctor Who writer who refuses to paint the world in black and white. I might go so far as to credit him for the show's ability to reinvent itself, insuring its longevity. While all his stories aren't classics, Whitaker nevertheless delivered on variety even once he wasn't in charge of the script editing. The Enemy of the World is a rare 2nd Doctor story that doesn't use the base under siege trope, or even an alien monster. Many consider The Power of the Daleks and The Evil of the Daleks the last instances of the Daleks being well used (debatable, but these do tell a story that's about more than "EXTERMINATE!!!"). In The Rescue, nonsense plot aside, he creates the first new companion and edges the Doctor closer to the role of hero.
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The Edge of Destruction is a surreal thriller inside the TARDIS, off putting and ultimately wonderful. He could deserve a place in this list by virtue of the Shakespearean The Crusade alone, but look at what else he's written. So though I really love John Lucarotti's historicals from the Hartnell era, it's Whitaker who's the real maverick, keeping the show in exploration mode before more formulaic eras move in. We all understand the rules? Ok, let's go.ĭoctor Who's very first script editor is also credited with 8 stories, each more different than the next. And of course, all this doesn't take into account how scripts are changed by script editors, production requirements, et al. Of course, you can make a case for them in the comments section. To me, they sit somewhere in the middle quality-wise. That's why you won't find Eric Saward, Terrance Dicks or Russell T Davies in these lists even if the mark they left on the program both as writers and script editors is hugely noticeable.
DOCTOR WHO SPECIALS POSTWER SERIES
And while I did consider a minimum of 3 classic stories/new series episodes as a minimum contribution, I've tried to differentiate between that contribution's importance/quantity and its quality. Only on-air material credited to that writer has been considered, though script editing or extracanonical novels and audios may act as deciding factors when appropriate.
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The following lists are in chronological order going up to the present and then back down to the past. So who, then, are the best (and worst) contributors to Doctor Who in that regard? As one essay in the book says, Doctor Who is BY someone. After all, even to this day, the writer gets credit right at the top of each episode. One of the things I started thinking about while reading Time Unincorporated, with all its attacks on and defenses of various eras, is the issue of Doctor Who being sold as essentially a writer's medium. Here's a way to get myself into hot water with readers.