Terry Nation Doctor Who What work did he do on Doctor Who? writing the second Doctor Who serial, What contributions did he make? The serial introduced the eponymous extraterrestrial villains that would quickly become the series' most popular and enduring monsters, and resulted in a major merchandising success for the BBC. What was the name of these villains? The Mutants Did he state how he came to create these characters? unemployed, and with a young family to support,
When was he hired to produce these characters for Doctor Who?
When was Terry Nation hired to produce eponymous extraterrestrial villains for Doctor Who?
Prior to this, Nation had declined an offer from scriptwriter David Whitaker to write for a new science-fiction programme that was entering production at the BBC; Whitaker had been impressed by a script that Nation had written for the ABC anthology series Out of this World. Now unemployed, and with a young family to support, Nation contacted Whitaker and accepted the offer, writing the second Doctor Who serial, The Daleks (also known as The Mutants and The Dead Planet). The serial introduced the eponymous extraterrestrial villains that would quickly become the series' most popular and enduring monsters, and resulted in a major merchandising success for the BBC.  Having risen in the public consciousness, Nation went on to contribute further scripts to Doctor Who. In 1965, Nation and Dennis Spooner co-wrote the 12-part serial The Daleks' Master Plan, after which Nation, who still held the copyright to the Daleks, attempted to launch a Dalek spin-off TV series in the United States. Various other Dalek tie-in material appeared, including comic strips in the children's weekly TV Century 21 and annuals; such material was frequently credited to Nation, even when written by others. Between 1966 and 1972, appearances by the Daleks in Doctor Who became less frequent and were written for the series by other authors.  In 1973, following an eight-year absence from scriptwriting for the series, Nation returned to writing for the Daleks on Doctor Who with the Third Doctor serial Planet of the Daleks. In 1998, readers of Doctor Who Magazine voted Nation's 1975 serial Genesis of the Daleks the greatest Doctor Who story of all time. In the story, Nation introduced the character of Davros, the creator of the Daleks, who went on to appear in further storylines.  Nation also wrote two non-Dalek scripts for Doctor Who, The Keys of Marinus in 1964, which introduced the Voord and The Android Invasion in 1975, which introduced the Kraal. During this time, Nation also worked in commercial TV, contributing scripts to series such as The Avengers, The Baron, The Champions, Department S, The Persuaders! and The Saint.  Nation's work on Doctor Who was the subject of the documentary Terror Nation, a special feature on the BBC DVD release of the serial Destiny of the Daleks. CANNOTANSWER
1965,
Terence Joseph Nation (8 August 19309 March 1997) was a Welsh screenwriter and novelist. Especially known for his work in British television science fiction, he created the Daleks and Davros for Doctor Who (1963), as well as the series Survivors (1975) and Blake's 7 (1978).

Nation first made his name as a comedy writer before becoming a prolific writer for drama, working on many of the most popular British series of the 1960s and 1970s such as The Avengers, The Baron, The Champions, Department S, The Persuaders! and The Saint. When Nation was commissioned to write The Daleks (1963) for Doctor Who, the villainous eponymous creatures established the series' early popularity. He later devised the recurring character of Davros in Genesis of the Daleks (1975). His series Survivors and Blake's 7 have been described as "much-loved cult TV classics".

Life and career

Early years
Born in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales, Nation initially worked in comedy, entering the industry in 1955 after a (possibly apocryphal) incident in which Spike Milligan bought a sketch that he had written because he thought that Nation appeared hungry. During the 1950s, Nation worked with John Junkin and Johnny Speight for the writers' agency Associated London Scripts, where he collaborated on hundreds of radio plays for comedians such as Terry Scott, Eric Sykes, Harry Worth and Frankie Howerd.

His career break came in 1962, when he was commissioned to write material for Tony Hancockfirst for Hancock's unsuccessful series for Associated Television broadcast on ITV in 1963, and then his stage show. Although Nation accompanied Hancock as his chief screenwriter on tour in 1963, Hancock would regularly neglect Nation's scripts in favour of recycling his old material. Following an argument over this, Hancock either fired Nation, or Nation resigned (it is unclear which).

Doctor Who
Prior to his association with Hancock, Nation had declined an offer from scriptwriter David Whitaker to write for a new science-fiction programme that was entering production at the BBC; Whitaker had been impressed by a script that Nation had written for the ABC anthology series Out of this World. Now unemployed, and with a young family to support, Nation contacted Whitaker and accepted the offer, writing the second Doctor Who serial, The Daleks (also known as The Mutants and The Dead Planet). The serial introduced the eponymous extraterrestrial villains that would quickly become the series' most popular and enduring monsters, and resulted in a major merchandising success for the BBC.

Nation contributed further scripts to Doctor Who. In 1965, Nation and Dennis Spooner co-wrote the 12-part serial The Daleks' Master Plan, after which Nation, who still held the copyright to the Daleks, attempted to launch a Dalek spin-off TV series in the United States. Various other Dalek tie-in material appeared, including comic strips in the children's weekly TV Century 21 and annuals; such material was frequently credited to Nation, even when written by others. Between 1966 and 1972, appearances by the Daleks in Doctor Who became less frequent and were written for the series by other authors.

In 1973, following an eight-year absence from scriptwriting for the series, Nation returned to writing for the Daleks on Doctor Who with the Third Doctor serial Planet of the Daleks. In 1998, readers of Doctor Who Magazine voted Nation's 1975 serial Genesis of the Daleks the greatest Doctor Who story of all time. In the story, Nation introduced the character of Davros, the creator of the Daleks, who went on to appear in further storylines. Nation also wrote two non-Dalek scripts for Doctor Who, The Keys of Marinus in 1964, which introduced the Voord, and The Android Invasion in 1975, which introduced the Kraals. Nation's final script for Doctor Who was Destiny of the Daleks, broadcast in 1979.

His work on Doctor Who was the subject of the documentary Terror Nation, a special feature on the BBC DVD release of Destiny of the Daleks.

Out of the Unknown
Nation's first work on the science-fiction anthology series Out of the Unknown was scripting an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's short story The Fox and the Forest in 1965 for the show's debut series. It was about a 21st century couple taking a forbidden trip to Mexico in 1938, only to be followed by enforcers from the future. It is one of only two episodes from the first series to be considered lost, with only two photographs and the end titles known to exist.

In 1969, when the show began to be produced in colour, Nation granted permission for the Daleks to be used in the series three episode Get Off My Cloud, based on the story by Peter Phillips about a bed-bound science-fiction author who finds himself within one of his own fantasies after a mental breakdown. This would be the first time the Daleks had been shown in colour on television, although they had previously appeared in colour in the Peter Cushing films. Only production stills and low-quality audio extracts survive.

Survivors and Blake's 7
Having returned to writing for Doctor Who, the BBC commissioned Nation to create a new science-fiction drama series. First broadcast in 1975, Survivors is the post-apocalyptic story of the last humans on Earth after the world's population has been devastated by plague. Although the series was well received, Nation's creative vision conflicted with that of producer Terence Dudley, and the final two seasons were produced without Nation's involvement.

Meanwhile, screenwriter Brian Clemens claimed that he had related the concept for Survivors to Nation in the late 1960s while they were working together on the final season of The Avengers, with Clemens claiming to have registered the Survivors concept with the Writers' Guild of Great Britain in 1965; Nation denied the allegations. Although the case was ultimately brought before the High Court, both sides withdrew from the proceedings after their legal costs mounted.

The production of Nation's next BBC creation, Blake's 7, experienced fewer problems. This series follows a group of criminals and political prisoners who are on the run from the evil "Terran Federation", piloting a stolen spaceship of unknown origin. Blake's 7 ran for four series from 1978 to 1981.

Although Nation scripted the whole of the first series of Blake's 7, his creative influence subsequently declined in the following two series despite writing some key episodes, as script editor Chris Boucher exerted a greater influence on those seasons. Nation didn't write any episodes in the fourth series of Blake's 7. In the 1980s, Nation attempted, without success, to secure funding for a fifth season of Blake's 7. During the 1970s, Nation wrote a children's novel for his daughter Rebecca (after whom he named the character of Rebec in the 1973 Doctor Who serial Planet of the Daleks) titled Rebecca's World: Journey to the Forbidden Planet, as well as a novel based on Survivors.

United States
In 1980, Nation moved to Los Angeles, where he developed programme ideas and worked for various production studios. Little of his work from this time was as successful as that of his earlier period in Britain. He wrote scripts for the TV series MacGyver (1985) and A Fine Romance (1989).

Death
Nation died from emphysema in Los Angeles on 9 March 1997, aged 66. Shortly before his death, he had been collaborating with actor Paul Darrow on another attempt to revive Blake's 7.

Writing credits

Awards and nominations

In 2013, Nation was commemorated with a blue plaque at the house in Cardiff where he was born.

Bibliography
Survivors (1976, )
Rebecca's World: Journey to the Forbidden Planet (1978, )

References

Further reading
 Turner, Alwyn W.: The Man Who Invented The Daleks: The Strange Worlds of Terry Nation, London: Aurum Press, 2011, .

External links
 
 
 
 Terry Nation profile, Museum of Broadcast Communications, museum.tv; accessed 26 December 2014.

1930 births
1997 deaths
20th-century British novelists
BBC people
British male novelists
British male screenwriters
Welsh radio writers
British science fiction writers
Deaths from emphysema
Welsh comedy writers
Welsh expatriates in the United States
Welsh novelists
Welsh science fiction writers
Welsh screenwriters
Welsh television writers
Writers from Cardiff
People from Llandaff
20th-century British male writers
British male television writers
20th-century British screenwriters
The Virgin Decalog books were collections of short stories published by Virgin Publishing based on the television series Doctor Who: they gained their name from the fact that each volume contained ten stories (although the last collection contains eleven). Five volumes were published between 1994 and September 1997, although volumes 4 and 5 did not feature the Doctor or any other non-Virgin copyrighted characters. This is because the BBC decided not to renew Virgin's licence to produce original fiction featuring the Doctor or any characters featured in the TV series (Virgin transitioned to featuring characters created for literature over which the BBC had no rights). Following this, the BBC began producing their own Doctor Who fiction, including short stories under the name Short Trips.

The Books

Decalog
The first volume of stories published was Decalog (Virgin, 17 March 1994), edited by Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker. It contained the following stories:

The Story Playback by Stephen James Walker was a short linking piece that recurred between the other stories, detailing the story of an amnesiac claiming to be the Doctor having his memories restored by going through the items in his pockets: each item relates to one of the stories.

Decalog 2: Lost Property
The next volume was Decalog 2: Lost Property (Virgin Publishing, 20 July 1995), again edited by Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker. This volume abandoned the linking story concept used in Decalog, and instead concentrated on having all its stories written on the same theme – a property that the Doctor owns somewhere or when in the universe. It contained the stories:

Decalog 3: Consequences
The final Decalog collection before Virgin lost their licence to use The Doctor and characters from the 1963–89 series was called Decalog 3: Consequences (Virgin Publishing, 18 July 1996), and was joint edited by Justin Richards and Andy Lane. It introduced a new idea for linking the stories whereby each story would contain an element from the previous and subsequent stories, and the first contained an element from the last and vice versa. It contained the following stories:

This was Steven Moffat's first Doctor Who work. He later went on to write for the 2005 revival of the television series, and would become head writer for the series from the 2010 season onwards. Jackie Marshall was an established writer of Doctor Who fan fiction at the time. DeCandido went on to write novels for the Star Trek franchise. Moffat would later use many plot elements from Continuity Errors as the basis for the 2010 Christmas Special, as well as for River Song's backstory in "Let's Kill Hitler".

Decalog 4: Re-Generations
The first Decalog collection after Virgin lost their licence to use Doctor Who TV characters was called Decalog 4: Re-Generations (Virgin Publishing, 15 May 1997), and was again joint edited by Justin Richards and Andy Lane. In order to try to keep the audience of previous Decalogs even though the Doctor could no longer appear in the stories, it was decided to theme the collection around the family history of one of the Doctor's companion Roz Forrester. As this companion had been created by co-editor Andy Lane for the Virgin New Adventures, there were no copyright issues in including her. It contained the following stories:

Decalog 5: Wonders
The final Decalog collection was called Decalog 5: Wonders (Virgin Publishing, 18 September 1997), and was jointly edited by Paul Leonard and Jim Mortimore. This time, all but one story were free-standing science fiction pieces on the theme of "the Ten Wonders of the Universe", without direct connection to the Doctor Who universe. One story, The Judgement of Solomon by Lawrence Miles, however features former New Adventures companion, Bernice Summerfield. The collection contained the following stories:

Following the publication of this book, Virgin produced no further Decalog collections.

References

Book series introduced in 1994
Novels based on Doctor Who
Science fiction book series
1990s books
Virgin Books books Honoré Lechasseur is one of two main characters in the Doctor Who spin-off Time Hunter series published by Telos Publishing Ltd. He is a time sensitive, which means that he possess the ability to see into people's pasts and futures when he is in their vicinity. He is also able to physically travel along people's timelines when he is working with a time channeller, such as his friend Emily Blandish. Honoré has appeared on some of the covers of the Time Hunter novellas.

Overview 
The character was created by Daniel O'Mahony for the Telos Doctor Who novella The Cabinet of Light. Shortly after the novella was published it was announced that BBC Enterprises would not be renewing Telos's licence to produce Doctor Who novellas. Telos subsequently announced that they would begin producing a series of "Part mystery, part detective story, part dark fantasy, part science fiction"  novellas that would continue the spirit of the Doctor Who novellas. This was the Time Hunter range, which continued the adventures of Honoré and Emily Blandish.

Honoré is portrayed as a moral character – he prides himself on never having swindled any of his customers – who develops from struggling to understand and live with his abilities, to embracing them through his platonic relationship with Emily Blandish. Through the novellas, he progresses from using alcohol on a regular basis as a "painkiller", to eventually becoming teetotal.

The character continued in the Time Hunter range for 11 novellas, before Telos announced that the range was to be closed due to poor sales.

Biography 

Honoré Lechasseur in an American from New Orleans, Louisiana, who came to Europe whilst serving in the US Army in World War II. His platoon were moving through France when they became lost and ended up in Belgium, finding a farmhouse that had recently been abandoned by German soldiers. The group settled down to enjoy a stash of alcohol that had been left behind, and Honoré's Lieutenant began to play a piano: the piano had been booby trapped with explosives, and the Lieutenant was killed.

Honoré suffered physical injuries in the explosion and was advised by Army medics that he would never walk again. He also suffered psychological injuries from the trauma, made worse by the knowledge that of his entire platoon, Honoré was the only other person who could play the piano and so if it had not been his lieutenant who had been killed, it might well have been Honoré himself.

Honoré was moved to a hospital in England in 1943, where he began to recover the use of his legs. During this period, he also began to develop an ability to see people's pasts and futures that he later learnt was called time sensitivity.

Whilst in hospital, Honoré was treated by a small bearded Scots doctor (recalling the Seventh Doctor, although it is unclear whether the character is intended to actually be the Seventh Doctor in disguise) who helped him recover to a certain degree. Honoré then left the hospital and relocated to Shoreditch in London, where he began working as a black market spiv – although he preferred the term "fixer".

In 1949, Honoré was hired by a woman posing as Emily Blandish to find her "husband", the Doctor. During the course of his investigations, Honoré met a young amnesiac woman dubbed "the girl in the pink pyjamas" by the press, and together they help save the Cabinet of Light (in actuality, the TARDIS) from a Nazi cult desperate to possess it for their own ends. He also helped the girl to remember her real name: Emily Blandish.

Following this adventure, Emily and Honoré kept in touch and built a strong, platonic relationship. It was not until they both happened to spot the same man at the same time and wonder where he had come from, however, that they realised that Emily was a time sensitive. They both travelled forwards in time to an alternative 1984 (based on the novel by George Orwell), where they spent time trying to work out how to get back to their own time – which they ultimately did, whilst also ensuring that the future they had witnessed never came about.

Honoré and Emily eventually came to understand how they had travelled through time, and became so practised at it that they could soon travel at will to a chosen date and time. They faced various adventures together, during which they fought the Fendahl and gained the enmity of a mysterious time travelling cult.

At present, Honoré's ultimate destiny is unknown.

External links 
 Telos website
 Outpost Gallifrey's "Cabinet of Light" section
 Doctor Who Ratings Guide reviews

Literary characters introduced in 2003
Doctor Who book characters
Fictional spivs
Male characters in literature
Time Hunter