British television science fiction fiction was "Star Cops" (1987), which ran for only nine episodes to poor viewing figures on the corporation's second channel, BBC2. It was written by Chris Boucher, who had contributed scripts to "Doctor Who" and "Blake's 7", and was script editor for the later series entire run. The 1980s also saw the arrival on the BBC of two science fiction comedy series both of which had their origins on radio. The first was "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (1981) by Douglas Adams which amalgamated aspects of the original radio series with that of the subsequent novel. The second was
British television science fiction of Drama at ABC. At ABC, Newman produced the science-fiction serial "Pathfinders in Space" (1960) and its sequels "Pathfinders to Mars" (1960) and "Pathfinders to Venus" (1961) and oversaw the science-fiction anthology series "Out of This World" (1962), the first of its kind in the UK. ITV also made an attempt at children's science fiction, with its short-lived programme "Emerald Soup" (1963), which coincidentally aired the same night that "Doctor Who" premiered. Two important events for the future of the British television science fiction occurred in 1962. The first was that the BBC's Head of Light Entertainment, Eric Maschwitz, commissioned