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 II" (1955) is the earliest BBC science fiction production to exist in its entirety. Kneale could not rely on sophisticated special effects to convey his narratives. Instead, he based his stories around characterisation and characters' reactions to the strange events unfolding around them, using science fiction themes to tell allegorical stories such as paralleling real life racial tensions with the Martian "infection" of "Quatermass and the Pit" (1958–59). On 12 December 1954, a live adaptation of George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four", produced by the "Quatermass" team of writer Nigel Kneale and director Rudolph Cartier, achieved the highest television ratings since the