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 Unknown" (1965–71), which ran for four seasons. Some of the ITV companies were imitating American styles of production, shooting some of their series on film rather than in the multi-camera electronic studio for lucrative sales in the 'international' market. One producer who was keen to make science fiction for the commercial network was Gerry Anderson, who initially used puppets for his shows. His science fiction shows in 'Supermarionation' such as "Supercar" (1961–62), "Fireball XL5" (1962–63), "Stingray" (1964–65), "Thunderbirds" (1965–66), "Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons" (1967–68) and "Joe 90" (1968–69) remain popular among followers of archive television. Their success led his