This is a list of screenwriters for the science fiction television series, Doctor Who. It is sortable by a number of different criteria.[1] The list defaults to ascending alphabetical order by writer's last name.
Several assumptions underlie the composition of the list. Most significantly, this list defines a "writer of Doctor Who" to be a person who received onscreen credit for a live-action, non-parodic story. That Terrance Dicks in fact wrote four of the six episodes of The Seeds of Death is irrelevant to this list; Brian Hayles is the only person whose name appears on screen so he's the only one who gets credit here. Where possible and necessary, notes have been included to shed light on what a particular writer actually did as opposed to what they were credited for. However, the best source of information about the writing of particular stories is more likely to be the story page itself.
Further details about the way in which this list was compiled can be found by clicking the footnote marker at the top of each column. Information on this list is current through the end of Series 6.
| Writer[2] | Number of Stories[3] | First Story[4] | Last/Latest Story[4] | Number of episodes[5] | Run Time[6] | Notes | Since first episode[7] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ben Aaronovitch | 2 | Remembrance of the Daleks | Battlefield | 8 | 200 | 23 years, 144 days | |
| Douglas Adams | 1 | The Pirate Planet | The Pirate Planet | 4 | 100 | Though only one story was ever broadcast offering Adams a writing credit, his influence was much greater. Had there not been a strike, he would have gotten another serial, Shada, to his name. Also, he had significant behind-the-scenes impact on a number of scripts. He co-wrote City of Death with David Fisher and Graham Williams under the name David Agnew. Additionally, Ken Grieve, director of Destiny of the Daleks, has claimed on the DVD commentary that Adams wrote "98% of" that script. | 33 years, 149 days |
| "David Agnew" | 2 | The Invasion of Time | The City of Death | 10 | 250 | "David Agnew" was a pseudonym used on several BBC programmes in the 1970s. On Doctor Who it was used exclusively by Graham Williams and his script editors, apparently under the direct orders of the then-BBC Head of Serials.[8] On The Invasion of Time, it concealed the identities of Williams and Anthony Read, while on City of Death, it masked the involvement of Williams, Douglas Adams and David Fisher. | 34 years, 22 days |
| "Norman Ashby" | 1 | The Dominators | The Dominators | 5 | 125 | "Norman Ashby" was the pseudonym for the writing team of Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln. It was used in protest both of the changes Derrick Sherwin and Terrance Dicks made to their scripts, and to ways in which the duo felt the BBC had begun to violate their copyright on the Quarks before the episodes had even been broadcast. | 43 years, 200 days |
| Christopher Bailey | 2 | Kinda | Snakedance | 8 | 200 | He wrote an outline for a story called Manwatch. This story would have been the third instalment in the Mara trilogy, but it was never produced. | 30 years, 25 days |
| Bob Baker | 9 | The Claws of Axos | Nightmare of Eden | 36 | 950 | He co-wrote all but one story (Nightmare of Eden) with Dave Martin, including The Three Doctors, which marked Doctor Who's Tenth Anniversary. | 40 years, 350 days |
| Pip and Jane Baker | 3.5 | Mark of the Rani | Time and the Rani | 11 | 315 | They created and co-own (along with the BBC) the character of The Rani. They received credit for episode 14 of The Trial of a Time Lord, while episode 13 went to Robert Holmes. This meant that they "split" a writing credit for the story segment known as "The Ultimate Foe". | 27 years, 24 days |
| Christopher H. Bidmead | 3 | Logopolis | Frontios | 12 | 300 | Bidmead was the original script editor for producer John Nathan-Turner, and the last for actor Tom Baker. | 30 years, 363 days |
| Ian Stuart Black | 3 | The Savages | The Macra Terror | 12 | 300 | 45 years, 274 days | |
| "Robin Bland" | 1 | The Brain of Morbius | The Brain of Morbius | 4 | 100 | "Robin Bland" is the pseudonym created by Robert Holmes when Terrance Dicks decided to take his name off this serial. Holmes had rewritten the scripts severely, turning the story into something which strongly displeased Dicks. The name thus represents both Dicks and Holmes.[9] | 36 years, 54 days |
| Chris Boucher | 3 | The Face of Evil | Image of the Fendahl | 12 | 300 | Boucher wrote a full third of the scripts involving Leela, including her introduction. Despite writing three stories, he never wrote for any other team-up but the Fourth Doctor and Leela. | 35 years, 56 days |
| Ian Briggs | 2 | Dragonfire | The Curse of Fenric | 7 | 175 | 24 years, 95 days | |
| Johnny Byrne | 3 | The Keeper of Traken | Warriors of the Deep | 12 | 300 | He received royalties from Season 18 to Season 21 for the use of his character Nyssa in most of the stories of those seasons. | 31 years, 26 days |
| Chris Chibnall | 3 | "42" | "The Hungry Earth" / "Cold Blood" | 3 | 135 | Chibnall was the head writer for the first two series of Torchwood. His script for 42 was the first Doctor Who story written to reflect real time. | 4 years, 283 days |
| Kevin Clarke | 1 | Silver Nemesis | Silver Nemesis | 3 | 75 | 23 years, 95 days | |
| Barbara Clegg | 1 | Enlightenment | Enlightenment | 4 | 100 | Although Lesley Scott is the first woman to be credited as a writer on a Doctor Who story, Clegg is the first woman to actually write a story for the program. | 28 years, 362 days |
| Anthony Coburn | 1 | An Unearthly Child | An Unearthly Child | 4 | 100 | Ironically, the first writer for Doctor Who wasn't British, but Australian. Although contemporary BBC internal documents reveal that C. E. Webber was really his co-author for the first episode,[10] only Coburn's name made it to the screen. Coburn, however, is more or less completely responsible for the 2nd-4th episodes that comprise the bulk of the story, as his original brief was to write one of the middle serials of the first season. When his script was suddenly moved to the start of the season, his original first part was mostly replaced by C. E. Webber's script for the pilot episode. Coburn quickly provided the production staff with another set of scripts called The Masters of Luxor, which would have originally followed An Unearthly Child. Due to a poor working relationship with producer Verity Lambert and script editor David Whitaker, however, Luxor was ultimately not accepted, and Coburn never again wrote for Doctor Who.[11] | 48 years, 95 days |
| Paul Cornell | 2 | "Father's Day" | "Human Nature"/ "The Family of Blood" | 3 | 135 | "Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood" was adapted from his 1995 Doctor Who novel Human Nature (co-plotted with Kate Orman). | 6 years, 288 days |
| Donald Cotton | 2 | The Myth Makers | The Gunfighters | 8 | 200 | 46 years, 133 days | |
| Graeme Curry | 1 | The Happiness Patrol | The Happiness Patrol | 3 | 75 | 23 years, 116 days | |
| Russell T Davies | 25 | "Rose" | The End of Time | 32 | 1593[12] | Davies is the original head writer and showrunner of the BBC Wales version of Doctor Who. He has also written far more stories than anyone else in Doctor Who history, although Robert Holmes holds a comfortable lead in terms of number of episodes. Davies has the further distinction of receiving onscreen credit for writing the first episodes of Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. "Planet of the Dead" was co-written with Gareth Roberts, the first occasion on which two writers have been credited for a single script since the programme returned in 2005. | 6 years, 337 days |
| Gerry Davis | 4 | The Tenth Planet | Revenge of the Cybermen | 12 | 300 | Davis was the only script editor of the 1963 series to receive credit on the last episode of one Doctor and the first episode of another. He and Kit Pedler also introduced and held copyright to the Cybermen. | 45 years, 141 days |
| Terrance Dicks | 5 | The War Games | The Five Doctors | 23 | 750 | He received onscreen credit for co-wiring The War Games with Malcolm Hulke. However, as the longest-serving script editor, Dicks had many uncredited contributions to scripts. One of the most glaring examples of this was The Seeds of Death, whose final four episodes are mostly Dicks' own work, but for which only Hayles retains credit. Though he does have a writing credit in the Troughton era, and he is indelibly linked to the Pertwee era, the bulk of his writing credits are actually for the Fourth Doctor. Ironically, while writing for script editor Robert Holmes, he got a taste of what it was like to be on the other end of a script editor's rewrites, and chose to take his name off of The Brain of Morbius"'. | 42 years, 313 days |
| Terence Dudley | 3 | Four to Doomsday | The King's Demons | 8 | 200 | 30 years, 39 days | |
| David Ellis | 1 | The Faceless Ones | The Faceless Ones | 6 | 150 | He co-wrote this story with Malcolm Hulke. | 44 years, 324 days |
| William Emms | 1 | Galaxy 4 | Galaxy 4 | 4 | 100 | 46 years, 168 days | |
| Paul Erickson | 1 | The Ark | The Ark | 4 | 100 | Shares writing credit on this story with Lesley Scott. | 45 years, 358 days |
| David Fisher | 4 | The Stones of Blood | The Leisure Hive | 16 | 400 | David Fisher was brought into Doctor Who by longtime pal, Anthony Read. He wrote a third of the Key to Time story arc and then delivered three sets of scripts the following year. Of these, the only ones that gave the production staff major problems were those for what would become City of Death. Though some elements of his scripts for City survived, they were mostly abandoned when Douglas Adams and Graham Williams performed an "emergency rewrite" under the name David Agnew.[13] | 33 years, 121 days |
| John Flanagan | 1 | Meglos | Meglos | 4 | 100 | He co-wrote Meglos with Andrew McCulloch. | 31 years, 152 days |
| Phil Ford | 1 | "The Waters of Mars" | "The Waters of Mars" | 1 | 60 | Phil Ford was the head writer of series 2 of The Sarah Jane Adventures | 2 years, 103 days |
| Neil Gaiman | 1 | "The Doctor's Wife" | "The Doctor's Wife" | 1 | 45 | This episode was originally intended as part of Series 5, but was put back due to budget issues. | 0 years, 288 days |
| Stephen Gallagher | 2 | Warriors' Gate | Terminus | 8 | 200 | 31 years, 54 days | |
| Mark Gatiss | 4 | "The Unquiet Dead" | "Night Terrors" | 4 | 180 | He is one of only a select few writers (Derrick Sherwin and Victor Pemberton being among the others) to also have an acting credit in a Doctor Who story. | 6 years, 323 days |
| Matthew Graham | 3 | "Fear Her" | "The Rebel Flesh" / "The Almost People" | 2 | 45 | Graham was a co-creator and show runner of Life on Mars, another major BBC Wales show being produced simultaneously with Doctor Who. | 5 years, 247 days |
| Stephen Greenhorn | 2 | "The Lazarus Experiment" | "The Doctor's Daughter" | 2 | 90 | 4 years, 297 days | |
| Peter Grimwade | 3 | Time-Flight | Planet of Fire | 12 | 300 | 29 years, 341 days | |
| Mervyn Haisman | 2 | The Abominable Snowmen | The Web of Fear | 12 | 300 | He co-wrote all of his stories with Henry Lincoln, including The Dominators, for which they were both credited as "Norman Asbhy". | 44 years, 149 days |
| "Stephen Harris" | 1 | Pyramids of Mars | Pyramids of Mars | 4 | 100 | After Robert Holmes' rewrites, Lewis Greifer requested his name be removed from this serial. "Stephen Harris" is thus a fiction which indicates both Greifer and Holmes.[14] | 36 years, 124 days |
| Brian Hayles | 6 | The Celestial Toymaker | The Monster of Peladon | 30 | 750 | Hayles wrote every story featuring the Ice Warriors. He co-wrote The Celestial Toymaker with Donald Tosh and The Seeds of Death with Terrance Dicks, but neither script editor got a co-writing credit. | 45 years, 330 days |
| Robert Holmes | 15.5 | The Krotons | The Ultimate Foe | 64 | 1660 | Bob Holmes was the most prolific writer of the classic era. Until the BBC Wales version, no one had written more stories. Even now, no one is likely to write more episodes than he, although Russell T Davies could conceivably write more total hours of Doctor Who, if he submits a few more scripts after 2009. Holmes co-wrote The Ark in Space with John Lucarotti. He also co-wrote The Talons of Weng Chiang with Robert Stewart Banks. Neither, however, received on screen credit for their efforts. | 43 years, 60 days |
| Don Houghton | 2 | Inferno | The Mind of Evil | 13 | 225 | 41 years, 293 days | |
| Malcolm Hulke | 7 | The Faceless Ones | Invasion of the Dinosaurs | 47 | 1350 | He co-wrote The Faceless Ones with David Ellis and The War Games with Terrance Dicks. He also co-wrote, but was not credited for, The Ambassadors of Death.[15] His somewhat surprisingly large run time derives from the fact his stories averaged 6.71 episodes. | 44 years, 324 days |
| Matthew Jacobs | 1 | Doctor Who | Doctor Who | 1 | 89 | Contrary to popular belief, the "American" version of Doctor Who was in fact written by a British screenwriter. Jacobs' script was the last to feature the Seventh Doctor and the first (and as of 2009[update], the only) story to feature the Eighth Doctor. He is the only Doctor Who writer to also write for the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises. | 15 years, 290 days[16] |
| Elwyn Jones | 1 | The Highlanders | The Highlanders | 4 | 100 | Though Jones did receive co-writing credit on The Highlanders, he in fact wrote very little of it. The BBC drafted him to revive Z-Cars before he could even finish a proper outline of the whole story.[17] | 45 years, 71 days |
| Glyn Jones | 1 | The Space Museum | The Space Museum | 4 | 100 | 46 years, 307 days | |
| Matt Jones | 1 | "The Impossible Planet" / "The Satan Pit" | "The Impossible Planet" / "The Satan Pit" | 2 | 90 | 5 years, 268 days | |
| Malcolm Kohll | 1 | Delta and the Bannermen | Delta and the Bannermen | 3 | 75 | 24 years, 116 days | |
| "Guy Leopold" | 1 | The Dæmons | The Dæmons | 5 | 125 | "Guy Leopold" was the pseudonym of Barry Letts and Robert Sloman. "Guy" was the name of Sloman's son and "Leopold" was Letts' middle name. The name was not used because either writer was unhappy with the final product, but because they were each hiding from something. Letts could not be both a writer and a producer and Sloman didn't want to advertise the fact that he'd written something without his then-writing partner.[18] | 40 years, 280 days |
| Henry Lincoln | 2 | The Abominable Snowmen | The Web of Fear | 12 | 300 | He co-wrote all of his stories with Mervyn Haisman, including The Dominators, for which they were both credited as "Norman Asbhy". | 44 years, 149 days |
| Peter Ling | 1 | The Mind Robber | The Mind Robber | 5 | 125 | Derrick Sherwin wrote episode 1 of this story and Ling wrote episodes 2-5. Only Ling is credited for all five episodes. Sherwin received no onscreen credit for episode 1. | 43 years, 165 days |
| John Lucarotti | 3 | Marco Polo | The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve | 15 | 375 | Although Lucarotti was paid in full for writing The Ark in Space, his scripts bore only a passing resemblance to what eventual writer Robert Holmes delivered. Thus only Holmes got credit for Ark in Space. Lucarotti shared screen credit on "Bell of Doom", the final instalment of The Massacre, with Donald Tosh. | 48 years, 4 days |
| Tom MacRae | 2 | "Rise of the Cybermen" / "The Age of Steel" | "The Girl Who Waited" | 3 | 135 | MacRae was scheduled to write a new story for Series 4 in 2008 but it was replaced. | 5 years, 289 days |
| Louis Marks | 4 | Planet of Giants | The Masque of Mandragora | 15 | 375 | Aside from Terry Nation, Marks is the only writer to be credited for writing for the First, Third, and Fourth Doctors, and to be credited alongside producers Verity Lambert, Barry Letts and Philip Hinchcliffe. | 47 years, 118 days |
| Dave Martin | 8 | The Claws of Axos | The Armageddon Factor | 32 | 850 | 40 years, 350 days | |
| Philip Martin | 2 | Vengeance on Varos | Mindwarp | 6 | 190 | He introduced the character of Sil. | 27 years, 38 days |
| Glen McCoy | 1 | Timelash | Timelash | 2 | 90 | 25 years, 354 days | |
| Andrew McCulloch | 1 | Meglos | Meglos | 4 | 100 | He co-wrote Meglos with John Flanagan. | 31 years, 152 days |
| Steven Moffat | 12 | "The Empty Child" / "The Doctor Dances" | "The Wedding of River Song" | 18 | 870 | "Blink" was adapted from Moffat's own Ninth Doctor short story from the Doctor Who Annual 2006 called "What I Did on My Christmas Holidays by Sally Sparrow". Moffat succeeded Russell T Davies as head writer/showrunner of the BBC Wales version of Doctor Who, starting with the fifth series. | 6 years, 281 days[19] |
| "Paula Moore" | 1 | Attack of the Cybermen | Attack of the Cybermen | 2 | 90 | "Paula Moore" was a pseudonym for Paula Woolsey, the ex-girlfriend of Eric Saward. It's unclear to what extent she actually participated in the writing, which seems to have been done principally by Saward. Ian Levine may have been involved as well.[20] | 26 years, 52 days |
| James Moran | 1 | "The Fires of Pompeii" | "The Fires of Pompeii" | 1 | 50 | Moran has also written for Torchwood. To date, Moran is the only "new Who" writer other than Russell T Davies whose episode ran longer than the time slot originally agreed with the BBC. | 3 years, 320 days |
| Rona Munro | 1 | Survival | Survival | 3 | 75 | Munro wrote the final story broadcast in the original Doctor Who series. | 22 years, 96 days |
| Terry Nation | 10.5 | The Daleks | Destiny of the Daleks | 56 | 1400 | On the Destiny of the Daleks DVD, Terrance Dicks describes Terry Nation as "the only writer who got rich off of Doctor Who". This is because he invented and retained copyright to the Daleks, the Doctor's most frequent enemy. Nation only wrote two stories (The Keys of Marinus and The Android Invasion) which did not feature the Daleks, and only received credit for half the episodes of The Daleks' Master Plan. | 48 years, 67 days |
| Peter R. Newman | 1 | The Sensorites | The Sensorites | 6 | 150 | 47 years, 251 days | |
| Simon Nye | 1 | "Amy's Choice" | "Amy's Choice" | 1 | 45 | Best known for creating the hit sitcom Men Behaving Badly. | 1 year, 287 days |
| Geoffrey Orme | 1 | The Underwater Menace | The Underwater Menace | 4 | 100 | 45 years, 40 days | |
| Kit Pedler | 3 | The Tenth Planet | The Tomb of the Cybermen | 12 | 100 | Kit (Kitt) Pedler is something of an exception amongst original series writers. He was only given formal scriptwriting credit for three stories. However he does receive formal story credit for three more stories. Uncounted in his totals to the left are: The War Machines, The Wheel in Space, and The Invasion. Virtually no one else in the history of Doctor Who has received a "story by" credit. | 45 years, 141 days[21] |
| Victor Pemberton | 1 | Fury from the Deep | Fury from the Deep | 6 | 150 | 43 years, 347 days | |
| Marc Platt | 1 | Ghost Light | Ghost Light | 3 | 75 | Platt wrote the final story produced in the original Doctor Who series. His audio drama, Spare Parts, was credited as the source of inspiration for Tom MacRae's Cybermen adventure, "Rise of the Cybermen"/"The Age of Steel". | 22 years, 124 days |
| Eric Pringle | 1 | The Awakening | The Awakening | 2 | 50 | 28 years, 38 days | |
| Helen Raynor | 2 | "Daleks in Manhattan"/ "Evolution of the Daleks" | "The Sontaran Stratagem"/ "The Poison Sky" | 4 | 180 | 4 years, 311 days | |
| Anthony Read | 1 | The Horns of Nimon | The Horns of Nimon | 4 | 100 | He also co-wrote Invasion of Time with Graham Williams under the name David Agnew. | 32 years, 66 days |
| Richard Curtis | 1 | Vincent and the Doctor | Vincent and the Doctor | 1 | 45 | Previously, the executive producer of Comic Relief parody, The Curse of Fatal Death | 1 year, 266 days |
| Gareth Roberts | 5 | "The Shakespeare Code" | "Closing Time" | 5 | 240 | "Planet of the Dead" was co-written with Russell T Davies. Roberts has written several episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures. His first writer's credit for the BBC Wales franchise was actually Attack of the Graske, but Graske is not counted in this list here because it is more game than narrative. | 4 years, 315 days |
| Eric Saward | 4 | The Visitation | Revelation of the Daleks | 12 | 380 | Saward's name appears on the credits of only four stories. Two of these stories, Revelation and Resurrection of the Daleks were originally broadcast as two, 45-minute episodes. This means he received on-screen writer's credit on twelve episodes. Nevertheless, strong evidence exists that he wrote, but did not receive credit for, Attack of the Cybermen.[20] Most recently on the DVD release of Trial of a Time Lord, he also claims to have mostly written part 13 of that story, as well as several courtroom scenes for all four serials in the arc. | 30 years, 11 days |
| Lesley Scott | 1 | The Ark | The Ark | 4 | 100 | Shares writing credit on this story with Paul Erickson. She was the first woman to be credited as a writer on a Doctor Who story, although she did not actually write any portion of the script. | 45 years, 358 days |
| Robert Shearman | 1 | "Dalek" | "Dalek" | 1 | 45 | The basic premise as well as some scenes and dialogue from this story was adapted by Shearman from his audio drama Jubilee. | 6 years, 302 days |
| Derrick Sherwin | 1 | The Invasion | The Invasion | 8 | 200 | Out of necessity to stretch a four-part story into five, he wrote the first episode of The Mind Robber, although Peter Ling got screen credit for all five episodes. He then co-wrote The Invasion with Kit Pedler. He is one of a select few writers to also receive an acting credit on the programme. (Mark Gatiss and Victor Pemberton were also in front of the cameras for Doctor Who.) | 43 years, 116 days |
| Robert Sloman | 3 | The Time Monster | Planet of the Spiders | 18 | 450 | He co-wrote all of his stories with Barry Letts, whose main job as producer prevented him from receiving any on-screen writing credit. The two also collaborated on The Dæmons, where their efforts were credited to "Guy Leopold". | 39 years, 282 days |
| Andrew Smith | 1 | Full Circle | Full Circle | 4 | 100 | Smith remains the youngest writer ever for Doctor Who. He was 18 when Full Circle was produced. | 31 years, 124 days |
| Dennis Spooner | 3.5 | The Reign of Terror | The Daleks' Master Plan | 20 | 500 | Spooner was the programme's second script editor. He was solely credited on half the episodes of The Daleks' Master Plan, which is why he gets credit for half a story. Spooner's work on Power of the Daleks went uncredited, although he is often cited as a co-writer. | 47 years, 202 days |
| Anthony Steven | 1 | The Twin Dilemma | The Twin Dilemma | 4 | 100 | 27 years, 341 days | |
| Robert Banks Stewart | 2 | Terror of the Zygons | The Seeds of Doom | 10 | 250 | Stewart's work on The Talons of Weng Chiang went uncredited, because he didn't get much beyond an outline before he resigned the commission.[22] | 36 years, 313 days |
| Bill Strutton | 1 | The Web Planet | The Web Planet | 6 | 150 | 47 years, 13 days | |
| Keith Temple | 1 | "Planet of the Ood" | "Planet of the Ood" | 1 | 45 | 3 years, 313 days | |
| Stephen Thompson | 1 | "The Curse of the Black Spot" | "The Curse of the Black Spot" | 1 | 45 | 0 years, 295 days | |
| Donald Tosh | .25 | The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve | The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve | 1 | 25 | Script editor Donald Tosh only received credit for "Bell of Doom", the last episode of The Massacre. With Brian Hayles, he co-wrote, but did not receive credit for, The Celestial Toymaker. He therefore holds the record for the shortest run time credited to a writer. | 45 years, 309 days |
| David Whitaker | 8 | The Edge of Destruction | The Ambassadors of Death | 40 | 950 | Whitaker was the programme's first script/story editor. Aside from the authors of The Three Doctors and The Five Doctors, he is the only person to be credited with writing at least one story featuring each of the first three Doctors. The writing of his final adventure, The Ambassadors of Death, was particularly precarious. Both Malcolm Hulke and Trevor Ray were required, uncredited, to get a final set of scripts completed.[15] | 48 years, 18 days |
| Toby Whithouse | 3 | "School Reunion" | "The God Complex" | 3 | 145 | 5 years, 303 days | |
| Stephen Wyatt | 2 | Paradise Towers | The Greatest Show in the Galaxy | 8 | 200 | 24 years, 144 days |
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