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Gerry Davis (23 February 1930 – 31 August 1991) was a British television writer, best known for his contributions to the
science-fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel univers ...
genre. He also wrote for the soap operas ''
Coronation Street
''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford.
Origi ...
'' and ''
United!
''United!'' is a British television series which was produced by the BBC between 1965 and 1967, and was broadcast twice-weekly on BBC1.
The series followed the fortunes of a fictional second division football team, Brentwich United. The football ...
''.
From 1966 until the following year Davis was the
story editor
Story editor is a job title in motion picture and television production, also sometimes called "supervising producer". In live action television, a story editor is a member of the screenwriting staff who edits scripts, pitches stories, and reports ...
of the popular
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
science-fiction series ''
Doctor Who
''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...
'', for which he created the character
Jamie McCrimmon
James Robert McCrimmon, usually simply called Jamie, is a fictional character played by Frazer Hines in the long-running British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. A piper of the Clan MacLeod who lived in 18th-century Scotland, ...
and co-created the popular cybernetic monsters known as the
Cybermen
The Cybermen are a fictional race of cyborgs principally portrayed in the British science fiction television programme '' Doctor Who''. The Cybermen are a species of space-faring cyborgs who often forcefully and painfully convert human beings ...
, who continue to make appearances in the show, having been revived in the new run. His fellow co-creator of these creatures was the programme's unofficial scientific adviser Dr.
Kit Pedler
Christopher Magnus Howard "Kit" Pedler (11 June 1927 – 27 May 1981) was a British medical scientist, parapsychologist and science fiction author.
Biography
He was the head of the electron microscopy department at the Institute of Ophthalmolo ...
. Following their work on ''Doctor Who'' the pair teamed up in 1970 to create the science-fiction programme ''
Doomwatch
''Doomwatch'' is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC, which ran on BBC1 between 1970 and 1972. The series was set in the then present day, and dealt with a scientific government agency led by Doctor Spencer Quist ...
''. ''Doomwatch'' ran for three seasons on
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...
from 1970 to 1972 and spawned a novel written by Davis and Pedler, a subsequent cinema film and a 1999 revival on
Channel 5.
Davis briefly returned to writing ''Doctor Who'' in 1975, penning the original script for ''
Revenge of the Cybermen
''Revenge of the Cybermen'' is the fifth and final serial of the 12th season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 19 April to 10 May 1975. It was the first ...
'', though the transmitted version was heavily rewritten by then script-editor
Robert Holmes. Davis also adapted several of his scripts into novelisations for
Target Books
Target Books was a British publishing imprint, established in 1973 by Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd, a paperback publishing company. The imprint was established as a children's imprint to complement the adult Tandem imprint, and became wel ...
' Doctor Who imprint. With Kit Pedler he wrote the science-fiction novels ''Mutant 59: The Plastic Eater'' (1971), expanded from their script for the first episode of ''Doomwatch''; ''Brainrack'' (1974); and ''The Dynostar Menace'' (1975).
In the 1980s Davis worked in America both in television and on feature films such as ''The Final Countdown'' (1980). In late 1989 he and
Terry Nation
Terence Joseph Nation (8 August 19309 March 1997) was a British screenwriter and novelist. Especially known for his work in British television science fiction, he created the Daleks and Davros for ''Doctor Who'', as well as the series '' Survivo ...
made a joint but unsuccessful bid to take over production of ''Doctor Who'' and reformat the series mainly for the American market. Gerry Davis died on 31 August 1991.
Writing credits
References
External links
*
Filmography*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Gerry
1930 births
1991 deaths
British television writers
British science fiction writers
20th-century British novelists
20th-century screenwriters