David Fisher (13 April 1929 – 10 January 2018) was a British television
screenwriter
A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based.
...
. He is best known for writing four ''
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 ...
'' serials when it starred
Tom Baker as the
Fourth Doctor.
Career
''Doctor Who'' script editor
Anthony Read commissioned Fisher to write ''
The Stones of Blood'' (1978) and ''
The Androids of Tara'' (1978) for ''The Key to Time'' storyline of
season 16, and he was subsequently commissioned to write ''
The Creature from the Pit'' (1979) for the
seventeenth season during the tenure of
Douglas Adams as script editor. He worked on a story called "A Gamble with Time", also for the seventeenth season, but owing to the divorce proceedings ending his first marriage, he was unable to finish the scripts. That story was reworked and completed by Douglas Adams and then-producer
Graham Williams, and was recorded and broadcast as ''
City of Death
''City of Death'' is the second serial of the seventeenth season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor. It was produced by the BBC ...
'' (1979) under the pseudonym of
David Agnew. His final ''Doctor Who'' story was
season eighteen's ''
The Leisure Hive'' (1980).
Fisher novelised both ''The Leisure Hive'' and ''Creature from the Pit''
[ for the Target book range of ''Doctor Who'' novelisations, and appeared extensively on the interview features accompanying the DVD release of the former story. Fisher also wrote novelisations of ''The Stones of Blood'' and ''The Androids of Tara'' for audiobook releases in 2011 and 2012, which received print editions in 2022. He was also interviewed for a documentary accompanying the DVD release of ''City of Death''.
Fisher's other work included writing for the television series '' Dixon of Dock Green'', '']Crown Court
The Crown Court is the court of first instance of England and Wales responsible for hearing all Indictable offence, indictable offences, some Hybrid offence, either way offences and appeals lied to it by the Magistrates' court, magistrates' court ...
'', and '' Hammer House of Horror''.
Non-fiction
In the late 1980s and 1990s, he often collaborated with Anthony Read on non-fiction history in print, largely related to the Second World War.
Death
Fisher died on 10 January 2018, aged 88, in Norfolk, England.
References
External links
*
Biography of David Fisher at On Target
* Work review o
Amazon.com
1929 births
2018 deaths
English science fiction writers
English horror writers
English television writers
English screenwriters
English male screenwriters
20th-century English male writers
British male television writers
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