Philip Martin (3 July 1938 – 13 December 2020) was an English television screenwriter. He created the

BBC television drama BBC television dramas have been produced and broadcast since even before the public service company had an officially established television broadcasting network in the United Kingdom. As with any major broadcast network, drama forms an importa ...

series ''

Gangsters A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from '' mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and ...

'' in the 1970s and later wrote two television serials for ''

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 ...

'' during

Colin Baker Colin Baker (born 8 June 1943) is an English actor who played Paul Merroney in the BBC drama series '' The Brothers'' from 1974 to 1976 and the sixth incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series ''Docto ...

's tenure as the

Sixth Doctor The Sixth Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. He is portrayed by Colin Baker. Although his televisual time on the series was comparatively brief and turbulent, Ba ...

in the 1980s.

Career

His early work included regular series such as ''

Z-Cars ''Z-Cars'' or ''Z Cars'' (pronounced "zed cars") is a British television police procedural series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, near Liverpool. Produced by the BBC, it deb ...

'' in the late 1960s/early 1970s, but his most famous work is the

postmodern Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or Rhetorical modes, mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by philosophical skepticism, skepticis ...

television series ''

''. This was an examination of race seen through an increasingly surreal vision of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

's criminal underworld. Beginning as an acclaimed one-off edition of ''

Play for Today ''Play for Today'' is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage ...

'' in 1975, it was followed by two series of 6 episodes each in 1976 and 1978. Martin appeared in the series in several roles, including as himself. His later work includes ''

Tandoori Nights ''Tandoori Nights'' is a television sitcom that was broadcast on Channel 4 between 1985 and 1987. It consisted of two series of six episodes each. The series was directed by Jon Amiel and written by Farrukh Dhondy. It is the story of two rival r ...

'' (1985), ''

Star Cops ''Star Cops'' is a British science fiction television drama series first broadcast on BBC2 in 1987. It was devised by Chris Boucher, a writer who had previously worked on the science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' and ''Blake's 7'' a ...

'' (1987), '' Virtual Murder'' (1992), several episodes of ''

Hetty Wainthropp Investigates ''Hetty Wainthropp Investigates'' is a British crime drama television series, starring Patricia Routledge as the title character, Henrietta "Hetty" Wainthropp, that aired for four series between 3 January 1996 and 4 September 1998 on BBC One. ...

'' and '' Luifel & Luifel'' (2001).

Doctor Who

He wrote the ''

'' serials ''

Vengeance on Varos ''Vengeance on Varos'' is the second serial of the 22nd season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in two weekly parts on 19 and 26 January 1985. The serial is set on the planet Varos, whe ...

'' (1985) and ''

The Trial of a Time Lord The twenty-third season of British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', known collectively as ''The Trial of a Time Lord'', aired in weekly episodes from 6 September to 6 December 1986. It contained four adventures: ''The Mysterious ...

Mindwarp ''Mindwarp'' is the second serial of the larger narrative known as ''The Trial of a Time Lord'' which encompasses the whole of the 23rd season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. It was first broadcast in four week ...

'' (1986). He also wrote a script called '' Mission to Magnus'' which featured the character Sil from his previous televised serials. That script was never filmed when the show was put on hiatus in 1985. A novelised version of the script written by Martin was released by

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 ...

in 1990, and a Big Finish audio drama based on the serial was released in December 2009. He also wrote a ''Doctor Who''

gamebook A gamebook is a work of printed fiction that allows the reader to participate in the story by making choices. The narrative branches along various paths, typically through the use of numbered paragraphs or pages. Each narrative typically does not ...

called ''

Invasion of the Ormazoids An invasion is a Offensive (military), military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitics, geopolitical Legal entity, entity aggressively enter territory (country subdivision), territory owned by another such entity, gen ...

'' (1986) as part of the '' Make your own adventure with Doctor Who'' range. His most recent contribution to the series were ''

The Creed of the Kromon ''Doctor Who: The Monthly Adventures'', formerly titled the ''Main Range'', is a series that consists of full-cast audio dramas based on the British science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who'', produced by Nicholas Briggs and Big Finish ...

'' (2004) and ''

Antidote to Oblivion ''Antidote to Oblivion'' is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Plot The Doctor and his companion Flip land in London in the year 2382, where the population ...

'' (2013), as Big Finish audio releases. He also revisited the character of Sil in the independent broadcast television series from Reeltime Pictures Ltd., " Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor" (2019), which received much critical acclaim - winning over 50 awards.

Theatre

Martin's stage play ''Thee and Me'', a work dealing with the effects of ozone depletion in the atmosphere in the year 2040, was staged at London's

Lyttelton Theatre The Royal National Theatre in London, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT), is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House. In ...

in February 1980, directed by

Michael Rudman Michael Rudman (born February 14, 1939) is an American theatre director. Early life Rudman graduated from St. Mark's School of Texas in 1956, and four years later, graduated cum laude from Oberlin College with a degree in Government. In 1964, he ...

, but was withdrawn early from the repertoire because of poor reviews and "appalling" ticket sales.

References

External links

* 1938 births 2020 deaths British male screenwriters British male television writers British science fiction writers Emmy Award winners English television writers Writers from Liverpool {{UK-writer-stub