List of Doctor Who writers


This is a list of television writers for the science fiction television programme Doctor Who. It is sortable by a number of different criteria.[1] The list defaults to ascending alphabetical order by writer's last name.

A "writer of Doctor Who" is defined as a person who received onscreen credit for a live action, non-parodic story. E.g. Terrance Dicks wrote four of the six episodes of The Seeds of Death in reality, but since Brian Hayles is the only name to appear on screen he receives the credit. The notes shed light on the work writers actually did on particular stories.

List of writers

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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 to Series 14.

Writer[2] No. of stories[3] No. of episodes[4] List of stories First Story Date (year) Last Story Date (year)
Ben Aaronovitch 2 8 1988 1989
Douglas Adams 1 4 1978 1978
"David Agnew" 2 10 1978 1979
Maxine Alderton 2 2 2020 2021
"Norman Ashby" (Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln) 1 5 1968 1968
Christopher Bailey 2 8 1982 1983
Bob Baker 9 36 1971 1979
Pip and Jane Baker 3.5 11 1985 1987
Mike Bartlett 1 1 2017 2017
Christopher H. Bidmead 3 12 1981 1984
Ian Stuart Black 3 12 1966 1967
Malorie Blackman 1 1 2018 2018
"Robin Bland" (Robert Holmes and Terrance Dicks) 1 4 1976 1976
Chris Boucher 3 12 1977 1977
Ian Briggs 2 7 1987 1989
Johnny Byrne 3 12 1981 1984
Chris Chibnall 20 28 2007 2022
Kevin Clarke 1 3 1988 1988
Barbara Clegg 1 4 1983 1983
Anthony Coburn 1 4 1963 1963
Paul Cornell 2 3 2005 2007
Donald Cotton 2 8 1965 1966
Frank Cottrell-Boyce 2 2 2014 2017
Neil Cross 2 2 2013 2013
Graeme Curry 1 3 1988 1988
Richard Curtis 1 1 2010 2010
Russell T Davies 34 42 2005 2024
Gerry Davis 4 12 1966 1975
Terrance Dicks 5 23 1969 1983
Sarah Dollard 2 2 2015 2017
Terence Dudley 3 8 1982 1983
David Ellis 1 6 1967 1967
William Emms 1 4 1965 1965
Paul Erickson 1 4
  • The Ark (1966, co-written with Lesley Scott)
1966 1966
David Fisher 4 16 1978 1980
John Flanagan 1 4
  • Meglos (1980, co-written with Andrew McCulloch)
1980 1980
Phil Ford 2 2 2009 2014
Neil Gaiman 2 2 2011 2013
Stephen Gallagher 2 8 1981 1983
Mark Gatiss 9 9 2005 2017
Matthew Graham 2 3 2006 2011
Stephen Greenhorn 2 2 2007 2008
Peter Grimwade 3 12 1982 1984
Mervyn Haisman 2 12 1967 1968
Peter Harness 3 4 2014 2017
"Stephen Harris" (Lewis Greifer and Robert Holmes) 1 4 1975 1975
Brian Hayles 6 30 1966 1974
Kate Herron 1 1
  • "Rogue" (2024, co-written with Briony Redman)
2024 2024
Ed Hime 2 2 2018 2020
Robert Holmes 15.5 64 1968 1986
Don Houghton 2 13 1970 1971
Malcolm Hulke 7 47 1967 1974
Matthew Jacobs 1 1 1996 1996
Charlene James 1 1 2020 2020
Glyn Jones 1 4 1965 1965
Matt Jones 1 2 2003 2003
Malcolm Kohll 1 3 1987 1987
"Guy Leopold" (Barry Letts and Robert Sloman) 1 5 1971 1971
Henry Lincoln 2 12 1967 1968
Peter Ling 1 4 1968 1968
John Lucarotti 3 15 1964 1966
Tom MacRae 2 3 2006 2011
Louis Marks 4 15 1965 1976
Dave Martin 8 32 1971 1979
Philip Martin 2 6 1985 1986
Jamie Mathieson 4 4 2014 2017
Glen McCoy 1 2 1985 1985
Andrew McCulloch 1 4
  • Meglos (1980, co-written with John Flanagan)
1980 1980
Pete McTighe 2 2 2018 2020
Nina Metivier 1 1 2020 2020
Steven Moffat 44 50 2005 2024
"Paula Moore" (Paula Woolsey) 1 2 1985 1985
James Moran 1 1 2008 2008
Rona Munro 2 4 1989 2017
Terry Nation 10.5 56 1963 1979
Peter R. Newman 1 6 1964 1964
Simon Nye 1 1 2010 2010
Geoffrey Orme 1 4 1967 1967
Vinay Patel 2 2 2018 2020
Kit Pedler 3 12 1966 1968
Victor Pemberton 1 6 1968 1968
Marc Platt 1 3 1989 1989
Eric Pringle 1 2 1984 1984
Helen Raynor 2 4 2007 2008
Anthony Read 1 4 1979 1979
Briony Redman 1 1
  • "Rogue" (2024, co-written with Kate Herron)
2024 2024
Ella Road 1 1 2022 2022
Gareth Roberts 6 6 2007 2014
Eric Saward 4 12 1982 1985
Lesley Scott 1 4
  • The Ark (1966, co-written with Paul Erickson)
1966 1966
Robert Shearman 1 1 2005 2005
Derrick Sherwin 1 8 1968 1968
Robert Sloman 3 18 1972 1974
Andrew Smith 1 4 1980 1980
Dennis Spooner 3.5 20 1964 1965
Anthony Steven 1 4 1984 1984
Robert Banks Stewart 2 10 1975 1976
Bill Strutton 1 6 1965 1965
Keith Temple 1 1 2008 2008
Stephen Thompson 3 3 2011 2014
Donald Tosh 1 1 1966 1966
Catherine Tregenna 1 1 2015 2015
David Whitaker 8 40 1964 1970
Toby Whithouse 6 7 2006 2017
Joy Wilkinson 1 1 2018 2018
Stephen Wyatt 2 8 1987 1988

Notes

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  1. ^ On most mobile versions of Wikipedia, sorting functionality is disabled.
  2. ^ A "writer" is defined by this list as the person or persons who received onscreen credit for writing the script. Note that this can include pseudonyms but exclude the actual person or persons known to be indicated by the pseudonym. Pseudonyms are indicated by the use of quotation marks around the name. This column sorts by the last name of the individual. It does not include such credits as: "based on an idea by", "story by", and other such creative credits that fall short of scriptwriting credit.
  3. ^ A "story" is a grouping of one of more episodes that form a single narrative. It is not to be confused with a story arc. In the 1963 version of the programme, a "story" was a single serial, which might have comprised anywhere from one to twelve episodes, although the most common number was four. Since the 1996 telemovie, most stories have been a single episode in length. Where multi-part stories have been produced by the BBC, the titles to both parts are given so as to indicate the entirety of the story. Episodes of unusually short duration produced by BBC Wales, such as "Time Crash", are considered to be single stories, for the purpose of this column. Writers may be credited with a fraction of a story if their name appears on only some of the episodes within a single story.
  4. ^ An episode is considered to have whatever length it had on first broadcast on BBC One. For the purposes of this column, certain stories, like Resurrection of the Daleks and "The Five Doctors" have two parts and one part, respectively — even though these stories are more often presented as four-parters. The following things are deemed to be single episodes: the 1996 telemovie, "Doctor Who: Children in Need", "Time Crash", "Music of the Spheres", and any other future non-parodic live-action "mini-episodes" produced by BBC Wales. Animated episodes are specifically excluded from this list, as is Dimensions in Time.

See also

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