Christopher Magnus Howard Pedler (11 June 1927 – 27 May 1981) was an English medical scientist, parapsychologist, and science fiction screenwriter and author.

Career

Pedler was the head of the

electron microscopy An electron microscope is a microscope that uses a beam of electrons as a source of illumination. It uses electron optics that are analogous to the glass lenses of an optical light microscope to control the electron beam, for instance focusing i ...

department at the Institute of Ophthalmology,

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

, where he published a number of papers. His first television contribution was for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

programme ''

Tomorrow's World ''Tomorrow's World'' is a British television series about contemporary developments in science and technology. First broadcast on 7 July 1965 on BBC1, it ran for 38 years until it was cancelled at the beginning of 2003. The ''Tomorrow's World' ...

''.

''Doctor Who''

In the mid-1960s, Pedler became the unofficial scientific adviser to the ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

'' production team. Hired by producer

Innes Lloyd George Innes Llewelyn Lloyd (24 December 1925 – 23 August 1991) was a Welsh television producer and former actor. He had a long career as a producer in BBC drama, which included series such as ''Doctor Who'' and ''Talking Heads''. Early li ...

to inject more hard science into the stories, Pedler formed a particular writing partnership with Gerry Davis, the programme's story editor. Their interest in the problems of science changing and endangering human life led them to create the Cybermen. Pedler wrote three scripts for ''Doctor Who'': '' The Tenth Planet'' (with Gerry Davis), ''

The Moonbase ''The Moonbase'' is the half-missing sixth serial of the fourth season in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast on BBC1 in four weekly parts from 11 February to 4 March 1967. In this serial, ...

'' and '' The Tomb of the Cybermen'' (also with Gerry Davis). He also submitted the story outlines that became ''

The War Machines ''The War Machines'' is the tenth and final serial of the third season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in 4 weekly parts from 25 June to 16 July 1966. The serial is set in London in th ...

'', '' The Wheel in Space'' and '' The Invasion''.

''Doomwatch''

Pedler and Davis devised and co-wrote '' Doomwatch'', a science fiction television programme produced for

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and Flagship (broadcasting), flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includ ...

. The programme, which ran for three seasons from 1970 to 1972 (comprising 37 50-minute episodes plus one not broadcast), covered a government department that worked to combat technological and environmental disasters. Pedler and Davis contributed to only the first two series. Pedler and Davis re-used the plot of the first episode of the series, "The Plastic Eaters", for their 1971 novel ''Mutant 59: The Plastic Eater''.

Other work

Pedler's non-fiction book ''The Quest for Gaia'' gave practical advice on creating an ecologically sustainable lifestyle, using

James Lovelock James Ephraim Lovelock (26 July 1919 – 26 July 2022) was an English independent scientist, environmentalist and futurist. He is best known for proposing the Gaia hypothesis, which postulates that the Earth functions as a self-regulating syst ...

Gaia hypothesis The Gaia hypothesis (), also known as the Gaia theory, Gaia paradigm, or the Gaia principle, proposes that living organisms interact with their Inorganic compound, inorganic surroundings on Earth to form a Synergy, synergistic and Homeostasis, s ...

Personal life

Pedler was the father of the novelist Carol Topolski. His other daughter, Lucy, is an ecological architect who practices

sustainable design Environmentally sustainable design (also called environmentally conscious design, eco-design, etc.) is the philosophy of designing physical objects, the built environment, and services to comply with the principles of ecological sustainability ...

. Interviews with his daughters can be found on the commentary track of episode one of the BBC's ''Doctor Who'' DVD release of ''The Moonbase''.

Death

Pedler died of a heart attack at his home in Doddington, Kent, while completing production of ''Mind Over Matter'', a series for

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broa ...

on the paranormal that he presented with Tony Bastable. Pedler is buried at All Saints Church in the Kent village of Graveney, where he lived before moving to nearby Doddington.

Parapsychology

Pedler was the author of ''Mind Over Matter'' (1981) which was based on the television series. The book argued for psychic phenomena such as

psychokinesis Telekinesis () (alternatively called psychokinesis) is a purported psychic ability allowing an individual to influence a physical system without physical interaction. Experiments to prove the existence of telekinesis have historically been cri ...

and

remote viewing Remote viewing (RV) is the practice of seeking impressions about a distant or unseen subject, purportedly sensing with the mind. There is no scientific evidence that remote viewing exists, and the topic of remote viewing is generally regarde ...

. He also wrote there may be evidence for an "intelligent and massively ordered design" in the universe. The book was criticized for making incorrect statements about science. The science writer Georgina Ferry in a review wrote that the book and television series contained errors, lacked objectivity and is "not good science, neither is it good television".Georgina Ferry. (1981). ''Mind over matter''. New Scientist 21 May. p. 511

Writing credits

Bibliography

*''Mutant 59: The Plastic Eaters'' (1971) (with Gerry Davis) *''Brainrack'' (1974) (with Gerry Davis) *''Doomwatch: The World in Danger'' (1975) *''The Dynostar Menace'' (1975) (with Gerry Davis) *''The Quest for Gaia'' (1979) *''Mind Over Matter: A Scientist's View of the Paranormal'' (1981)

References

External links

*
List of abstracts of scientific papers written by Dr Pedler
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pedler, Kit 1927 births 1981 deaths 20th-century English male writers 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English screenwriters Academics of the University of London British male television writers British parapsychologists English male novelists English science fiction writers English science writers English television writers English writers on paranormal topics People from Doddington, Kent British television show creators