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 ...

'' serials when it starred

Tom Baker Thomas Stewart Baker (born 20 January 1934) is an English actor and writer. He is well known for his portrayal of the fourth incarnation of the Doctor in the science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' from 1974 to 1981.Scott, Danny. (1 ...

as the

Fourth Doctor The Fourth Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. He is portrayed by Tom Baker. Within the series' narrative, the Doctor is a centuries-old alien Time Lord from the ...

Career

''Doctor Who'' script editor

Anthony Read Anthony Read (21 April 1935 – 21 November 2015) was an English television producer, screenwriter, script editor and author. He was principally active in British television from the 1960s to the mid-1980s, which included a period as a script ...

commissioned Fisher to write ''

The Stones of Blood ''The Stones of Blood'' is the third serial of the 16th season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 28 October to 18 November 1978. Part 4 was broadcast durin ...

'' (1978) and ''

The Androids of Tara ''The Androids of Tara'' is the fourth serial of the 16th season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 25 November to 16 December 1978. The serial is set on t ...

'' (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 Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author and screenwriter, best known for ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. Originally a 1978 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (radio series), BBC radio comedy, ''The H ...

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 "David Agnew" is a pen name that was employed on BBC television drama programmes of the 1970s as a scriptwriting credit. Conditions of use The pseudonym "David Agnew" was most often used when the original freelance scriptwriter was unable to acc ...

. His final ''Doctor Who'' story was season eighteen's '' The Leisure Hive'' (1980). He 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 for 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 offences, some either way offences and appeals lied to it by the magistrates' courts. It is one of three Senior Courts of England and W ...

'', '' Hammer House of Horror'',

Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense ''Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense'' is a short-lived (one season) anthology television series produced in Britain in 1984/85 by Hammer Film Productions. Though similar in format to the 1980 series ''Hammer House of Horror'', the ''Mystery a ...

'','' and writing the storyline for 2006 video game

Made Man In the American and Sicilian Mafia, a made man is a fully initiated member of the Mafia. To become "made", an associate first must be Italian or of Italian descent and sponsored by another made man. An inductee will be required to take the oa ...

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 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

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 British television writers British science fiction writers English horror writers English television writers English screenwriters English male screenwriters 20th-century English male writers British male television writers {{UK-writer-stub