Gerald Davis (23 February 1930 – 31 August 1991) was a British television writer, best known for his contributions to the

science-fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, sp ...

genre. He also wrote for the soap operas ''

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' (colloquially referred to as ''Corrie'') is a British television soap opera created by ITV Granada, Granada Television and shown on ITV (TV network), ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres on a cobbled, terraced ...

'' and ''

United! ''United!'' is a British television series which was produced by the BBC between 1965 and 1967, and was broadcast twice-weekly on BBC One, BBC1. The theme tune was The Tops, a brass band march by Thomas J. Powell. The series followed the fortune ...

''.

Career

''Doctor Who''

From 1966 until the following year, Davis was the

story editor Story editor is a job title in motion picture and television production, also sometimes called supervising producer. The responsibilities of the story editor vary depending on the production; this article describes the duties the role most commo ...

of 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 ...

science-fiction series ''

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 ...

'', for which he created the character

Jamie McCrimmon James Robert McCrimmon, usually simply called Jamie, is a fictional character played by Frazer Hines in the long-running British Science fiction on television, science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. A Bagpipes, piper of the Clan Mac ...

and co-created the popular cybernetic monsters known as the Cybermen, who continue to make appearances in the show, having been revived in the new run. His fellow co-creator of these creatures was the programme's unofficial scientific adviser, Dr. Kit Pedler. Davis briefly returned to writing ''Doctor Who'' in 1975, penning the original script for '' Revenge of the Cybermen'', though the transmitted version was heavily rewritten by then script-editor Robert Holmes. Davis also adapted several of his scripts into novelisations for Target Books' ''Doctor Who'' range.

''Doomwatch''

Following their work on ''Doctor Who'', Davis and Pedler teamed up in 1970 to create the science-fiction programme '' Doomwatch''. ''Doomwatch'' ran for three seasons on

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 ...

from 1970 to 1972 and spawned a novel written by Davis and Pedler, a subsequent cinema film and a 1999 revival on Channel 5. With Pedler he wrote the science-fiction novels ''Mutant 59: The Plastic Eater'' (1971), expanded from their script for the first episode of ''Doomwatch''; ''Brainrack'' (1974); and ''The Dynostar Menace'' (1975).

Later work

In the 1980s Davis worked in America both in television and on feature films such as ''The Final Countdown'' (1980). In late 1989 he and

Terry Nation Terence Joseph Nation (8 August 19309 March 1997) was a Welsh screenwriter and novelist. Especially known for his work in British television science fiction, he created the Daleks and Davros for ''Doctor Who'', as well as the series '' Surviv ...

made a joint but unsuccessful bid to take over production of ''Doctor Who'' and reformat the series mainly for the American market.

Death

Davis died on 31 August 1991.

Writing credits

References

External links

*
Filmography
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Gerry 1930 births 1991 deaths 20th-century British novelists 20th-century British screenwriters British male television writers British science fiction writers British television show creators